7 growth hacking strategies for startups

Growth hacking is a way of growing a startup through fast, low-cost experiments: you test a small change, measure the result, scale what works and drop what doesn't. The seven strategies below are good first experiments: build a waiting list, launch where early adopters gather, borrow other platforms' audiences, work with creators, show up at events, focus your social media, and learn from your competitors.

What is growth hacking?

Sean Ellis coined the term "growth hacker" in 2010 to describe someone whose main goal is growth. Today it usually means an experiment-driven approach that cuts across marketing, product and data. Instead of planning one big campaign, a growth team runs many small tests, such as an A/B test on a sign-up page or a new referral offer, and keeps only what moves the numbers.

The classic examples are product-led:

• Hotmail added "PS I Love You" with a sign-up link to the bottom of every email its users sent.
• Dropbox gave users extra storage for referring friends.
• Airbnb let hosts post their listings to Craigslist, which put Airbnb in front of Craigslist's users.

How does growth hacking work?

Most growth teams follow a simple loop:

1. Pick one metric that matters now, such as sign-ups, activation or paid conversions.
2. Find the weakest step in the funnel for that metric.
3. List ideas to improve it and rank them by likely impact, confidence and cost.
4. Run the test for long enough to get a clear result.
5. Measure, then scale or drop the idea, and write down what you learned.

The "hack" part is the speed and the low cost, not a secret trick. Without tracking, you are guessing. For the basics, read how to get started with growth hacking. For B2B-specific ideas, see our B2B growth hacking strategies.

1. Build an email waiting list

Start collecting emails before you launch. A waiting list gives you early users to test with, feedback before you go public and an audience on launch day. It also tells you whether anyone wants the product at all.

Keep it simple: a landing page with one clear promise and a sign-up form. Then use a short drip campaign to keep people warm with progress updates, early access and a request for feedback. You can find tools in our email marketing category.

2. Launch where early adopters gather

Launch platforms put a new product in front of people who like trying new things. Product Hunt is the best known. Makers post a product, the community upvotes and comments, and products compete on a daily leaderboard. Product Hunt's own launch guide says it is free to use, that makers are encouraged to post their own product, and that you may share your launch link but may not ask people directly to upvote.

Prepare before launch day: clear screenshots, a short demo, a founder comment explaining why you built it, and time to answer every comment. Treat the comments as product feedback, not just exposure. Communities on Reddit and in industry Slack groups can work too, if you follow each community's rules. See our Reddit marketing strategies.

3. Borrow the audience of an existing platform

Building an audience from zero is slow. It is often faster to go where your users already are.

• Integrations and marketplaces: if your product works with a popular tool, list it in that tool's app marketplace so its users can find you.
• Content platforms: a course creator can publish on large course marketplaces or YouTube and point viewers back to their own site.
• Deal sites: SaaS founders sometimes sell a lifetime deal on AppSumo, a marketplace for discounted software deals, to get early users and feedback. Weigh this carefully: lifetime customers bring no recurring revenue.
• Partners and affiliates: people who already serve your audience can recommend you in exchange for a commission. See how to create a partner program for your B2B SaaS.

4. Get creators and bloggers to review your product

Reviews from people your audience already trusts carry weight. To find them:

1. Search for reviews and tutorials of products similar to yours, on blogs and on YouTube.
2. Use a content research tool such as BuzzSumo to find who writes about your topic.
3. Offer free access in return for an honest review, and consider a referral or affiliate deal for those who keep promoting you.

Two rules matter. In the US, the FTC's Endorsement Guides say a free product or payment should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. And if you write guest posts on other sites, Google's spam policies treat links with optimised anchor text in guest posts as link spam. Write guest posts to reach readers, not to buy links. See the benefits of guest posting.

5. Go to startup events and conferences

Events are a direct way to meet early customers, partners and investors in person. Choose events where your buyers go, not just other founders. Book meetings before you arrive, bring a short demo you can give on a phone, and follow up within a few days while people remember you. If you can't travel, virtual events work too: see virtual event marketing.

6. Focus your social media

Many startups post everywhere and get traction nowhere. Pick one or two channels where your buyers spend time and post there consistently.

• Find the gaps: if competitors ignore a platform where your audience is active, such as Reddit or Quora, you can build a presence there with less noise. See Quora marketing strategies.
• Work with influencers: creators with a smaller but focused audience in your niche can be a better fit, and easier to reach, than big names. Read about micro-influencers.
• Promote what you make: spend as much effort distributing a post as writing it.
• Schedule ahead: a tool such as Hootsuite lets you plan posts across networks from one calendar and see which ones drive engagement.

7. Learn from your competitors

Your competitors have already tested channels, keywords and ads. Their results are partly visible.

Competitor research tools such as SpyFu show the keywords a domain ranks for, the Google Ads keywords it has bought, its ad history and its backlinks. Use that data to find:

• keywords they rank for that you don't;
• ads they kept running for a long time, which suggests they work;
• sites that link to them but not to you.

Look beyond search too: their pricing page, onboarding emails, review site comments and job ads say a lot about their plans. Our guide on how to spy on your competitors' marketing strategy goes further.

How do you choose which strategy to try first?

Start with the biggest leak in your funnel. If nobody knows you exist, try a launch or creator reviews. If people visit but don't sign up, test your landing page. If they sign up but don't stay, work on onboarding before you buy more traffic. Run one or two experiments at a time, measure them properly, and keep a log of what you learned. More tools are in our growth marketing category.