“Grow your business!” “Follow these easy steps!” “Check out our best growth hacks”!
Growth hacking may sound like a gimmick to attract attention, but it’s simply a term for when smart marketing leads to explosive results so quickly that it feels like you’ve “hacked” the system.
These kinds of growth hacking examples are more common than you might think. And most successful businesses have come up with one (or more) at some point.
What is growth hacking?
Before we start, we should be clear on what we mean when we use the term ‘growth hacking’.
A growth hack is a low-cost digital marketing technique that helps a business quickly acquire customers and sell products, according to Sean Ellis, the entrepreneur who coined the term.
If you’re thinking that this is easier said than done, you’re right.
So to help you get inspired, we’ve gathered 10 excellent case studies of companies whose growth hacking strategies have led them to astonishing success.
Who knows – they may spark an idea that leads to new opportunities for your business.
Looking for marketing inspiration? Book a no-cost consultation with the Mint Position team and we’ll show you a proven path to more organic leads and higher conversions.
10 proven growth hacking examples your business can learn from
After plenty of digging, we’ve come up with the best growth hacking examples in recent years.
Let’s take a closer look.
1. Spotify’s Wrapped annual list
You’ve heard of Spotify’s annual ‘Wrapped’ feature, right? Sure you have. It’s one of the festive season’s buzzwords.
The world’s biggest streaming platform drops this AI-curated playlist onto everyone’s Spotify homepage at the start of every holiday period. Presented as a “wrapped” gift, you click on it, and out springs a selection of your most-played tracks of the year so far.
Since its debut in 2016, it’s posted yearly improvements up until last year when it gained a 22% increase in unique visitors, according to social media management platform SproutSocial.
The continued success of “Wrapped”
Source: SproutSocial
The feature is a viral hit because everyone loves sharing their favorite music with others. It’s also the perfect growth hacking tool, and here’s why.
“Wrapped” allows Spotify to link together two highly effective growth loops.
- It engages with existing users by using their data to play on their egos.
Everyone thinks they like the best music and when Spotify comes along and gift-wraps their musical choices, they’re almost certain to click on it to see what they are. They’re then just as likely to show this off to their friends, which is where the super-handy ‘share’ feature comes into play.
- Once shared, the “Wrapped” becomes a powerful acquisition tool.
New customers will want Spotify to do the same for them, which it does by quizzing them about their musical tastes (more data) and using automation to recommend new playlists.
And so the cycle continues as new users pass on “Wrapped” to their friends, making it the ultimate referral program.
The results are there for all to see. 56 million users engaged with “Wrapped” in 2022, according to Time, and half of these shared their results to their Instagram stories.
That’s a lot of positive engagement and something any marketer can learn from.
2. 12Twenty’s white paper lead magnets
B2B growth hacking examples are a little different from B2C as business audiences have other requirements.
One of these is a need for valuable information over entertainment and emotional narratives.
B2B brands must write informative content that their target audience is looking for, but they can also use it to bring in a regular stream of B2B leads via social media lead magnets.
This increases opt-ins by 85%, according to research from Marketing Insider, and has reduced the cost per lead for 90% of marketers.
LinkedIn is fertile ground for this, a place where businesses can promote white papers, webinars, and tutorials on lead generation forms that collect user data in exchange for the content.
12Twenty is a B2B SaaS company that has used this strategy to excellent effect. It regularly publishes user guides to streamlined talent search processes for employers. Users can access these via a LinkedIn form that asks for their basic information.
12Twenty’s boost in high-quality leads
Source: Pathmonk
It’s a win-win situation. Followers get the quality content they’re looking for, while 12Twenty generates the high-quality leads it needs to boost revenue. One lead magnet yielded a 156% uptick in demo requests from target users.
3. Dropbox’s double-sided incentives
We touched on how powerful referrals can be, but Dropbox got it down to an art form with a creative growth hack that also gamified its onboarding process.
First, it introduced a double-sided incentive: both referrers and their new sign-ups received 500MB of free storage space. New users then won further storage by linking their Dropbox accounts to their social networks and posting about the campaign.
Dropbox’s sign-up offer
The results were explosive. Founder Drew Houston cited a 60% increase in sign-ups and this one simple initiative led to Dropbox posting a 3,900% growth rate over the next 15 months.
Achieving this success is extremely tough, but any business can offer an incentive that encourages customers to spread the word in return.
4. Robinhood’s incentive to build a pre-launch waiting list
Trading app Robinhood was clearly inspired by DropBox’s word-of-mouth growth hack. They used referral marketing to build a waiting list of over one million users before they even launched their product.
But how?
Well, the start-up understood one powerful human emotion: FOMO (fear of missing out). When we see our friends sign up for something cool, we want to do the same lest we miss out on the fun.
Via a well-orchestrated fintech content marketing campaign, Robinhood gave a select few potential app lovers the chance to gain invitation-only, early access to its private beta. Its 0% commission trading was a powerful hook and almost everyone signed up: just look at how simple its sign-up process was.
Robinhood’s sign-up landing page
When their friends heard how great the app was, they wanted in on the action, but Robinhood instead put referrals on a waiting list. These new sign-ups could see their position on the waiting list, which is where it gets really interesting.
Next to their list position was an invitation to share this exclusive offer with others. The more they shared, the higher they went up the list and the sooner they would get access themselves.
The results? Exponential email list growth with the company smashing the million mark in a matter of weeks. Nice way to ensure a product-market fit.
This potent mix of anticipation and exclusivity is something any brand can add to their product or service – and achieve astounding results.
5. HubSpot’s freemium model
Everyone loves getting something for free.
Freemium models play on this by offering new sign-ups access to a limited version of the product for nothing and reserving premium features for paid subscribers.
The price of launching a freemium model might be high, but much lower customer acquisition costs counter this, not to mention the surge in buyer interest.
HubSpot got this growth hacking technique down to a tee with its free CRM platform. Users get a free tool to get started but can access advanced features by upgrading to a Starter or Professional plan.
HubSpot’s tiered payment system
It’s the best kind of advertising. Customers get to ‘test-drive’ the product instead of imagining what it might be like. If they have a great user experience, then they’re likely to recommend friends, too, or upgrade their package.
As HubSpot’s digital marketing specialist Jeff Cox puts it, it “shifts the burden of product education from you to the customer”. By lowering the bar of entry for new users, you’re also reducing the amount you spend on marketing and sales. Plus you get to promote the value of your product and build trust.
If your business has a basic version of its product or service, then converting it into a freemium model and attracting a new wave of users could be the catalyst for a new era of growth.
6. Airbnb’s cross-platform promotions
Airbnb might be one of the first places you think of when you need holiday accommodation, but it wasn’t always that way.
In its early days, it needed smart ways to build its customer base so it decided to look where its target audience was looking for rentals: Craigslist.
It offered Airbnb hosts the option to copy their listing to Craigslist with one click.
This may seem like they were endangering their business, but instead it opened up immediate access to Craiglist’s huge audience who quickly discovered what Airbnb was all about.
The success of this reverse engineering move propeled Airbnb into the unicorn sphere it inhabits today, and it has since used other cross-brand promotions to power business growth.
These include partnerships with travel companies and entertainment events to promote its ‘Airbnb experiences’. They’re able to market these holiday add-ons to their huge captive market of travelers who will be looking for things to do on their vacation.
It’s a move that’s led to a sustained increase in bookings since 2017, despite the disruption of the pandemic.
Source: Statista
Cross-platform partnerships are some of the best growth hacking tactics your company can use because they provide quick access to established audiences who already have a reason to buy your product.
7. PayPal’s paid referrals
Years before paying influencers and bloggers big bucks to spread the word was a thing, PayPal hit upon the idea of incentivizing its existing user base to do the same.
Its ‘refer a friend’ bonus system combined traditional marketing with the power of the internet as good old-fashioned greed motivated people to do PayPal’s advertising for them.
At first, the company offered $20 for signing up, then another $20 for each new referral. Then, as the campaign became more popular, the amount dropped to $10, then $5. It also added little caveats to boost transactions, such as spending a small sum for the activation of the bonus.
One of PayPal’s referral pages
Source: PayPal Community
This marketing strategy helped make PayPal the number one digital payment method and it still tops many lists today, even if its product isn’t as progressive as other fintech providers.
It’s not all about having jaw-dropping new products and flashy marketing. PayPal has proved that sometimes it’s just about finding solid growth marketing and sticking to it.
8. Gmail’s building exclusivity via invites
Google knew they had a cracking product before they launched Gmail, but they wanted to build anticipation so that people really wanted to use it.
When it first launched, new users could only join via an invite. People started to hear about Gmail’s innovative search capabilities and email management online and wanted to get in on the action, but it meant finding a golden invite ticket, which drove up demand.
At one point, Gmail users were auctioning invites on eBay and prices were reaching over $200.
By the time Google was ready to offer free email access to everyone, demand had risen to the point that Gmail had already surpassed Hotmail as the most in-demand email program.
There is one drawback to this growth hack, however. It only works well with open tools and networks.
Gmail worked because users could still fire off invites to their friends on other email services, something that isn’t possible on a closed-off platform.
Google found this out the hard way with their social network Google+ where the invite system crashed and burned. Users couldn’t do this email marketing for them as they had no one to send the invites to.
9. Dollar Shave Club’s video marketing
“Video marketing?” we hear you cry. “That’s not a growth hack. It takes time and money!”
This might be true, but videos have the power to condense reams of marketing copy into just a couple of minutes and achieve explosive results.
Take a look at the example of the Dollar Shave Club. Their superb video gained 19 million views and made them a household name overnight.
The reason behind this virality? They told viewers how they were sending their new razor blades to customers every month for just $1.
CEO Michael Dubin wrote, produced, and starred in the 90-second clip which tells viewers how they can make a 95% saving on their expensive razors and get them hand-delivered so they don’t forget to buy them (two common pain points).
He also makes them smile along the way with that magical sales ingredient: humor.
The video falls into the “hack” definition for two big reasons. It didn’t take much money or resources to create and it put Dollar Shave Club into a whole new growth bracket.
Two years later, the company had earned $20 million and was sold to e-commerce giant Unilever for over a billion dollars.
10. Tesla’s user-generated content brilliance
Who’s the most famous growth hacker? It may not be an obvious choice, but many experts would say Elon Musk for his efforts in catapulting Tesla to worldwide fame.
Tesla would get a lot of attention anyway thanks to its novel product line, but Musk has really helped keep it on the front pages with his unusual antics.
Not only that, but the CEO has been the brains behind a powerful user-generated content (UGC) campaign.
Rather than traditional advertising, Tesla relies on influential allies, bloggers, and YouTubers who freely promote the product through detailed reviews, making everyone a brand ambassador.
A popular Tesla YouTube review
Tesla’s unique business model involves direct sales to customers, fostering a close feedback loop, and continuous improvement through Over-The-Air Updates.
Elon Musk’s engagement on Twitter further involves customers in the company’s journey, using the growth hacking framework of low-cost, customer-driven marketing.
Smaller brands might not have a CEO who wants to put themself in the spotlight as Musk does, but they do have customers who are willing to share their product experiences.
For B2C brands, this type of influencer marketing is a tried-and-trusted tactic that uses social media platforms to rapidly spread word of your product.
B2B audiences, meanwhile, respond more to influential experts sharing their valuable insights. These might be from specialists from within your company, or famous academics who know your industry extremely well.
Expert insights, whether from influencers or academics, and UGC promotions both enhance your brand’s credibility in the eyes of your target audience.
This often leads to other quality sources referring to your page, too, which does wonders for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Google’s algorithm values high-quality, educational content.
Elon Musk turned Tesla into a global sensation without billboards—just a dash of genius and a lot of user-generated buzz. Smaller brands, take note: Your customers might be your best influencers.
The 4 growth hacking tactics that you can learn today
So, what lessons can we take from these most effective growth hacking examples?
While they’re not easy to replicate, we can imitate the key ideas behind them. Here’s a summary of the concepts that the above examples of growth hacking have in common.
Play on powerful human emotions
Targeting your customer’s emotional triggers has long been one of the most effective marketing tactics.
Spotify, Dropbox, Gmail, and Robinhood all played on powerful emotions with their campaigns, whether it’s the pride of showing off their favorite music, or the famous FOMO at missing out on a juicy deal.
This emotional engagement is marketing rocket fuel but for it to work, your brand needs to know its target audience inside-out.
You must put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers, understand what motivates them and what troubles them, then use this information to build an intricate buyer persona.
When done right, this will pave the way for much higher customer acquisition, but it’s a tricky process that takes time, thought, and effort. Many brands opt for a marketing agency with a tried-and-tested action plan to do this for them.
Incentivize referrals new and existing users
Many businesses hesitate to offer incentives fearing their cost, but they don’t need to cost much at all.
Take Spotify. Their incentive is simply the pride of showing off your music. Dropbox and HubSpot may be missing out on opportunity costs by offering some of their products for free, but they don’t need to put money down to finance it. Besides, their return from new sign-ups more than makes up for this.
The best incentives engage existing users and attract new ones, which increases both sales and retention.
Build exclusivity and anticipation
The maxim ‘good things come to those who wait’ is true, partly because we love the sense of anticipation we get before getting our hands on something.
Robinhood and Gmail’s growth hacking examples mastered this with their waiting lists and invite-only access that built interest in their product before they even got going. The golden aura of exclusivity was also a powerful factor in their success.
Both products generated incredibly high conversion rates as people went there extremely motivated to sign up.
While this isn’t always possible, specialist content, such as a B2B product page purposely built to promote an upcoming launch, can produce similar results by building a similar sense of urgency within a buyer as they read through it.
Use strategic partnerships
It’s easy to view other brands as rivals, but some of the best growth strategies come via partnerships.
Airbnb’s cross-brand promotions are perfect examples of accessing new audiences, even if their Craigslist tactic was a little sneaky. These strategic alliances put you in touch with ready customer bases that will already be motivated to buy your product.
It doesn’t have to be a flashy partnership, either.
Sometimes subtle yet effective techniques help to boost cross-brand appeal, such as guest posting via backlink building, which uses link placements on high-authority websites to speed your brand up the Google rankings.
Interested in using the power of content marketing to grow your business? Get in touch with us and we’ll boost your brand’s search engine visibility, attract more valuable organic traffic, and help you increase conversions.
