Growth hacking

Deploy fast, low-cost experiments to discover scalable acquisition and retention tactics, learning through iteration rather than big bets.

Growth hacking

Growth hacking

definition

Introduction

Growth hacking is a fast, experiment-driven approach to finding reliable ways to grow a business. Instead of committing big budgets to a single plan, you run many small, low-risk tests landing pages, referral nudges, onboarding tweaks to see what moves leads, revenue or retention. Keep the winners, drop the losers, and repeat. It is less about tricks and more about systematic experimentation.

Why it matters

Growth hacking matters because conventional marketing channels become increasingly expensive and competitive as more companies pursue them, whilst creative alternatives often remain underexploited and disproportionately effective. When LinkedIn ads targeting CFOs cost £15 per click, the company that discovers a viral growth loop or strategic integration can acquire customers at fraction of competitors' costs, gaining decisive advantage. This efficiency particularly benefits resource-constrained organisations early-stage companies, bootstrapped firms, challenger brands that cannot outspend established players but can out-innovate them. Beyond cost savings, growth hacking builds a culture of experimentation that accelerates learning velocity: teams running ten experiments monthly discover what resonates 10x faster than those pontificating endlessly about single big campaigns. Research on breakout growth companies reveals they frequently deployed creative, unconventional tactics during early scaling rather than simply executing standard playbooks better. The methodology also creates compounding advantages: each successful experiment generates insights applicable beyond that specific test, building institutional knowledge competitors cannot easily copy. However, growth hacking requires discipline the temptation is chasing clever tricks rather than sustainable systems. Organisations that succeed treat growth hacking as systematic hypothesis testing, not random tactic generation, documenting failures as rigorously as wins to prevent repeated mistakes.

How to apply it

Growth hacking for B2B agencies and consultancies

Start with simple, resource-light tests that fit client-facing workloads.

  1. Turn your most popular blog post into a one-page PDF checklist and gate it for email addresses.
  2. Send a personal Loom video follow-up to every proposal within 24 hours.
  3. Add a referral line to client invoices offering a free strategy hour for introductions.
  4. Insert a dynamic case-study block in outreach emails that swaps based on industry tag.
  5. Host a quarterly live audit webinar and invite prospects to submit their site for review.
  6. Offer a one-week paid discovery sprint at a fixed price to lower commitment friction.
  7. Add a simple exit-intent pop-up on the blog asking visitors to book a fifteen-minute call.
  8. Re-share every LinkedIn post as a carousel with key metrics highlighted for higher engagement.
  9. Automate proposal follow-ups with a three-email sequence triggered when a deal is idle for five days.
  10. Publish a public roadmap of upcoming service add-ons to spark early interest and feedback.

Growth hacking for B2B SaaS companies

Focus on product touch-points and user referrals.

  1. Shorten the free-trial sign-up form to name and email only; capture extra data after activation.
  2. Trigger an in-app tooltip highlighting one hidden feature per day for new users.
  3. Offer an annual-billing discount during the first seven days of the trial.
  4. Add a one-click Slack invite inside the app so users can bring colleagues.
  5. Launch a referral banner that rewards account credits for every invited user who activates.
  6. Send a usage milestone email (e.g. ‘You saved 100 hours’) that includes a social share link.
  7. Create a public changelog with a subscribe option to keep leads warm before they buy.
  8. Auto-generate a personalised onboarding video using the user’s name and company logo.
  9. Detect inactive accounts at day ten and trigger an automated concierge call offer.
  10. Add a pricing-page FAQ accordion answering the top five objections gathered from support tickets.

Growth hacking for B2B e-commerce and wholesale platforms

Use on-site tweaks and post-purchase loops to drive repeat orders.

  1. Display real-time stock levels to create urgency on popular SKUs.
  2. Offer volume-based discounts that unlock automatically in the basket.
  3. Add a reorder button in account dashboards showing previously purchased bundles.
  4. Trigger a cross-sell email three days after dispatch, suggesting complementary products.
  5. Include a printed insert in every parcel with a QR code linking to a feedback survey for a discount.
  6. Run a monthly ‘buyers club’ webinar previewing new inventory for registered customers.
  7. Place a sticky banner for free shipping thresholds visible during the entire checkout.
  8. Offer Net 30 terms instantly via a credit partner to reduce friction for first-time buyers.
  9. Use exit-intent pop-ups on product pages to offer a PDF spec sheet in exchange for email.
  10. Create a points-based loyalty programme that rewards both order value and review submissions.

These straightforward hacks keep risk low while uncovering what truly accelerates growth for each business model. Test, measure, adopt what works, and move on to the next idea.

Keep learning

Growth orchestration

Get a grip on what's actually working and what needs course correction. Use data and experiments to make decisions instead of opinions. See how changes in one part of the system affect everything else. Random tactics don't compound, coordinated ones do.

Explore playbooks

Tool selection

Tool selection

Select tools across your growth stack using clear evaluation criteria. Avoid common pitfalls, ensure integrations work, and build a system that scales with your business.

Customer research

Customer research

Uncover specific pain points, validate assumptions, and reveal what actually drives buying decisions. Run research that produces actionable insights, not just interesting quotes.

Quarterly strategy

Quarterly strategy

Run quarterly business reviews that assess current state, set ambitious but realistic goals, build actionable roadmaps, and define key results that keep everyone aligned.

Monthly review

Monthly review

Analyse monthly performance data across all four growth engines. Identify what is working, what is not, and make tactical adjustments using a structured decision framework.

Related books

Traction

Gino Wickman

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Traction

A practical operating system for small teams. Install a cadence, set priorities and create accountability that sticks.

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Wiki

Stakeholder Management

Navigate competing priorities and secure buy-in by systematically understanding, influencing, and aligning internal decision-makers toward shared goals.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Track revenue growth from existing customers through expansion and contraction to prove your product delivers increasing value over time.

Partner-led growth

Scale through partner relationships where other companies distribute your product to their customers in exchange for commissions or reciprocal value.

Multi-touch attribution

Distribute conversion credit across multiple touchpoints to recognise that customer journeys involve many interactions and channels working together.

Pirate metrics

Track your user journey through Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue to identify which stage constrains growth most.

Event tracking

Capture specific user actions in your product or website to understand behaviour patterns and measure whether changes improve outcomes or create friction.

Growth drivers

Identify the fundamental factors that directly cause business expansion, concentrating resources on activities that generate measurable results.

Pareto Principle

Focus effort on the 20% of activities that drive 80% of results, systematically eliminating low-yield work to maximise output per hour invested.

Data warehouse

Store raw data from all business systems in one place to run analyses and build reports that combine information across marketing, sales, and product.

Integration

Connect tools so data flows automatically between systems to eliminate manual entry, keep records current, and enable sophisticated workflows across platforms.

Conversion tracking

Measure which marketing activities drive desired outcomes to allocate budget toward channels that actually generate revenue instead of vanity metrics.

Cohort analysis

Group customers by acquisition period to compare behaviour patterns and identify which acquisition channels and time periods produce the best long-term value.

P-value

Interpret experiment results to understand the probability that observed differences occurred by chance rather than because your changes actually work.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Select metrics that reveal whether you're achieving strategic goals to track progress and identify problems before they become expensive to fix.

First-touch attribution

Credit the channel that introduced prospects to your brand to measure awareness efforts and understand which top-of-funnel activities start customer journeys.

Activity tracking

Log emails, calls, and meetings automatically to understand what drives deals forward and coach reps based on actual behaviour rather than guesswork.

Pipeline coverage

Calculate how much pipeline you need relative to quota to ensure you generate enough opportunities to hit revenue targets despite normal conversion rates.

Eisenhower Matrix

Prioritise tasks systematically by sorting them into urgent-important quadrants, focusing effort on high-impact activities.

OMTM (One Metric That Matters)

Focus your entire organisation on the single metric that best predicts success at your current growth stage, avoiding distraction and misalignment.

Sales tech stack

Assemble tools that manage pipeline, automate outreach, and track performance to help reps sell more efficiently and managers forecast accurately.