While growth hacking has traditionally sat in the arena of B2B – starting with the most famous example of DropBox – the same strategies often work just as well if not better in consumer startups. Why? Because B2C companies have a much stronger viral component, allowing “hack” or short-term strategies to be more sustainable.
In fact, arguably the most effective example of growth hacking in any company over the past decade was AirBnb – where they growth hacked Craigslist’s network to seed their initial user base.
What that in mind, here are two consumer growth hacking strategies that work really well for startups.
Referral Marketing
What’s the best way to take advantage of a high viral coefficient? Take advantage of your customers! Referral marketing works at the consumer level really well simply because of sheer scale – people refer to people much more often than organizations refer to organizations.
Consider AirBnb and Uber’s simple get $5, give $5-style referral programs they’ve ran for nearly a decade, or Paypal’s famous “get $10 to sign up and $5 every time a friend signs up”. These numbers are pittances at the B2B level, but work really well at the consumer level – hey, people love cash and sharing cool new products with their friends.
Viral Marketing
Alright, let’s rephrase an earlier sentence: what’s the best way to take advantage of a high viral coefficient? Take advantage of a high viral coefficient?
Viral marketing is the single marketing technique that consistently works in B2C but has a much harder time finding traction in B2B. Every B2C company should invest a certain % of their budget on viral experiments – “long shot” marketing campaigns with a low success rate, but a ridiculously high ROI when they work.
Virality isn’t purely a “luck” thing – consistent experimentation usually results in predictable viral hits over the long haul.
