Most companies only track topline and bottomline metrics (e.g. traffic and revenue). The problem is that those numbers, by themselves, aren’t very helpful. The magic is what happens in between.

The key to growth hacking is to map out the user lifecycle for your product. For most sites, a user lifecycle looks something like this:

1. A person hears about your site 2. …visits your site 3. …creates an account 4. …visits again later 5. …refers a friend 6. …and finally, pays you

Each of these steps represents a user state. The growth hacker’s job is to figure out how to move users from one state to the next.

This is where the growth hacking funnel comes in.

This is the growth hacking funnel. It represents the major stages of the user lifecycle for nearly every product

Acquisition — People come to your site after they’ve heard about you through press, blogs, word of mouth, and other acquisition channels.

Activation — If people like what they see on your homepage or other landing page, they’ll become users by either creating an account, signing up for a newsletter, or some other form of activation.

Retention — Users come back to the site through emails reminders and stay active through product features they encounter while they’re back on the site.

Referral — Active users refer others through viral product features and other incentives.

Revenue — You monetize active users through advertising, lead generation offers, subscription, or business development.

One way or another, every growth hack fits into one or more discrete stages of the growth hacking funnel. In the upcoming sections, we’ll cover three examples of growth hacks.

Case Study

Facebook

-Dominate your target market

-20% of students had to sign up before college would go live

-Search email contacts at signup

-Recommend friends on demo data & school

-Add a photo (invested)

-”How to use” feature education once live

-First time back “Suggested Friends” in layout of newsfeed -People you may know emails

Read more: Facebook Case Studies 1 and 2 (video)

Twitter

-Super Simple Signup

-Find Friends

-5–10 Auto Selected Follows

-People You May Now Retention Emails -30 Followers Magic Number For Daily Use -People You May Know Auto Suggest

Read More: Twitter Case Study

Youtube

-Built On Top of Existing Networks

-Leveraged Myspace and Facebook

-Created Embeddable Videos For Every Network -Monthly Prize Contests

-Partnered with Content Creators

-Ease of Use / Ease of Shareability -Subscriptions for Retention

-Let Users Make Money

-Comments for Engagement

AirBNB

-Stealing Craigslist

-Filled their marketplace with listings

-Posted native listings to Craigslist

-Created thousands of gmail addresses to fly under the radar

-Scaled on top of a pre-built 2 sided platform

Read More: AirBnB Case Study

Paypal

-Scaled on top of existing platform (eBay) -Created a bot that purchased eBay products

-Bot demanded to use Paypal for payment to sellers

-Traditional advertising failed

-Spent marketing budget giving every new user $10 to sign up

LivingSocial

-Scaled on Facebook and Twitter

-When Customer Buys It’s Shared To Both

-When 3 Friends of Customer Buy, He or She Gets The Deal For Free

-The Customer Could Also Send Out An Email To Their Contacts

Read More: LivingSocial Case Study

Dropbox

-Sign Up Driven Homepage

-Easy Signup Process (Desktop or Browser)

-Referrals (500MB Increase in Storage)

-Social Follow (125MB Increase in Storage)

-Super Simple Sharing (Only a link needed)

-Gamification (Dropguest, complete puzzles for free storage)

-Multiple Devices (Availability Everywhere)

Read More Here: How Dropbox Hacked Growth

Hotmail

-Early Days of The Internet

-First Browser Based Email Service

-Free Service, Didn’t Want To Spend on Traditional Advertising

-Put, “P.S. I Love You. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail.com” at the bottom of every email.

-Created A Viral Loop

Read More: Hotmail Case Study

Apple iPhone

-Took a huge risk

-Brand new mobile hardware

-New distribution model for software

-”Sent from my iPhone” at the end of each message

-Helped them sell 316 million iOS devices -Made consumer hardware a fashion statement -Built exclusivity into the message

Zynga

-Built on top of existing platform (Facebook) -Gamification

-Leveled Users Up When They Invited Friends -Created Competition Amongst Friends -Played To Vanity (Social Value)

Read More: Zynga Case Study

Linkedin

-3 Main Channels: (Email Invitations, SEO, and Homepage)

-Decreased Friction for Organic Searchers instead of Email Invites

-Invite Drip Campaign Formula: (invites sent = % of new users that invite x average # of invites sent/inviter)

-Focus On Strengths

-They Focused on Increasing Activity of Already Active Users over Onboarding Inactive Users

Read More: LinkedIn Case Study

Instagram

-Public By Default

-Asymmetric Follow Model (Twitter vs Facebook) -Used Speed As A Weapon

-Cross Network Posting

Read More: 4 Ways Instagram Hacked Early Growth

Hubspot

-Created an Entire New Marketing Strategy -Best Content Marketing On The Planet

-Resources To Help Entrepreneurs (Self- Generating Demand)

-Pioneered Webinars, Ebooks, and Blogging

-All Resources In Once Place (SEO, Landing Pages, Analytics, and Blogging Platform)

-Attacked Conventional Marketing

Mint.com

-Solved A Real Problem (Personal Finance) -Content Rich Personal Finance Blog -Extensive SEO Strategy

-Traditional Public Relations

-Guest Blog Posting and Tons of Landing Pages -Content Partnerships (Motley Fool)

-Consumer Advocacy Email Alerts (Retention) -Leveraged Facebook and Twitter (Shareable) -Created Anticipation through a 20,000+ Waiting List

Read More: Mint Case Studies 1, 2, 3

To be continues..