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Dear
reader,
This
a couple of years old but still up-to-date interview contains so many
interesting thoughts about growth hacking that I had to acquire
permission to republish it for your benefit.
Please
enjoy the article!
Christian
Dillstrom
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I
am authoring an article series about growth hacking and the very first
article received over 1.6 million readers.
The
aim is to write follow-up articles about topics that have caused a
discussion among readers. Unfortunately, most of the comments about
my first article were sent to me as private messages, so they are
unknown to most of the readers.
Now there are many different topics to cover in the next
article, but the most requested topic is the interview with an
experienced growth hacker. Luckily for us, I finally got the best
growth hacker I know to agree to be interviewed.
He
has agreed to do the growth hacking interview in multiple parts, that
way readers of this article series can also ask him questions, so
don't worry, you'll get your chance to present your question.
”Let's
start:”
WHAT
IS YOUR NAME AND AGE?
My
name is Christian Dillstrom and I am 48 years old.
WHAT
IS YOUR BACKGROUND?
I
started coding at the age of ten and I still code every day because I
like to know what I am talking about. I am not the consulting type
that has read about something and gives advice about it. I like to
know exactly how things work before I talk about them.
I
have founded and run three global startups as well as analyzed and
consulted over three hundred startups. I have also worked at an advertising
agency, and I have won six national advertising awards in a single
year.
Besides
startups and advertising, I have been working with Fortune 500
companies, in the financial sector as well as with game and gambling
companies.
HOW
LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING GROWTH HACKING?
Over
10 years now.
HOW
DID YOU GET STARTED WITH GROWTH HACKING?
Before
I founded my second startup, I worked at an advertising agency for a
few years, as well as at a bank and an insurance company. In those
companies, there was absolutely no desire to grow, just to keep
everything as it was.
"That
is totally against my nature."
I want to be part of something more, I
want to create explosive growth - I have always been like that. So,
in early 2009 I started my second start-up, a boutique social media
agency.
”Once
again I had great luck.”
I
had quite a few contacts at Fortune 500 companies because of my first
start-up and .com boom. When I started calling those companies and
telling them what I was doing, they wanted unique solutions to boost
their sales.
"We
did not call it growth hacking back then, but that is what we really
did."
The term growth hacking started to appear here and there a few
years ago, but outside of marketing departments at global brands,
start-ups and marketing experts that term is still quite unknown.
Global
brands only wanted unique solutions that would give them a
competitive edge, so in the last 10 years I've had to come up with
over 100 marketing innovations.
”So
that's how I got started with growth hacking.”
WHERE
DO YOU DO GROWTH HACKING?
Online
and on-site globally. From my point of view, businesses have similar
problems, but they need unique solutions to their problems.
Many
businesses think the other way around; they think that their problems
are unique, but solutions to these problems are common. They are
surprised when the solution they read about in a magazine or hear
about at a business event does not increase their sales.
WHAT
IS GROWTH HACKING?
That
is actually a very easy question - it is inventing new ways to make
more money for your client. That's it.
WHY
INVENTING?
Well,
it depends on the client. Some clients are so leading edge in
everything that the only way you can make them more money is by
inventing something totally new.
If
there is room for growth, the first step is to improve everything
that can be improved. Inventing, testing, and coding
something new is a big undertaking so you don't do it if you
have other options available.
IS
GROWTH HACKING EXPENSIVE?
No,
it is not.
First, a good growth hacking increases the client's sales and profit
so much that its fees and costs become irrelevant.
Second, most customers pay a monthly fee based on what they need us
to do. Very few startups or smaller businesses need globally
executed tasks with millions of people participating, so their fee is
of course very reasonable.
IS
GROWTH HACKING ILLEGAL?
Good
growth hackers do not do illegal things or cause negative reactions.
The
Brand is everything a client really has, so a growth hacker is not
allowed to do anything that could cause harm to it!
”In
fact, that is a big no-no.”
Also,
a growth hacker only does things that his client, either approves or
asks him to do. He does not do things on his own as he works for his
client.
In
some cases, clients might request something that is not really a good
idea. They might not understand all the possible dangers of their
request; therefore, a good growth hacker must understand when to
say no.
”After
all, who would hire a growth hacker with a shady reputation?”
Of
course, there are growth hackers that do things they should not do
and the clients that approve work they should not approve. A good
growth hacker knows his limits and does a great job, without doing
shady business.
WHY
CAN'T COMPANIES DO GROWTH HACKING INTERNALLY?
For
the same reasons companies hire management consultants and external
legal counsel; people within the company have limited knowledge about
all the things going on in other companies and in the world
generally.
”Growth
hackers focus only on increasing the sales of their clients.”
They
usually have a lot of clients and therefore they gain a lot of
experience by growth hacking different companies and industries.
Marketing and salespeople inside a company do not have that
experience.
”If
they did, growth hackers would not be able to increase the sales of
the company.”
HOW
DO YOU TYPICALLY HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS?
New
big clients usually want to boost their new campaign or a campaign
that is not going that well.
Big
clients paying fees either monthly or annually call and ask where
they could find a 1% sales increase for this week. This usually
involves finding new, better ways to identify sales obstacles,
generating low-cost awareness and connecting marketing with sales.
For
smaller businesses and startups, it is about everything that deals
with their potential customers, from an advertising message and media
to sales and follow-up. This makes working for them interesting.
Unfortunately,
only a few startups or small businesses hire growth hacking agencies,
since most companies have not yet realized that only a successful
marketing can achieve the growth that a company needs to get to the
next level.
They
should ask themselves why leading companies in their industries put
so much more effort into marketing and why they do not.
ISN'T
HACKING / HACKER A NEGATIVE TERM IN GROWTH HACKING?
Yes,
it is, but that is a good thing! Now it's time to start making more
money in this company.
That
is because normally marketing is not about generating sales, but
rather about ”looking good” to win advertising industry awards. I
was shocked to learn how little a client's sales increase mattered
when I worked in the advertising industry.
”Also,
how little sales cared about marketing.”
Without effective marketing, potential customers have no
clue about the company, what it offers and why they should buy from
it. A good marketing department fills the sales department with hot
sales leads.
Both
departments maximize the company's profit by keeping their costs low
while delivering the required sales.
IS
GROWTH HACKING ONLY ABOUT THE ONLINE PART?
Not
at all, as almost every company has an offline side too.
I
have found that optimal results are achieved by mixing offline and
online.
”Two
examples:”
Have
a live chat with people at your website and landing pages and treat them
as your sales assistants. This way they can channel hot sales leads
instantly back to your salespeople and increase your sales.
Also,
a live chat person will receive many more sales leads than a web site
or a landing page without a live chat assistant.
”People
like people!”
Alternatively,
you can use real-time sales leads. These are the hottest possible
sales leads that offline salespeople will receive from online
action. It tells salespeople what really interests potential
customers right now. No wonder the sales conversion of real-time
sales leads is amazing.
CAN
YOU NAME A FEW PUBLICLY KNOWN GROWTH HACKS?
That
is not an easy question as all our clients require us to sign a
non-disclosure agreement. We can only do our work if we know how a
client really operates.
But
a good public example is the Obama-campaign, which changed a single
word and increased donations by 60 million USD. That's a great
example of growth hacking – change of a single word = $60 million
increase.
Another
good public example is Airbnb. They used an innovative growth hack to
connect their users’ posts to Craig’s list and increase their
awareness. Through this unique growth hack, they multiplied their
user database and became a start-up with a net worth of about $38
billion.
Also,
since you Bart, my client, are fine me telling this, your first and
this second article are good examples of growth hacking. I made sure
that the LinkedIn Pulse algorithm loves your articles so that it has
promoted the titles to tens of millions of LinkedIn users.
”That
is how your first article received 1.6 million business readers.”
I
am sure that readers of this article can mention many good growth
hacks they know. Unfortunately, I do not want to mention hacks done
by colleagues if they have not published them yet.
FINALLY,
WHAT IS THE GROWTH HACK EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS?
That
is a very easy question: it is cost-effective awareness marketing.
The
growth of every business, organization and professional person is
limited to how many important people relevant to them, know about
them, what they offer and how their offering is unique when compared
to the competition.
If
you figure out how to do awareness marketing without spending a
fortune, and in a way that makes it possible to scale it up when you
need more of it – you will grow much faster.
Of
course, that was a very simplified answer, but I have yet to meet a
business, organization or businessperson who would not benefit from
an increase in awareness marketing. Well, prisoners and persons
hiding from officials do not benefit from increased awareness...
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So,
that concludes the first part of this interview. Please comment and
send questions for the next part of this interview.