10 Growth Hacks for Start-ups to SkyRocket Customer Growth

Ready to launch your new business? These 10 growth hacks for start-ups are easy to implement and proven to drive success, find out what they are.

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Whether you’re a modest or highly ambitious start-up manager, you’ll want to go in one direction: upwards. 

However, you can’t just wave a magic wand and expect your start-up to grow. Unfortunately, that’s not how modern-day business works. 

Instead, you need to deploy different strategies that will, over time, that enable your start-up to reach the goals you need it to for success. 

As a helpful gesture, this guide has gathered together a total of 10 growth hacks for start-ups that are accessible and easy to use.

When used correctly, these hacks will:

• Improve your marketing and sales.
• Make your workplace more diverse and productive.
• Increase customer loyalty.

What’s more, they will also provide you with long-term stability. The current global business environment is highly unpredictable, so long-term stability is exactly what start-ups need to strive for. 

1. Hire a diverse team 

To successfully grow your business, you will need to grow your team. From hiring sales representatives to content writers, there are a lot of roles that need filling if you want to take your business skywards regardless of the industry you’re in. 

When growing your team, equality and inclusion should be at the core of your hiring process. Equality and inclusion will lead to a happier and more productive workforce, which is a great recipe for growth. This is because you will have a more exciting pool of talent to work with, with each individual offering creative ideas and different perspectives. 

On top of all this, a more diverse team will also boost your brand image, as it’s something that millions of customers are concerned about. 

2. Become a hashtag expert

Nowadays, marketing is all about one source: social media. 

On Twitter and Instagram in particular, hashtags are important. This is why you and your marketing team need to become hashtag experts. 

You can do this by searching for key terms in your industry (e.g., ‘#fashion’) to see what the current trends are and which locations people are posting from. This will then help you tailor your social media posts to include the right hashtags, which will get your posts seen by the right people. 

3. Follow, like and comment 

Next, it’s highly recommended that you follow, like, and comment on social media posts a lot. 

However, don’t do it in a way that comes across as spammy. Instead, do it organically to show other companies and consumers that you are a start-up with a genuine passion. 

When you engage with other people organically, it will make them more likely to follow your brand pages back and engage with your posts. 

As your social media followers grow, you will gain more leverage on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 

4. Use Instagram Reels (and go live often)

Instagram Reels is a relatively new feature that allows businesses to significantly grow their visibility. Through Reels, you can reach your target audience and experience better shareability, which is exactly what you want in the age of social media. 

Additionally, as your online following grows, make sure to frequently go live on Instagram. When you’re live, you will be able to communicate with your followers in an interesting way. For example, you can answer their questions in the comments and provide updates on new products that you have lined up. 

Remember, modern consumers are always hungry for new content, so don’t be fearful about overusing Instagram – over the coming decade, it’s going to be a key tool for your start-up’s success. 

5. Automate social media posts

Staying on top of social media can be difficult as a start-up, particularly when you don’t have an in-house social media manager to handle them all. However, you don’t need to worry, as the perfect solution already exists: automation and management software. 

Automation software enables you to schedule and automate social media posts for any dates you like. Not only will this save you time and hassle, but it will also boost your efficiency. 

6. Collect email and SMS marketing lists

In addition to social media, it’s highly recommended that your start-up focuses on email and SMS marketing. However, it’s pointless composing emails and texts if you don’t have any customers to send them to in the first place. If this is the case for your start-up, you will have to spend the coming weeks and months collecting email and SMS marketing lists. Here are some useful tips on how to do this: 

• Create opt-in links on your website and social media pages.
• Request them in-store.
• Allow users to create an account with you that requires an email or phone number.

Once your email and SMS marketing lists start to grow, you will have an incredibly valuable source for marketing. 

7. Run giveaways

Giveaways are an excellent way to grow brand awareness and get consumers excited. This is because giveaways act as an incentive. Essentially, the consumer has nothing to lose, which is why they will be more willing to enter and engage with your brand. 

Let’s say you’re a software brand. As a giveaway, you could provide the winner with a free license key to your product. 

Or, if you’re a marketing agency, you could give the winner a free year-long subscription to one of your services. 

If you decide to conduct giveaways, social media is generally the best tool for the job. Here, you can reach larger audiences and get hundreds and even thousands of people to sign up for your giveaway. 

8. Use influencer marketing

As a start-up, you should consider using a micro-influencer to grow your business. It’s a good idea to use a micro-influencer who is from your city, as this will provide you quick and easy access to a local market. Here is some useful information on micro-influencers.  

9. Focus on photo and video content

On your website and social media pages, photo and video content are going to be everything. 

This type of content allows you to entice and connect with consumers more easily, so make sure to post as much visual content as possible online. Remember, the human brain responds more quickly to images and color than any other form of media.

10. Optimize Google ads 

When it comes to growth-hacks for start-ups Google Ads, which is an advertising platform created by Google can NOT be overlooked. 

Make sure to use industry keywords and high-quality landing pages. This way, your ads will perform more favorably and will capture the attention of your target audience. 

 

Parting Words

Every start-up wants a roadmap to success. If you ask any expert they would advise you to stick to a path that’s tried and true. There’s no harm in trying something new, but these 10 growth hacks for start-ups work, making them a great launch pad.

There is no single hack that resolves all pain points. If you’re looking for more guidance, don’t forget to check out other growth hacking tips on this blog.