As described in the first part of the The Digital Marketing Hacks Proven To Speed Up Business Growth article, growth hacking can be successfully integrated in every aspect of a business, and social media together with remarketing make no exception.

These are exactly the areas we’re going to focus in this article, sharing a few key tips on how to get more results faster by simply tweaking existing tools and strategies:

3. Hack Your Social Media

Combine your social media action plan with growth hacking tactics, and next time you’ll take a look at your analytics report, the chances are you’ll see the face of Hulk winking back to you – that’s how powerful this combination can be.

Here’s how to achieve this:

• find and connect with influencers from your industry. Quote their knowledge in the content you’re creating and mention them when you share said content on social networks;
• create a loyal audience by actively engaging with your followers, steady and new. The principle is simple: if you show genuine interest, you’ll also receive genuine attention, creating a win-win situation;
• leverage Twitter’s potential by fully using its features: embed relevant tweets into your site’s content (learn how to do this here); install Click to Tweet tool which will allow your readers to share short relevant insights from your blog posts; build a “stalker list” with people from your industry; create relevant hashtags and promote them by constantly using them in your tweets; regularly engage in group chats: the #vcbuzz hashtag and http://viralcontentbuzz.com/ are a good place to start.; use twitter as a customer service channel – nothing can beat real time conversations and transparency;
• learn how to properly use facebook’s advanced targeting tools and run advertising campaigns for different goals such as increasing page audience, website traffic, conversions etc.;
• post and promote your clients’ testimonials and even tag their social media accounts for a better visibility. Word of mouth marketing is very powerful and missing out on this opportunity would be a shame;
• include Call to Actions and ask your followers to share: it’s unbelievable how many people pass on this incredible opportunity of having their content redistributed – while it does have its own rules and common sense etiquette, social media is not the place to be shy.

Case study

When GeoRanker, a company that provides powerful SEO tools for online businesses, became a part of GoRanker, the digital marketing team focused their efforts on social media which was, up until that point, underutilized. Twitter became the main social media tool and it was used to participate in group chats and connect with influencers. Shortly after implementing these strategies, both GoRanker and GeoRanker have seen an increase in engagement, traffic and exposure.

Take a look at one of our first tweets analytics, days after we just started:

4. Hack Your Customer Interaction

At first glance, customer interaction in a digital environment is a simple process: people search the web for an answer to their needs, they land on your website and, as a natural consequence, some acquire your product/service, while others don’t; some may need customer support or additional information, others may not. But customer interaction has much more aspects and phases that what’s visible, and almost all of them can be improved through growth hacking:

• create and stick with an user-friendly interface. I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: website optimization and customer interaction go hand in hand. You cannot have a slow-loading website with a complicated interface and expect visitors to manage. People lose patience and the web has taught us all to expect everything smoothly and fast;
• add a warm, personal touch to your polite business tone;
• optimize transactional speed. Transactional points and checkout options should be designed to ensure the fastest transaction time because, you know, time is money;
• add opt-in forms in your content: by using this simple hack you can increase your subscribers list and customer base tenfold- see the case study below;
• offer amazing customer support. ALWAYS.
• ask both your audience and your existing customers questions by using short surveys or newsletters. This simple action can become very stimulating and nurture further interactions and ideas.
• use remarketing strategies to make people who have already visited your site come back. There are multiple tools you can use to include this process in your overall marketing strategy, one of them being Google Remarketing, which allows you to use different remarketing ads for different stages of your signup funnel.
• last but not least: provide undeniable value and 1. people will come back for more. 2. happy customers generate word of mouth marketing. Need we say more?

Case study

Brian Dean of Backlinko increased post conversion by 785% in one day by inserting links to free digital assets, in exchange for contact details, at the top and the bottom of that specific post.

You can read all about it here.

This article is the second in a three-part series. Stay tuned for the third part!

Controversial or not, the startup culture that has shaped so many businesses over the past few years is here to stay and so is its powerful ally: growth hacking.

Coined by Sean Ellis in 2010, growth hacking essentially means gearing up your new business venture for accelerated growth and success. How? The mechanisms and strategies differ from company to company, but we distilled a couple a of proven digital marketing hacks that can be successfully applied in most cases:

1. Hack Your Content

We know – there’s already a strong emphasis on content right now but that’s because content it’s imperative for a business’ success in 2015, and it will be so for a very long time. Look at Facebook: the platform has already shifted towards becoming a multimedia channel so that its users would find everything they’re interested in right there, in their newsfeeds: latest news, videos, music. Because great content attracts, compels and engages.

So what content hacks are there?

• killer headlines;
• magnetism. You read that right – magnetism – whether it’s a picture of a grumpy cat, a controversial point of view expressed in a comprehensive article, a smart infographic or an interesting video what they all have in common is the click-magnetism. And most of the times, this depends on the angle from which said contend is presented. Can you shift your angle from plain to plain awesomeness?
• authenticity. The Internet is well versed in the “Spot-The-Faker” game;
• emotional appeal;
• shareability;
• usefulness. This is what we believe to be the best feature. If it’s an article, make it insightful and detailed. If it’s an infographic, back it with the latest statistics and data. If it’s video, make it high-quality and professional. Nothing can beat quality in the long run, not even price!

Here’s how to achieve all these, courtesy of Upworthy.

Case study to behold

The team behind KISSmetrics, a company that offers web analytics tools, was able to generate 2,512,596 visitors and 41,142 backlinks from 47 infographics over the course of two years. Two years, you may ask? Yes. Content is a hard and diligent worker but it doesn’t perform overnight miracles. Statistics say that content needs between six months and a year and a half to generate substantial results.

The keywords here are consistency, quantity, and quality!

How is this applicable to YOUR business?

All products and services have a theoretical base and this means every single business has its own kind of information to work with. The key is how you use it!

Are you a bakery that makes delicious cupcakes? Prepare a few tasty samples, go out into your community, ask people to try it and photograph their reactions. Instant Instagram and Pinterest material.

Are you an appliance repair company? Make a video of your most challenging repair works. Or one that teaches homeowners how to take care of their appliances so they last longer- this one may sound counterproductive, but think of the bigger picture here: you’re showing people that you know your business and that you care!

Are you an online shop? Tell people why you believe in the products you sell. Make their features a story – visual or written.

Are you a startup with a great new product on the market? Spread it around and incentivize people to show others how they use it. Take a look at Sugru, the world’s first moldable glue, and their gallery of user generated content.

2. Hack Your Website

Wait, what? No, we are not suggesting to take your website hostage and make demands. It’s all about growth hacking here.

Here’s how:

• optimize your landing page to match the keywords your buyer persona is using;
• increase site speed as it directly impacts conversion rates;
• include visible, simple, and efficient Calls To Action;
• improves user experience by enabling effortless navigation and by implementing features that are easy to understand;
• use plugins for instant social sharing, newsletter subscriptions, social log-ins, anything that makes visitor-website interaction fast and smooth;
• make it friendly for new visitors: why not offer a quick tour explaining how everything works?
• include social proof – people look for reassurance as much as they look for solutions.

Case Study

When Neil Patel and his team optimized the homepage of Crazy Egg, a visual website analytics and heatmaps service, they used their own product to analyze and improve their layout.

The result: a simple but clever layout centered around its main features, concise but compelling sales pitch, simple call to action and brand logos:

This article is the first in a three-part series. You can read the second part here.