My first growth hack
Many people have asked me about my first successful growth hack, eating your own dog food. This one resulted in a pivot of the company strategy, helping them raise millions of venture capital.
Growth Hacking Influencer marketing
One of my first clients was an influencer marketing platform. Influencers could tag products in their posts and earn a commission when somebody bought through their link. A “simple” model for the influencer to make more money. But influencers didn’t use it. They couldn’t understand why
Within two weeks, it was evident, using this growth hack.
How was it possible that influencers didn’t use the platform while it could make them good money? The company owner and head of growth didn’t understand it. But I thought differently. My mental starting point: People are lazy, especially influencers.
When you post multiple pictures per day, you don’t want to search through a photos database. Especially if it takes you more time and frustration than uploading the image. But the company didn’t believe that it was too hard for these influencers. Looking back at this, they had a big issue with product-market fit. That’s why the growth hack was so impactful.
And here comes the hack, explained in this article.
Growth Insight – Eating Your Own Dog Food
I told the head of growth to do it for the influencers. Once they’ve uploaded the picture, and they didn’t tag the products, he should do it for them.
Eat your own dog food -> A 1.000 times in two weeks.
I told the head of growth to do it for the influencers. Once they’ve uploaded the picture, and they didn’t tag the products, he should do it for them. Yes, they should use their own product at least 1.000 times and experience what their user experience if you want to use it at this velocity.
What happened?
In those two weeks, he was able to tag 236 pictures, but found 43 critical bugs/improvements that made it too difficult for these influencers to use the platform. But out these insights, they decided to take a more campaigning-based approach with their platform, which was a hit in the park. Instead of losing many more months, they eat their own dog food, and got these insights.
So my question for you:
- What’s the one thing where you don’t understand that your clients are struggling with in your customer experience?
- You think it’s great, but probably you’ve got to dig deeper.
- How? Start eating your own dog food.
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On the 20th of April, I will share my best growth hacks and other growth strategies in a one-day masterclass together with the Queen of positioning: Marieke PIjler. The event will be in a Castle at a premium location. It’s a masterclass in Dutch, but we will also release an English version later this year.
Early Bird tickets are available until the 17th of March. We’ve got only 15 places in total, where already 6 spots are reserved. I can’t wait to see you there!.
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