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So you want to be a Growth Hacker?

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A friend recently asked twitter for some recommendations on what to read if they want to learn about Growth Hacking.

Being a great marketer (fine, fine “growth hacker) is about nurturing two very different skill sets in yourself: (1) creatively coming up with novel ways to engage and delight customers, (2) in ways that are clearly measurable and logically prioritized and managed based on the outcome that they deliver.

Once you have those skills set, you’ll find yourself ready to run hundreds of experiments to see where you can create new growth (and there’s no magic bullet – it could come from anywhere).

That’s my simple philosophy, and if you’re looking for inspiration, here’s my (work-in-progress) list of awesome growth hacking resources:

Analytics:

  • Dave McClure’s presentation on startup metrics (start here): 
  • A framework for thinking about stats

    • Blogs:

    • Andrew Chen’s Blog
    • Distributionhacks.com (still picking up steam, but I’d bet on this being great in time)

      • Events

      • (happening soon) Andy Johns (growth at Facebook, Twitter, Quora) giving a talk in LA
      • http://smashsummit.com/ 
      • Early Facebook gaming companies were master growth engines. Study everything you can find from Graphing Social Patterns (GSP was a conference – is there a video archive?) and the Stanford Facebook Class. FWIW, I talk about GSP (and have one great video) in my post on User Acquisition – which is also worth a read.

        • PR

        • Trust Me, I’m Lying
        • Study what Philip Kaplan did when he launch Blippy – he masterfully worked the press for 4-6 weeks post launch. 
        • Mint is another great example. 

          • Case Studies:

          • AppSumo’s Growth (video interview – paid)
          • Mint’s Marketing Plan (interview with templates you can use – paid)

            • Who can I learn from?

            • Andrew Chen’s list of Growth Hackers
            • Quora – “Who are notable Growth Hackers?“

              • SEO/Inbound Marketing:

              • Everything that both Eloqua and Hubspot does is great. Study their efforts. 
              • Read SEOMoz
              • Quora – How did Mint acquire 1.5m users?
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