Unlocking the Secrets to a Successful Career as a Growth Hacker and Growth Marketer

Do you want to be part of a dynamic set of minds affluent with vibrant ideas who are front-line warriors, conversation starters, network builders, and noise makers? Growth Hacking is a methodology and data-driven process of rapid experimentation. Simply, this means you will have to make a business, any business, grow to outmanoeuvre competition at different stages of its development / expansion. This takes into account countless aspects of how a young business grows, how it acquires new clients / customers, how it launches new products, how it advertises those products and how it informs / educates / enlightens unaware target audience. Let us look a little deeper into the details, shall we?

As a Growth Hacker or Growth Marketer, you will be required to innovate smart digital marketing strategies (rarely, offline marketing strategies too) and plans which are low cost alternatives to conventional marketing through print, audio-visual, outdoor, and similar medium. All these conventional mediums are very expensive and for companies with tight budget and for start-up companies finding smarter low-cost marketing strategies and plans are a must. Typically, Growth Hackers use digital marketing, such as social media marketing (SMM), search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), viral marketing, targeted online paid advertising, email marketing, mobile marketing, etc. instead of marketing through hugely expensive newspaper, magazines, radio, television, outdoor, and similar mediums.

Why become a growth hacker/growth marketer? 

Growth hacking roles are similar to those involved in digital marketing (marketing on the internet and mobile) and even to some of the traditional roles of product marketing (that is through conventional advertising and communication) but the key difference is that growth hacking involves rapid acquisition and retention of a large number of customers in a short time by spending as little money as possible (customer acquisition means gaining new customers) and thereby influence rapid growth in revenue of an organization.

Typically, growth hacking is taken up by a team of digital marketers, product marketing managers, data analysts, web developers, and engineers in a large organization or by a team of digital marketers and analysts in smaller organizations and in digital marketing agencies.

But some companies and digital marketing agencies recruit people in the role of a Growth Hackers or Growth Marketer – so in such roles, you will have to have skills in digital marketing, data analysis, web technologies, web development, and even in content writing.

So, what is the real deal as a Growth Hacker/Growth Marketer?

As a Growth Hacker or Growth Marketer, you will be required to innovate smart digital marketing strategies (rarely, offline marketing strategies too) and plans which are low-cost alternatives to conventional marketing through print, audio-visual, outdoor, and similar medium. All these conventional mediums are costly and for companies with a tight budget and for start-up companies finding smarter low-cost marketing strategies and plans are a must.

Typically, Growth Hackers use digital marketing, such as social media marketing (SMM), search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), viral marketing, targeted online paid advertising, email marketing, mobile marketing, etc. instead of marketing through hugely expensive newspaper, magazines, radio, television, outdoor, and similar mediums.

The primary goal of Growth Hackers/Marketers is to keep the CAC (Cost of acquisition of new customers) as low as possible but acquire and retain a large number of customers to increase sales revenue.

How do Growth Hackers/Growth Marketers achieve their goal?

Growth Hacker/ Growth Marketers typically use a framework referred to metaphorically as a ‘Pirate Funnel’ which is abbreviated as AAARRR. This is basically a process of awareness, acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral – the last three steps, that is, the AAA may not happen in this sequence only. Revenue may come first and then retention. Even referral may come before revenue. Retention may come after revenue. But nevertheless, this is the process used by most Growth Hackers/ Growth Marketers.

Content marketing, viral marketing, and paid online advertising

Typically, Growth Hackers use content marketing strategies to build awareness and acquisition. They create and post interesting social media content, start various blogs, post interesting videos, attempt to make a video or a social media post go viral, run contests and polls, get people to review the product and create a positive feel around the product, get influencers to talk about the product (influencers are those who can influence the opinion of a large number of customers, such as a food blogger who has a large number of followers may influence her followers to visit a restaurant), and so on.

Growth Hackers drive traffic to the product/ company’s website by using smart content on social media and through other tools such as SEM and SEO (search engine marketing and search engine optimization), email marketing, and mobile marketing.

They join various groups on Social media, join various forums, and various subreddits (a forum specific to a topic on the website Reddit). They list their websites to various online marketplace sites and directories such as JustDial in India and Craiglist in the USA.

Growth Hackers use many tactics to activate and generate revenue from customers – such as push notification (through email or mobile), holding a contest and offer awards to winners, gamify the customer onboarding process to attract customers, offering discounts and rewards on purchase, and so on. They offer incentives to existing customers for referrals.

Growth Hackers also use paid online advertising such as CPC (cost per click) or PPC (pay per click), CPI (cost per impression or view), Google Adword, etc.

Growth Hacking/ Growth Marketing involves a lot of testing and analytics

Growth Hackers/Marketers constantly monitor website and mobile analytics, mostly by using Google Analytics as well as other analytics tools such as Adobe Marketing Cloud (for web analytics) and CleverTap (this is a mobile marketing and analytics tool). Analytics give them a lot of insights such as overall pageviews (of a webpage), unique users, time spent on a page, number of clicks on a link, location of users, and various other user data.

A/B Testing: This involves an experiment by which users are randomly given two versions of a website or a mobile app and their responses to the two versions are measured and compared to understand which version is more effective or which features of the site/ or the mobile app gives better user experience.

Growth Hackers use a lot of testing to understand which version of a website / mobile app can build traffic quickly and which features on a website or an app gives a better user experience. There are tools such as Optimizely to understand user experience and thereby design a website or mobile app for more effective customer acquisition, activation, and revenue.

What does a growth hacker/growth marketer do? 

You will be responsible for innovating, creating, developing, and end to end execution of growth hacks with the objective of generating higher revenues with low marketing expenses and within a short time.

You will be responsible for:

• Using various digital marketing tools and technologies to build awareness rapidly with a low-cost approach.
• Building web or mobile traffic (users/visitors of websites, mobile sites, and mobile apps) and customer acquisition.
• Minimizing CAC (Cost of customer acquisition) with a steady focus on quality user growth & retention of customers.
• Managing social media campaigns and online advertising.
• Using analytics and testing to improve user experience and build effective websites, mobile apps and various product features.
• Collaborating with channel-specific marketing teammates (blogging, email, social media, etc.) to identify areas for growth.
• Testing and optimizing marketing tactics for customer acquisition (e.g. online advertising, direct mail, out of home, affiliate) and optimizing conversion rate (from web visitor into customers).
• Conducting and presenting competitive analyses and market research. Identify industry trends and insights.
• Proposing creative new product features, from building free tools and apps that attract prospects and converting leads to testing new approaches to capturing existing demand.
• Translating ideas to actionable items that deliver business results.

How to become a growth hacker/growth marketer – eligibility criteria 

The best of the work opportunities in this field go to Engineers who can write a software program and who has the skills in Digital Marketing as well as to MBAs (or holders of similar qualifications) who have specialised in Digital Marketing or in Marketing with skills in Digital Marketing. However, as this field requires specific skill sets, any graduate or postgraduate with skills in Digital Marketing can get a good work opportunity.

Therefore, you can complete your Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies. Then you can complete Class 11-12 with any subject as per scheme of studies/Class 11-12 Mathematics along with any other subject as per scheme of studies/Class 11-12 Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics along with any other subject as per scheme of studies. 

After your Class 11-12, you can study for a Bachelor’s degree/ Master’s degree or Post Graduate Diploma / a Certificate in any one of the following fields. Remember that all these fields may not offer you a Bachelor’s as well as a Master’s level qualification:

• Computer Applications
• Computer Science
• Computer Science & Engineering
• Data Science & Engineering
• Digital Marketing
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics & Communication Engineering
• Electronics and Computer Engineering
• Electronics Engineering
• Information and Computer Technology
• Information Science & Engineering
• Information Technology
• Information Technology Management
• Marketing Management
• Marketing Technologies & Automation
• Mobile Computing (Computer Science)
• Programming and Software Engineering
• Social Media Marketing
• Web Technology

Educational fees

The cost of pursuing a Growth Hacker or Growth Marketer course in India can vary depending on various factors such as the duration of the course, the level of the course, the reputation of the institution offering the course, and the location of the institution.

Some short-term courses on Growth Hacking or Growth Marketing can cost anywhere from INR 10,000 to INR 50,000. However, if you’re looking for a more in-depth and comprehensive course, the cost can go up to INR 1 lakh or more.

Additionally, pursuing a degree or a postgraduate diploma in Marketing or Digital Marketing can also include topics related to Growth Hacking and Growth Marketing. The cost of these programs can range from INR 50,000 to INR 5 lakhs, depending on the institution and the duration of the course.

Job Opportunities 

At the beginning of your career, you can get a job as a Digital Marketing Trainee/ Demand Generation Intern / Social Media Intern / Influencer Marketing Trainee / Management Trainee, etc. and then proceed to these work roles in an industry or business segment.

• Growth Hack Intern
• Associate – Growth Hacking
• Associate – Demand Generation/ Growth Marketer
• Digital Marketing Executive/Manager
• Growth Hacker
• Growth Marketing Executive/Manager
• eCommerce Growth Hacker
• Content Marketing Associate
• Digital & Inbound Marketing Specialist
• SEO-SMO Associate
• Content Marketing Associate
• SaaS Growth Hacker

Worldwide, the maximum entry-level vacancies for Growth Hackers are with bootstrapped start-ups and gradually in years they move into roles that converge broadly to the marketing, corporate communications and sales domain with larger enterprises.

Salary of a Growth Hacker/ Growth Marketer 

After your Bachelor’s degree, at entry-level jobs as a Trainee, you may expect to make about Rs. 25,000 – 50,000 or even more a month.

After about 5-6 years, you may expect to get about Rs. 40,000 – 1,20,000 or even more a month

With mid-level jobs that come after at least 2 decades of work experience, you can expect to earn about Rs. 1,20,000 – 6,00,000 or even more a month.

In senior-level jobs in India, you can expect to earn about Rs. 2,00,000 – 7,50,000 or even more a month.

Most young minds interested in the Growth Hacking space set up and own a proprietorship (a consultancy) that provides advisory services to progressing enterprises or other business through utilizing advanced analytics, big data and social media dynamics.

Global (US)

Remember that, if you are not a US citizen, getting a job in USA after a bachelor’s degree or higher from India will be a rare case in this industrial field. However, you may be asked to relocate by virtue of your regular job in India if you are working for a reputed MNC that has operational units in the US but that too will be few and far between.

At the entry-level jobs, depending upon the institution where you are graduating from, you may expect to get about USD 2,750 – 4,600 or even more a month.

At junior level jobs, after about 5 years of enterprise experience or Master’s degree, you may expect to get about USD 3,100 – 6,300 or even more a month.

In mid-level jobs, you can expect to earn about USD 5,800 – 8,500 or even more a month.

In senior-level jobs, you can expect to earn about USD 7,100 – 10,000 or even more a month. 

Career progression in Growth Hacker/ Growth Marketer Profession

If you join as a Demand Generation Intern / Social Media Intern / Influencer Marketing Trainee, after completion of your training, you will gradually grow through positions like Growth Hacker, Content Marketing Associate, Manager – Demand Generation, Head of Staff – Growth & Business, Regional Director – Field Marketing, Head / VP of Worldwide Marketing, Research Vice President – Growth & Communications, Director / Senior Director – Global Enterprise Growth & Product Marketing or similar roles.

Worldwide, the maximum entry-level vacancies for Growth Hackers are with bootstrapped start-ups and gradually in years they move into roles that converge broadly to the marketing, corporate communications and sales domain with larger enterprises.

Interestingly nowadays we find maximum young talents in this field devoting themselves, at the onset of their careers, to create their own proprietorships which are typically consulting agencies that help other enterprises and companies register higher levels of growth and sustainability through advanced analytics. This requires a tech-savvy mind and some degree of knowledge about recent popular analytical methods used to map business growth.  

What does industry trends say – future prospects 

You can expect a decent future in this field as the industry growth prospects are encouraging.

The Business Intelligence (BI) market is expected to grow at a rate of 12% in 2019 – 2024, with the emergence of Big Data and the growing need to make critical business decisions within a compressed time period. The Operational Intelligence market is expected to register a growth rate of 11 % during 2019 – 2024.

The Global Influencer Marketing Platform Market size is estimated to reach USD 26.4 billion by 2025, rising at a market growth of 30.6% compounded annually during 2019-2025. Essentially these platforms help brands to monetize their social media channels and brands to reach out to their potential customers or increase engagement with their current ones. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest rate during this period. This impacts all major industry segments too including but not limited to Fashion & Lifestyle, BFSI, Travel & Tourism, Health & Wellness, Agencies & Public Relations, Consumer Goods & Retail.

The Global Contextual Advertising Market size is expected to reach USD 328.1 billion by 2024, rising at 17.4% compounded annually during 2018-2024. Contextual Marketing is targeted advertising based on search terms used by people in their recent browsing activities decreasing user annoyance and, at the same time, leading to better conversion rates.

The Global Web Analytics market accounted for USD 2.20 billion in 2017 and is poised to reach USD 12.23 billion by 2026 growing at 21.0% compounded annually during 2017-2026. This deeply impacts all major industry sectors today including Telecommunication & IT, Travel & Hospitality, Media & Entertainment, Government, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Retail & Consumer Goods, BFSI.Big Data and Business Analytics (BDA) solutions are expected to reach 189.1 billion USD this year of 2019, an increase of 12.0% over 2018. BDA revenues will maintain this pace of growth throughout the 2018-2022 period (growing at 13.2% compounded annually). By 2022, worldwide BDA revenue will be $274.3 billion.

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