How to Use Growth Hacking in Marketing

The #1 growth hack for 2025? Stop selling. Start teaching. I see it everywhere. People want answers, not ads. They want tools, not pitches. If you’re still pushing offers with no value up front, you’re already behind. Education-first marketing is the new winner. Newsletters that solve a problem in 3 minutes. Templates that save someone 2 hours. Quick guides that make a new process simple. → These are what fill inboxes now. → These are what get shared. → These are what build trust (fast). I’ve spent 15+ years in growth marketing. I’ve tried every hack, every funnel, every trick. But when I started focusing on being USEFUL FIRST, everything changed. Leads came easier. Replies got warmer. People remembered my name (and my brand). Here’s why it works: • People are tired of being sold to. • They want to learn, grow, and win. • If you help them win, they stick with you. Simple as that. Want to stand out in 2025? → Build a library of resources people need. → Share your best stuff-fast and free. → Make your brand the first stop for answers. Tech will keep changing. AI will keep moving the goalposts. But being useful? That never goes out of style. What’s one educational resource you wish someone shared with you sooner? Let’s make 2025 the year of value. ♻️ Share this with someone who needs a new marketing playbook.

You can plan an effective growth strategy in about two hours per quarter. But most CMOs take weeks. I'll explain... First, focus. It is vital for you to focus on only one or two tactics at any one time. How do you know which ones? Well, a growth hacker named Sean Ellis (perhaps the original growth hacker?) has a great approach for ranking your marketing ideas. He grades each potential idea, 1-5, by three criteria: 1️⃣ Expected impact (I). How likely is the idea to impact the top line? 2️⃣ Confidence (C). How confident are we that this idea will work? 3️⃣ Effort required (E). How much time and effort will we need to execute on this idea? He calls this grade the ICE score. He then ranks all his ideas by their ICE scores. Indeed, he isn't alone in scoring ideas like this. Nemo Chu (Kissmetrics), Josh Pigford (Bare Metrics), and others recommend roughly the same approach. I used an ICE-style system at DesignPublic.com to go from $0 to $1 million in our first year. Fifteen years later I used the same system to take Karmaloop from losing $500K/month to profitable. In under 10 months. And five years after that, I used it at AutoAnything to double the top line over a couple years. I recommend you use an ICE-style score to organize all the marketing ideas at your company too. Here's how: 1️⃣ Brainstorm all the marketing ideas you have; tack them to a wall using Post-it notes (1 hour) 2️⃣ Group these notes by the Three Multipliers I talk about all the time: AOV, F, or C 3️⃣ Have each team member score each idea from 1 (worst) to 5 (best) across the ICE criteria. Then create a ICE average score for each idea. (1 hour) Now, you don't just start with the 555's—the best-ranking ideas. Want to short-cut the process? There's a better approach... You should start with the highest ranking idea that is also grouped under AOV or F. By focusing on AOV or F first, you are working on your current business. Your current customers. Before you worry about acquiring more of them. In other words, maximize first then multiply. Why? Simple. Every dollar you spend on AOV or F does double duty. • First, it increases the retention and AOV of customers you have already acquired. • Second, when you do turn to acquisition, the retention and AOV of all new customers that you acquire will be higher. Why run Meta campaigns at a 200% ROI when you run the same ones at a 500% ROI? If you want a nifty spreadsheet I built to help you along this process, drop a 🚀 and I’ll send it to you. Or just follow me where I post these tactics daily.

Everyone told us flying a plane over SaaStr instead of buying a booth was stupid. That delivering 10,000+ donuts across SF was stupid. That creating SOC 2 security monitoring signs as housewarming gifts was stupid.   But those 'stupid' ideas generated millions in pipeline with an absurdly tiny budget.   —   I used to think growth was simple: Perfect your LinkedIn outbound sequences. Optimize landing page conversion rates. Scale through paid ads. I've since realized that growth is way more than just that. It's trying the hacky, unattributable ideas that seem irrational and stupid but actually have the highest return. Yes, you still need to do the tablestakes. But building a brand that gets remembered requires a lot more than just that. Here are our internal tricks for pulling off memorable growth hacks: —   Own the spaces other people ignore. → How: We sponsored hotel keycards at the National Compliance Week Conference → Why: Every CISO and compliance officer touched our brand 5+ times daily → Result: It cost us 90% less than traditional sponsorships   Unlock event audiences without paying entry. → How: Instead of buying a booth, we flew a plane over SaaStr: "SOC 2 Made Plane & Simple" → Why: While competitors fought for booth traffic, we owned the entire sky → Result: We generated strong word-of-mouth about Delve   Turn your "boring" industry into conversation starters. → How: Custom SOC 2 warning signs as dinner party gifts → Why: Wine and flowers don't stand out anymore → Result: It's eye-catching marketing that doesn't feel like a traditional advertisement   Use your team to amplify your growth hack. → How: Every Delve team member amplifies content within 5 minutes of posting → Why: Their networks see organic engagement, not company marketing → Result: We get an algorithm boost without paying for reach   —   Our growth hacks always seemed wildly stupid at first. But somehow they generated millions in pipeline from just thousands in spend.   In this day and age, traditional marketing alone doesn't cut it. This is your sign to pull off your hacky, unattributable, wild growth ideas.