What Is Growth Hacking?

Lately, the term growth hacking has been on everyone’s lips, and, as often happens in these cases, the word is used improperly or inaccurately. So let’s find out together what Growth hacking is and the difference between it and web marketing.

Growth Hacking Definition

First, let’s dispel a false myth: “Growth hacking” was not coined recently. It was 2010 when Sean Ellins defined the growth hacker as someone who directs the energies of his entire company towards growth itself. Hence, the application in the digital field has been quick to arrive at deviations from the initial meaning of the term.

Nowadays, this concept is often confused with that of web marketing, which is nothing more than the application to search engines of traditional marketing concepts that are, in turn, essential. Knowing precisely how to approach market segments and analyzing benchmarks and competitors are, in fact, skills that cannot be lacking to achieve one’s goal: to convert! In fact, within web marketing, there is inbound marketing, with channels that favor the transformation of the user into buyer personas.

Unlike the one who deals with web marketing, the Growth hacker mixes “nerd” skills with those marketers who must make the most of a budget that is generally small and very limited. This figure is in great demand in the world of startups, where you want to earn space in your niche market with a budget that is sometimes almost limiting. However, dear unproven startuppers, even Scrooge McDuck and Gmail started like this!

Being a growth hacker or setting up a growth team is more of a state of mind than a set of individual technical skills, which would remain extremely unexpressed in the absence of an overview and a precise mission. It follows that the ability of this mythical figure, almost a superhero, lies in his sensitivity to choose the most suitable tool for the reality he is dealing with.

SEO And Growth Hacking

Once the figure of the growth hacker is fully understood, the relationship with SEO naturally becomes clear. A premise is obligatory: SEO has changed its behavioral paradigm in recent years and will continue to do so more and more in the medium to long term.

Consequently, SEO becomes one of the many tools that the growth hacker can use, bearing in mind that the word SEO contains other facets. While the relationship may be synergistic, the growth hacker is not an SEO. There may be areas of competence in which the two figures overlap (above all because the second arrives almost everywhere), but the differences are substantial, if not fundamental.

Difference Between SEO And Growth Hackers

Never tell an SEO that he is a growth hacker and vice versa; they could be very offended. Even if they have close areas of expertise, these two figures show profoundly different approaches to problems and, above all, to their resolution.

• Timing: the growth hacker wants to get results immediately. At the same time, optimization on and for search engines is configured and implemented as an activity that takes place over long periods and whose fruits can be harvested after a long time.
• Strategy: The first figure requires a lot of imagination and interdisciplinary skills. It must not only stay up-to-date on new trends in terms of social networks but also fully understand how to make them interact correctly with each other. It is a more transversal and interactive approach than that of SEO.
• Channels: Due to a different strategic logic, the use of other media also arises. SEO has a “verticalizing” propensity in certain areas, unlike the broader one promoted by the growth hacker.

Also Read: Why Is SEO Important For Websites?