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A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising

Twitter, YouTube, and Google have used his campaigns as case studies. AdAge, the New York Times and Fast Company have written about his work.

And now, in this book – Growth Hacker Marketing – media strategist Ryan Holiday, puts altogether – experience, observations, analysis – and brings to online readers this book as a deliverable.

VIRALITY / GROWTH HACKER MARKETING

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Growth Hacker Marketing Summary

At first sight Growth Hacker Marketing looks like a conversation. But if you keep reading, you will find out that this book is more about introspection. And about analysis.

Soon, you’ll find yourself in the position of redefining your job, your purpose, your experience. You will discover the need for a fresh new context.

Primarily, the game seems to be about new marketing versus traditional one.

Growth Hacking is a book that covers numerous subjects related not just to marketing and promotion but also to businesses overall. People eager to learn some growth techniques are subjected to conducting the hacker-style test.

Nevertheless, this magnificent masterpiece will prove its status by being “The Book of the New Age”. In order for marketing to reclaim its sanity, applicability, and purpose, experts need to clarify all the mysteries in the digital era.

For too long, students and ordinary marketers were exposed to a pile of brand notions like brand fit, brand positioning, brand awareness, brand lift, etc.

However, Ryan Holiday presents a new concept to the readers where Marketing represents a business entity, not an evaluation of brands.

This book summary will help you grasp the theory of marketing language. Speaking it is as tricky as anything else in the businesses world.

Companies pursuing that competitive edge are forced to learn to use it and most importantly understand it. Marketers nowadays are pulling strings by proving their valuable asset in making profits.

But then, things become more complex. And more specific. The product and the customer are negotiating to be in the foreground.

Who will win? Who will lose? Ryan Holiday finds out that the answer is right in front of us.

But this is only the beginning.

Just browsing through this book, in the short run, you will discover that the structure is simple. The “movie” of this book is split into 10 frames:

1. An introduction to growth hacking
2. Step 1: let’s think outside the box
3. Step 2: we are intensely focused on driving an initial set of new user sign-ups and customers, right now.
4. Step 3: Referrals versus paid advertising is the kind of A/B test whose results are obvious to everyone. Referrals win.
5. Step 4: Your job is not just to bring in potential customers but to create lifelong users
6. My conversion: putting the lessons into practice
7. Afterword – three capital lessons of growth hacking
8. Conclusion – Virality at its core is asking someone to spend their social capital recommending or linking or posting about you for free.
9. FAQS: Put yourself in the viewers’ shoes. Why would they watch your content?
10. Becoming a growth hacker: next steps

No wasted time. No complicated concepts. Only practical lessons, relevant keywords and impressive and notorious examples.

At the core of the book, growth hacking keeps itself on top as a leitmotif.

Reaching the top is never easy, but it’s not impossible. Making good moves is never easy, but with the right expertise, you can be among the first people on board.

Steadily and with caution you can easily exploit the perfect growth hacking formula for your business, and take advantage of the situation.

Three basic lessons seem to define the way of reaching a growth hacking level:

• “Cheaply test your concept, improve it based on feedback, then launch.”
• “Reduce barriers to entry; use targeted media and platforms to bring your first users on board.”
• “Aim for a wow factor and response from your customers.”

And all these “stories”, examples, theories and lessons are focused on some key concepts like:

1. Mindset. “Growth hacking really is a mindset rather than a toolkit. And if you leave this book with one thing, it should be that mindset.”
2. Growth hacker “Growth hacker is an employee with a simple job: growing the business by any means possible.”
3. Start-up “Your start-up is designed to be a growth engine – and at some point early on, that engine has to be kick-started.”
4. Customers “Once we bring our first customers in, our next move is to set about turning them into an army.”
5. Virality “Virality isn’t something that comes after the fact.”
6. Publicness “Publicness is one of the most crucial factors in driving something’s spread.”
7. Retention “Retention trumps acquisition.”
8. Product “It’s up to us to optimize our product around […] customers and their needs.”
9. Actionable metrics “Techniques like A/B testing can provide you with actionable metrics because you will be able to replicate the results.”
10. PMF “Product Market Fit is itself a viral component.”

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Growth Hacker Marketing Quotes

Our Critical Review

If you take into account all growth hacks, you’ll find that there is not a perfect formula. The environment, industry, brand position, competition, and financial capabilities have a huge role in making the final push towards victory.

Analyzing is perhaps the only asset that must be included in all strategies. This book is all about that!! Finding the right approach can make a world of difference for all companies.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.