Almost two years ago, MarketPro took the initiative to adopt its very first growth hacker–a unique professional with the strategic horsepower and technical capabilities to quickly revitalize and reorient our marketing in a more productive direction. Now as we look back on her success so far, we’d like to share a little bit about our situation and the resounding success our interim marketing executive has brought us. Perhaps this first-hand account will inspire you to consider bringing in a similar professional to enable your own digital marketing transformation.
The ROI of Our Growth Hack Experiment
We’ll begin with the results of our growth hacker’s efforts. After all, the entire purpose of bringing in such interim leadership is to efficiently build a platform for long-term digital success and continuous business growth. If this kind of marketing value and quick turnaround would be game-changing for your business, then keep reading.
Here are some of the key results and deliverables our marketing genius has been able to drive for us during her short tenure:
- Lead generation: As of March, our monthly incoming lead generation count increased 586% from when we started recording this metric in 2014, following an increase in website conversion rate from less than 1% to over 10%. New leads are now nurtured and engaged on an ongoing basis through automation.
- Analytics: Established thorough tracking and data analytics systems that enabled us to follow the progress and value of our marketing, and empowered us to make better decisions about where to devote our resources.
- Site optimization: Monthly site traffic up 155%. Redesigned entire website, now fully mobile-responsive with a modern, on-brand layout. Lowered page load times 21% to improve user experience and SEO.
- Automation: Integrated our digital marketing campaigns into automation platform Hubspot, enabling optimized, automated customer engagement through social, email, analytics, content, audience segmentation, and more.
- Content: Developed an ongoing content strategy to build our brand and generate organic leads, including blog posts, video content production, gated content, and publishing articles on reputable industry publications.
What could that kind of productivity do to jumpstart your business?
What Is a Marketing Growth Hacker?
Many successful marketing leaders fancy themselves as growth harbinger of some variety, so what makes a true growth hacker any different? The truth is, marketing growth hackers come in many shapes and sizes and will bring various skills and backgrounds to the table that might be more or less useful to you depending on your needs. However, nearly all growth hackers share a handful of traits that make them uniquely suited to step into an underperforming operation and deliver a quick hike in productivity.
- Technical ability: The modern growth hacker needs to be extremely technically proficient, with a strong understanding of how digital systems and services work “under the hood.” Our growth hacker’s ability to get up close and personal with our website code, construct elaborate automation processes, and speak on a level field with server hosts was invaluable to her success. The fact that she could do all those things on her own, without having to rely on a developer or a third party, meant it all could be built exactly according to our vision and specifications in a cost effective manner.
- Interim timetables: You typically won’t hire this kind of a professional with the expectation of a long-term tenure or contract. Instead, experts in this role should be equipped to step in quickly and make efficient adjustments over a few months (usually 6-18) before moving on. Because of this, they’ll often have a little more mental firepower and drive (and higher compensation) than you’d expect from a traditional full-time executive hire in a more long-term role.
- Hands-on approach: Most marketing executives have to focus heavily on leadership and big picture strategy, leaving the execution to team members further down the ladder. However, a growth hacker is a kind of interim marketing executive who’s not afraid to roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty, working directly on a project and finding ways to make it better. After all, sometimes the best way to evaluate a process, spot the imperfections, and fix them is to actually do it yourself.
- Powerful personalities: Good growth hackers have strong, convincing personalities, capable of winning the buy-in and cooperation of key parties within a business by any means necessary. They are comfortable stepping into uncomfortable and often chaotic situations and seizing control of the strategy. Their confidence in their strategy and capabilities is contagious, inspiring others to get on board with the new program and shift away from archaic tactics. Ultimately, everything they do will change the way you market your business, so they need to be able to influence your organization with authority.
Deciding Whether You Need An Interim Marketing Consultant
Still unsure if a growth hacker would be beneficial to your business?
We’ve been preaching the value of marketing growth hackers for years now, and we’ve seen firsthand the ability of an interim marketing executive search to fundamentally transform a business. Facing a new wave of digital marketing trends and technology, we decided to take a little of our own medicine and get ahead of the curve.
Our monthly lead generation count increased 586% following an increase in conversion rate from less than 1% to over 10%.
It was clear that with the way things were heading and evolving at such a great speed that we needed a real boost forward–not just another marketing manager to maintain the status quo. Plain and simple, MarketPro’s marketing strategy needed to evolve at the same speed marketing was changing. Our growth hacker was just what we needed to get things moving in the right direction–and one could do the same for you.
Think about it. Is your business current with its:
- SEO strategy and rankings?
- Website UX?
- Digital lead gen?
- Mapping of online customer journey?
- Sales enablement?
If the answer is no, then a growth hacker might be what you need to transition your marketing into the modern age and leapfrog your business ahead of the competition.
Truth be told, we were actually in a better position than many other businesses when we saw the writing on the wall. We were fortunate enough to get on board and find an outstanding interim marketing executive before getting too outdated. But if you feel daunted by the endless wave of change in marketing and digital, and are struggling to stay afloat, or just find yourself stuck in a stagnant business cycle, now might be the perfect time to look into an interim marketing executive search of your own.
