Want to boost your growth?? You'll never run out of ideas again with these golden growth hacking tips, tactics and techniques from the Distro Team at [500distro.co](http://www.500distro.co/" target="_blank).

500 Distro Best Growth Tips Star Wars The Force Awakens Quotes Han Solo and Chewie Chewbacca The growth force is strong in this one.

This is a compilation of the daily Distro Snack emails in a handy reference. A HUGE THANKS to the 500 Distro team - we totally love you!!!

We started compiling the Distro Snacks of 2015 so we could literally check each off tactic as "done" or "todo". But we realised others would probably enjoy having all these great growth tips (thanks 500 Distro team - we totally love you!) in a handy reference, so without further ado, here is a compilation of some of the best [Distro Snack](http://500.us7.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=79dc9a3284790af0567d6845f&id=b52998a3a5" target="_blank) tips of 2015 all in one place for your easy reference.

Read them all. What worked for you? Pick your favorite and tell us in the comments. Or add a NEW hack to share.

Most importantly, TRY as many of these tactics as you can and let's make 2016 YOUR year of rocketing growth. Enjoy!

200. Distrosnack: Landing Page Leak

Your landing page isn’t Wikipedia. Stop trying to add extra links and randomness.

Ratio of things you can do on page, to the number of campaign conversion goals (hint: only ONE GOAL) –> 1:1.

199. Distrosnack: Private Beta

Private beta lets you test your marketing plan, not just product.

  • seed social proof / testimonials

  • incentivized pool for insights interviews

  • build out your support database

  • learn key product benefits / unique selling point from USERS’ perspective not just yours

198. Distrosnack: Shorter Funnel?

The shorter your funnel, the bigger your ego.

Media buying is a bidding process. The player that can extract more value from a given click — because it has more opportunities to sell to that click within its funnel — can afford to pay higher bids and get more traffic.

197. Distrosnack: Steal These Ads

Amazon books, Upworthy, and Digg are headline & copy leaderboards.

Let the pros test ur words before u write ur ads.

196. Distrosnack: Content Marketing Checklist

Blogging? Few simple things to get more mileage:

BASIC

  • Title goes in an H1 tag
  • Internal links to ur other existing content / posts
  • Outbound links to high quality authoritative pages
  • Tell a story, don’t force a sale
  • Includes AT LEAST 3 - 5 images, including a highly engaging ‘featured’ img for social shares

BETTER

  • DATA-backed. Presents unique data where you’re the source
  • Long / thorough. Unless you’re Seth Godin, 400 words is not a good post to leads/readers/Google.
  • Features influential/networked person, company or subject to piggyback / co-market.

195. Distrosnack: Buyer Persona

Buyer personas — the archetypes of the customers you’re targeting and THEIR needs/wants not yours — should dictate every word and image on your site.

  1. Who you’re selling to
  2. What’s their problem
  3. What do they need
  4. What do they think they need
  5. What are their objections
  6. What words do they use

Map out personas: interview existing customers / beta group, read thru forums, Twitter #search your keywords.

People care about themselves and their problems, not your cool company.

194. Distrosnack: No Traffic

No traffic, no customers, no problem.

Can still test / optimize with user testing:

  • Ask 10 real ppl u know from target demo to use ur product while you observe

  • Broader scale / mass market tests with Usertesting.com

  • Topic forums + $25 Amazon gift card to find addnl testers in ur niche

193. Distrosnack: Most People Bounce

Ads working? Most people bounce.

  1. FB retargeting pixel

  2. Campaign-specific landing page

  3. Offer they can’t resist — promo, free, now.

192. Distrosnack: Big Press

Big Press? The biggest publishers on the web:

  1. rely HEAVILY on other sources 4 credible content to syndicate

  2. are BUSY.

Contacting ppl from best-known news sites can be a long-shot.

Instead, track who they’re linking out to every week (or scrape external links) & go straight 2 the source.

191. Distrosnack: Comparison Landing Page

Steal ur competitors’ customers w/ comparison landing pages:

  1. Market positioning matrix - show where ur product / brand stands in relation 2 competitors’

  2. Comparison table — side-by-side compare features, pricing, support, integrations

  3. Calculator - interactive price / savings, integration time etc

190. Distrosnack: Mobile First

Depending on ur channels, u could be seeing >50% of visitors to your most creative content coming from mobile (even if mobile use is way lower on the rest of your site).

  1. People most likely 2 share your content are most likely to encounter it on mobile

  2. Much of the actual sharing will happen on mobile

  3. When something is shared via a mobile channel (email, Facebook) it’s ALSO most likely to be received on mobile

  4. This loop DECELERATES when the content performs poorly on mobile

Don’t just make it mobile responsive, make it mobile FIRST.

189. Distrosnack: Free SEO Tools

Keywords for FREE:

  1. [Google Trends](https://www.google.com/trends/" target="_blank) - check trends / diff between Web, Image, YouTube, News, Shopping search

  2. [KeywordTool.io](http://keywordtool.io/" target="_blank) - find keywords from autosuggest from Google, YouTube, Bing, and App Store

  3. [TagCrowd](http://tagcrowd.com/" target="_blank) - make a keyword cloud that shows frequencies

  4. [Keyword Shitter](http://keywordshitter.com/" target="_blank) - spewing the long tail

188. Distrosnack: Be The Expert

Getting interviewed by bloggers / podcasters gets visibility & traffic for your product, and positions u as the expert in ur category.

3 quick searches 2 find interviewers / platforms u should be on:

  1. Twitter search: [your keyword] AND expert AND interview

  2. Google or iTunes searches: [known expert in ur category ] + interview, [topic] + interview

187. Distrosnack: Funnel's Leaking

While measuring your overall lead-close rate is important, it can be difficult to identify specific ways to improve it without involving other data.

Use ur CTR on a specific call to action 2 see if weaknesses in your lead-close rate are coming from ur content & marketing, or your sales process.

186. Distrosnack: UTM Cleanup

UTM tracking — r u doing it right?

utm_campaign: launch, xmas_sale, retarget etc
utm_source: twitter, fb, newsletter, influencer blog, press etc
utm_medium: email, social, cpc etc
utm_content: the call-to-action - buy now, learn more etc
utm_term: 4 ur paid search keywords

  1. Never UTM internal links b/c you’ll lose ur tracking info.

  2. Tools: [Google URL Builder](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en" target="_blank), spreadsheet, [Terminus App](https://www.terminusapp.com/" target="_blank), Bit.ly

185. Distrosnack: CTA Copyhack

A great rule of thumb when writing a call to action is to make your button text complete this sentence:

“I want to ___.”

You’ll end up writing CTA in the 1st person (“I”) — uncomfortable at first but often the more uncomfortable your copy makes you, the more likely you’re doing it right.

184. Distrosnack: Influence the Influencers

Good content marketing influences not just ur customer, but those who influence ur customer.

Influence the influencers:

Review them / list them / mention them / INTERVIEW them

And always link out.

183. Distrosnack: Click Trigger

Use click triggers 2 reduce objections and anxiety pre-conversion.

  1. Reassure the click, minimize the risk.
  2. Testimonial, review, tweet, data pt, guarantee, payment icons, or reassure price, privacy, security
  3. NEAR or next to your CTA

182. Distrosnack: Get User Reviews

Listings with reviews provide a better user experience, and Google loves a good user experience.

Get at least 5 Google+ Local reviews:

  1. Ask for them.

  2. Make it EASY

Handy (free) tool: https://www.whitespark.ca/review-handout-generator

181. Distrosnack: Facebook 4 Free

For B2C you can still get free customers on Facebook, but publishing “Buy our product!” posts is no longer enough.

U also need:

  • GREAT staff focused on engagement

  • content marketing strategy w/ FB as amplification channel

  • clear path to move visitors thru ur funnel.

For those who can plan this kind of strategy and have strong P/M fit, it’s still very effective. For others “free Facebook” is probably no longer a good marketing channel. Just like SEO has become more competitive, so has the newsfeed.

180. Distrosnack: Marketplace Funnel

Every marketplace deals with their customers going around the platform, a small amount of disintermediation doesn’t really matter.

  1. Look at each stage of ur funnel, focus on drop-offs.

  2. Compare where users are disintermediating against your value props (or having other issues w/ activation) & make sure your value is (a) clearly explained and (b) actually true 4 users.

Focus on adding more value rather than policing ur customers.

179. Distrosnack: Mobile Installs

Moar mobile installs:

  1. Have a great product.

  2. Incentivize installs. Vendor list — http://www.quora.com/Who-are-all-the-providers-of-incentivized-installs

  3. User reviews averaging 4+ stars

  4. WOM, press, partnerships

  5. Optimize ur app name, keywords, icon, description, tracking, and updates. Cheatsheet — http://bit.ly/appcheatsheet

178. Distrosnack: Lead Per Keyword

Which keywords should you optimize?

  1. Measure # of leads generated by target keywords

  2. Look 4 keywords that are doing well, but for which you aren’t ranked highly in the SERPs

  3. Optimize content AND landing page relevancy (note: irrelevant landing page scares off conversions) around these keywords and get more organic leads.

How good is your Marketing Analytics Stack?    Find out now with our FREE Marketing Analytics Stack Grader Tool.


177. Distrosnack: Blog Opt-in

Want MOAR blog / newsletter subscribers?

  1. Incentivize opt-in: guide to __, template, survey results

  2. For a few hundred $ or $1k, drive traffic 2 ur incentivized opt-in page to jumpstart subscribes.

176. Distrosnack: Hashtags Actually Work

Relevant hashtangs = moar reach. Tailor by channel:

  • Tweets with 1 to 2 hashtags get 2x more engagement (clicks, retweets, favorites, replies)
  • FB no more than 2 tags
  • Instagram 10+ no problem
  • Google+ incorporates # into search & comments

175. Distrosnack: Wrong Content

Right content vs. wrong content: both take the SAME AMOUNT of time & effort to make, but only one gets shares / traffic / conversions.

Make the RIGHT content:

  1. Identify the influencers in your product category (look @ total network reach, follower/following ratio, engagement levels, # of channels they’re active on)

  2. Create VERY GOOD content on topics they’re already sharing

  3. Use share triggers

174. Distrosnack: Share Triggers

Build in share triggers BEFORE u make ur content.

  1. Informative / newsworthy makes sharers look smart / current

  2. Unique or exclusive data or results helps sharers look insidery

  3. Funny / silly gives them a free LOL for their friends

  4. Mention / quote / intvw / case study them for a guaranteed share & support from their network

173. Distrosnack: Twitter Leadgen

Use Twitter leadgen cards to turn followers (lower value) into email subs (higher value).

  1. Include a CTA button in the image itself 4 better conversion

  2. Reach your own followers for FREE, pay 2 reach non-followers

  3. [DISTROSNACK example](http://www.500distro.co/" target="_blank)

  4. Be clear, have a privacy policy, never spam.

DON'T MISS PART 2! I’ll publish Part 2 soon, so if you don't want to miss out subscribe here.


172. Distrosnack: What 2 Charge

Your value metric is WHAT and HOW you’re charging.

If you’re strictly charging per user, per month, or per hour, you’re probably losing out already. Your product may not provide more value with additional users, so charging for them doesn’t always make sense.

Good value metrics:

  1. Align to customer’s actual needs

  2. Are easy to understand

  3. Grow WITH the customer, giving u growth even if/when acquisition stalls.

171. Distrosnack: One Thing a User Must Do

What's the ONE THING a user must do to see the value in your product?

Activation is the first point where you deliver the value you’re promising. Good activation is getting non-paying users to see / experience the value immediately, then consistently.

170. Distrosnack: Email Pre-targeting

Cold email list or need to promote something REALLY important?

Warm up your list with email pre-targeting for brand awareness BEFORE u blast:

  1. Set up re-targeting campaigns on FB Custom Audiences, Twitter Tailored Audiences, and/or Gmail Adwords

  2. Focus campaigns on brand awareness; don’t make a “hard sell” CTA

  3. Send ur sales email blast / announcement / launch with CTA

  4. Retarget un-opens

169. Distrosnack: Less Bounce

Less bounce, more conversions:

  1. Tailor ur landing pg to the campaign / offer / language that brought them in

  2. Target your pop-up or Hellobar value proposition to the content on that pg

168. Distrosnack: LeadGen Tool

No one cares about your blog posts?

Do leadgen with interactive content (TOOLS):

167. Distrosnack: Little Optimizations

Growth is an all-sum game.

If u run them fast enough, little optimizations add up 4 ur conversion rate optimization. Not "either/or," but "first/then."

166. Distrosnack: Open Rates Making U Weep

It might not be what u think.

Test the spammyness of your emails:

http://www.mail-tester.com/

165. Distrosnack: GIF Secrets

Stock photos? U can do better.

Source and edit images 4 content marketing:

Google Image search on lateral terms, Pixlr, Piktochart, Canva, AwesomeScreenshot, Giphy, BuzzFeed.

Or, MAKE UR OWN.

Distrosnack CTA Example:
GHOST_URL/content/images/2015/12/distrosnack-cta-goes-here.gif

164. Distrosnack: Custom Audiences Hack

Use FB Custom Audiences to run even MOAR targeted ads w/ UTM filtering:

  1. Set up unique UTM params for each ad you’re making (Google URL builder)

  2. Create new Custom Audience: “People who visit specific webpages" > "Url contains" > [utm value here]

  3. Retarget that audience w/ the ads they haven’t seen yet

163. Distrosnack: 90% Open Rate

90% of text messages are read w/in 3 min of delivery.

“Retarget” ur email list w SMS:

  1. Export unopens -> text them

  2. Reminder to activate

  3. Promo / deal to engage or reengage

Be valuable not annoying, always include a call to action, and LINK DEEP.

162. Distrosnack: Landing Page Rule

Look at the ratio of things that you can be do on a landing page vs the number of things that you should be doing.

As attention ratio goes down, your conversion rate goes up. Exception: multiple links with the same goal.

Worship information hierarchy. What do people want? Put that first, draw attention to it, remove everything that’s not important.

161. Distrosnack: Conversion Rate Fix

Conversion rate optimization is overrated.

Solution:

  1. Throw more traffic at ur landing page
  2. Some of it will filter thru
  3. Don’t sweat cost per click, that’s what the funding's for

JUST KIDDING.

Convert moar users. FIX UR LEAKS.

160. Distrosnack: Negative Reviews

Ppl usually decide to rate the app b/c they want to give it 5 stars or 1 star -- so timing is crucial when asking for reviews:

“One thing that we found a Zynga that worked really well on both sides is if someone has a really good experience, say they just won, we’ll prompt them with the rating right then.

On the other side, if we know a user crashed recently, we will not show a ratings prompt, no matter what.”

159. Distrosnack: Good Design

Good design is about its ability to do work. It doesn’t have to be “pretty,” it just needs to do its job.

Always Be Testing — you don’t have to like what wins, you just have to like getting results.

158. Distrosnack: Forgotten Page

Don’t think of your Thank You page as a throw-away just because the user completed your desired action:

  • confirm reg details
  • invite friends
  • get the mobile app

157. Distrosnack: Success Gap

A Success Gap is when users functionally complete the target action in your product, but still fail to reach their desired outcome.

— sends an email thru ur email mating tool but no one opens that email
— tracks a bunch of metrics but don’t optimize their funnel from there
— makes an ad campaign but no one clicks the ad

Get them to their desired outcome -> gets you retention + referral: training webinar, blog series, onboarding drip campaign.

156. Distrosnack: Power Words

Sale
Off
Now
New
Instant
Free
Your
Be the first
Remember

Un-power words: hurry, look inside, groundbreaking, guaranteed, once in a lifetime.

Segment, track and ALWAYS TEST UR OWN.

155. Distrosnack: A/B Cleanup

A/B tests all over the place? Correct order of operations: TALK TO CUSTOMERS, identify issue, theorize cause, hypothesize fix, design test, run.

154. Distrosnack: Growth Toolkit

Segment (aggregate / integrate all your analytics)
Intercom (event-based email and in-app messaging)
Buzzsumo (research the best keywords and phrases for inbound/content marketing)
ToutApp (send tracked 1-to-1 emails)
UserTesting (qualitative UX testing with real users)
SimilarWeb (traffic source comparison aka spy on competitors)
Import.io (data harvesting)
Unbounce and Instapage (two words: SMOKE TESTS)
Popcorn Metrics (push website data direct to tools like Segment, Intercom.io and loads more marketing/analytics tools.) Oh - we added that! thats us! that's not distro. that's really us! :)

153. Distrosnack: Google Analytics Protip

Know who ur users really are (not just what they’re doing on ur site).

  • AFFINITY CATEGORIES = lifestyle preferences of website visitors.

  • IN-MARKET SEGMENTS = product-purchase interests of your visitors (what ur visitors are currently actively researching & purchasing).

How 2 turn these features on https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2819948?hl=en

152. Distrosnack: Letter from the CEO

There’s nothing more powerful 2 distribute ur company’s message than the actions & words of its CEO.

If ur a startup, ur founder/CEO has just as much clout to ur customers as a large corporate has to its — just a matter of degrees.

Use ur "VIP” to deliver key msg or campaign:

  • Email marketing
  • Blog post
  • Video
  • Appearance in an ad

151. Distrosnack: Track Everything

No actually — DON’T.

  1. What are ur CORE lifecycle events?
  2. What KEY pages / actions link to those events?

Track only the events u use 2 make decisions, start with THREE, only add more later.

DON'T MISS PART 2! Ok, 50 down, 150 to go! Don't miss Part 2 >> subscribe here.

p.s. How good is your Marketing Analytics Stack? Or your competition? Find out with our FREE online Marketing Analytics Stack Grader tool.

Got a new growth hack to add? I'd love to hear it. Tell us in the comments below.