200 BEST Growth Hacking Tips for 2016 (part 2)

So, we were compiling all of this years DistroSnacks to review what we were missing and figured we'd share the list we'd compiled.

This is Part 2 of our compendium of 200 Growth Hacking Tips from the Distro Team at [500distro.co](http://www.500distro.co/" target="_blank). You'll never be short of ideas again with these kick ass growth hacking tips, tactics and techniques you can start using today.

Read Part 1 here.

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!!!

If you like this stuff - you should DEFINITELY sign up for the daily email at [Distro Snack](http://500.us7.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=79dc9a3284790af0567d6845f&id=b52998a3a5" target="_blank).

For now, read and enjoy. Pick your favorites and tell us in the comments. Or add a NEW hack to share. Ok - let's go!!

150. Distrosnack: Acquisition Messaging

U should be using Twitter Advanced Search:

Pull out customer quotes / testimonials
Find ur diehards & follow-up for case study or research (or thank you)
Research ur competition by keyword, demo and sentiment
Get exact acquisition messaging by searching “How do I” + keywords or “Can anyone recommend” + keywords

149. Distrosnack: Retarget Investors

Retargeting isn't just for customers.

For early stage startups, it’s easy and inexpensive to start retargeting investors who visit your site and then continue to see ads building up your brand awareness.

148. Distrosnack: Cornerstone Content

Great standalone pieces of content marketing aren’t enough — u need to provide context.

Create cornerstone content around key topics ur customers need 2 understand in order 2 buy ur product and SUCCEED.
Crosslink ur cornerstone content from related pieces of addnl / new content.

Helps ur customers better use ur product and helps Google better rank you.

147. Distrosnack: Mobilegeddon

More than 50% of most sites’ traffic (incl YOURS) comes from mobile searches.

Google’s now (even MOAR) optimized 4 mobile-originated search traffic. Be ready, test ur mobile-friendliness:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

146. Distrosnack: Social Longtail

If u only share ur content on social media 1 time or 1 way, ur missing out on a lot of contact opportunities.

Pre-schedule multiple posts across the next 2 months, incl 2 shares on day of publish
Share w/ different titles tailored to channel / share time / context
Pull out social media snippets (short takeaways) to share again & point back to ur original piece of content

145. Distrosnack: Reciprocity

Reciprocity is one of the most powerful ways to guide ppl towards a conversion action.

When someone gives smthg to us, we feel compelled to return the favor.

Examples:

Free tool or trial (even more compelling if non time-limited)
Free content (blog, webinar, INTERVIEW someone) — extremely high quality, not “marketing fluff”
Free high-touch onboarding and/or customer service

144. Distrosnack: Paid Traffic Bounce

If ur sending paid traffic to a landing page, keep ur landing page campaign-relevant and keep ur promises:

Same keywords
Consistent offer / value prop
Ad tells them what’s coming, landing page delivers

143. Distrosnack: Growth Hacking System

Growth hacking is a mindset & process, not a collection of tactics for getting clicks, views or signups.

Understand the system around u:

What are ppl’s incentives?
Are there network effects u can leverage?
Viral loop opportunities?
Any existing 2-sided platforms u can scale on? (e.g. eBay, Craigslist, Facebook)

142. Distrosnack: Final Hour

Scarcity works. 2 ways to leverage it in ur campaigns:

Deadline approach: “ends,” “final day / hour,” “last chance”
Limited number approach: “remaining,” “final spots / seats,” “only”

141. Distrosnack: Popups Work

And they’re not just for collecting emails.

Test popups for insights poll, cart reminder, conversion prompt, upsell / downsell / cross-sell

(bonus: use scarcity — see previous DISTROSNACK "Final Hour").

140. Distrosnack: Email Checklist

Subject line - r u using a psychological trigger?
Preview text - don’t forget ur “bonus subject line”
Mobile optimize - 65% of emails are opened on phones FIRST
CTA - one destination, multiple appearances
TEST CONTENT: CTA: language, size, color, commitment level, images / no images, layout & length, show prices vs. not, simple vs complex, send time / day, personalization, “From” name

139. Distrosnack: Cancel Flow

Get ppl to choose reason why they’re canceling, then show how 2 solve. Assume no one signs up just 2 cancel.

IF they decide 2 stay w/ u, it’s on YOU 2 help get them back on track toward success. Don’t leave that to chance, design / guide / optimize that process.

138. Distrosnack: Before U Price

QUANTIFY your buyer personas. Don’t just give them cute names / pics, understand & measure:

how much they have
how much they spend
how often they spend
their price sensitivity / threshold / elasticity

137. Distrosnack: Core Users

These are your core / most engaged users, NOT just ppl tweeting you on social:

Internet site searchers
highest spend users

Know who they are, enable their user path, look at acquisition channels / terms (& double down).

136. Distrosnack: add us 2 ur contacts

Open rates sad? It could be deliverability.

Add us to ur contacts. Srsly, do it —> distribution@500.co
Incentivize a recipient reply in 1st message
http://mail-tester.com

135. Distrosnack: Retargeting Exclusions

Reverse-retarget (EXCLUDE) signups.

Don't waste acquisition $ on them -- onboard them with an engagement campaign instead.

134. Distrosnack: Traffic 2 Leads

Traffic ≠ leads.

Multi channel follow-up campaigns let u create leads from traffic:

email onboarding
retargeting (test AdRoll)
SMS / push notifications

133. Distrosnack: Recapture Trigger

Customer about to cancel?

Trigger email at / before biggest dropoff
Direct email, phone call, live chat, TALK 2 CUSTOMERS

Find the reason, then fix it.

132. Distrosnack: Untapped Channels

There’s more 2 distro than FB ads. Test under-tapped channels for distribution:

Forums
Medium.com & LinkedIn Pulse (4 content)
Amazon
YouTube
SMS
Direct mail

131. Distrosnack: Competitors' Traffic

Spy on your frenemies w/ competitor traffic analysis:

BASIC
http://sitealerts.com/

MEDIUM
http://spyfu.com
http://semrush.com

SERIES A
http://whatrunswhere.com
http://adbeat.com/advertisers
https://mixrank.com/

130. Distrosnack: Moar Emails

Popups are your friend.

Things 2 try:

When 2 display collector, based on time on site or use exit-intent
Popup headline & CTA custom 4 landing page / acquisition campaign
Include an image of customer persona

129. Distrosnack: Secret Custom Audience

Your LinkedIn network is targeted & likely at least semi-interested in what you're doing.

Try: Facebook Custom Audiences to your LinkedIn contacts:

Download your contacts from LinkedIn: Connections > Keep in Touch > Settings > Advanced Settings > EXPORT
Create a Custom Audience from that list
Make your ad

DON’T be salesy, enjoy ur clicks!

128. Distrosnack: DISTROSNACK NAME

If your CTA doesn’t match your offer, your headline, or your Facebook Ad that sent users to your landing page, users won’t click.

No generic landings — BE RELEVANT.

127. Distrosnack: Slack Hack

Decisions are being made in Slack. Measure the signal:

Go to Google Analytics
Acquisition > Referrals from side menu
Search for “slack”
See “whichcompanies.slack.com” are talking about your product

Bonus: even includes usernames (click on referring subdomain)

DON'T MISS PART 3! We’ll publish Part 3 soon, so if you don't want to miss out you know what to do..... subscribe here.

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

126. Distrosnack: Big Spenders

Women are everywhere:

Ur customers: 70% of consumer spending worldwide
Ur potential hires: 51% of workforce (in US)

If ur going to be gender-specific (ads, emails, landing pgs etc) BE SURE.

Otherwise, be inclusive.

125. Distrosnack: Competitors’ Marketing

Ghostery lets u see what technologies ur competitors are using for their marketing campaigns so u can copy what is working for them.

It’s also useful when I size up a company. If they are big talkers and I go to their site and it’s not pixeled up, I know they’re not ponied up.

124. Distrosnack: Founder Press Kit

In most cases, ur professional image still matters. Doesn’t matter ur specific style, just keep it consistent:

Professional (looking) headshot that’s uniform across channels (LinkedIn, Angelist, Crunchbase, Twitter, FB)
Bio boilerplate — short, med, long
Universal username
Motto u can get known for (example: AARRR!)

123. Distrosnack: Before U Retarget

Before u get fancy w/ email marketing or retargeting, you have to have a list.

Are you collecting user emails:

In your personal email footers -- yours + all the people on your team
On your home page
On all your social profiles: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube channel
At all offline events & promotions
On your company / team About pages
Persistently throughout your site in the header AND/or footer
As part of content you publish on a blog, slideshare, infographic, YouTube descriptions and annotations, downloadable white paper or report
Via a Qualaroo widget (insights poll doubles as email collector)

122. Distrosnack: BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is good 4 more than just content marketing.

Use it to research keywords, topics, and demo / psychographics for paid acquisition, landing pages, email onboarding / user activation and MOAR.

121. Distrosnack: Blog Traffic

Option #1: Grind away at ur blog, publish on a set schedule, and HOPE u get traffic (“Publish and Pray”)

Option #2: Create & promote a few pieces of irresistible, shareable content that higher authority bloggers want 2 share and ask 4 a link back to ur site. (Tip: INFOGRAPHICS)

120. Distrosnack: 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.

119. Distrosnack: Top Users

Top users can market your product better than any marketing campaign.

Sustain their enthusiasm
Take them to the next level of engagement w/in your product
Make an ask to amplify your brand

118. Distrosnack: Secret Account

Your public account = your brand marketing.

Set up secret social media accounts 2 follow competitors / peers / whoever you want to observe or monitor without your audience or customers knowing or judging.

117. Distrosnack: Reddit Keywords

Instead of / in addition to Google Keyword Tool, try Reddit:

search main keyword
scan threads
select highest frequency / recurring longtail phrases
check volume in GKT
GET MOAR TRAFFIC

116. Distrosnack: Flat Traffic

Traffic is all around you.

Give ppl a reason to click ur ad / subscribe 2 ur list / open ur welcome:

data map
toolkit / resource list
research report
white paper
survey results
video how-to
“steal-able” template
numbered guide
cheat sheet
blueprint
free product trial
quiz results

115. Distrosnack: Own vs. Rent

OWN = ur site, ur app

RENT = ur FB, YouTube, Twitter etc

Use OWN 4 ur DO and THINK audiences. Use RENT b/c it’s where ur See and Care audiences already are (YouTube & Facebook each have over a billion actives).

But, if u only have money for one — own first, rent next, then rock both.

114. Distrosnack: Competitor Tracking

Google Alerts -- monitor mentions of ur competitor's name / branded keywords
Moz for your competitor's site / keywords
http://sitealerts.com/
https://monitorbacklinks.com/

113. Distrosnack: Scraped List

Mailing a cold / bought / scraped list?

Warm it up with email pre-targeting BEFORE u send:

Make re-targeting campaigns on FB / Twitter / Google
Focus campaigns on brand awareness; no “hard sell”
Mail to list, with CTA
Also retarget un-opens

112. Distrosnack: Ad Leaderboard

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

Look at what's winning
Test as ads

111. Distrosnack: Facebook Scraping

Facebook scraping?

Facebook now checks whether you really have permission to target user IDs you upload, by requiring App ID.

Don't get banned. Get leads the legit way: ebook, webinar, tool, freebie

110. Distrosnack: Pricing Strategy

Pricing = positioning, and can be ur competitive advantage in the market.

Use pricing to communicate to the market whether your product is a premium, mid-market or low cost alternative.

To be effective, a startup’s pricing strategy must align with its marketing case studies, website messaging, PR releases and sales pitches.

If all the arrows point in the same direction, then pricing becomes an asset to reinforce the company’s position in the market.

109. Distrosnack: Content Penalty

Syndication can be good 4 expanding your reach and authority,

BUT know that Google gives the higher authority site technical / SEO credit, even if you publish first.

Solutions:

ask them to use rel=canonical
ask them to use no index tag
do it anyway if it’s high visibility + new audience

108. Distrosnack: Conversion Rate Levers

If u kill ur low quality traffic sources, conversion rate will go up.

If u go after bigger / new / emerging channels or leads, conversion rate will go down.

If you need to show off a higher CR (investor deck?), cull the low grade leads
If you’re focused on filling the top of your funnel, be ready for lower CR till u optimize further

107. Distrosnack: Buy On the Backend

Nobody gets married after the first date, and most customers don’t buy from your landing page.

Nurture ur leads:

free or $1 trial
email drip campaign
bake into their routine / lifecycle / habits

106. Distrosnack: User Reviews 4 SEO

User reviews help ur SEO b/c comments = content, and reviews’ unique wording + long tail phrases are better than a bunch of pages with the same product or service descriptions.

Ask for reviews & make it easy
Respond
Filter

105. Distrosnack: Don't Retarget This

Reverse-retarget to EXCLUDE people who've already signed up:

FB or Twitter Custom Audience of registered emails
EXCLUDE that audience

Don't waste acquisition $ on people who are already your users -- onboard them with an engagement campaign instead.

104. Distrosnack: Untapped Channel

SMS is instant, short, direct.

Average SMS response time is less than 5 min
Average open rate >95%
Only 160 characters to think about / optimize
Other personal channels for outreach: FB Messenger, WeChat, Line, WhatsApp, MOAR

Be personalized & high touch, don’t blast.

103. Distrosnack: Traffic Leaks

Outbound links help SEO by signaling to Google what sites you're associated with -- ie, link to sites of brands whose products you’re selling or to media you’re mentioned in.

Contrary to being a traffic ‘leak’, relevant / high quality external links makes ur site more useful & authoritative.

Join the party, link OUT!

102. Distrosnack: Facebook Lead Collector

Facebook Lead Ads (a NEW thing) lets people subscribe to you in 2 clicks / taps.

FB auto-fills key info:

their full name
email
street address
phone
zip
city
state
country
country
company
job title

Streamlined leadgen + many targeting possibilities = TEST NOW.

101. Distrosnack: Call to Action Button

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

“I want to ___.”

Your CTA in your customers' words, not yours.

DON'T MISS PART 3! So far we've covered from 200 to 101. Don't miss Part 3 with the next top 50 growth tips. If you don't want to miss out you know what to do..... >> subscribe here.

p.s. How good is your Marketing Analytics Stack? Or your competitors'? 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.