According to Neil Patel, “A growth hacker is not a replacement for a marketer. A growth hacker is not better than a marketer. A growth hacker is just different than a marketer. To use the most succinct definition from Sean Ellis, “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth.”
I would totally agree and add that it’s not that difficult to run growth hacking experiments. How about if I showed you by actually running an experiment?. That would be cool. Right? Most of the growth hacks fail but it’s not just about the results. It’s about the insights that you gather from your experiments.
So let’s try to get some traffic from Quora. Below are all the steps I follow to run my growth hacking experiments.
Hypothesis – If I help people by answering their questions on Quora, they would want to learn more about me. So they will click through to my website (increase in traffic)
Platform – Quora
Resource – Myself
How long – 2 week’s experiment
How to measure – Using google analytics.
Pass/Fail Criteria – I would like to see at least 100 visits from Quora. I know it’s not a lot but keep in mind I don’t have any social brand value on that platform (yet). For them, I am like a complete stranger asking for number (it rarely works). However If this experiment works I will be able to multiply the traffic in future since I will build some reputation on the platform.
Process – Here is the process that I am going to follow and you can too.
1 – Write a blog post about something you know
e.g. if you are a fitness expert or blogger you can write about “5 ways to lose weight in summer”. Recently I wrote an article on Startups and FREE press. I am going to use this blog post for our experiment.
2 – Make sure Google analytics is properly installed on your website
3 – Create an account on Quora (If you don’t have one already)
4 – Complete your profile (Add links to your blog or website)
5 – Search for questions that are relevant to your blog post
6 – Answer at least 1 question daily & add your blog link if it makes sense. In our example of fitness blogger, you can share 1 or 2 tips from your article and then add a link to your blog for more information.
Don’t just SPAM people with your links. I know its hard to want to get more traffic and not look spammy. But lets see if we can really help people and add value to their lives.
Results – (Updated on 9/10/2015)
I got 71 new visits from Quora (vs the goal of 100) so this experiment FAILED, but I received over 6000 views on the answers (a small win)
I also gained some credibility on the platform and made a lot of new connections. I think it will help if I try to do this experiment again.
Now over to you. Did I miss anything? What would you add to this experiment?