5 Sets of Growth Hacking Tools for Creative Startups

First introduced in 2010 by Sean Ellis, the term growth hacking became somewhat of a buzzword marketers use to highlight the interception of marketing and technology in contemporary digital strategies. Namely, the term points to the need to adopt innovative approaches to market research and analysis, which includes discovering tools and resources that make these processes more efficient.

This is especially important for startups, whose focus on innovation needs to remain constant throughout different stages of development. The use of intelligent marketing tools helps them better understand the industry, target consumers and competitors, which is why they are seen as essential resources for growth. Moreover, these tools range in purpose and are typically provided at low prices, meaning that companies can find virtually anything they need without having to make significant investments.

1. Explainer videos: Animoto and Renderforest

Once the initial project idea becomes a reality, it needs to be presented to the target audience in a simple and memorable way. The easiest way to make this happen is to create an explainer video that shows both the audience and potential investors why your idea is revolutionary. According to different surveys, explainer videos improve viewers’ comprehension by 74% since they stimulate both audio and visual pathways in their brains. This is why experts recommend using this medium to increase effectiveness of either elevator pitch and product promotion campaign.

Although the making of an efficient explainer video involves multiple steps related to audience research to content planning, the technical part could be done quite easily using tools designed specifically for this. Once you choose the video format – 2D / 3D animation, whiteboard of live action – you can create virtually anything with tools such as Animoto or Renderforest. These two are some of the most popular solutions because they come in either free or premium version and have many advanced features that let you create a professional video.

2. Email intelligence: MailChimp and HubSpot

Email marketing has grown into a discipline that heavily relies on personalization and audience analysis to deliver tangible results. As such, modern email marketing campaigns need to properly segment the target audience, analyze the available data on their behavior and implement email automation tools, all of which requires the use of services specifically designed for these purposes.

MailChimp, for example, a popular email service provider currently trusted by eight million users to send over 600 million emails every month, lets you track relevant behavior statistics in addition to providing you with email templates and publishing options. Similarly, its closest alternative, HubSpot email software comes with advanced personalization and audience segmentation features that ensure your emails would be delivered exactly to those whom they may make most sense.

3. Content Marketing: BuzzSumo and Penflip

In the age of mass content production, unique approach to content creation and distribution could be the most important factor of a startup’s digital growth. This means that besides investing considerable effort in brainstorming topic ideas, marketers also need to plan and potentially automate its distribution. In fact, multiple aspects of content marketing can be enhanced by using specialized tools instead of relying on one’s hunch.

When it comes to tools that maximize the efficiency of your content strategy, BuzzSumo is one of the most valuable ones you can use to brainstorm amazing content ideas. By giving you the ability to quickly analyze top content in your niche, find target influencers and do a competitor research, BuzzSumo is a magic formula for defining relevant content. Coupled with Penflip, a tool that lets multiple people collaborate on creating everything from simple blog posts to ebooks, BuzzSumo can help you develop more memorable online presence.

4. Social Media Publishing: Edgar and HootSuite

Often quoted as the most potent way to expand a business’s social reach and build communities around a startup idea, social media presence is another aspect of your growth strategy that needs to be properly planned. Rather than simply creating different social media accounts and posting occasional industry news, startups need to find a way to turn their communities into loyal customers and brand evangelists.

Evidently, social media is another arena that requires the use of content planning and automation tools.  This is simply because maintaining social media accounts can be an exhaustive process that may unnecessarily take too much of your time. To make sure your time on social media is well spent, Edgar enables you to categorize updates and schedule publishing, which represents an excellent way to take control of your social presence. Apart from Edgar, HootSuite Pro is probably the most widely used social publishing management app that lets you schedule posts across multiple accounts and monitor the most important stories from your feed.

5. Competitor research and analytics

Regardless of your company size or niche, the analysis of competitors’ online activities is a way to discover a whole new world of opportunities for your own expansion. This applies to different aspects including social media and SEO, which are probably the two most prominent ways to gain insight into relevant market data.

While websites such as Google Trends and Statista can show you research-based market statistics, tools such as Open Site Explorer aggregate some more specific information about a defined competitor for you. This means that you can easily track both yours and your competitor’s backlinks and mentions across the web. However, competitor research doesn’t only mean checking their websites’ performance in search; with Social Mention, you can see who mentions them and in which context, which could give you some new ideas for your growth.

A bonus note

In its most general form, growth hacking is an important shift from traditional marketing techniques that may not always work in the digital age. Instead, the success depends on combining traditional knowledge with modern approaches and state-of-the-art software tools. With the range of services available for market research, audience analysis and content distribution, these processes could be made substantially more efficient than if handled the old-fashioned way. This is why it’s called hacking, after all.