3 Growth Hacking Tips to Grow Your Mobile App Startup

Growth hacking has quickly become a popular buzzword in the startup community. Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily become popular for all the right reasons. Before we get into our tips, let’s dispel the biggest myth many mobile app developers have about growth hacking: the idea that it’s “easy.”

When an iPhone app developer hears the word “hacking,” they tend to think of cutting corners and working fast. But when it comes to marketing, growth hacking is a very different sort of process. If anything, it requires much more work than traditional marketing or PR. What makes it different is that the work is focussed on unique methods, new media, and unconventional tactics.

1. Meeting users on their level

Even if you can’t gain a foothold in a relatively young social network, engaging with potential customers on social media is something lots of brands try — yet very few do well. The trick here for Dallas mobile app developers is being honest and transparent.

Particularly on Twitter, the use of personal accounts to build community around a brand has been enormously successful for upstart digital products like Product Hunt. Branded accounts are perfect for customer support and answering questions, but personal accounts will amplify your ability to connect with influencers and customers. After all, everyone loves gaining more friends — but brands on social media are usually annoying when they try to act “real.”

2. A/B test everything

…Even yourself and your team. Use tools like Mailchimp that have A/B testing built in whenever possible to save time. iPhone app developers should concentrate on making the product perfect, but there’s no point spending weeks on a website for a new product without first testing what sort of content actually engages your users.

3. Create social incentives

The ultimate tool to grow an evangelized user base is to use social incentives to tap each user’s personal network. Common tactics include offering premium membership in exchange for sharing on social media, or unlocking extra features when friends sign up. Social incentives are the gold standard of user base growth, since they’re built on a bedrock of passionate users — and the friends they invite are already primed to have a favorable impression of your app, since it was recommended by a friend rather than an advertisement.