When you hear “growth hacker,” do you picture someone in a black hoodie, hunched over a laptop, speaking in tech jargon, possibly doing something... mildly illegal?
Well, you’re wrong.
I mean, you could be right about the hoodie and tech-speak, but unethical they are NOT (almost).
In fact, it’s the negative association with the word “hacker” that has made them assume new titles like “growth marketer,” “digital marketing manager,” or even “growth product manager.”
That last one might feel like a curveball, but it’s a sign of the times.
Growth hacking isn’t just about marketing anymore since the line between product and marketing is blurring faster than your screen during a bad Zoom call.
So much so that many companies now have entire growth teams bridging the gap.
But hey, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let me slow down a bit.
Hey there! I’m Saurav, and if you've stumbled upon this little corner of the internet because you're either
A) Wildly curious about this whole "growth hacking" thing, or
B) Desperately trying to make your startup not just survive but thrive (we've all been there, fueled by instant noodles and sheer willpower).
Welcome 🤝
Whatever your reason, you've landed in the right place because I’ve put together this super helpful and mind-blowingly entertaining blog where we’ll talk about
- Who even is a growth hacker?
- What exactly do these folks do?
- How are they any different from your garden-variety marketer?
- How to become a growth hacker to scale your business?
- How to hire one that can make a difference?
- Do you really need a black hoodie to become a growth hacker?
😂
Ok, the last one was in jest.
The rest of them are all hot topics of discussion we’ll be having right here, starting with
Who is a Growth Hacker?
So… who exactly is a growth hacker?
Picture someone who is part marketer and part engineer, obsessed with finding clever and scalable ways to attract more users and keep them hooked.
Sure, some go by fancier titles like “growth marketer” or “product-led wizard of retention,” but make no mistake: growth hacking isn’t limited to marketers.
What sets growth hackers apart is that they live and breathe growth.
- They hypothesize, prioritize their tasks, and test their theories till they can prove them with numbers.
- They are allergic to fluff. As in: if words don’t come with a side of data, it means nothing to them.
- That’s why they won't just chase channels—they know where to dig and what’s actually working (or flopping).
What is Growth Hacking?
Think of growth hacking as marketing’s rebellious, resourceful cousin.
The one who crashes at your startup with no budget, no rules, and somehow triples your user base overnight.
Growth hackers aren’t just chasing sales, they’re chasing scale. (See the wordplay I did there? 💅)
Armed with data, code, and caffeine, they find clever ways to get your product in front of the right people fast.
And fast is the keyword here.
Whether it's tweaking the product to fit what users actually want or duct-taping tools together for a viral campaign,
Growth hacking is less about spending big and more about thinking smart (and maybe breaking a few things along the way).
Is a Growth Hacker a Type of Marketing Professional?
Well, kind of like how espresso is technically coffee, but with a lot more kick and a bit of a personality crisis.
Growth hackers are the adrenaline junkies of marketing.
They think less brand-building, more hacking-the-matrix-for-leads.
One builds a brand voice. The other builds a referral loop while drinking Red Bull at 2 AM.
Traditional marketers set up campaigns; growth hackers set up experiments. Same game, different hustle.
Speaking of campaigns and experiments, there’s a way to blend the two.
I’ll talk about it soon-ish…right after I walk you through this table I made to show
What is the Difference Between a Growth Hacker and a Traditional Marketer?
What Does a Growth Hacker Do?
From loyalty programs to gamified onboarding that keeps users glued.
Growth hackers will strategize to blend product and marketing till you achieve the results you want.
Content Marketing
Growth hackers approach content with a clear growth objective. This might involve:
- SEO Hacking: Identifying low-competition, high-intent keywords to attract organic traffic that converts.
- Repurposing Content: Turning one blog post into a dozen social media snippets, an infographic, and a lead magnet to maximize reach.
- Guest Blogging Strategically: Targeting publications with a relevant audience to gain backlinks and referral traffic.
- Creating Viral Content Loops: Designing content that naturally encourages sharing. (Like this one you’re reading right now 😉. Please share)
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Turning clicks into customers by:
- A/B Testing Everything: Headlines, calls-to-action, landing page layouts, form fields – if it can be tested, it will be.
- Analyzing User Behavior: Using tools like heatmaps and session recordings to understand why users aren't converting and fixing the leaks in the funnel.
- Optimizing Onboarding Flows: Making the initial user experience seamless and engaging to reduce churn and encourage activation.
Social Media
More than just posting pretty pictures, it’s:
- Running Targeted Growth Campaigns: Utilizing platform advertising to reach specific demographics with tailored messaging.
- Building Communities: Fostering engagement and turning followers into brand advocates.
- Automating Social Sharing: Implementing systems that encourage users to share their experiences.
- Identifying Viral Trends: Leaping on emerging trends and platforms to gain early traction.
Email Marketing
Use email for targeted engagement and conversion:
- Segmented Email Campaigns: Sending personalized messages based on user behavior and demographics.
- Automated Email Sequences: Setting up triggered emails to nurture leads, onboard new users, and re-engage inactive ones.
- Optimizing Email Deliverability and Open Rates: Constantly refining subject lines and email content for maximum impact.
Referral Marketing
Turning existing users into your growth engine:
- Designing Incentive-Driven Referral Programs: Creating compelling rewards for users who refer new customers.
- Making Sharing Easy: Integrating seamless sharing options within the product.
- Tracking and Optimizing Referral Performance: Analyzing which referral channels are most effective.
Product-Led Growth Experiments
Integrating growth directly into the product itself:
- Building Viral Features: Designing features that naturally encourage users to invite others.
- Implementing Freemium or Trial Models: Offering a taste of the product to attract new users.
- Using Data to Inform Product Development: Identifying features that drive user engagement and retention.
How Does a Growth Hacker Help with Revenue?
Think of your customer journey as a leaky bucket.
You might be pouring tons of potential customers in at the top (marketing!), but if there are holes along the way, revenue is just seeping out.
Growth hackers analyze each stage, from initial awareness to becoming a paying customer and beyond, to identify and fix those leaks.
Also, a growth hacker doesn’t just help with churn. They sneak in revenue through the side door while traditional strategies are still queuing at the front.
They find creative, low-cost ways to drive user acquisition, boost conversions, and keep the cash register ringing—sometimes before the CFO even knows what’s happening.
Whether it’s a referral hack, or an onboarding tweak that 10x’s retention, a growth hacker’s motto is simple:
"If it moves the needle, it’s fair game."
How to Become a Growth Hacker?
Sorry if I painted the picture of a mythical creature while talking about growth hackers. 🦄
Truth is, you can be one too.
As long as you can polish a few skill, which brings us to
What Skills Does a Growth Hacker Have?
Growth hackers wear many hats, and they’re super good at
1. Data Analysis
Know their way around numbers. Can find conversion leaks faster than your product team can say "funnel."
2. Copywriting
Can write headlines that slap, subject lines that get opened, and CTAs that make people click like their life depends on it.
3. UX
Understands what makes users bounce, scroll, rage, or convert. Knows when a button needs to move 2 pixels to the left (because yes, it does matter).
4. Basic Coding / No-Code Hacking
Can whip up a landing page, tweak JavaScript, or stitch together five tools using nothing but Zapier and stubbornness. Frontend-friendly, backend-curious.
5. Experimentation
Lives for A/B tests. Will test everything from CTA color to emoji placement. Failure is just data in disguise.
6. Tool Stack
Comfortable juggling tools like Hotjar, Mixpanel, Webflow, Airtable, ChatGPT, and the occasional Notion doc graveyard. Knows what each tool does and how to duct tape them together.
7. Creative Hustle
Can turn a tweet into a viral campaign or a boring onboarding email into a share-worthy moment. Thinks outside the box, then burns the box.
8. Funnel Thinking
Sees your business as a funnel. Top, middle, bottom—doesn’t matter.
9. Product-Minded
Understands that real growth is baked into the product. Knows how to work with devs without making them rage-quit Slack.
10. Curious AF
Reads obsessively, tests constantly, and always asks: “What if we tried this insane idea?” And then actually tries it.
How to Growth Hack Your Startup?
If you want to rocket fuel your startup/new business, this is the blueprint you’ll be needing to growth hack it
1. Start With a Hypothesis, Not a Hunch
Know your WHY.
Before you start something new, know why you’re doing it.
- Is it to get more users?
- Increase retention?
- Boost referrals?
Whatever your goal, frame it as a testable hypothesis.
2. Build the Bare Minimum. Break Things on Purpose.
Forget perfection.
Build your MVP, then add duct tape and a prayer.
The goal isn’t to be beautiful—it’s to be testable.
Ship fast, break stuff, and fix only what really matters (read: things users complain about loudly on Twitter/Reddit/Quora…wherever your ICP (dream customers) hang).
3. Track Everything. Even the Bad Stuff. (Especially the Bad Stuff)
Install analytics before you do literally anything else.
You need to know where users click, drop off, or rage-quit.
Data is your compass; without it, you’re just wandering with vibes.
4. Find Out Which Channel Works Best For You
Whether it’s LinkedIn, cold email, SEO, TikTok memes, or Instagram.
Focus on the one channel that works, and double down.
Find your traction before chasing trends.
5. Run Micro-Experiments. All the Time
A/B test because your growth depends on it.
- Headlines,
- CTAs,
- Pricing,
- Email subject lines, even
- Emojis.
Run sprints, measure results, and ditch what flops.
6. Always Chase Virality
Make sharing irresistible.
Give users a reason to bring friends, and make it easy for them to do so—like one-click easy.
If growth feels like pushing a boulder uphill, you’re doing it wrong.
7. Automate Cuz Time is Money
And you, my friend, are probably looking for ways to save both.
So automate anything repetitive—
- Onboarding,
- Follow-ups,
- Customer support.
Tools like Zapier, and SalesRobot are your hustle buddies.
8. Repeat What Works. Kill What Doesn’t.
Growth hacking is not a one-hit wonder. It’s a system. Find your winners and scale them. Ruthlessly cut the rest. No emotional attachments.
This is business.
BTW, what’s your favourite 1 hit wonder song? Mail me and I’ll tell you mine.
How to Hire a Growth Hacker?
Here’s how to find the real deal without getting stuck with someone who just read one Neil Patel blog post and showed up for the interview.
1. Ditch the Fluffy Resumes
You want resume that shows experiments, numbers, and growth loops, not one that says "synergize omnichannel verticals".
2. Look for a Portfolio of Wins (and Fails)
Ask what they’ve built, hacked, or scaled—and what completely flopped. If they don’t have war stories, they haven’t been in the trenches.
3. Test Their Curiosity, Not Just Their Credentials
Great growth hackers ask uncomfortable questions. They dig deep, challenge assumptions, and tinker until something breaks (or works). Curiosity is their north star.
4. Prioritize Grit Over Glam
You want someone resourceful and relentless, not someone who needs a 10-person team and a six-figure budget to move the needle.
5. Run a Real-World Test
Forget hypothetical questions. Give them a growth problem you're actually facing and see how they’d tackle it.
Bonus if they ask for data before opening their mouth.
6. Check for Tool Fluency
They don’t have to be a developer, but they should be able to automate, integrate, and work with tools needed in your field.
7. Look for a T-Shaped Skillset
They should be deep in one area (maybe SEO or paid ads), but know enough to be dangerous in others—copywriting, UX, analytics, you name it.
8. See How They Work With Teams
Growth hackers don’t work in silos. They’ve gotta jam with product, dev, marketing, and sometimes legal (😬).
Make sure they’re collaborative, not just clever.
9. Ask About Their Process, Not Just Results
Because you want someone who can build repeatable systems, not just strike gold once.
10. Hire for Attitude, Train for Tools
Tools change. Hacks evolve. But grit, curiosity, and an experimental mindset…that’s the stuff legends are made of.
Top 8 Growth Hacking Tactics I’ve Personally Tested
Here are some cheat codes to growth hack and 3X revenue in no time
👥Know your Channel
A lot of people still think LinkedIn is just an online résumé board or a digital HR department.
Job seekers and recruiters only.
But that’s so 2015.
LinkedIn in 2025 is something else entirely—think sales machine, networking hub, content playground, and brand-building.
Yes, you can find a job or hire someone here.
But you can also generate leads, close deals, drive traffic, and add an extra $10K–$20K in MRR—just like we’ve done in the past.
Now, the thing is, LinkedIn looks easy, but it’s not.
It’s not about logging in, sending a few cold DMs, and praying for a response.
- Start with your profile—it’s your homepage, sales page, and first impression all rolled into one. Add keywords to your headline, summary, and experience sections.
This helps you show up in search. LinkedIn SEO is a thing, and it's powerful.
- Then, upgrade your visuals. Use a sharp, smiling headshot (no vacation selfies, please) and a banner with a clear CTA.
- Add your offers to the Featured section—freebie, call link, high-ticket offer—and make it easy for people to take the next step.
- Next up: content.
You need to post regularly (3x a week minimum), and it has to stop the scroll. Use images, GIFs, carousels, and videos. Tell stories. Share wins. Drop value bombs.
- And don’t forget to engage—comments are underrated. Spend 20 minutes a day commenting with intention, and you’ll start seeing inbound leads without pitching.
- Oh, and let’s talk automation.
Tools like SalesRobot can scrape, connect, message, and follow up—on autopilot.
Combine that with smart search, voice notes, personalized videos, and even LinkedIn newsletters, and you’re no longer “just” building a brand—you’re building a pipeline.
And this is just the beginning.
🎯Know Your Target Audience
Trying to sell to everyone is the fastest way to sell to no one.
- Get a sharp lead list
- Find out how to reach them
- Learn their pain points, and
- Tailor your messaging like a hyper-personalized bespoke suit
- And start sending them out
But hey, I know easier said than done, right?
I mean what are you even going to do? Spend days hopping from one LinkedIn profile to the next and write unique messages for each of them?
No. Of course not.
Because that will take HOURS, if not days!
And let’s say you somehow even manage to stay up and actually get all that done.
What if your lead just casually leaves you at “read”?
Or worse, sends a reply that needs censoring and a therapy session.
Been there. Cried into my coffee.
And realized that some of this madness needs automation.
Because:
And because:
❌ We shouldn’t be manually chasing every lead
❌ Our self-worth shouldn't hinge on reply rates.
That’s why I built SalesRobot.
Your LinkedIn + email automation platform that:
- Builds your target list from a LinkedIn search URL, Sales Nav Search URL, or a spreadsheet
- Sends connection requests on autopilot
- Crafts hyper-personalized messages
- Follows up (without being clingy)
- Drops thoughtful comments on your leads' latest humblebrags
- All while staying well within LinkedIn's rules
Sounds like something the growth hacker in you cannot resist but try?
Good, we have a free 14-day trial. Sign up and take it for a spin. Experiment!
♻️Repurpose Your Content
Got a killer blog post? Congrats, you've done 1/10th of the work.
Content is like Play-Doh – mold it, stretch it,
- Repurpose it into tweet-sized wisdom bombs.
- Infuse it into your email marketing
- Turn it into a podcast
One piece of content, many glorious lives. Get creative.
🌐Build your online presence
If a startup launches and no one Googles it, does it even exist?
Nail your website, work on SEO, and show up where your audience hangs out. Visibility isn’t vanity—it’s survival.
📱 Don’t Just do Social—Own it
Pick your platforms wisely.
You don’t need to TikTok dance your way to traction unless your users are there for it.
LinkedIn is a goldmine for B2B. So if you have to pick 1. I say pick this.
💬 Engagement Isn't a Monologue
Get in the comments. Slide into inboxes. React, reply, meme—whatever it takes to make your audience feel like you're a brand that actually listens.
Because lurkers don’t convert—fans do.
And if you need to automate it, SalesRobot is always at your service.
🎁 Let Users Sell for You AKA Referral Program
Want your customers to do your marketing for you? Offer them a little something-something for spreading the word.
Discounts, freebies, eternal gratitude (results may vary on the last one).
Happy customers are your best (and cheapest) salespeople.
🤝Partner with Influencers
Got someone in your industry with a bunch of loyal followers?
Maybe see if they'd be willing to say nice things about you (for a reasonable exchange, of course).
So find people your audience already trusts. Micro or macro, doesn’t matter. As long as their followers care. Get them on board.
Conclusion
So, what did we learn?
Growth hackers run experiments, double down on what works, and ditch what doesn’t—fast.
This brings us to the real question:
- How do you actually track all those experiments?
- How do you personalize outreach at scale?
- And how do you stay sane with constant fixes, tweaks, and iterations... without automation?
The answer, of course, is that you can't. Not effectively, anyway.
Seriously, are you gonna spend your precious hours copy-pasting LinkedIn messages? Manually tracking every tiny A/B test in a spreadsheet?
Didn’t think so. That's where automation comes in.
So you can do more tests. Add more personal touches. And have less pulling-your-hair-out moments.
If you're done with the grind and ready to see real growth, take SalesRobot for a spin.
Your free 14-day trial is waiting.
Go get ‘em.
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