As the co-founder of two SaaS analytics companies, CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics, Neil has vast knowledge and experience in Marketing 2.0.
Here Neil Patel answers the community’s questions: in other words all the questions that Neil didn’t get to answer during his session at Pioneers Festival. In case you missed Neil speaking on Growth Hacking at Pioneers Festival watch his Academy talk here.
Which are the most important KPIs regarding growth?
I typically look at revenue and profit. To me that is the most important KPI.
How did you get initial traction for Kissmetrics?
We created infographics related to marketing. This created traffic from our target audience and then we funneled the traffic into our product.
How to use free stuff and referral methods in B2B users?
With free stuff you can either create a software like Grader by Hubspot to generate leads and then have your sales people call and close them. You can also give away free ebooks for an email address and then drip those users and try to get them to convert.
As for referral methods, look at Wealthfront. Their referral system would work great for B2B.
Can you suggest some growth hacks for a Yelp-like service?
I would use badges. Hit up businesses and get them to put a badge on how they are featured on your site. This will drive traffic to you and also encourage more reviews for them, which should drive them business.
Growth hack tools for B2B – with a LONG sales cycle, say 9 months?
I would just focus on lead generation. Use tools like BounceExchange to collect more leads.
Growth hacking for offline businesses?
This is tough. I haven’t seen too many campaigns other than viral videos or people showing how they creatively use a product.
Release a service platform incrementally or go full (feature) force?
I do incrementally. And over time improve upon it.
Growth hacking vs. product improvement?
They are both similar. In which a better product should also lead to more users.
Would you recommend an invite-only system like Pinterest did?
If it is a good fit for your product, yes. But it may not always be. You have to do what is best for your product and users.
“Growth Hacking” – Neil Patel, Pioneers Festival
Watch Neil’s session from Pioneers Festival 2014 here:
