An analysis of growth hacking, a new marketing approach to generate growth Theoretical and practical application to an IT consultant company

The rapid evolution of the digital world in recent years has shown a drastic change in the external business environment and in the way to interact with prospects and customers. It has also significantly increased the availability of data on those interactions. In line with these developments, marketing is undergoing a very rapid adaptation as well, with the emergence of digital marketing. Digital marketing is not just ‘another evolution of marketing’. It has led a revolution in the nature of the customer journey. Growth hacking is a recently developed approach in the field of digital marketing, mainly focused on customers and expansion. The theoretical analysis has shown that growth hacking is based on the understanding that data have become a key asset of companies. The aim is to create exponential growth by continuously testing and improving the interaction with prospects and customers. The world of business management is evolving too in this digital environment, with opportunities for very small businesses to aim at substantial exponential growth. The studied company is one of those young companies, active in the field of cybersecurity, IT management and data protection, which has been created with the aim of rapidly becoming the partner of choice in Europe to support its clients in the area of digital governance and digital trust. The first part of the problem statement was to evaluate if a growth hacking strategy could be beneficial to achieve the ambition of the studied company. The second part was then to propose a strategy applicable for the company. This has been done by exploring different strategies and highlighting the ones that suits the best for the studied company. The recommended strategy is to: - Make the studied company’s services more scalable by pooling its offers, and by retaining and strengthening its network organization. - Develop a growth hacking strategy to increase awareness and acquisition rate by implanting the following hacks: Landing page and web site redesign, Search Engine Optimization, e-mail hacks, Word of Mouth and Social Media.