Ward van Gasteren embraces the “growth hacker” time period, although some within the career favor the time period “growth marketing” or just “growth.” What’s the distinction to him? The hacking half must be a definite effort from ongoing advertising efforts, he says.
“Growth hacking is great to kickstart growth, test new opportunities and see what tactics work,” van Gasteren stated. “Marketeers should be there to continue where the growth hackers left off: build out those strategies, maintain customer engagement and keep tactics fresh and relevant.”
“The choice between working with a growth hacker versus a digital marketer is not a one-or-the-other choice; the fields are very different in focus and actually complementary to each other.”
Based in The Netherlands, he has developed his personal development hacking programs, Grow With Ward, and labored with giant firms like TikTok, Pepsi and Cisco, and startups like Cyclemasters, Somnox and Zigzag. In the dialog under, van Gasteren shares the significance of constructing inside processes round development for the long run, the state of development right now and his personal improvement.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
You’re an authorized development hacker — how do you suppose this units you aside from others? How has this certification modified the best way you strategy working with purchasers?
I used to be a part of the first-ever class from Growth Tribe (once they nonetheless provided multimonth traineeships), which was an incredible expertise. The distinction {that a} certification exhibits is that you already know {that a} licensed development hacker has data of the beginning-to-end technique of development hacking, and that this particular person is meant to take a look at greater than only a single experiment to hack their development.
There are lots of cowboy development hackers who merely repeat the identical techniques, as an alternative of making an attempt to work from a repeatable course of, the place you establish issues by way of information, have a non-biased prioritization course of for concepts and can give attention to long-term learnings over direct impression. A correct certificates exhibits that you already know what it takes.
When do you suppose purchasers ought to put money into the newbie development hacking course you provide in your web site fairly than investing in working with you straight?
I created the course to make development hacking obtainable to a bigger viewers. I seen that the majority different development hacking programs fell into one in every of two buckets: (1) low-cost (<$200), however centered on superficial development techniques, or (2) good high quality in-depth content material, however very costly ($1,500-$5,000). And I consider everyone ought to have entry to that data of easy methods to construct a scientific course of to attain long-term sustainable development, so I created my very own course, since I do know that working one-on-one with me can also be too costly for most individuals.
Especially in the event you’d have a look at college students or junior marketeers, for whom I created a correct newbie development hacking course that can educate you 20% of the data that’s needed to attain the primary 80% of the outcomes.
Growth hacking does have some noticeable variations from advertising, as outlined in your web site. How ought to purchasers make the choice between working with you, a development hacker, as an alternative of with a marketer?
The alternative between working with a development hacker versus a digital marketer will not be a one-or-the-other alternative; the fields are very totally different in focus and truly complementary to one another. Growth hacking is nice to kickstart development, check new alternatives and see what techniques work. Marketeers must be there to proceed the place the expansion hackers left off: construct out these methods, keep buyer engagement and preserve techniques recent and related. You shouldn’t rent a development hacker to take care of your advertising methods; they’re excited to make new development steps and would get bored once they can’t check new concepts.
Most of the time, I assist a shopper rise up to hurry, present which alternatives are precious and provides them a method to…
