In case you missed Tuesday’s workshop — don’t fret! We’ve put together a recap of key takeaways so that you can still hack your way to the top.

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To kick off our Growth Programme, we tailored last night’s workshop for food entrepreneurs looking to learn more about growth hacking. As always, we try to make these sessions as interactive as possible so that each entrepreneur can relate the event to their own challenges. So, while the following is a recap of the highlights, be sure you get yourself to the next event so that you can get your own personalised experience ;).

A bit about our host: Aggelos Mouzakitis is a marketing expert and CEO of Growth Sandwich — a growth hacking lab in London. Fun fact: In true growth hacker style, he has actually A/B tested his name to establish that ‘Mouzakitis’ is too difficult for the majority of us; now shortening it to ‘M’ in his email address. Thanks, Aggelos!

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Don’t know what an A/B test is? Maybe you aren’t even sure that you know what growth hacking is?! Then read on…

Aggelos describes growth 3 ways:

It’s experimentation

It’s tools for lean validation

It’s (mostly) the mindest of #Whateverworks

Remember old school Hotmail? Bet you didn’t realise it at the time, but their tagline “Get your free email at Hotmail” at the bottom of emails, is one of the oldest growth hacks in the book. It used a FREE resource they already had to link new users to their sign up page.

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See, Aggelos taught us that this is what growth hacking is all about — keeping costs and resources lean. You are a startup afterall! BUT — you need to have a process. A process includes generating and prioritising your ideas, defining your goal for success, keeping it lean and measuring your performance so that you can double down if it works.

While measuring success may be hard, Aggelos suggests sticking to your strategy and these 5 tactics:

1. Do your homework about the industry you are entering
2. Validate your idea by speaking with people about it and testing it offline (this is also where you could use something like A/B testing!)
3. Be an extrovert and get involved in your community events
4. Get links from people with websites and blogs
5. Build your digital property — a.k.a. your website, social media, blog

Aggelos points out that most projects fail because it takes too long to implement and judge the performance of digital properties, so focus on building your communities and social media.

Once you have done all of the above, you are ready to grow! Here are some key takeaways from Aggelos’ growth hacks:

• Use tools like Dux-Soup, FB pixel and Loom to generate leads
• Tailor your copy and even consider creating a messenger bot
• Use tools like Quizr to engage your customers with quizzes and questionnaires
• Build your credibility by asking for testimonials, using tools like typeform to ask for feedback, and offer your customers a gift as a thank you
• Create LOTS of content — copy is key!
• Segment your customers so that you know who you are targeting
• Hijack hashtags from conferences — your customers are probably there!
• Add fomo or useproof on your website and you will see a 15–25% increase in conversion
• Don’t use boring graphics
• Use a different word for ‘referrals’
• Use backlinking! Even considering uploading your own photos to Unsplash

And some final thoughts, tips and facts worth sharing:

Facebook has 3X higher open rates than emails

LinkedIn is the most effective platform for B2B advertising

Social media influencers are passé

As you can tell, Aggelos gave us a lot to think about. Following the workshop, we digested all of this info over nibbles and drinks and we were excited to learn about all of the amazing ideas and products participants have in the works.

See you all next time!

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Key acronyms:

• NPS: Net Promoter Score — how likely your customers are to refer you to other people (Don’t do referral marketing if your NPS is lower than 0.7)
• CAC: Cost of Acquisition
• LTV: Lifetime Value

Key tools: Dux-Soup, FB Pixel, Loom, Quizr, typeform, Trustpilot, fomo, useproof, Manychat

Book recommendation: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

This article has been written by Emma Roeder