Growth hacking is one of the most talked-about terms in the startup and marketing worlds. Some see it as a revolutionary way of shaping and accelerating startup growth, while others consider it a fancy word for marketing. I used to fall into the latter camp, but Neil Patel’s guide to growth hacking helped me see how a growth hacker’s job differs from a traditional marketer’s job.
Here’s how Patel defines growth hacking:
Growth hackers, using their knowledge of product and distribution, find ingenious, technology-based, avenues for growth that sometimes push the bounds of what is expected or advised.
How does this differ from marketing? While traditional marketers have a broad focus ranging from building out a marketing team to defining an overall marketing strategy, growth hackers focus on one thing and one thing only: growth. But this doesn’t mean that marketers can’t be great growth hackers.
Some say that growth hacking roles render marketers irrelevant to startups because they require technical skills that traditional marketers don’t have––a sentiment that has people buzzing about the need to become a technical marketer.
