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on February 22, 2015
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Used it as a platform for understanding how "young people and the folks who invest in them think".
The author has created not only a book about boot-strapping marketing but he does it as a former large budget veteran of traditional marketing (American Apparel). So his perspective is from someone who 'was there' and is now 'over here'.
Took a lot of notes. Came up with some really innovative ways to use his teachings. I can't say more than that, can I? An excellent investment, would buy again.
The author has created not only a book about boot-strapping marketing but he does it as a former large budget veteran of traditional marketing (American Apparel). So his perspective is from someone who 'was there' and is now 'over here'.
Took a lot of notes. Came up with some really innovative ways to use his teachings. I can't say more than that, can I? An excellent investment, would buy again.
on December 20, 2015
When I began reading this book, I got the feeling that it was just reviewing famous stories of major companies and how they got started. I was afraid it would not apply to me and my medium size business. However, it was a very easy read and after a little while I realized that I was taking notes about specific changes that I wanted to make in my company's marketing. I ended up with a list of several action items which I believe will improve our numbers. Even though none of the ideas in "Growth Hacker Marketing" were brand new, I was inspired by reading this book to make some changes. In fact, just by reading the book, I thought of a new idea that wasn't even mentioned. I will go through the top videos that I have on YouTube and add a link for people to click to bring them back to my website. It's such an easy change that will allow people to engage with me and my company. If you run a company or are responsible for marketing an idea, it's worth a couple of hours to read this book. If you pull out just a few ideas, it will have been worth your while.
on August 24, 2015
I got and read Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers before this book and felt that the Traction book covered a lot more and was/is a lot more useful than this book. This book is more of an overview of the basics, while the Traction book will give you more concrete ideas for how to actually plan and implement your marketing.
If you're new to the concepts of lean startups, product market fit, online marketing and virality then this will be a good primer for you.
I'm no marketing expert myself, but its just that I've read about these elsewhere on the internet.
If you're new to the concepts of lean startups, product market fit, online marketing and virality then this will be a good primer for you.
I'm no marketing expert myself, but its just that I've read about these elsewhere on the internet.
on December 28, 2015
I am very surprised by the one and two star reviews of this book. Sure it is short. Yes, it could have more detail and more case studies. But, I'm surprised that anyone could read this book without developing at least one valuable new idea. Today, we live in the world of blogs, white papers, PDF/ebooks, etc.. We can get almost any tid-bit of information for free. A book does not bring new ideas, it brings us through a complete thought process--a chain of ideas starting with idea A and ending with idea Z. Growth Hacker Marketing is an easy little book that I'm confident will make my company money--not because it presents new, exciting technique, but because I spent two hours reading about Holiday's discovery of Growth Hacks, and while doing this I had many great ideas. My advice to many of the people who left poor reviews of this book is to slow down and begin thinking about reading an a new way. Dumbing Us Down: Stop the Google Love and Start Smart Marketing
on February 10, 2017
Ryan Holiday tells us that that glamorous advertising days of Don Draper are over in this book on Growth Hacker Marketing.
He tells us that the days of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns on billboards, television, and radio are numbered. They are being replaced with social media campaigns, funnels, giveaways, and ways of creating "virality" to promote products.
The book tells us that advertising, promotion, and marketing isn't one major campaign for a product launch, but rather an on-going process that tested, refined, and improved upon. He says we need to start with a "minimum viable product," and through this testing find a "product market fit."
The book gives us insight on new marketing terms such as stickiness, A/B testing, bootstrapping, bounce rate, cohort analysis, sales funnels, and of course growth hacking, amongst others.
The book started as a short blog, turned into an article for a website, then into an e-book, and eventually into this final form, a short 111 page book where Ryan tested his theories with this release.
There's no doubt we're seeing a major "shift" or "pivot" with marketing, advertising, and PR today with the growth of social media where everything can be done right from our smart phones.
I enjoyed this simple book for the introduction to these concepts but it really doesn't give much in terms of practical tools. It's more just an overview of the technology and provides some background. The book does offer the reader several options for learning more via recommended books, blogs, presentations, classes, shows, and conferences.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but likely would've been satisfied with the original form of a blog as I think it was a bit of a stretch to turn this into an actual book. Still, a good starting point for anyone looking to learn more about the basics of promoting a new product in today's digital world.
He tells us that the days of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns on billboards, television, and radio are numbered. They are being replaced with social media campaigns, funnels, giveaways, and ways of creating "virality" to promote products.
The book tells us that advertising, promotion, and marketing isn't one major campaign for a product launch, but rather an on-going process that tested, refined, and improved upon. He says we need to start with a "minimum viable product," and through this testing find a "product market fit."
The book gives us insight on new marketing terms such as stickiness, A/B testing, bootstrapping, bounce rate, cohort analysis, sales funnels, and of course growth hacking, amongst others.
The book started as a short blog, turned into an article for a website, then into an e-book, and eventually into this final form, a short 111 page book where Ryan tested his theories with this release.
There's no doubt we're seeing a major "shift" or "pivot" with marketing, advertising, and PR today with the growth of social media where everything can be done right from our smart phones.
I enjoyed this simple book for the introduction to these concepts but it really doesn't give much in terms of practical tools. It's more just an overview of the technology and provides some background. The book does offer the reader several options for learning more via recommended books, blogs, presentations, classes, shows, and conferences.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but likely would've been satisfied with the original form of a blog as I think it was a bit of a stretch to turn this into an actual book. Still, a good starting point for anyone looking to learn more about the basics of promoting a new product in today's digital world.
on January 28, 2017
Best book on marketing I've ever read. As an experienced entrepreneur with 1 unicorn and 2 IPOs under my belt I wish I had access to the information in this book years ago. Any one focused on growing their business, no matter what stage the company is in, would do well to put the lessons in this book into practice.
on April 24, 2014
If you're looking for specific advice, this isn't the book for you. But there are some great anecdotal accounts that really got my creative juices flowing. It's short enough that I read it in an hour or so. Then I was up half the night coming up with crazy marketing ideas for one of my projects. None of them are even remotely related to what the author was talking about, but the book just got my brain working at a different wave length than my normal boring marketing approach. Thanks Mr. Holiday for the inspiration.
to demonstrate that continual optimization of a product is better than trying to market a “finished” good or service ...
on May 7, 2015
Traditional marketing methods that were set in stone have been forever altered by the internet and the digitization of information. A new breed of market-savvy coders have brought about the prominence of growth hacking: low-cost marketing strategies used by technology companies that focus on website analytics and viral marketing. In Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising, author Ryan Holiday outlines the rise of growth hacking, and details how the practice has brought success to firms such as AirBnB and Facebook. Rather than dwelling on technical aspects of the process, Holiday seeks to inform novice marketers and top executives alike about the merits of growth hacking. Upon completion of the book, Holiday ultimately hopes readers dispense of the “traditional playbook of traditional marketing” by trusting in the “testable, trackable, and scalable” reliability of growth hacking.
Never hard to understand or mundane, Growth Hacker quickly delves into the mindset and practices of top Silicon Valley growth hackers. Product Market Fit (PMF), the strategy of improving a minimally viable product based on user feedback, is the first step of growth hacking analyzed by Holiday. Whereas traditional marketers often operate under the mindset that “you go to market with the product you have, not the one you want,” Holiday rebuffs this notion by asserting that entire business models should be altered if demand calls for it. To illustrate his argument, Holiday outlines the history of Instagram. Once a location-based social networking site called Burnb, Instagram discarded their original business model upon realization that a vast majority of users flocked solely to the picture-sharing application. Within eighteen months, the reorganized Instagram sold for $1 billion to Facebook. Holiday uses the example of Instagram, a company that's likely known to Growth Hacker readers, to demonstrate that continual optimization of a product is better than trying to market a “finished” good or service that nobody wants.
Next, Holiday turns readers' attention to the second and most important step of the process: finding a growth hack. Rather than spending money on television and magazine ads, Holiday argues that startups focus on building “immensely loyal and passionate users” to spread their products free of charge. When comparing user growth and brand awareness, Holiday asks readers to consider this question: “Which is easier to track, define, and grow? Which of these is real, and which is simply an idea?”
The final steps of the strategy outlined in Growth Hacker involve going viral and retaining demand for a product; a process that's easier said than done. In these sections, Holiday discusses individual growth hacking techniques, along with the need to continually optimize products as user tastes change. Using the example of the successful referral system used by Dropbox, a popular file hosting service, Holiday shows readers that virality doesn't often occur by accident. Only after trial and error was Dropbox able to find a growth hack, its referral system, that now generates 35% of new customers for the company. This clearly shows readers that while it's possible for fluke virality to occur, it's far more likely that viral content will be produced at the hands of a software engineer. Holiday also takes time in this section to outline the relativity of growth hacking metrics. The author emphasizes that raw user data doesn't always tell the entire story. According to Holiday, growth hackers should pay similarly close attention to the satisfaction of customers, and avoid marketing strategies that end up harming core users.
One of Growth Hacker's greatest strengths is that it's a quick and easy read. The book is light on technobabble, which is a credit to Holiday given the complexities of growth hacking. While the author supports his views with numerous examples of growth hacking successes, some critics will argue that technology valuations are excessive. Without long-term monetizing prospects, many will say that user growth is meaningless. When Yahoo purchased web hosting service GeoCities for $3.7 billion at the height of the dot-com bubble, the website was the third most visited on the internet. Ten years later, Yahoo shut the service down after a dismal failure to make money on early user growth. Examples like GeoCities will cause some detractors to stay rooted in their methods, but I think Holiday does enough to convince readers that data-driven analytics is superior to vague notions of brand identity. What's more, I appreciate how Holiday gets straight to the point in Growth Hacker. There are books that are twice as long containing half as much useful content. Without deviating for comedic effect of unrelated stories, Holiday provides the facts about growth hacking and nothing more. With that said, as the title suggests, the book is intended to be a primer on growth hacking, not a definitive source of knowledge on the topic. Readers seeking a more technical guide to the process should look elsewhere. If, however, your looking for a basic understanding of how to think like a growth hacker, Holiday's book is the best place to start.
Never hard to understand or mundane, Growth Hacker quickly delves into the mindset and practices of top Silicon Valley growth hackers. Product Market Fit (PMF), the strategy of improving a minimally viable product based on user feedback, is the first step of growth hacking analyzed by Holiday. Whereas traditional marketers often operate under the mindset that “you go to market with the product you have, not the one you want,” Holiday rebuffs this notion by asserting that entire business models should be altered if demand calls for it. To illustrate his argument, Holiday outlines the history of Instagram. Once a location-based social networking site called Burnb, Instagram discarded their original business model upon realization that a vast majority of users flocked solely to the picture-sharing application. Within eighteen months, the reorganized Instagram sold for $1 billion to Facebook. Holiday uses the example of Instagram, a company that's likely known to Growth Hacker readers, to demonstrate that continual optimization of a product is better than trying to market a “finished” good or service that nobody wants.
Next, Holiday turns readers' attention to the second and most important step of the process: finding a growth hack. Rather than spending money on television and magazine ads, Holiday argues that startups focus on building “immensely loyal and passionate users” to spread their products free of charge. When comparing user growth and brand awareness, Holiday asks readers to consider this question: “Which is easier to track, define, and grow? Which of these is real, and which is simply an idea?”
The final steps of the strategy outlined in Growth Hacker involve going viral and retaining demand for a product; a process that's easier said than done. In these sections, Holiday discusses individual growth hacking techniques, along with the need to continually optimize products as user tastes change. Using the example of the successful referral system used by Dropbox, a popular file hosting service, Holiday shows readers that virality doesn't often occur by accident. Only after trial and error was Dropbox able to find a growth hack, its referral system, that now generates 35% of new customers for the company. This clearly shows readers that while it's possible for fluke virality to occur, it's far more likely that viral content will be produced at the hands of a software engineer. Holiday also takes time in this section to outline the relativity of growth hacking metrics. The author emphasizes that raw user data doesn't always tell the entire story. According to Holiday, growth hackers should pay similarly close attention to the satisfaction of customers, and avoid marketing strategies that end up harming core users.
One of Growth Hacker's greatest strengths is that it's a quick and easy read. The book is light on technobabble, which is a credit to Holiday given the complexities of growth hacking. While the author supports his views with numerous examples of growth hacking successes, some critics will argue that technology valuations are excessive. Without long-term monetizing prospects, many will say that user growth is meaningless. When Yahoo purchased web hosting service GeoCities for $3.7 billion at the height of the dot-com bubble, the website was the third most visited on the internet. Ten years later, Yahoo shut the service down after a dismal failure to make money on early user growth. Examples like GeoCities will cause some detractors to stay rooted in their methods, but I think Holiday does enough to convince readers that data-driven analytics is superior to vague notions of brand identity. What's more, I appreciate how Holiday gets straight to the point in Growth Hacker. There are books that are twice as long containing half as much useful content. Without deviating for comedic effect of unrelated stories, Holiday provides the facts about growth hacking and nothing more. With that said, as the title suggests, the book is intended to be a primer on growth hacking, not a definitive source of knowledge on the topic. Readers seeking a more technical guide to the process should look elsewhere. If, however, your looking for a basic understanding of how to think like a growth hacker, Holiday's book is the best place to start.
on June 28, 2016
Although it was shorter than I expected (admittedly I didn't check the page count before ordering), I was nonetheless impressed with this book. Mr. Holiday has clearly put a lot of thought and research into this book and it absolutely shows. He combines a step-by-step process for how to think like a Growth Hacker, with great real-life examples of growth hacking strategies companies like Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber have used to grow their brands and products. Several steps away from the traditional approach to marketing, but definitely a worthwhile read for marketing professionals of all levels!
As far as the shipping and everything is concerned, I got my book the next day and it came in perfect condition!
As far as the shipping and everything is concerned, I got my book the next day and it came in perfect condition!
