GOLDEN TRUTH!!!!!

1. Hotmail

After thinking about expensive traditional marketing options (putting up billboards, buying ads, doing radio spots, etc.) they couldn’t afford, the founders eventually decided on a tactic that now is considered one of the first growth hacks. Hotmail placed the message, “P.S.: I love you. Get your free email at Hotmail,” at the bottom of all the messages sent from a Hotmail user. This meant that all the emails a Hotmail user sent would be a free advertisement for the solution. After adopting this hack, Hotmail gained one million users within half a year. By December 1997, Hotmail had around ten million users, and was sold to Microsoft for $400 million. This is the power of creative marketing. A $400 million brand was launched and created with only a $300,000 investment.

2. Dropbox

Today Dropbox has over 175 million users, however, when it was started it wasn’t even open to the public. After Dropbox did go public, it struggled for more than a year to figure out a marketing strategy to grow further. After a long struggle for a growth strategy, they eventually came up with an idea that became one of the most explosive viral referral programs in the startup world. Dropbox put a “Get free space button” on their front page, with the offer that users would get 500 megabytes of free space for every person they invited and got to sign up. Sign-ups increased by roughly 60% and stayed at that level for several months. Nowadays, 35% of Dropbox’s clients come to it via referral. This example cuts to core of most startups’ development issues. If you are willing to generate viral growth, you should bake it into your product. You should make a reason to share it and the means to do so.

3. Spotify

Spotify started as a UK based startup which didn’t have much of a footprint in the United States. So how did they garner such massive development upon their 2011 launch in the US? It was largely achieved through its integration into Facebook. Once individuals starting seeing all their friends playlists on Spotify they had to join to know what all the fuss was about. Though most of people don’t have the kind of access and reputation to make this kind of company-changing deal, it doesn’t mean you can’t figure out ways for making your product more public and give your clients ways to advertise your product that doesn’t cost you a dime.