Driving business growth with traditional marketing strategies alone takes time and can be expensive. This is why many renowned companies have opted for growth hacking strategies.
Remember that growth hacking is a marketing approach focused on the rapid growth of businesses, particularly in their early stages . Indeed, growth hackers use creative and often unconventional strategies to quickly attract users or customers. This approach is characterized by rapid experimentation, intensive use of technology, deep data analysis, customer centricity, and a focus on growth. The goal is to achieve rapid results and maximize growth in an innovative and profitable way.
This approach has worked for several startups, including Slack, which reached an impressive 500,000 daily active users . Here are six examples of growth hacking methods used by successful companies that should inspire you.
1 – Dropbox offered more storage space
Dropbox made its onboarding process more fun by offering existing customers more free storage space when they linked their Dropbox accounts to Twitter and Facebook. This method of acquiring new users and growing the business was completely free.
Also, the company offered incentives such as additional storage space for actions completed on Dropbox, such as file sharing, thereby encouraging consumers to use the service.
Note that Dropbox remains one of the best-known examples of sponsorship marketing. The main benefit of the program was that it worked for both the business and the customers .
2 – Airbnb, a perfect example of innovation in growth hacking
The company's founders realized that people looking for alternative accommodations frequently used Craigslist. To take advantage of this opportunity, they've made it easy to copy their Airbnb listings to Craigslist with just one click , including verification, and publishing. In this way, they were able to ensure exposure to a wider audience and build a large customer base.
Some growth hacks are so simple that you can't believe how effective they can be.
This also shows that there is no fixed rule. Different hacks can give you different results, you just need to have a high level of creativity.
3 – Hotmail and its little message
Hotmail used a simple tip consisting in adding a signature line to each email sent by the user , inviting recipients to register for a free e-mail account. This is all that it took for the company to go from zero to 12 million customers in just 18 months .
By the way, the message said: “PS: Love you. Get your free email at Hotmail.”
In fact, this is one of the best examples of turning your consumers into free sellers . The post had a personal tone combined with the fact that it came from a friend rather than the company itself, leading more people to click.
4 – From growth hacking to LinkedIn
LinkedIn started in a known field and used the concept of professional networking. The idea was a success, so they started expanding into other areas, and you know the result! They launched paid services for what they did best , which is one of the reasons they boomed.
Note that LinkedIn has understood the benefits of using their platform beyond its core value proposition. They started paying attention to how people were using it and monetized it. This was the basis of his growth hacking strategy.
By the way, in this video, Yann Leonardi explains to you simply how to implement a growth hacking strategy:
5 – Dollar Shave Club added a little humor to its process
This company created a hilarious interactive video and used it to sell their service of sending new razor blades to their customers every month for $1. The video went viral, garnering 19 million views in just a few days and establishing the brand as a household name.
In fact, taking care of your existing customers will bring you new ones. But nothing beats adding a little humor . This can turn even the most boring topic into something with strong memorable value.
6 – Instagram has it all figured out
The platform came at the right time and provided exactly what the users wanted. It offered a user experience , and ease of use is its greatest value proposal to date. You all know that Instagram obtained 10,000 users in the early hours of its launch and has not stopped growing.
Having product-market fit is crucial to your growth. To create a product that people will want to share, you must first understand your customers' needs and expectations . You can get this information by doing a thorough research on the market.
Read also: 10 essential steps to prepare a successful webinar in 2025
7 – PayPal on classic
Paypal has taken advantage of the recommendations to develop its activity from 7 % to 10 % each day , but it had a cost. The incitement costs of customers to recommend other people were around 60 million dollars.
This is how Paypal experienced growth by word of mouth on instant messaging, blogs and emails. In addition, the company has teamed up with Ebay , thus opening the way to its growth.
The lesson to be learned from this? Growth hacking is not just about being original. Even adopting traditional methods can sometimes work wonders.
In summary, the growth hacking has several key advantages for start-ups, including an economic approach, rapid implementation, focus on growth, data-based analysis, user orientation, continuous innovation, flexibility, virality, optimization of the conversion rate and scalability. These creative and results-based methods help start-ups achieve rapid and effective growth by maximizing the use of their limited resources.
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