This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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How can I 3X my subscription service? How can I triple it? Not just grow a little bit. Not just double, 3X. That is the challenge presented by today's caller.
And welcome back to Side Hustle School. It's Chris Guillebeau, your host. This question comes from a caller in Toronto. She's been lighting up lives with her subscription service for candles, stationery, and other cozy home goods. I love a good cozy product.
I'm all about the value of cozy. In just six months, she has seen her business grow steadily, but now she's ready to turn it up further and triple that subscriber base. So I like the challenge, not just grow a little bit, but grow a lot. Many side hustlers tend to reach a point where they have to make a decision like, am I happy where I am? Do I want to grow steadily?
Or do I want to sprint and really take off? So let's talk about the differences between steady growth and growth hacking, which is, you know, basically what our listener wants to do here. I'll give you some practical actionable strategies that can set your subscription numbers on fire. But I mean that in a very positive way, just to clarify, not burn them down, like actually increase the numbers. Okay, detailed question coming up after this message from our sponsor.
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Hello, I'm Elena from Toronto. I'm the founder of a subscription service offering candles, stationary, and other soft phone goods. In the past six months, I've seen steady growth, but my goal is to triple my subscriber base. I discovered side hustle school through a friend, and it's been a great resource. Could you help me understand the difference between steady growth and growth hacking, and provide some actionable strategies to significantly boost my subscriber numbers?
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Okay, let's unpack this a bit here. Imagine your business growth like a journey, and your steady growth, your normal growth is like hiking. It is consistent, measured, it's relatively predictable. Specifically, you're looking at building customer loyalty, refining your product, gradually increasing market share. So it's basically about long-term relationships and sustainable practices.
Growth hacking, it's a little bit more like hopping on a rocket ship. So it's all about speed and innovation, sometimes with unconventional methods, think outside the box marketing, think leveraging technology, perhaps with AI, although growth hacking's been around long before AI, and sometimes making bold moves that can grab attention fast. With growth hacking, you really want to understand what are the triggers that are increasing revenue? What are the triggers that are driving my e-commerce sales, driving my subscriptions, driving whatever it is I'm trying to achieve, whatever the metric is, the number of Instagram followers, if that's your goal. And remember, you can only have maybe two goals, right?
You should have like two really clear goals. These are the things I want to increase. And with growth hacking, you're really figuring out what are the things that drive those particular metrics. And then you put everything you can into those, you kind of double down, triple down into that. Collaborations, referral programs tend to be really big.
For growth hacking, there's tools like referral candy, other things that will kind of reference other subscribers, like I'm gonna send you a bunch of subscribers, you send me a bunch of subscribers, sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Limited time offers, creating a sense of urgency. Email marketing, going pretty hard into that can definitely be a big thing. So as part of growth hacking, here's a practical step for you. You really need to be familiar with analytics, tools like Google Analytics or others that will help you understand where the traffic comes from and what drives conversions.
Because if you don't have that information, you can't be a growth hacker, basically. Like you need to really understand that so that you can then put your energy towards those things. And if you don't like that, if any of that stresses you out or makes you anxious, just to speak to some of our other listeners out there who are like, "Wow, I don't want a 3X. "This sounds like a lot of risk and a lot of work." Totally understand. That's why there is this alternative, which is just slow and steady.
So you always have to do what's best for you. But here with Elena, she's like, "I'm into it." So let's help her fuel that rocket ship. Get ready for liftoff. Let's see those subscriber numbers soar. That's my wish.
That's my hope, let us know how it goes. Listeners, if you have a question, a scenario, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Of course, a new episode every day, seven days a week, always completely free. Get it wherever you like to listen to podcasts. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
