Growth hacking

Growth hacking

For almost 20 years, Google's search engine has been the go-to source for researching anything. But with the rise of generative AI, its stronghold is slipping. Consumers are increasingly turning to AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity when they have questions. According to a 2024 Ignite Visibility study, 62% of people now use ChatGPT or Google Gemini to explore products and services, showing that AI answers are quickly becoming the starting point for decisions.

Getting ready for a new business year is a crucial time. It presents the opportunity to reflect and make a list of a strategic changes to the way your company works. Small and simple tweaks in your approach can set your business up for sustainable growth and success. With so much in the pipeline and a lot to play for, it's worth getting the early preparations off to a strong start.

When you think about growing your business, it's natural to picture new customers, more sales, and bigger teams. But growth today looks a little different than you might be used to because it also involves making sure your people can work effectively with the systems you put in place. That balance is what makes the difference between growth that feels sustainable and growth that leaves everyone stretched.

Traditional marketing metrics can tell you what happened last month, but they're like my tarot cards when predicting the future-confusing, vague, and not always accurate. Fortunately, some marketing KPIs predict future growth, and the companies achieving 10x revenue growth have figured out which ones matter. In this deep dive, I'll share the 10 marketing KPIs that leading subscription businesses use to predict and scale revenue growth.

Some innovative products are designed to solve a specific pain point for consumers, while others will address a problem they don't even realize they have. Take soggy sandwiches, for example. A focus group wouldn't necessarily highlight the need for a cooler that keeps sandwiches from getting soggy-but once the problem was identified, it helped inform the design of Ninja's line of FrostVault coolers, according to Michelle Crossan-Matos, the chief growth officer of SharkNinja.

Most people give up too early, assuming that if they don't see numbers move right away, it means they're doing something wrong. James had been posting casually for years with little to show for it, but two focused months of daily posting flipped the switch. That's the power of consistency: It feels invisible at first, but eventually it snowballs in a way you can't predict.

Every marketing budget should have waste in it. If there's zero waste, the company isn't trying anything new - not experimenting with new channels, formats, measurement, tech or audiences. The team isn't creating the conditions where something new and valuable can emerge. The kind of growth that only shows up once outside of comfort zones, where things feel unfamiliar, risky, even a little scary.

Here's the reality entrepreneurs don't want to hear: sales need fixing first. Mike Michalowicz covers this in his book "Fix This Next." The majority of businesses have decent products and people, but they're not selling effectively. This truth became even more stark during the pandemic. McKinsey found that 70-80% of small businesses experienced 30-50% revenue drops between 2020 and 2021.

When an old friend and colleague of mine recommended the book "Growth Levers and How to Find Them," by Matt Lerner, I expected yet another business book that promised dramatic results within 100 pages and a quick two to three hour read. I'm talking about the kind of book that gets you all excited, only to leave you feeling deflated when you realize you can't influence your organization enough to make the necessary changes.

Trade shows and print ads brought in a trickle of interest, but most of those leads were unqualified. Follow-ups were slow, spreadsheets were messy, and opportunities were slipping away. But what if, within 90 days, that brand was able to sign franchise agreements in three new states without a single in-person meeting? By combining targeted social media lead generation with an automated CRM system, that outcome could be possible. Why? Scattered efforts would turn into a predictable, scalable growth engine.

You're known as the systems guy. Do you have a system for generating ideas when a business is stuck, or even starting to flatline? How can someone replicate that to breathe new life into their own business? Michalowicz: Absolutely. Idea generation is a skill, not a talent. And like any skill, it gets better with practice. The best way to start is by using a method to structure your brainstorming, especially when you're learning to flex that creative muscle.

One of Airbnb's most underappreciated competitive advantages is how it has quietly become a home for long-term travelers. In 2024, stays of 28 nights or more made up 18% of gross nights booked, according to company filings. That's not a small niche -- it's nearly one in five stays. This trend aligns with broader shifts in how people work and live. Remote and hybrid work have unlocked new flexibility, allowing millions to combine travel with their professional lives.

Every new idea depended on our engineers, and our internal requests were piling up faster than we could clear them. We were adding new people to our company every week, but our engineering team was underwater. Every new feature, every minor internal tool, every process tweak depended on our developers. We were hiring as fast as we could, but it felt like shoveling sand against the tide.

Big companies have full teams: marketing departments, content writers, designers and salespeople all working together to grow the brand. But solopreneurs and small business owners don't have that kind of support. Sometimes it's just one person, or maybe a part-time virtual assistant or freelance copywriter. That's why using AI tools isn't just helpful - it's necessary. With the right AI systems in place, small teams can get more done, move faster and compete with bigger players without needing a big budget or staff.

Apollo.io analyzed 404,823 real sales activities targeting CMOs using Pythia, Apollo's proprietary language model trained on billions of B2B sales interactions. The findings completely shatter conventional C-suite wisdom. CMOs don't just move fast - they move at negative speed. This data reveals the massive gap between optimal and terrible timing. Send at the wrong hour? Your open rate drops by 42%. But nail the timing, and you're already ahead of 90% of your competition.

This isn't another "AI tool." It's ChatGPT's new Agent - a fully autonomous virtual worker that can predict trends, reverse-engineer your competitors and even scan your Instagram for untapped revenue hiding in forgotten DMs. In this video, you'll see exactly how solopreneurs are using it to run profitable one-person businesses on autopilot - replacing tasks that once took entire teams.

Constant growth and scaling are probably the dream of any modern entrepreneur. This stimulates an increase in the customer base and orders, and as a result, allows the company to generate more revenue. However, achieving these goals requires a lot of effort using relevant tactics. Don't focus on what worked in the past. Instead, use only tested strategies that have proven their effectiveness nowadays. As a small spoiler, we would like to advise you to focus on promoting online sales channels, implementing enterprise AI solutions, and expanding your product range as your capabilities grow. Where to look for new opportunities? How to expand your company? We will try to answer these questions in detail in this article, sharing with you the five best strategies for company growth in 2025!

Substack's bet that writers want the platform to provide a community just as much as distribution appears to be paying off in 2025. Five newsletter creators who moved their operations over to Substack from other platforms such as Patreon and Beehiiv in the past year told Digiday that their following - and revenue - had grown since they made the jump, directly crediting Substack community tools such as co-livestreaming and recommendations for the subscriber boost.

Generic prompts don't make you money. They give you generic ideas that everyone else is using. To build a successful business in a short space of time, you need prompts that force you to think differently. Your current thoughts, words and actions have got you here. But to build the business of your wildest dreams, you need to operate at the next level up. ChatGPT can help.

I've been in the entrepreneurship game long enough to spot when something big is coming. And I'm telling you right now: I believe biohacking isn't just another wellness fad. It's a legitimate business strategy that's giving smart entrepreneurs a massive competitive edge. The numbers don't lie: why entrepreneurs need this now Eighty-seven percent of entrepreneurs deal with mental health issues versus just 48% of regular people. But here's the real kicker - it's not just stress. I think it's about trying to maintain peak performance while your body systematically breaks down under the demands of building something meaningful.

For the ambitious entrepreneur, there is an ever-growing list of exciting new sector opportunities to explore, especially in growth industries with billion to trillion-dollar valuations.

I walked away from what was familiar and comfortable to chase something completely different, something uncertain, but deeply exciting. It wasn't just about switching careers. It was about choosing growth over routine, purpose over predictability.