Growth hacking

What is growth hacking?

Growth hacking is about driving explosive growth through creative, data-driven, and often unconventional methods. You combine traditional marketing with systematic experiments so you can quickly figure out what works—and, just as importantly, what doesn’t. It’s an approach where you constantly test, measure, and adjust until you find the strategy that delivers the greatest impact per krone invested.

Although growth hacking originated in the startup community, both small and large companies use it today to experiment without the risks and costs that traditional marketing can entail. In practice, this typically involves close collaboration between marketing, data, and product development. Therefore, you’ll work not only on campaigns but also on improving the user experience itself and the product’s ability to spread organically.

It differs from traditional marketing in that you don't necessarily follow a set plan. You formulate hypotheses, test them quickly, and eliminate underperforming strategies. This means that data becomes a natural part of the decision-making process—whether you're working with SEO, social media, or design optimization.

How do you use growth hacking?

You use growth hacking by combining experimentation, data analysis, and creative problem-solving. Each activity is based on a specific goal—typically to increase user numbers, improve retention, or create viral growth. The process involves developing many small ideas, testing them with minimal investment, and scaling the initiatives that show positive results.

Example of a typical growth hacking process:

In other words, growth hacking allows you to treat your marketing budget as a laboratory. You’re constantly on the lookout for opportunities to optimize across channels—from email automation and paid social media ads to organic SEO and content creation. Because these processes are based on data and rapid iteration, you can adjust your strategy on the fly without wasting resources.

That's why you should use growth hacking

Growth hacking is particularly effective when you want to achieve growth quickly and on a limited budget. This makes the method ideal for startups and small businesses that need to validate their concept and find a sustainable growth path. But larger organizations can also use growth hacking to test new ideas alongside their existing marketing strategy.

This method helps you maximize customer acquisition and retention by finding smart, often automated ways to engage users. You focus on creating value at every stage of the customer journey rather than simply increasing traffic volume. It aligns naturally with data-driven disciplines such as digital strategy and performance marketing, where you measure specific KPIs such as conversion rate, sign-ups, and engagement rate.

With a growth hacking approach, you can also build flexibility into your organization. Instead of long planning cycles, you’ll adopt a mindset that rewards rapid learning and cross-functional collaboration. This means that marketing, design, and development all work toward the same goal: continuous growth based on data and insights.

What types and varieties are available?

Growth hacking encompasses several types of tactics, which vary depending on your business model and target audience. Some methods focus on leveraging existing users as a growth channel, while others rely on the product experience or content as the primary driver.

• Viral and referral marketing: You encourage users to share or refer friends in exchange for rewards. This can be done through discount codes, points, or extra features.
• Product-led growth: You use the product itself as a marketing channel, often with free features or integrations that increase its value to users.
• Content and SEO: You attract traffic through value-driven content and automation that drive organic growth without large advertising budgets.
• Incentive-based tactics: You incorporate small viral hooks that drive sharing, for example through gamification or clear calls to action in emails.

The choice between the different types depends on where you are in the growth phase and what resources you can allocate. Many choose to combine multiple approaches to leverage the synergy between organic and paid growth.

How do you use growth hacking in practice?

In practice, you start with a clear understanding of the target audience and its behavior. You identify the most important touchpoints in the customer journey and design experiments that can improve the experience at those specific points. For example, you can test whether a new onboarding sequence increases the activation rate, or whether personalized email marketing improves retention.

You measure the impact on an ongoing basis using key metrics such as user acquisition, churn, and lifetime value. When you see signs of improvement, you optimize further and scale up your efforts. The combination of automation and an experimental approach makes it possible to grow continuously without increasing the budget proportionally. That’s why people also say that growth hacking bridges the gap between marketing and product development.

When working with growth hacking, it’s a good idea to integrate tools from other digital disciplines—such as marketing automation, CRO, and SEO—to create a comprehensive, data-driven growth strategy.

What should you keep in mind?

Growth hacking requires a high degree of agility and a culture that allows for mistakes. Not all experiments succeed, and that’s exactly the point. You learn from each attempt and use those insights to improve the next iteration. It also requires robust governance to ensure that data collection and analysis are conducted correctly, so that your decisions are based on valid results.

You should also be careful not to confuse rapid growth with sustainable growth. Growth hacking works best when the experiments support a clear business goal and a solid brand strategy. When this approach is combined with strong branding, user-friendly design, and a targeted content strategy, you’ll achieve results that not only grow quickly—but also last over the long term.