Lately, I have been seeing a lot of people talking about growth hacks. These are little tricks that you discover that launch you into the mainstream by creating a surge of user accumulation in a short time.

Plenty of businesses have been scrambling to hire on a growth hacker for their businesses ever since the term started to trend, and even I have been approached by some clients asking me about it where before they had never seemingly heard of it.

The problem – as I have explained to them – is that this method is actually, at the heart, an unscalable hack. But when I say this it usually causes more confusion than it alleviated, which sent me to Google to see what others had to say on the subject. I was shocked to discover only a couple of relevant article on the same concept, and at least two were bases around the technical design definition of the phrase.

The Definition of Unscalable Hacks

An unscalable hack is more or less a short term solution that may or may not yield results. It is usually a temporary solution to a problem that will only patch the original issue, or provide a momentary injection. Which is, to me, what growth hacking is in both theory and practice. It is a short term means of creating a growth surge before you move onto the next tactic.

The problem with this kind of solution in any context is that it is only beneficial if you truly do find that mystical strategy that makes it all worth it. The one that will be your ace in the hole, and boost you onto a new level where you can begin a whole new tactic for continued growth.

Now, I am not saying that unscalable hacks don’t have their place in a sound business strategy. Just look at the way Reddit used the gap created by Digg to sweep in, or Google+ leveraged invites to build hype (not that it helped them in the long run). These are examples of short term actions that really paid off.

All I am pointing out is that an unscalable hack (or growth hack, for that matter) mean nothing if you don’t have the juice behind it to keep things running past the point where it stops being effective – which can be a very small window of time, indeed. If you don’t see many results with that hack in the first place, it is just creating even more problems.

A Better Way To Do Things

If you manage to find that genie’s lamp, by all means, rub it.. Would LinkedIn have been successful if they hadn’t started off following a single minority elitist line within the niche? Probably not. But don’t put too much effort in thinking of wishes that you forget how many you have. The end result is going to be based on more than a good idea that launched you into the mainstream…once you get there, you have to stay there.

The best method of leveraging hacks is to apply them to already solid business and marketing models, and incorporate many sound ideas that will work alongside your genie. Don’t put everything you have behind it’s power, because it only has so much.

With that said, regardless of which growth hacks you are using, always top it off with:

• A sound SEO & content marketing strategy
• A well-planned email marketing strategy
• A well-executed social media marketing plan
• A well-organized customer relationship management system,
• A well-defined marketing toolset, etc.

What do you think about unscalable hacks? Are they worth taking the risk for the average business or site owner? Let us know in the comments.

Image by talha khalil from Pixabay

Video marketing has been rapidly growing over the years. Still, many companies are still shying away from it fearing large production and marketing budgets.

Fear not, the below tools are both effective and low-cost (some are completely free!) so you can start marketing on Youtube this year!

Video Marketing Research

Google

Here is the obvious place to start. Google isn’t just a connecting point for websites, it is a way to see the most popular people, places, topics, websites, and more. A simple search can give you a lot of information about what interests your audience, what your competitors are doing and who is dominating certain keywords. It will also show you where you are lagging, and what phrases may be worth dropping.

Google Autosuggest

Another way to use Google is to check out its autosuggest. When you begin typing something into the search box, it will give you a collection of popular keyphrases that are often searched for. You will get an instant look into what people want to know, and what keywords are worth researching further. You can also see what keywords are currently associated with your brand.

Do use our this free Bulk Suggest Tool that will give you an instant glimpse into what users are searching in your niche.

Cyfe

Cyfe is multi-purpose digital marketing platform that will help you on lots of levels. I use it as a curation tool connecting many sources and allowing me to see everything in one place. I use it to curate Twitter, niche blogs, keyword research tools, etc.

MyBlogU

MyBlogU is another invaluable research tool which also comes completely for free. Create a new project and its helpful users will send you ideas: What they would like to watch in your industry and which questions they’d want to be answered.

Twitter

In the same vein as MyBlogU, Twitter can be just as useful in establishing keyword trends across the world. Any social network technically has this ability, but Twitter is unique in that it is widely open platform with a live updating feed and search algorithm.

You will get a lot more information there than anywhere else. I am mostly fond of Twitter as a way of finding new concepts to exploit, and establishing new marketing tactics and campaigns. But you will also see what keywords are making it on the social realm, and often competitors wouldn’t have thought to apply those to search metrics.

BuzzSumo

Content is a major part of most marketing strategies these days. So, what is working best for your competitors? What about the topics you want to cover? Just do a search on BuzzSumo, and you can get a detailed look at all that, and a lot more. This is arguably the best keyword and topic research tool on the web right now. They also provide influencer research for social media marketing, and content alerts.

Create a Video

You can create cool professional videos using this online video editor: It requires no training and no expensive software. And the results are great!

Video Promotion

Viral Content Bee

Viral Content Bee is a great freemium tool that lets you put your content in front of eager social media sharers.

Just submit your video URL, select which networks you want to promote it and you’ll soon see it being shared all over the place. Great for traffic and views too!

YouTube Promoted Videos

YouTube is going to be your major platform, but also the hardest to break out on. You can get a boost using YouTube Promoted Videos. YouTube stars don’t get there over night, they work for years perfecting their videos and gathering followers. But now the site has a simpler way to get seen.

You can become one of their Featured Videos using their promoted content feature. Best of all, you choose your own budget and the advertising costs never go over that amount.

Finteza

It is a smart idea to use your own site to promote your videos. Using Finteza’s advanced web analytics suite you can build conversion funnels involving your videos.

You can also use this online form builder to generate leads from your videos and landing pages.

Publicizing

Youtube is not the only place to publish your video at. Here are more ideas:

Blip

Sometimes your best bet is launching yourself on a platform that has less competition. Blip is a good option, as it is both popular as a place to watch different web series (That Guy With The Glasses is hosted there, for example), but not so overcrowded as YouTube. They even have their own app for consoles, so they can be watched in multiple places. They don’t have the best advertising plan, but if you are looking to launch a full series or a number of videos, it is a great option.

Vimeo

A godsend for creative video creators, this website is really for the artists more than casual clips. They also have a number of promotion and profit generating ventures, including a tip jar that allows people to give you donations for your next project. Vimeo is very handy, and one of the biggest video hosting sites on the web.

Metacafe

Target your reach a bit more narrowly than you can with some other video websites using this classic. Metacafe has been around since 2002, and it has become well known for hosting high quality work and videos made by creative film makers. It doesn’t have as many visitors as YouTube, or the same artistic focus as Vimeo. But it is a nice, solid platform or those who are presenting more casual work to the world.

Are there more tools to promote your video? Please let me know by tweeting to @jessytroy

Bill Gates described the Internet as the “town square of a global village”.

It’s made the world seem a much smaller place, connecting roughly a third of the total population. And for small businesses it’s opened up huge opportunities.

Reaching potential customers in Sweden or South Africa is almost as easy as communicating with those across a (literal) town square.

But although national barriers are becoming less important, language barriers remain. The idea that everyone speaks English online is no longer the case.

In the last decade, the number of Arabic speakers has soared by 2501%, while Russian use has risen 1826%. This compares to just 301% for English-speaking users, according to Internet World Stats. And Chinese is soon set to take over as the dominant online language.

While only a quarter of users speak English, it accounts for roughly half of all web content. Although many people speak it as a second language, research by the Common Sense Advisory found that 85% of online consumers wanted information in their mother tongue before making a purchase.

This means monolingual companies and content marketers face a huge amount of competition to reach a dwindling proportion of users.

Getting your blog or website seen in the crowded English-speaking marketplace can seem an almost impossible task. In contrast, it’s much easier to climb the search engine rankings in foreign languages.

For small businesses, this means marketing in Portuguese or Japanese can be an easy way to win new customers. Whether you’re selling handmade jewellery or web design services, you can tap into demand all over the world. It might seem daunting at first, but here are a few tips on getting started.

1. Choose your markets

If you’ve already got a well-established website, the chances are you’re picking up visitors from other countries. There are plenty of free tools such as Google Analytics which can tell you where your web traffic is coming from.

But if you have a hunch that your ebooks or vintage clothing might be popular in Japan, then there are several ways to test the waters.

Start by translating your main keywords into the target languages, and use  tools such as Google Adwords to analyze the search demand and competition.

If you’re undecided, translating your homepage and information about your main products can give you a feel for the demand. If customers “bite”, then it’s worth translating the rest of the site.

Use your web analytics to identify countries that are driving your highest-quality traffic. Here’s a screenshot of Finteza reports on which locales are currently working well for a business:

2. Don’t get lost in translation

A little local knowledge goes a long way, especially in online marketing. While automatic translation tools offer an easy, free solution, they tend to produce over-literal results, with no awareness of context. It’s best to find native-speaking translators who can make sure your carefully written prose sparkles in the target language.

And don’t forget the value of appearing local. If you’re targeting French Canadian speakers, remember there are many differences from the language spoken in France. Getting the spelling or  vocabulary wrong can be jarring to readers. For example, Canadian shoppers magasiner while their Parisian friends faire les courses.

 3. Optimize and localize

Search engine optimization is the key to making sure customers can see your website. Localize your title tags and meta descriptions. Although translating your main keywords is a good start, it’s important to remember that direct translations aren’t always the best choices.

Italian searchers will often mix in English keywords – for example, using “voli low-cost” for “low-cost flights”. It’s a good idea to check your list of keywords with native speakers.

Search engines tend to prefer sites that appear to be local. Registering a top-level in-country domain name, such as .fr for France or .de for Germany, will help put you on an equal footing with local competition.

The good news is, there’s generally less competition for top-level domains in other languages. There’s a much better chance of securing the top prize of a website name with your main keywords, such as mykeywords.ru

It’s also worth considering speakers of other languages in your own country. BestBuy and Amtrak (as well as numerous smaller American companies) have seen huge surges in sales by targeting the growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States.

Use Text Optimizer (English and French) to identify key concept around your niche and craft your SEO strategy accordingly:

4. Make it easy for customers

The way we shop (online and offline) varies across cultures. Learning about local preferences can be a big part of persuading customers to buy.

While Americans love their credit cards, Germans tend to be wary of using them online, and often prefer bank transfers or invoices. The French still like to use checks, while PayPal is popular in many countries.

Research everything from consumer rights to postage costs before launching your site to avoid any surprises. For example, German consumers usually have no less than 90 days to complain and ask for a refund after purchase!

Fixing your slow site is another great way to get more customers, regardless the locale.

5. Hire international teams

I know it is easier said than done, but having people from other countries in your team will give you an insider’s perspective into those locales.

Fiverr allows you to see which countries freelancers are from, so does Upwork. Hiring international employees and freelancers is easier than ever.

Make it a good tradition to talk to all of them on a weekly basis and let them collaborate among one another. This is how your whole team will understand different cultures and regions better.

Setting up a cloud PBX system will allow you to effectively manage your international team and keep everyone aligned.

6. Be social!

Social media used to be seen as a fun way of passing the time, but not serious enough for business. Of course, this has changed, and companies of all sizes now find it’s an essential marketing tool. According to Maxwell Hertan of Megaphone Marketing,

The right social media marketing strategy can net your business MAJOR wins. Whether those wins are sales, sign-ups, leads, whatever. Social can do it for you.

And this isn’t just in the English-speaking world – more than half of tweets are in foreign languages.

It’s relatively easy to set up separate Facebook and Twitter feeds in different languages. If you don’t have the time or linguistic ability, hiring locally based social media managers can be an easy solution.

While these are the most popular worldwide, they aren’t the only ones. LinkedIn is a good way to reach the business community, while the Japanese love Mixi and Cyworld is wildly popular in South Korea.

Find  blogs and forums where you can share your interests. They’re great ways to pick up knowledge, share expertise and start to build your reputation.

It can be tough at first to find your footing in the international marketplace. But a little time and effort can put your small business on the path to global success.