Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing

by Andrew Chen Read the Original

Growth hackers, with their hybrid of marketing and coding skills, have become the go-to professionals in the age of superplatforms like Facebook and Apple. Airbnb has proven the power of their mindset in action with their successful integration of Craigslist, leveraging a unique URL, scraping and limited HTML to create a great listing experience. This shows the importance of having a strong distribution strategy to reach millions of customers.

Growth hackers are a hybrid of marketer and coder, leveraging A/B tests, landing pages, viral factors, and more to maximize product success. The rise of superplatforms (Facebook, Apple) present huge opportunities for new products to reach millions of users quickly. Airbnb is an example of this mindset in action, leveraging first-to-market advantages for strong clickthrough and conversion rates. “Rather than a VP of Marketing with a bunch of non-technical marketers reporting to them, instead growth hackers are engineers leading teams of engineers.” The role of marketing is changing, and now requires a technical expertise to create successful campaigns. Growth hackers have the necessary skillset to bridge the gap between marketing and engineering.

Airbnb has created an impressive ad-hoc integration with Craigslist with no public API, using a unique URL that stores listing info, scraping geographical regions, and limited HTML for a great listing experience. “The fastest way to spread your product is by distributing it on a platform using APIs, not MBAs.” Reaching millions of customers requires a strong distribution strategy. Utilizing platforms and APIs is a more effective and efficient way to achieve this goal than relying on traditional channels like MBAs.

Marketing is shifting from people-centric to API-centric activities as platforms like Facebook and Apple provide access to millions of customers. Growth hackers embody the hybrid between marketer and coder needed to thrive in this age. Airbnb has an impressive Craigslist integration, demonstrating the importance of having a strong distribution strategy. "Having a strong distribution strategy is essential to reach millions of customers." Distribution is the most important factor in reaching a large customer base. Companies must develop a plan to reach customers through multiple outlets and platforms.