Reddit mentions of Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising

It's not just gaming journalism, it's all modern journalism.

Ryan Holiday - Read his books.

https://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-Manipulator/dp/1591846285?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

For social media you should check out different company blogs. Those are really helpful. I like the Buffer and Hootsuite blogs a lot.

But books are way better than online websites

For marketing you should read Traction by Gabriel Weinberg

Ryan Holiday's Growth Hacker Marketing and Trust Me, I'm Lying are insanely informative and fun to read.

Definitely check out growth hacking. Here's a great book on it that explains what it is and gives examples how popular companies implemented it:

Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591847389/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_puSMwbTR1CNBB

Everything starts w/ making a good product

Marketing

• Find a niche, go to where they go and target them with thoughtful cool posts like /u/koleraa and /u/ccrama said. Be real, responsive, and follow up
  
• This works better for apps than games b/c you can engage ppl in problem solving your app, but I'm sure there are gamer communities
  
• For a game you might need more of a "stunt", read Growth Hacker Marketing for ideas here
  
  Don't have a "leaky bucket"
  In normal words: make sure ppl who install your game have a good experience right away and come back. Set up analytics so you can track this. If you are failing, work on the game and don't market yet. You should watch all of these free Y Combinator online startup classes, but #6 is most relevant here.
  Design the game to be viral
  This is where you've got it easier than normal apps, games can be designed to share and engage other users. I recommend reading Hooked for ideas on how to build a habit forming app that ppl will want to share. NOTE: annoying tricks don't work and no one wants that.
  
  Crossing the Chasm is less relevant to a game but an insightful classic on the old "how do I develop a market for a technology product".
  
  All of these strategy require focused and consistent effort to have a chance. I'm in the same boat you are so hopefully we can make something happen :)
  
  BTW I'd be happy to share my notes on all these books if ppl are interested.

I wouldn't call these methods growth hacking. True growth hacking starts with the actual product/service and builds the marketing into it. This is sometimes referred to as a "viral loop". The classic example is Dropbox's referral program, which rewards a user with more file space, if they refer a friend. Dropbox gets the initial user to market their product, a new user, plus the initial user now has more space, so they're potentially using the product more than they were prior to the referral. The key here is that the focus of the viral loop is totally on the product (free advertising, increased user count, increased product engagement).

It's a brilliant tactic when done right.

If you're interested in a basic guide, I'd recommend this book by Ryan Holiday.

• Good one and any others from the author https://www.amazon.com/Marketers-Are-Mars-Consumers-Jersey/dp/1508977119
  
• Book https://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389, also he has some courses in marketing field

Hello hackpro,

Couple things I would initially suggest. Read these 2 books:

1.) The Blue Ocean Strategy: A "red ocean" is a market where a product or service is already manifested, aka saturated or even oversaturated. A "blue ocean" is walking into that market and changing the game. This book has a TON of great tips and mindset pointers when trying to do what you do. Here is the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Expanded-Uncontested/dp/1625274491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459345146&sr=8-1&keywords=blue+ocean+strategy

2.) Growth Hacker Marketing: This book is just plain awesome. I have read it 3 times. It goes through quite a few tactics to get your product/service visable and has some great case studies (dropbox, evernote etc.) showing how they made it with little to no marketing, but rather pushing their products via exclusivity and making smart calculated moves. Here is the amazon link for that:

http://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459345183&sr=8-1&keywords=Growth+hacker+marketing

Post the above 2 books - I would really try to niche market your product. If you do not have a budget for paid search or media, I would focus on finding small to medium communities, join those communities and talk about your product, get sugggestions from community members, offer free beta tests (not sure what your product is, but you mentioned dropbox so I am assuming its software related) etc. Then, move up to larger communities/bloggers etc.

Content is king. Make TONS of content about your product (articles, video, etc.) and get it in cycle in your focus niche. I would focus on a message that sets you apart. You mentioned that the competition is mediocre, so in a creative "non bashing way" just highlight your strong points.

Just my initial $0.2 cents. If you have any deeper questions feel free to let me know.

-Rob

This should give you some direction. http://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389

I don't know if it's the link or the website, but I get a redirection...not the best for thrusting a website.

Wordpress (.org) is great just find a better theme and browse the plugins.
for example Louis vuitton is running on wordpress. There is a lot of multinationals using wordpress.
And do the updates !!! you're using wordpress 4.5.4, the last version is 4.7
You need a theme with a e-commerce integrated in it and a SSL certificate
in order to sell; I didn't get what you want to sell btw.

Also I hope you have a backup of your website!

Online Business query on youtube - Freemium is the trend you can find a lot of free tutorial to learn the basics of business on youtube.

Next I recommend some readings (not affiliate):
-The personnal MBA - Josh Kaufman
-Growth Hacker Marketing - Ryan Holiday

• This blog on growth hacking: https://www.hackisition.com/

Quick tips:

1 - Read some marketing/growth hacking books

https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Growth-Fastest-Growing-Companies-Breakout/dp/045149721X

https://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389

2 - Make your site more clear that you're selling earbuds. on the first impression, it looks like I can sponsor a Panda or similar.

3 - Work on your SEO more and create a favicon.

Great favicon generator for multiple platforms - https://realfavicongenerator.net/

4 - Since you're helping a charity contact local news, online blogs, charity outlets etc to get an article or a link...

5 - Create more site content. Really sell the reason why you're helping the Pandas and also why your earbuds are worth buying. Create a video to explain all this perhaps

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1. How do you recommend marketing a new product and company?
   
   There are tons of blog posts, books on this. No one here will give you a better answer in a comment then reading a well thought out blog post or book.
   
   ​
   
   
2. What is the best way to do targeted ads?
   
   I am learning this myself better. So no comment
   
   ​
   
   
3. How much money should I expect to spend on ads before I start seeing any sales?
   
   Same as above
   
   ​
   
   At the end of the day, it's just to keep pushing and stay positive, 1% progress a day and you should be happy.
   
   ​
   
   Best of luck with your business and for the future.

Other than the advice in my post, if you want a good intro into where marketing is headed, check out Growth Hacker Marketing.

Ryan Holiday came from a traditional marketing career (Director of Marketing at American Apparel) when he realized he had a lot to learn. A book ensued.

http://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1591847389 - this book is a quick and easy summary of some of the practices/tactics