Growth Hacking for Freelancers [Q&A]

Bronson Taylor, a serial product builder, founder of the awesome GrowthHacker.tv and former designer. All action as usual, we talked in and around adding value & building an online voice – and the starting points for moving into product creation.

Know what you love, and work towards it

Bronson advocates an approach of assessing what you really love doing.  In his case he “didn’t love client work”.  Ultimately, if you’re in business and consider yourself an “entrepreneur” one of the core advantages you have is the freedom to make your own rules.

Always be learning

With a history of several products, most of which resulting in failure Bronson has been able to learn from each, so a key takeaway here is that in any business situation you should always look to take away key insight, build the business experience you can call upon later down the line and don’t be afraid to jump right in.

Growth hacking for freelancers

Growth hacking is a relatively new term, normally found in the tech startup space.  I asked Bronson to break down his knowledge in the area.   Essentially the job of a growth hacker is to answer the question “given the resources we have, how can we go from A to B? “

This is really pertinent for all businesses, including your business as a freelancer.  Understanding how to build your marketing message and your product around an eventual vision (B point) is essential to your growth.

The first piece of the jigsaw is around building attention, exposing your audience to your message.   We’ve drawn out a visualisation below of the key takeaways from the “top of the funnel” aspect of growth hacking.  Essentially we’re looking to build traffic and obtain that exposure and there are three ways to do it.

Once you have their attention you can look to activate, engage with and retain your audience but the first stage is to build a sustainable army of visitors.

Have a genuine interest in subject area

In order to build an online voice that people respect and trust the key is to always add value.  “People like people who add value” says Bronson.   There is an amount of legwork required to build content that enhances your platform but this time and effort pays dividend down the line.

A key to building an online voice is simply “stepping up to the plate” and deciding that you are going to be at the centre of this online conversation online.

Keep your head in the clouds, but your feet on the ground

You’re trying to see the future other people don’t see, but you need to ensure your vision isn’t so big that it never makes todays ‘to-do’ list.  Without action your vision is useless.

Building a vision which has a strategy for execution enables you to break down the steps to get to your goal and ensure they make todays ‘to do’ list, ensuring you’re always doing whatever it takes to move the ball forward.

Enjoyed this one, apologies for the bad audio on my part I was travelling and had to dial in! You can find Bronson Taylor over at GrowthHacker.tv

Learn anything? Please share

By Liam Veitch @freelancelift