photo-1452915858640-325b467fe554We all want an easier, softer way, especially when we want to do something like build podcast subscribers, app downloads, website visits, etc. But there is an entire business-within-a-business that preys on the hopes and dreams of those looking to grow their business. Jay Acunzo, on Medium, pretty much nails the CHARLATAN MOVEMENT that has become content marketing, growth hacking and building podcast subscribers. That movement promises insane returns from minimal effort. They promise that growth hacks can overcome actual work. The funny thing is, technology is a growth hack. That’s what we do. But that doesn’t mean it is any easier to get people to move from a social connection to a subscriber or a customer. Here’s a quote from Jay’s post:

Now, keep in mind that results may vary slightly here, but I’m confident that if you try this, you’re at least bound for half the results I got and also definitely a TED Talk.(Okay, fine, maybe a TEDx Talk, but it’d be, like, a REALLY good one.) Without further ado…here is a 100% true story of how I “hacked” the system…

Fun story. The silver bullet is called perseverance. Sharing your podcast (or app, or whatever) on all the social networks is chump change. Getting a huge and relevant audience, and engaging them, is table stakes. Measuring their interactions and collecting data from all of the above gets you in the game.
Here’s the Growth Hack for the Conversion Flow:
a) Pull the interactions from the tweets, shares, likes, etc
b) Look them up on LinkedIn or FB or other places where you get their email or other places to connect
c) Add them to your email list or other outreach
d) Send them a really great incentive for subscribing AND sharing that email with their networks
e) Thank them profusely for subscribing and thank them in advance for spreading the word or commenting on the podcast
f) Rinse and Repeat
Again, perseverance. The automation for building the audience, curating the content, creating the custom posts, and distributing it to millions saves a lot of time. That time now needs to be spent on conversion.