We can’t tell you how thrilled we were when we got Patrick Vlaskovits and Casey Armstrong, two world known growth hacking experts, to come to Lisbon and give their insightful workshop on Growth Hacking for startups.

So, what is growth hacking all about?

Why is it crucial for any startup to succeed?

Well, because nothing sells itself. So, don’t expect to grow your user base just because you started a blog and by refreshing your google analytics every 2 seconds… There’s a bunch of things you can do to boost your growth and make your product go viral. Here’s what we’ve learned:

1. The first Growth Hack of all time (and it’s not what you think)

Patrick Vlaskovits started the day by giving us an inspiring talk on what is Growth Hacking and telling us about one of the first growth hacks in history by a company called, Tupperware. Yes, you heard it right. So, how did Tupperware make housewives go crazy about it? By throwing house parties for them where they explained how tupperware worked. Boom! Increased number of sales and nothing was ever the same.

2. Nothing sells itself. The medium is the message!

Both Casey and Patrick kept on saying that ‘the medium is the message’. It doesn’t matter if you build a kick-ass product if people don’t know anything about it. Nothing sells itself. You need a plan of action for when you launch. Think of where your target is and get them on board by using the right channels. It’s not what you do, it’s why you do it.

3. Innovation needs context and innovative channels

Disruptive businesses can’t just go for traditional marketing and existing channels. You’re doing something that nobody has done before so why market it like all other businesses before you? You need to innovate in how you communicate too. First of all, you need to provide context. It’s just like Patrick said: “innovation without context does a violence that creates disconnect”. Explain your product by using new channels and hijack your audience - that’s what’s growth hacking is all about.

4. You won’t get a hockey stick just with paid marketing

Some people only see paid marketing as action and consequence, that if you invest a certain amount of money you’ll get x in return. So, according to this logic if you spend a lot of money in ads and paid campaigns you’ll get the growth your startup needs. Well, not necessarily. Paid marketing won’t get you a hockey stick. If that’s your goal you need to do it organically.

5. Know the basic psychology principles to better engage your customers

Know basic psychology to better reach your customers - understand the triggers. With this in mind Casey showed us Robert Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Influence: 1. Reciprocity; 2. Commitment and Consistency; 3. Social Proof; 4. Authority; 5. Liking; 6. Scarcity. Write these down somewhere and remember it every time you engage with your audience.

6. How to write better emails for your target audience

We’re always trying to write better emails, it’s an art all entrepreneurs insist on perfecting, and there’s good reason to it. As an email expert, Casey gave us a few tips for email marketing, also according to the 6 Principles of Influence we talked before. You need to understand your target and speak the same language - create empathy and grow a community. One of the examples he gave us was that he added to a few emails some replies he got from customers saying how much they loved those weekly emails and then commented on it. Even though the emails were for a mailing list they had a real personal touch. Another thing we talked about was giving access to discounts and giveaways - makes the users feel like they belong to a community and that it’s exclusive. Oh and for some reason, adding a ‘P.S.’ makes people read it and click on it pretty much every single time.

7. Get the right partners - and how to get them on board

According to Patrick, the easiest growth hack for startups is partnerships. Look out for interesting partners that can increase your traffic and user base, and reach out to them. But how? Well, email is the way to go. Patrick gave the audience some cool tips on how to nail an email to a partner. First, be specific about what you ask, then think about what’s in it for your partner, provide context for others, remind him or her that you share an audience, and reduce risk (winners win). Oh and there’s also Patrick’s evil little trick for email subjects: adding ‘RE:’ so that it looks like the person already responded - it might be really annoying for the person you’re emailing though.

8. Hacking contacts is easier than you thought

We talked a lot about email, but how can you get the contacts in the first place? Casey told us all about the tools he uses to hack pretty much every single email address on earth. Check out Connectifier or Rapportive and get the contacts you need in one easy step.

9. Pop ups are annoying but they work

Yeah we complain a lot about pop-ups but, truth is, they convert pretty well. Try using Qualaroo to create pop-ups and let us know how did it go.

We really hope these tips help you boost your startup’s growth. Thanks to all those who made it to the workshop and specially to Patrick and Casey for joining us in Lisbon and answering all our questions. Now, go ahead and hack your way to the top.

And for more of these workshops apply to our accelerator for tech startups, Lisbon Challenge until July 12th, and to Beta-Start our pre-accelerator for first time founders until July 31st.