What's the Difference Between Digital Marketers and Growth Hackers?

The difference between digital marketers and growth hackers is a topic that has been debated by many experts and practitioners in the field of online marketing. There is no definitive answer, as both terms are somewhat vague and overlapping, but there are some general distinctions that can be made.

Digital marketing uses digital channels and technologies to promote and market a product or service. This can include a range of tactics such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, content marketing, and more. The goal of digital marketing is to reach a wider audience and drive engagement and sales through targeted, data-driven campaigns. Digital marketing allows businesses to reach and engage with customers where they are spending more and more of their time: online. It also allows for more precise targeting of marketing efforts, as digital channels provide a wealth of data that can be used to better understand and serve customers’ needs.

Growth hacking is a term that was first coined by Sean Ellis in 2010. It refers to the use of unconventional marketing tactics and techniques to quickly and efficiently grow a business. Growth hacking is often associated with startups, as they need to find creative and low-cost ways to acquire and retain customers in a competitive market. Growth hacking focuses on finding the most effective and scalable ways to grow a business, often by experimenting with different channels, strategies, and tools. Growth hacking relies on data-driven results, as growth hackers constantly measure, test, and optimize their methods to achieve the best outcomes.

Some of the main differences between growth hacking and digital marketing are:

1. Marketing is about generating leads and sales, while growth hacking attempts to grow a business.
2. Growth hacking focuses on iterative processes to rapidly accelerate growth, at every stage of the marketing funnel.
3. The purpose of growth hacking is to increase productivity across an organization, not only in marketing.
4. While growth hackers focus on the whole sales funnel, digital marketing focuses on the acquisition of consumers.
5. Growth hackers rely on data-driven results by consistently measuring, testing and optimizing methods used, while digital marketers use assumptions to optimize their next process.
6. Digital Marketing focuses on capturing new customers, converting them, and engaging them effectively to boost retention rates for the company, while Growth Hacking is about how you can further use your existing customer base to drive referrals & additional revenues.

Of course, these differences are not absolute, and there is a lot of overlap and synergy between growth hacking and digital marketing. Both fields require creativity, analytical skills, and a customer-centric approach. Both fields also use similar tools and platforms, such as social media, email, SEO, and analytics. In fact, some experts argue that growth hacking is not a separate discipline, but rather an evolution or a subset of digital marketing.

In conclusion, growth hacking and digital marketing are two related but distinct fields of online marketing. They have different goals, strategies, and methods, but they also share some common elements and principles. Depending on the context and the objectives of a business, both fields can be useful and effective in achieving growth. I hope this helps you understand the difference between digital marketers and growth hackers.