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He’s an entrepreneur, he’s a speaker, he’s a growth hacker, he’s Vincent Dignan. Whether it’s digital marketing or his unique stylish wardrobe, he knows how to make a splash. In this exclusive interview, he shares his startup growth tips.
As mentioned on his website, Vincent helps early-stage companies through a combination of rapid social media growth, guerrilla community management tactics, and growth hacks which have seen companies go from zero to thousands of signups/followers/users virtually overnight- so “hacking” is his specialty.
Early in his career, he launched 2 digital magazines that got over 1,000,000 visitors per month and from that point on people wanted to know his secret sauce and startup growth tips. Vincent went from digital magazine to growth-hacker at that point.
He founded Planet Ivy and Screen Robot. They received nearly 20 million page views without any paid marketing spend.
His first book was released with a bang on Indiegogo and has raised over $100,000. It offers some incredible insights for growth. In the book, Vincent shares a story he created for a marketing play on Indiegogo that allowed him to narrow down who he is talking to and where to find that audience type. It’s powerful stuff.
“It’s all about continually talking to your users and understanding them inside out. When you do that you don’t launch products that fail.”
On a personal note, I came across Vincent and his work during Neil Patel’s Virtual Summit which led me to reach out and connect with this interview.
Some of the topics we discuss:
- What is a key organic traffic solution that you should be using?
- What social network is working the best for him today?
- Should you use bot software?
- How should you approach social media and how many platforms should you be on?
- What are some core steps to take to reach your first 1,000 customers?
- How can you do market research if you don’t already have an audience?
- How many posts per day per platform should you share?
- Should you pay people for promotion?
- How should you approach a shoutout on Instagram and why?
- What is Vincent’s new coaching group about and how can it help you?
- Should you invest in paid traffic on Facebook? What percent of ads fail?
- How can you build a content website up to 1,000,000 readers per month?
- Should you be guest blogging?
Interview Transcript (not word for word)
We talked to growth hacking expert and co-author of Secret Sauce, Vincent Dignan to learn some tips on what does it take to get traffic if you’re just starting up your business. In this exclusive interview, he shares his startup growth tips.
Starting a Company
How did he start in his career?
Vincent Dignan is an entrepreneur, growth hacker, and speaker.He helps companies who are at their early stages to build audiences and get traction. He did a 45-day speaking tour around the US. He’s also one of the author of the book “ Secret Sauce: The Ultimate Growth Hacking Guide “ that did really well on Indiegogo.
He began started launching two magazines that got hundred million visitors a month. From online magazine to growth hacking and copywriting magazine, the Secret Sauce which was basically on Twitter, which he found as the best growth hacking machine. They could drive traffic from the copy they write and also because they have so many followers.
Key takeaway:
Success is a process. From the lessons you learn, you can tailor everything so you can go straight to the right path.
Growing a Company
Effective tips when starting diving into the digital sphere?
Continually asking your customers a question is the best strategy. Like what problems do you have? What would you want me to create for you? What would you actually buy?
An important question to keep.in mind.
Then it didn’t work try to ask why they didn’t buy it? A follow-up email. Continually talking with the people and understanding them.
Use some of the social media tools available, but not all. Find out the best platform to work with: for a physical product, it could be on Instagram. For consulting, Facebook groups is what he recommends. Recruitment use LinkedIn. For startup niche, Twitter could be your best platform.
Paying for shout-outs is okay especially for those who are starting.
Key takeaway:
There are no exact steps to be successful in digital sphere but one thing is for sure it’s about knowing your audience and know how to talk to them
Sustainability of a Company
Best tool to use to sustain digital presence?
Find out the best platform to work with, for a physical product it could be on Instagram. For consulting, Facebook groups is what he recommends. Recruitment, LinkedIn. For startup niche, Twitter could be your best platform.
Add everyone you can on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and dumped them to a community, like FB groups, LinkedIn groups. And start to engage them. One of the pieces of advice he received about being successful in this industry for free is using social media.
He suggested LinkedIn is the rising tool to use and he approved that it did really well. Quora and Instagram, and Facebook Group also help.
Key takeaway:
Know what’s the best social media tool to use.
In Conclusion
Vincent Dignan is an entrepreneur, growth hacker and speaker. He helps companies who are at their early stages to build audiences and get traction. He did a 45-day speaking tour around the US. He’s also one of the authors of the book “ Secret Sauce: The Ultimate Growth Hacking Guide “ that did really well on Indiegogo.
He launched two magazines that got hundred million visitors a month. From an online magazine to growth hacking and copywriting magazine, the Secret Sauce is basically on twitter, it’s the best growth hacking machine.
In his interview, he also said that to find out the best platform to work with. For example, for a physical product, it could be on Instagram. For consulting, Facebook groups is what he recommends. Recruitment, LinkedIn. For startup niche, Twitter could be your best platform.
He also recommended that being aggressive on following people, putting good content, get influencers to shout you out and post about 3-4 posts a day on your platforms, can make you succeed. Being consistent will make your success on this competition. And, paying for shout-outs is okay especially for those who are starting.
He concluded the interview by recommending the best platform that can help you succeed organically, he said LinkedIn which he saw that it did really well in his campaigns. He also added Quora and Instagram, and Facebook Group also as a helpful tool.
For more information about Vincent Dignan, visit him at http://www.vincentdignan.com/
