Everything About Hockey Stick Growth Marketing

One common term used in startups and entrepreneurs is hockey stick growth.

I bet you heard this a few times but have you ever asked what it means?

  • Hockey Stick growth formula
  • Hockey Stick forecasting
  • Hockey Stick growth for startup
  • Hockey Stick Effect

Hockey Stick growth formula

Technically, the hockey stick formula is just an exponential formula used in climate estimation. Another variation of the hockey stick formula is the Verhulst equation, which was used to project explosive population growth that will be tapered off after a certain period.

An easy way to compute a hockey stick is just using a compounded formula.

  • Subscribers Growth % at end of Period  = (1 + Growth Rate)^ Period

Hockey Stick Forecasting

Given the formula, an example is trying to forecast 8 weeks of subscribers' growth given an estimated growth of 50% every week. 

  • Subscribers Growth % at the end of each week would be:
    • At end of Week 1 = (1+0.5)^1 = 1.5x
    • At end of Week 2 = (1+0.5)^2 = 2.25x
    • At end of Week 3 = (1+0.5)^3 = 3.38x
    • At end of Week 4 = (1+0.5)^4 = 5.06x
    • At end of Week 5 = (1+0.5)^5 = 7.59x
    • At end of Week 6 = (1+0.5)^6 = 11.39x
    • At end of Week 7 = (1+0.5)^7 = 17.09x
    • At end of Week 8 = (1+0.5)^8 = 25.63x

Hockey Stick growth for startup

The fact is that many startups experience flat growth when they start a business before they see any significant changes in revenue. They usually not grow for the first few months or years and this stagnant growth is recognized as the blade part of hockey sticks while the rapid growth they experience later is recognized as the handle.

To make it simple to understand, take this the shape of an inverted hockey stick. New startups usually experience stagnant growth for some time and once a certain point is reached, growth takes of astronomically. If this type of growth is charted in a graph, it will usually look like a hockey stick.

Hockey Stick Growth

The hockey stick growth of startups can take from a few weeks to years depending on the type of business and several other factors. Usually, it happens when you create a bulk of great content in a short period and Google takes time to find and rank them accordingly. The other kind of situation is due to viral videos, sudden awareness, or endorsement from a celebrity or the paid advertisement.

One question that most people have in mind is whether all companies experience hockey stick growth? The answer is ‘’No’’ as some companies have a constant upwards trail while other companies will see ups and downs as it thrives through.

Does hockey stick last forever?

Not, if you are wondering whether this effect will last forever then there are several things you have to note. The time it takes to break depends on several factors such as the

  • sustainability of growth (continuous great content); and
  • likability of content (do people come back?). 
After some time, the growth will start to taper off and flatten. What makes the difference is marketing penetration, competition, and the effects of saturation.

The effects of hockey stick marketing

As startups, we usually want to see our businesses pick up as fast as possible. The fact is that it doesn’t always work according to our expectations and hence there are several things we have to do to make it work fast.

I bet you already know that several frustrations are involved in starting a business. If you are not careful, these challenges can set you back. Apart from hanging the boots, you can hold on with the below strategies of achieving Hockley stick growth in your startup. 

With all that is needed to achieve more in the market, you will eventually position your business and end up getting a strong base. You just have to be a hard-working entrepreneur and be ready to learn the entrepreneurial trade. The fact is that the biggest problem that entrepreneurs have to overcome is confidence and self-doubt. With that in mind, then I am sure we can execute our biggest dreams.

To experience hockey stick growth today with money, there are a few things that you can do such as Facebook marketing

Facebook marketing

I bet you already know that on FaceBook alone, video views have topped the list. According to statistics, they have topped 8 billion views in a single day. This is the first thing that tells you something about the integral benefit of using video marketing. To start on this, you have to experience with crowd-sourced and original videos on all your communications platforms. There is evidence that videos are essential in future marketing. They give prospective customers a clear picture of the business. Videos are incredible tools for startups. However, to make this strategy useful, you have to keep your videos short, sweet, and relevant.

Track your data and analyze it

Starting with social media marketing is very easy. If you haven't started on one, then there’s room for you to start today. However, when you are starting, you just have to commit yourself to some basic social media marketing strategies. You can start with Facebook marketing because it is simple and effortless to try. However, through all this process, the marketer should keep the data about the audience size, the organic reach of your post, and the engagement rate. You also have to analyze this data to see whether you are making any progress with time.

Keeping track of this data puts you in a better position to determine which contents attract a good number of people and which are shared the most. After that, it's upon you to tweak the content based on the data.

Be aggressive when you are starting

Most people will tell you that aggressiveness will never pay, but I say there’s a lot of things attributed to aggressiveness. It pays when you are marketing your business at this time. If all that you want is to experience hockey stick growth within the shortest time possible, then the first thing that should cross your mind is achieving all that it takes to scale the business. You have to be working late hours. It also pays to keep on moving when everybody else around you says no.

In this case, you don’t have to see your aggression as a negative thing. It is something that will pay off eventually. Top entrepreneurs today will tell you that they have to be aggressive to achieve what they have today.

The bottom line

Nobody said that you have to wait for years for your business to achieve hockey stick growth. One thing I believe in is that when you are starting, the possibilities are endless. With the above tips, achieving hockey stick growth will be very simple. So don’t worry while you are starting, you just need to be active and appreciate any good thing that comes your way.

Efforts have been made to get the information as accurate and updated as possible. If you found any incorrect information with credible source, please send it via the contact us form
Author: Sky Hoon
Website Builder. He has a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and loved to use technology to solve the world's issue, one at a time. For now, trying to blog for a living.
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