There’s a lot of marketing books out there.

Some are useful, some are useless, and most are somewhere in the middle.

There’s one that I think a lot of fellow marketers and small business owners will find very useful.

It’s called the “Growth Hacker’s Guide to the Galaxy“.

I was given an advance copy and had the opportunity to sit down with one of its co-authors, Jeff Goldenberg, a few weeks ago.

Jeff is Head of Growth at a successful financial startup as well as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at MaRS, so he knows all about growth hacking.

There’s lots of blogs, articles, case studies, and Twitter feeds dedicated to growth hacking, but Jeff wrote the book because there lacks a “single, regularly-updated resource of startup marketing hacks”.

So here we are.

What I particularly like about the book is that within the first couple pages you’re already learning about growth hacks that you can apply to your business or marketing program…right now.

I’m a fan of specific takeaways you can apply to your business (that’s what learning is all about, right?), and this book has 100 of them, including:

• How to ensure your product fixes a real problem
• How to use Google AdWords to test demand for your product
• How to acquire customers using Hacker News and Reddit
• How to target a specific audience on Facebook
• How to give away start-up t-shirts without converting your living room into a fulfillment house

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

HOW TO WATCH CUSTOMERS INTERACT WITH YOUR WEBSITE

The Hack: Right, so we’re about to suggest watching people do stuff. But we promise it won’t be creepy at all. In fact, it’s going to be beneficial for your business.UserTesting.com offers the ability to get videos of users (from within your target demographic) interacting with your website. You get to set up tasks for them, ask them questions and get their feedback – then watch the videos of them doing so minutes later. Warning – this can get very addictive!

But just so you know, watching users peruse your website and critique your business can be hard on the nerves. But this is quickly offset by the immediate feedback you receive, which can be quite exciting. UserTesting.com has a huge pool of website reviewers, who get paid to create user videos of themselves reviewing your website, completing your tasks answering your questions. While the testing audiences are obviously not engaged website users, their feedback can be extremely useful, if your website is less intuitive than you think.

The Phase:      Pre Launch
Difficulty:         Easy
We Use:           Usertesting.com – 1 video free through peek.usertesting.com, then $49 per video.

Now Hack It::

• Start with a Peek! Peek is a free service, offered by UserTesting.com that allows you to get a free five minute video review. Start here to understand how to create effective user testing tasks and questions.

• Then head over to UserTesting.com and buy a group of videos. Videos are $49 each, and we recommend doing at least five of them.

• Follow the wizard to create your user testing questions and tasks. Choose from their “most popular” tasks or create your own from scratch. The testers will follow your instructions as they navigate through your site. Launch the tests.

• Wait about an hour and your videos will be ready for review. They will include tester audio, plus video captured from their screen. If you asked written questions, they will also be available with the videos.

• Pay careful attention to places where the user has trouble using your site, as well as suggestions they have to make it better.

Pro Tip:

User testing your site with non-engaged users is a great way to ensure that your user experience and user interface are as easy as possible. If visitors are getting lost, figure out how to make your flow more simple.

Get Your Copy of Growth Hacker’s Guide to the Galaxy Here