Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

by Gabriel Weinberg

starting about a dozen side projects simultaneously.

starting about a dozen side projects simultaneously.

Just because my last company got traction in this way didn’t mean it was right for every company.

Just because my last company got traction in this way didn’t mean it was right for every company.

Help A Reporter Out (HARO),

Any sort of communication telling your customers how well they’re doing is likely to go over well.

In the context of startups, literally “going viral” means that every user you acquire brings in at least one other user. That new user then invites at least one other user, and so on. This creates true exponential growth. Though difficult to sustain, it’s been the driving force behind the explosive growth of consumer startups like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

Inherent virality occurs when you can get value from a product only by inviting other customers. For example, if your friends don’t have Skype, the application is worthless. Apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp also fall into this category. This type of virality comes with the advantage of “network effects,” where the value of the network increases as more people get on it. That is, the more people who are on Skype, the more valuable it becomes.

The best way to approach this testing is to map out every aspect of your viral loop. How many steps are in the loop? What are all the ways people can enter into the loop (landing pages, ads, invites)?

think of free tools as content (albeit interactive content). At HubSpot, we really believe in marketing channels that have high leverage (i.e., write it or build it once—and get value forever). As such, we take a very geeky and analytical approach to marketing. We think of each piece of content (blog article, app, video, whatever) as a marketing asset. This asset creates a return—often indefinitely. We contrast that to buying an ad, which does not scale as well.

Contrast this to inbound marketing whereby the cost of producing a piece of content is relatively constant. But, if it generates 10x more leads in a month, your marginal cost for those extra leads is almost zero. Further, with advertising (outbound marketing), the traffic you get generally stops when you stop paying.

In the case of querymongo.com, RJMetrics built a tool that translates SQL queries to MongoDB syntax (two database technologies). This is useful for developers or product managers starting to use MongoDB but who are still more familiar with SQL.

you want to try to get a warm introduction to that person. With each introduction, you should provide the mutual contact with an overview of your proposal that can easily be forwarded. Then be sure to follow up and set time lines for the next steps.

businesses recently have been moving to more low-touch business development. Low-touch BD utilizes tools like application program interfaces (commonly known as APIs), feeds, crawling technology, and embed codes to reach new distribution channels and grow your influence. These methods allow you to standardize your value proposition and get more deals done.

Sites like Commission Junction (CJ), Pepperjam, and LinkShare all have strong networks of affiliates that make a living promoting others’ products.

Companies use many tactics to get into the charts initially. They buy ads from places like AdMob, buy installs from companies like Tapjoy, cross-promote their apps (through cross-promotion networks or other apps they own), or even buy their way to the top of the charts through services like FreeAppADay.

Every major platform has similar stories. Bitly fulfilled the need to share shortened links on Twitter and saw most of its adoption from such use. Imgur built its image-hosting solution for reddit users, and has seen an explosion in usage as a result. This pattern repeats itself time and time again.

There are thousands of other large sites and marketplaces that you can target to get customers.

The tried and true approaches like Facebook and AdWords are so crowded now. People need to think about doing things that don’t scale. Early on when you’re trying to get those first one thousand customers, you have to do things that don’t scale. You have to take more risks.

Giving a limited number of talks is helpful in another way: it gives you more practice per talk, which helps you identify spots that may not be clicking with the audience. The more practiced and comfortable you are, the better your talks will be and the more you can improve them.

Record your speaking engagements. If you’re at an event of 250 people and you’ve just given your best speech ever, you’ve still reached only 250 people. However, if you can record your best speech ever, then you can post clips, thereby exposing your story to thousands of people who would never have seen it otherwise.

Speaking engagements are one of the few traction channels that can quickly cement your place in an industry. If you give the right talk at the right time to the right people, it can make you a respected industry leader overnight.

Tell a story onstage. Without a story, the audience will lose interest. We suggest telling a story about why you’re doing what you’re doing, and specifically present insights only you can give through your unique position as a startup founder. Make it exciting!

Sending emails and gifts is great, but nothing beats personal interaction. It’s just easier to form a lasting relationship with someone when you’re sharing a laugh, a meal, or a drink.

community building works nicely with other channels like offline events and speaking engagements. These occasions present great opportunities for customers to connect with you and with one another.

it is important to focus on quality early on and set standards that can be maintained as the community grows.

When quality remains high, many communities become an essential asset for the managing company or organization.

Companies whose core function is the connecting of people are best set up to take advantage of community.

when a company’s underlying value is in bringing people together, and where people matter in the system, that’s where this community stuff can really take off.