Product-Led Growth (PLG)
Product-led growth (PLG) relies on the product to lead user fiji telemarketing database acquisition, activation, conversion, and retention efforts. Instead of relying heavily on sales or marketing to push people through the funnel, PLG gives users direct access to the product and lets the product’s value drive growth.
Consider Slack as an example. You can create a workspace and start chatting with coworkers in just a few minutes. While you can add paid features, you can also use many of the typical functionalities within Slack from the get-go. You see immediate value delivery, can manage onboarding yourself, and learn as you use the product. So, when in-product prompts for upgrades or expansion appear, you're already primed to take advantage of the opportunity.
That said, product-led growth doesn‘t happen overnight, especially if your product wasn’t built for self-service from the start.
For one project, I supported early PLG efforts for a platform that had serious potential but wasn't quite ready for self-service. Users needed support just to get started, and onboarding required a human hand-off more often than not.
We couldn't flip a magic PLG switch, so we focused on what we could control:
shortening time to value. Working with the product team, we tightened the onboarding flow so new users could reach their first “win” without waiting for a 15-minute implementation call. We also tinkered with in-product prompts and restructured documentation to be more action-oriented.
Those changes got us moving in the right direction and taught me that PLG is not a binary switch. It's a gradual shift from explaining value to letting the product prove that.
Referral and Viral Loops
Referral campaigns focus on incentivizing users to bring others into the mix. You've probably seen this before from many services in your daily life. For instance, a “give $10, get $10” offer from just about any local retailer or restaurant offers a solid example of referrals in real life.
Ideally, these campaigns drive growth by having current users help you acquire new users. The most successful campaigns take advantage of “viral loops” that drive adoption at exponential rates (aka “going viral”).
Where some marketers trip up with a referral program is they treat it like a set-it-and-forget-it opportunity. Instead, see how you can evolve a campaign midstream using engagement data to reach users’ social and emotional drivers — not just transactional ones.
That’s how Nikita Baksheev, head of marketing at Ronas IT, succeeded with a recent referral campaign. “Initially, customer retention rates were lower than expected, so we designed an experiment with targeted incentives — users earned more rewards for successful referrals,” he said.
“We used ‘smart messaging’ to highlight the mutual benefits of the referral program through personalized email sequences paired with targeted social media ads. After testing various communication styles and incentives, we made a data-driven pivot towards messaging emphasizing exclusivity and community.”
This midstream adjustment improved referral signups by 45% and kicked off a cycle of sustained growth while lowering customer acquisition costs.