Mastering Product Led Growth - Acquisition
Unpacking Viral Loops, Content Engines, and Product-Assisted Strategies to Drive Scalable Product-Led Growth Acquisition
Topics covered:
Viral Growth Loops
Content Loops
Templates, Community Forums, and Insights
Measuring New Teams vs. Expansion
Finding the Ideal First User (Ability vs. Motivation)
Selling to Buyers
Product-led growth (PLG) flips traditional sales-led acquisition on its head by using the product itself as the primary acquisition engine. In PLG models, new users are attracted by trying or using the product first (free trials, freemium, etc.), which lowers friction and cost of acquisition. Practically, PLG acquisition strategies fall into three broad categories: viral loops (peer-to-peer sharing), content-based (educational and community content), and product-assisted (blending self-serve with sales touchpoints). For example, Slack, Dropbox and Atlassian are often cited as viral-oriented PLG leaders.
Meanwhile, companies like Notion and Carta supplement their product with rich content – Notion’s public template gallery and Carta’s educational “Carta Classroom” – to drive discovery. A hybrid “product-assisted” model lets prospects freely use the product but also offers demos or sales handoffs at key moments. As one guide notes, product-assisted growth lives between sales-led and pure PLG: users can sign up and try without a salesperson, but must engage sales to purchase. In practice this means hooking users into a free version first (self-serve acquisition), then handing qualified leads to sales later.
1. Viral Growth Loops
Viral loops rely on users themselves referring or exposing others to the product. There are four classic types of viral loops:
Word-of-mouth loop: Users tell non-users about the product outside of it (e.g. chatting about it on social media or at an event). Example (B2B): A developer at one company recommends a collaboration tool to a peer at another company. Example (B2C): A consumer raves about a shopping app to a friend.
Organic (in-product invite) loop: Users invite others directly from within the product, typically without incentives. Example (B2B): A team lead invites colleagues into Slack or Airtable while setting up a workspace. Example (B2C): A Zoom host adds people to a meeting; the new participants often start using Zoom themselves.
Casual-contact loop: Non-users encounter the product passively through a user’s activity. Example (B2B): A company’s website uses a free Zendesk chat widget – visitors see “Powered by Zendesk,” sparking interest in Zendesk’s service. Example (B2C): Someone sees a friend using a Netflix “share” link or reads a viral blog that mentions a tool.
Incentivized loop: Users are rewarded for inviting others, creating a referral mechanism. Example (B2C): Dropbox famously gave extra storage space to users who refer friends. Example (B2B): A SaaS might offer account credit or premium features to teams that bring in a new team from another company.
Each loop type fuels growth differently, and PLG companies often combine them. For instance, Dropbox’s free storage referral program is a highly effective incentivized viral loop, while tools like Slack and Miro rely on organic invites (users adding teammates) plus casual exposure via shared links or logos.
2. Content Loops
Content loops use published content (by users or the company) to attract users back into the product. These can be user-generated, company-generated, or product-assisted:
User-generated content loops: The community itself creates content that promotes the product. Example – Airtable: Users design and share templates in Airtable’s Universe, a searchable library of user-contributed bases. Each time a user browses or adopts a Universe template, they often end up signing up for Airtable. Example – Miro: Miro’s Miroverse is a repository of user-created boards and templates. New users can pick public boards to kickstart projects, effectively seeding adoption of Miro.
Company-generated content loops: The company publishes helpful resources (guides, templates, forums) that draw people in. Example – Slack: Slack maintains an official Template Gallery of pre-built workflow templates (e.g. onboarding checklists, meeting agendas) that teams can import. By making it easy to “start faster with pre-made templates,” Slack’s content encourages trial and sign-up. Example – Carta: Carta runs an educational hub called Carta Classroom, offering articles and curricula on equity, venture capital, and ownership topics. These resources attract entrepreneurs and employees who learn about cap tables, and in the process discover Carta’s software. The company’s blog and reports (e.g. Founder Ownership Report) similarly serve as content loops that draw in their target audience.
Product-assisted content loops: The product itself facilitates content creation or sharing. Example: Some products include built-in publishing or sharing features. For instance, Notion’s template builder and Slack’s Workflow Builder allow anyone to create and share workflows. When a user publishes a template or integration, it becomes content that other users discover and use, further spreading the product organically. (Slack’s Workflow Builder, for example, lets users share automation “recipes” across teams.) These in-product content tools become self-sustaining loops by design.