Marketing usually works like this:
You have a product → You find a way to get users → The users sign up and useyour product.
There's a small problem with this approach: Everything works in one direction.What happens after the user signs up and uses the product?
We all hope it's this: they tell their friends.

Are there any more deliberate ways toengineer word-of-mouth than just having a great product and hoping people willtell their friends about it?
The answer is a clear and resounding YES.

Which elements of your business feed off of each other toaccelerate growth?

The goal with engineering virality is tocreate a flywheel. We want to become less reliant on the traditional marketingtactic cycle and create a loop where each new user brings more users, and eachof them brings more, etc. Think compound interest.

The simplest 'word-of-mouth engineering' tactic:Refer-a-friend

Email newsletters do this all the time: Yousubscribe → you're asked to refer → you get rewarded.

Another flow is asking users to refer inexchange for earlier access. Example: join a waitlist and move up by invitingothers.

The flywheel

This is the easiest way to get new usersfrom existing users. If 10 users each refer 3 friends, that's like saving 30% onmarketing.

Target a segment of your audience which has exposure

Example: Cameo targeted celebrities. Theirposts brought their fans to the service. Community did something similar.

Examples:
- DoorDash recruited restaurants who told their customers.
- Kickstarter onboarded creators who promoted their projects.
- Etsy invited sellers who told their own customers.

The 'I want to become like you' word-of-mouth approach

Users see others benefit and want the same.Example: Uber drivers, Airbnb hosts.

Square and Eventbrite both tapped intothis—showing how audience A (bigger group) can be converted into audience B(creators).

Put a clear credit on the output your customers create

A 'powered by' button can bring tons oftraffic. Examples: LiveAgent chat widgets, Substack footers, Dropbox sharedfile links with branding.

Use the output of your users as input to other marketingchannels

Pinterest and Indie Hackers do this with SEO. They expose user-generated content to search engines.

Word of mouth does not have to be left to chance

Be deliberate about incorporating it intoyour product and growth loops. Small tweaks like referrals, branded outputs,and user-content distribution can build compounding visibility.

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