How Viral Loop Helped SaaS Marketing
How Viral Loop Helped SaaS Marketing
Any idea about the mystery behind SaaS products that go viral and grow? It’s viral loop, which is a self-perpetuating user acquisition process that allows SaaS products to grow quicker and cheaper than marketing ever could. SaaS products such as Calendly and Google Drive have used viral loops, and they don't just acquire users; they spread through users.
The Definition of Viral Loop
If you've used Google Drive to share a file and collaborate on it with someone or even Calendly to schedule a meeting, then you've participated in a viral loop, without even realizing it.
Every time you invite someone to use a product by performing a fundamental action like sharing a file or scheduling a meeting, you're triggering a viral mechanism that invites new users through existing users, and that is what a viral loop is.
The importance of the viral loop to SaaS growth
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) was lowered because the growth was driven organically without any ad cost.
Distribution is integrated as the product markets itself.
Each user can potentially add more users, creating a compounding effect.
Faster product market fit feedback was received from more users that will allow for quicker iterations.
Viral loop products show high growth rates with minimal marketing investment.
Types of Viral Loops with examples
Let's take a look at different types of viral loops with their descriptions. Below are examples of common SaaS brands within our society.
1. Word of mouth loops
People instinctively tend to talk about the product as a result of loving the product.
Example: Notion’s virality came from advocacy, individual blogs, and mentions by user communities.
2. Value driven viral loops
Products are shared by users directly because it becomes more valuable with each extra person who uses it.
Example: Slack improves with each user that joins.
3. Savings driven viral loops
It consists of sharing products due to achieving a reward of discount.
Example: Airtable made promoters via account credits for each referrer.
4. Social sharing loops
Users share contents or activities publicly in their social media profiles to bring their network in.
Example: Spotify wrapped and curated playlists shared on December every year
5. Inherent organic loops
Products that need virality require customers to work with other customers to obtain value.
Example: Zoom requires a host and a joiner, thereby making host-joiner pairings automatically viral.
6. Collaborative organic loops
Users are able to work alone but working together makes it far better and benefits everyone involved.
Example: Figma users often invite teammates to co-design, spreading usage across teams.
7. Embedded Casual Contact loops
Other users make features of content or products that link to the original tool.
Example: YouTube videos that are embedded on websites or blogs boost the overall YouTube platform each time they are viewed.
8. Influencer Growth loops
As an influencer advertises a product, the product also gets market exposure and as a result, their followers use and market it, thus forming a self-sustained loop of growth.
Example: Duolingo used TikTok influencers and their own content brought by the mascots of their app to achieve viral status, increasing app downloads.
Let’s now break down 5 successful SaaS companies that used the viral loop for SaaS growth.
5 SaaS brands successfully using viral loop marketing
Let’s break down how 5 successful SaaS companies used viral loops to grow.
We’ll look at the strategy they used, the type of viral loop involved, and some real, practical takeaways you can learn from.
Launch Date: August, 2024
AI SaaS Launcher is a low-code platform created by Matt Antoun, the founder behind Dome as well.
This platform uses AI-driven customization for entrepreneurs to rapidly build and launch SaaS Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
How AI SaaS Launcher Utilized Viral Loop:
AI SaaS Launcher created immediate value and buzz as their viral loop strategy by enabling users to test the product immediately without any cost.
This was further leveraged by rewarding users with recognition through encouraging social sharing and engagement, like upvotes, retweets, and influencer mentions.
Teaser content and a waitlist pre-warmed their audience achieving a strong early traction.
This continuous user feedback guided an open product roadmap, which they used to re-activate users upon launch and encouraged further sharing.
Viral Loop Type | How AI SaaS Launcher Used It |
Inherent Loop | By using the product, users received value which incentivized them to collaborate and invite others. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | They were motivated to endorse the product for being rewarded with social recognition, including upvotes, retweets, and mentions |
Practical Insights:
Deliver instant value by enabling users to try your product immediately, like free trials or freemium service provision, to generate early buzz and increase the sharing tendency.
Value-driven and social sharing viral loops were used by encouraging upvotes, shares, and mentions to signal popularity thus, making use of intrinsic social proof.
Strategically employ waitlists and teaser content to set the scene that creates excitement and gets people ready thus, generating a pre-launch hype.
Reward users with accolades that don’t have to be monetary rewards as it may drive the users who are highly motivated to bring in others, especially on public platforms.
Show users that their contribution matters by using public roadmaps and open product updates because this induces communication loops and re-engagement.
Launch Date: June, 2024
Verse was founded by Bobby Pinckney and Michelle Yin, the same duo behind the music discovery app Discz.
It is an application that allows you to create your own personalized, scrollable pages combining various types of media.
How Verse Utilized Viral Loop:
Verse created a web application that generates a personalized "internet bedroom" as a viral side-project.
It is based on a user's Spotify music taste by combining AI-driven personalization with a low-friction user experience without sign-ups.
This encouraged users to share their unique results online.
This easy, fun, and visually appealing content tapped into the psychology behind trends like Spotify Wrapped, making users excited to post on platforms like TikTok.
Influencer partnerships were the primary force behind the surge in getting views through the power of the TikTok platform, creating a self-running user-generated content cycle.
Users were funneled back into the main Verse app through a built-in call to action that invited them to further customize their digital spaces, turning casual users into engaged ones.
Viral Loop Type | How Verse Used It |
Inherent Viral Loop | Users were naturally encouraged to try and share the app because of the personalized value (Spotify-based bedroom) it provides |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Users were motivated to share more as they gained entertainment and social recognition. |
Practical Insights:
By using personal data like Spotify history, Verse showed users that they can make experiences feel meaningful and worth sharing
Without the roadblock of a signup form, users can get involved and share the experience fast
By mimicking familiar formats like Spotify Wrapped, it helped users to instantly understand and engage with the product
Early partnerships with influencers have given a boost to products that needed reach and offered the chance to be picked up by platform algorithms
Creating a playful side-project acted as a gateway to drive traffic and installs for the main app
Launch Date: May, 2023
Dimitris Nikolaou, Youssef Rizk, and Oskar Serrander created Wondercraft, which is an AI-based platform that creates realistic-sounding artificial voices for audiobooks, podcasts, and commercials for entrepreneurs.
How Wondercraft Utilized Viral Loop:
Wondercraft incentivized sharing and offered Product Hunt members exclusive discounts that increased the more they shared the content.
Wondercraft mixed great offers (discounts and free trials) and used real examples of how their product created value to promote it like repurposing content into podcasts for startups, newsletters and educators.
Wondercraft also drove a social viral loop by sharing their product in the Product Hunt community and provided early users with exclusive perks to engage early customers in a cycle of sharing.
Viral Loop Type | How Wondercraft Used It |
Savings-Driven Viral Loop | Distribute limited-time discounts, and raise them even more when users share the content. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Provided mutual value where users receive deals and others find valuable content creation tools. |
Practical Insights:
Offer time-sensitive, exclusive discount codes to spark urgency and give users a reason to share.
Sweeten the deal with extra rewards or perks when they share your product, turning one share into a chain reaction of motivation.
Use real use cases to demonstrate immediate social proof outlining value, and helping users envision how they might use your product
Encouraging users to share their creations publicly naturally assists in generating social proof and awareness.
Participate in niche communities- early, like Product Hunt to take advantage of visibility and trust from early adopters.
Launch Date: March, 2024
Divya Banda and Aakash developed CloneMyTrips. It is an app on which travel influencers can post and sell their travel itineraries so that their followers can book the same vacations easily.
It is equivalent to having a personal travel planner but with the option of booking the same thing independently.
Here's how CloneMyTrips employed the viral loop:
CloneMyTrips also has a viral loop based on travel influencers. The followers spot the travel plans being published and are excited to the point that they even download the application.
More people book travel and post their experience, so the application keeps acquiring more users, providing a growth loop.
Travel influencers create and publish trip itineraries on the site and share single booking links with their followers.
Influencers earn a commission when followers book these curated trips, either manually or through auto-cloning which motivates them to promote their itineraries more actively.
As followers take and enjoy the trips, they're encouraged to use the platform themselves, either to clone trips or become creators, and the cycle continues.
This word-of-mouth and commission-based model favors organic growth and participation through social proof and financial incentive.
Viral Loop Type | How CloneMyTrips Used It |
Incentivized Viral Loop | Influencers were given commission on bookings that motivated them to repeat promotion and engagement. |
Word of Mouth Loop | Through leveraging positive trip experience, followers organically recommend or use the platform. |
Practical Insights:
When you reward creators for promoting your product, growth can snowball without spending a dime on ads.
Giving commissions on content created by users encourages them to keep sharing naturally.
If your product turns regular users into creators, you keep the viral loop going and even expand it.
Public sharing and being easy to discover through influencers helps build trust and brings in new users organically.
When you combine user rewards with platform growth, you create a system that basically fuels itself.
Launch Date: March, 2024
Anuj Ashar founded AI Launchpad, who also started Launchpad AI Technologies which is a 6-week worldwide initiative that offers mentorship, necessary tools, and a chance to win a cash award for AI entrepreneurs.
How AI Launchpad Utilized Viral Loop:
The goal of AI Launchpad's viral loop is to provide early-stage AI entrepreneurs with useful resources, mentorship, and enhanced visibility while enabling its most successful alumni to serve as its best promoters.
Founders go through the 6-week program, receive expert mentorship, partner perks, and a chance at a $20K Demo Day prize.
As startups grow and find success, like Virtual Staging AI and SiteGPT, they become public success stories.
This generates word-of-mouth buzz, social proof, and testimonials that encourage other AI founders to apply.
Every year, new applications were created thanks to the community’s ongoing growth and the growing number of success stories, which kept the cycle going.
Viral Loop Type | How AI Launchpad Used It |
Word of Mouth Loop | Success stories shared by alumni founders naturally encourage other AI founders to apply. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Benefits, visibility, and good mentoring encouraged the participants to speak constructively about the program. |
Practical Insights:
When the users are provided with real value, that is, exposure or mentorship, they are most likely to reciprocate their success
Transforming alumni into advocates creates a word-of-mouth virality engine that fuels long-term growth
Publicly publishing public testimonials and public wins creates trust and inspires other people to join or to apply
Creating momentum through engagement with the community can create a sustained viral loop without relying solely on paid acquisition
Periodic updates and alumni spotlights are two of the methods to keep the brand name at the top of the customer's minds and close the loop
Not only are these 5 successful SaaS companies reliant on one viral loop but they even employ a combination of more than a single loop to drive their growth, engagement, and reach.
Step-by-step strategies to build your own viral loop
If you want your SaaS company to grow super fast, creating a viral loop is a great way to do it. Here's how to create one:
Step 1: Define Your Viral Loop Framework
Start by deciding how your viral loop will work. What will your users do to acquire new users? Keep the following important things in mind:
Incentives: Give users something that matters, e.g., coupons, special information, or extended functions, so you can motivate them to share.
Simple Sharing: Keep it simple when it comes to sharing like trying referral codes or copying and pasting links.
Track Metrics: Track your going-viral success using the K-factor so that you can watch how well it's going and where you can tweak.
Step 2: Offer Appropriate Incentives
Your incentives have to be valuable to both the referrer and the referred person. Here's how to do it:
Mutual Rewards: Reward both. For example, reward both the new user and referrer with discounts.
Recurring Rewards: Reward with the things that keep coming back. For example, reward with more space such as Dropbox.
Exclusive Content: Reward with special access to content or features to the people who refer others.
Step 3: Make Referrals Easy
Make referring people as simple as possible:
Simple Sharing: Use sharable referral codes and links that can be sent out with minimal effort.
Monitor Progress: Use leaderboards or progress bars to engage users and make them want to refer more people.
Step 4: Leverage Social Proof
Trust is massive, so use social proof to help it grow:
User Testimonials: Show happy comments or success stories from your users.
Influencer Partnerships: Work with influencers in your area to become more reputable.
User-Generated Content: Display content created by your users to create stronger trust and interaction.
Step 5: Refine with Data
Refine your viral loop again:
A/B Testing: Try different incentives or referral methods to see what works best.
Track Metrics: Monitor your K-factor (how quickly your loop is growing) and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) to know how good your loop is performing.
Step 6: Add Game-Based Features
Make referring more enjoyable and interactive:
Badges and Rewards: Give top referrers badges or rewards to make it competitive.
Contests: Host referral contests to keep the users engaged and motivated to refer more users.
Step 7: Focus on Long-Term Value
Make sure your product continues to provide value over time:
Email Campaigns: Re-activate users with tailored emails and unique offers.
Feature Updates: Make it fresh by constantly adding fresh features that will make users wish to share them.
By doing so, you can create a viral loop which not only widens your base of users but also keeps them engaged and coming back for more.
Final Thoughts
Viral loops are the secret force behind SaaS products that don't just acquire users, they breed them.
There's a single pattern that rings true: that is, the product sells itself when it's designed to spread.
But, here's the twist: viral loops don't look like viral loops.
It can be as subtle as signing up without knowing what you're signing up for, like Otter.ai showing you half a meeting summary until you invite others.
That mild annoyance directly leads to viral loop growth.
Here at Rank Wizards, we research SaaS marketing strategies for our clients.
Stay tuned for more.
The Definition of Viral Loop
If you've used Google Drive to share a file and collaborate on it with someone or even Calendly to schedule a meeting, then you've participated in a viral loop, without even realizing it.
Every time you invite someone to use a product by performing a fundamental action like sharing a file or scheduling a meeting, you're triggering a viral mechanism that invites new users through existing users, and that is what a viral loop is.
The importance of the viral loop to SaaS growth
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) was lowered because the growth was driven organically without any ad cost.
Distribution is integrated as the product markets itself.
Each user can potentially add more users, creating a compounding effect.
Faster product market fit feedback was received from more users that will allow for quicker iterations.
Viral loop products show high growth rates with minimal marketing investment.
Types of Viral Loops with examples
Let's take a look at different types of viral loops with their descriptions. Below are examples of common SaaS brands within our society.
1. Word of mouth loops
People instinctively tend to talk about the product as a result of loving the product.
Example: Notion’s virality came from advocacy, individual blogs, and mentions by user communities.
2. Value driven viral loops
Products are shared by users directly because it becomes more valuable with each extra person who uses it.
Example: Slack improves with each user that joins.
3. Savings driven viral loops
It consists of sharing products due to achieving a reward of discount.
Example: Airtable made promoters via account credits for each referrer.
4. Social sharing loops
Users share contents or activities publicly in their social media profiles to bring their network in.
Example: Spotify wrapped and curated playlists shared on December every year
5. Inherent organic loops
Products that need virality require customers to work with other customers to obtain value.
Example: Zoom requires a host and a joiner, thereby making host-joiner pairings automatically viral.
6. Collaborative organic loops
Users are able to work alone but working together makes it far better and benefits everyone involved.
Example: Figma users often invite teammates to co-design, spreading usage across teams.
7. Embedded Casual Contact loops
Other users make features of content or products that link to the original tool.
Example: YouTube videos that are embedded on websites or blogs boost the overall YouTube platform each time they are viewed.
8. Influencer Growth loops
As an influencer advertises a product, the product also gets market exposure and as a result, their followers use and market it, thus forming a self-sustained loop of growth.
Example: Duolingo used TikTok influencers and their own content brought by the mascots of their app to achieve viral status, increasing app downloads.
Let’s now break down 5 successful SaaS companies that used the viral loop for SaaS growth.
5 SaaS brands successfully using viral loop marketing
Let’s break down how 5 successful SaaS companies used viral loops to grow.
We’ll look at the strategy they used, the type of viral loop involved, and some real, practical takeaways you can learn from.
Launch Date: August, 2024
AI SaaS Launcher is a low-code platform created by Matt Antoun, the founder behind Dome as well.
This platform uses AI-driven customization for entrepreneurs to rapidly build and launch SaaS Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
How AI SaaS Launcher Utilized Viral Loop:
AI SaaS Launcher created immediate value and buzz as their viral loop strategy by enabling users to test the product immediately without any cost.
This was further leveraged by rewarding users with recognition through encouraging social sharing and engagement, like upvotes, retweets, and influencer mentions.
Teaser content and a waitlist pre-warmed their audience achieving a strong early traction.
This continuous user feedback guided an open product roadmap, which they used to re-activate users upon launch and encouraged further sharing.
Viral Loop Type | How AI SaaS Launcher Used It |
Inherent Loop | By using the product, users received value which incentivized them to collaborate and invite others. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | They were motivated to endorse the product for being rewarded with social recognition, including upvotes, retweets, and mentions |
Practical Insights:
Deliver instant value by enabling users to try your product immediately, like free trials or freemium service provision, to generate early buzz and increase the sharing tendency.
Value-driven and social sharing viral loops were used by encouraging upvotes, shares, and mentions to signal popularity thus, making use of intrinsic social proof.
Strategically employ waitlists and teaser content to set the scene that creates excitement and gets people ready thus, generating a pre-launch hype.
Reward users with accolades that don’t have to be monetary rewards as it may drive the users who are highly motivated to bring in others, especially on public platforms.
Show users that their contribution matters by using public roadmaps and open product updates because this induces communication loops and re-engagement.
Launch Date: June, 2024
Verse was founded by Bobby Pinckney and Michelle Yin, the same duo behind the music discovery app Discz.
It is an application that allows you to create your own personalized, scrollable pages combining various types of media.
How Verse Utilized Viral Loop:
Verse created a web application that generates a personalized "internet bedroom" as a viral side-project.
It is based on a user's Spotify music taste by combining AI-driven personalization with a low-friction user experience without sign-ups.
This encouraged users to share their unique results online.
This easy, fun, and visually appealing content tapped into the psychology behind trends like Spotify Wrapped, making users excited to post on platforms like TikTok.
Influencer partnerships were the primary force behind the surge in getting views through the power of the TikTok platform, creating a self-running user-generated content cycle.
Users were funneled back into the main Verse app through a built-in call to action that invited them to further customize their digital spaces, turning casual users into engaged ones.
Viral Loop Type | How Verse Used It |
Inherent Viral Loop | Users were naturally encouraged to try and share the app because of the personalized value (Spotify-based bedroom) it provides |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Users were motivated to share more as they gained entertainment and social recognition. |
Practical Insights:
By using personal data like Spotify history, Verse showed users that they can make experiences feel meaningful and worth sharing
Without the roadblock of a signup form, users can get involved and share the experience fast
By mimicking familiar formats like Spotify Wrapped, it helped users to instantly understand and engage with the product
Early partnerships with influencers have given a boost to products that needed reach and offered the chance to be picked up by platform algorithms
Creating a playful side-project acted as a gateway to drive traffic and installs for the main app
Launch Date: May, 2023
Dimitris Nikolaou, Youssef Rizk, and Oskar Serrander created Wondercraft, which is an AI-based platform that creates realistic-sounding artificial voices for audiobooks, podcasts, and commercials for entrepreneurs.
How Wondercraft Utilized Viral Loop:
Wondercraft incentivized sharing and offered Product Hunt members exclusive discounts that increased the more they shared the content.
Wondercraft mixed great offers (discounts and free trials) and used real examples of how their product created value to promote it like repurposing content into podcasts for startups, newsletters and educators.
Wondercraft also drove a social viral loop by sharing their product in the Product Hunt community and provided early users with exclusive perks to engage early customers in a cycle of sharing.
Viral Loop Type | How Wondercraft Used It |
Savings-Driven Viral Loop | Distribute limited-time discounts, and raise them even more when users share the content. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Provided mutual value where users receive deals and others find valuable content creation tools. |
Practical Insights:
Offer time-sensitive, exclusive discount codes to spark urgency and give users a reason to share.
Sweeten the deal with extra rewards or perks when they share your product, turning one share into a chain reaction of motivation.
Use real use cases to demonstrate immediate social proof outlining value, and helping users envision how they might use your product
Encouraging users to share their creations publicly naturally assists in generating social proof and awareness.
Participate in niche communities- early, like Product Hunt to take advantage of visibility and trust from early adopters.
Launch Date: March, 2024
Divya Banda and Aakash developed CloneMyTrips. It is an app on which travel influencers can post and sell their travel itineraries so that their followers can book the same vacations easily.
It is equivalent to having a personal travel planner but with the option of booking the same thing independently.
Here's how CloneMyTrips employed the viral loop:
CloneMyTrips also has a viral loop based on travel influencers. The followers spot the travel plans being published and are excited to the point that they even download the application.
More people book travel and post their experience, so the application keeps acquiring more users, providing a growth loop.
Travel influencers create and publish trip itineraries on the site and share single booking links with their followers.
Influencers earn a commission when followers book these curated trips, either manually or through auto-cloning which motivates them to promote their itineraries more actively.
As followers take and enjoy the trips, they're encouraged to use the platform themselves, either to clone trips or become creators, and the cycle continues.
This word-of-mouth and commission-based model favors organic growth and participation through social proof and financial incentive.
Viral Loop Type | How CloneMyTrips Used It |
Incentivized Viral Loop | Influencers were given commission on bookings that motivated them to repeat promotion and engagement. |
Word of Mouth Loop | Through leveraging positive trip experience, followers organically recommend or use the platform. |
Practical Insights:
When you reward creators for promoting your product, growth can snowball without spending a dime on ads.
Giving commissions on content created by users encourages them to keep sharing naturally.
If your product turns regular users into creators, you keep the viral loop going and even expand it.
Public sharing and being easy to discover through influencers helps build trust and brings in new users organically.
When you combine user rewards with platform growth, you create a system that basically fuels itself.
Launch Date: March, 2024
Anuj Ashar founded AI Launchpad, who also started Launchpad AI Technologies which is a 6-week worldwide initiative that offers mentorship, necessary tools, and a chance to win a cash award for AI entrepreneurs.
How AI Launchpad Utilized Viral Loop:
The goal of AI Launchpad's viral loop is to provide early-stage AI entrepreneurs with useful resources, mentorship, and enhanced visibility while enabling its most successful alumni to serve as its best promoters.
Founders go through the 6-week program, receive expert mentorship, partner perks, and a chance at a $20K Demo Day prize.
As startups grow and find success, like Virtual Staging AI and SiteGPT, they become public success stories.
This generates word-of-mouth buzz, social proof, and testimonials that encourage other AI founders to apply.
Every year, new applications were created thanks to the community’s ongoing growth and the growing number of success stories, which kept the cycle going.
Viral Loop Type | How AI Launchpad Used It |
Word of Mouth Loop | Success stories shared by alumni founders naturally encourage other AI founders to apply. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Benefits, visibility, and good mentoring encouraged the participants to speak constructively about the program. |
Practical Insights:
When the users are provided with real value, that is, exposure or mentorship, they are most likely to reciprocate their success
Transforming alumni into advocates creates a word-of-mouth virality engine that fuels long-term growth
Publicly publishing public testimonials and public wins creates trust and inspires other people to join or to apply
Creating momentum through engagement with the community can create a sustained viral loop without relying solely on paid acquisition
Periodic updates and alumni spotlights are two of the methods to keep the brand name at the top of the customer's minds and close the loop
Not only are these 5 successful SaaS companies reliant on one viral loop but they even employ a combination of more than a single loop to drive their growth, engagement, and reach.
Step-by-step strategies to build your own viral loop
If you want your SaaS company to grow super fast, creating a viral loop is a great way to do it. Here's how to create one:
Step 1: Define Your Viral Loop Framework
Start by deciding how your viral loop will work. What will your users do to acquire new users? Keep the following important things in mind:
Incentives: Give users something that matters, e.g., coupons, special information, or extended functions, so you can motivate them to share.
Simple Sharing: Keep it simple when it comes to sharing like trying referral codes or copying and pasting links.
Track Metrics: Track your going-viral success using the K-factor so that you can watch how well it's going and where you can tweak.
Step 2: Offer Appropriate Incentives
Your incentives have to be valuable to both the referrer and the referred person. Here's how to do it:
Mutual Rewards: Reward both. For example, reward both the new user and referrer with discounts.
Recurring Rewards: Reward with the things that keep coming back. For example, reward with more space such as Dropbox.
Exclusive Content: Reward with special access to content or features to the people who refer others.
Step 3: Make Referrals Easy
Make referring people as simple as possible:
Simple Sharing: Use sharable referral codes and links that can be sent out with minimal effort.
Monitor Progress: Use leaderboards or progress bars to engage users and make them want to refer more people.
Step 4: Leverage Social Proof
Trust is massive, so use social proof to help it grow:
User Testimonials: Show happy comments or success stories from your users.
Influencer Partnerships: Work with influencers in your area to become more reputable.
User-Generated Content: Display content created by your users to create stronger trust and interaction.
Step 5: Refine with Data
Refine your viral loop again:
A/B Testing: Try different incentives or referral methods to see what works best.
Track Metrics: Monitor your K-factor (how quickly your loop is growing) and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) to know how good your loop is performing.
Step 6: Add Game-Based Features
Make referring more enjoyable and interactive:
Badges and Rewards: Give top referrers badges or rewards to make it competitive.
Contests: Host referral contests to keep the users engaged and motivated to refer more users.
Step 7: Focus on Long-Term Value
Make sure your product continues to provide value over time:
Email Campaigns: Re-activate users with tailored emails and unique offers.
Feature Updates: Make it fresh by constantly adding fresh features that will make users wish to share them.
By doing so, you can create a viral loop which not only widens your base of users but also keeps them engaged and coming back for more.
Final Thoughts
Viral loops are the secret force behind SaaS products that don't just acquire users, they breed them.
There's a single pattern that rings true: that is, the product sells itself when it's designed to spread.
But, here's the twist: viral loops don't look like viral loops.
It can be as subtle as signing up without knowing what you're signing up for, like Otter.ai showing you half a meeting summary until you invite others.
That mild annoyance directly leads to viral loop growth.
Here at Rank Wizards, we research SaaS marketing strategies for our clients.
Stay tuned for more.
Any idea about the mystery behind SaaS products that go viral and grow? It’s viral loop, which is a self-perpetuating user acquisition process that allows SaaS products to grow quicker and cheaper than marketing ever could. SaaS products such as Calendly and Google Drive have used viral loops, and they don't just acquire users; they spread through users.
The Definition of Viral Loop
If you've used Google Drive to share a file and collaborate on it with someone or even Calendly to schedule a meeting, then you've participated in a viral loop, without even realizing it.
Every time you invite someone to use a product by performing a fundamental action like sharing a file or scheduling a meeting, you're triggering a viral mechanism that invites new users through existing users, and that is what a viral loop is.
The importance of the viral loop to SaaS growth
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) was lowered because the growth was driven organically without any ad cost.
Distribution is integrated as the product markets itself.
Each user can potentially add more users, creating a compounding effect.
Faster product market fit feedback was received from more users that will allow for quicker iterations.
Viral loop products show high growth rates with minimal marketing investment.
Types of Viral Loops with examples
Let's take a look at different types of viral loops with their descriptions. Below are examples of common SaaS brands within our society.
1. Word of mouth loops
People instinctively tend to talk about the product as a result of loving the product.
Example: Notion’s virality came from advocacy, individual blogs, and mentions by user communities.
2. Value driven viral loops
Products are shared by users directly because it becomes more valuable with each extra person who uses it.
Example: Slack improves with each user that joins.
3. Savings driven viral loops
It consists of sharing products due to achieving a reward of discount.
Example: Airtable made promoters via account credits for each referrer.
4. Social sharing loops
Users share contents or activities publicly in their social media profiles to bring their network in.
Example: Spotify wrapped and curated playlists shared on December every year
5. Inherent organic loops
Products that need virality require customers to work with other customers to obtain value.
Example: Zoom requires a host and a joiner, thereby making host-joiner pairings automatically viral.
6. Collaborative organic loops
Users are able to work alone but working together makes it far better and benefits everyone involved.
Example: Figma users often invite teammates to co-design, spreading usage across teams.
7. Embedded Casual Contact loops
Other users make features of content or products that link to the original tool.
Example: YouTube videos that are embedded on websites or blogs boost the overall YouTube platform each time they are viewed.
8. Influencer Growth loops
As an influencer advertises a product, the product also gets market exposure and as a result, their followers use and market it, thus forming a self-sustained loop of growth.
Example: Duolingo used TikTok influencers and their own content brought by the mascots of their app to achieve viral status, increasing app downloads.
Let’s now break down 5 successful SaaS companies that used the viral loop for SaaS growth.
5 SaaS brands successfully using viral loop marketing
Let’s break down how 5 successful SaaS companies used viral loops to grow.
We’ll look at the strategy they used, the type of viral loop involved, and some real, practical takeaways you can learn from.
Launch Date: August, 2024
AI SaaS Launcher is a low-code platform created by Matt Antoun, the founder behind Dome as well.
This platform uses AI-driven customization for entrepreneurs to rapidly build and launch SaaS Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
How AI SaaS Launcher Utilized Viral Loop:
AI SaaS Launcher created immediate value and buzz as their viral loop strategy by enabling users to test the product immediately without any cost.
This was further leveraged by rewarding users with recognition through encouraging social sharing and engagement, like upvotes, retweets, and influencer mentions.
Teaser content and a waitlist pre-warmed their audience achieving a strong early traction.
This continuous user feedback guided an open product roadmap, which they used to re-activate users upon launch and encouraged further sharing.
Viral Loop Type | How AI SaaS Launcher Used It |
Inherent Loop | By using the product, users received value which incentivized them to collaborate and invite others. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | They were motivated to endorse the product for being rewarded with social recognition, including upvotes, retweets, and mentions |
Practical Insights:
Deliver instant value by enabling users to try your product immediately, like free trials or freemium service provision, to generate early buzz and increase the sharing tendency.
Value-driven and social sharing viral loops were used by encouraging upvotes, shares, and mentions to signal popularity thus, making use of intrinsic social proof.
Strategically employ waitlists and teaser content to set the scene that creates excitement and gets people ready thus, generating a pre-launch hype.
Reward users with accolades that don’t have to be monetary rewards as it may drive the users who are highly motivated to bring in others, especially on public platforms.
Show users that their contribution matters by using public roadmaps and open product updates because this induces communication loops and re-engagement.
Launch Date: June, 2024
Verse was founded by Bobby Pinckney and Michelle Yin, the same duo behind the music discovery app Discz.
It is an application that allows you to create your own personalized, scrollable pages combining various types of media.
How Verse Utilized Viral Loop:
Verse created a web application that generates a personalized "internet bedroom" as a viral side-project.
It is based on a user's Spotify music taste by combining AI-driven personalization with a low-friction user experience without sign-ups.
This encouraged users to share their unique results online.
This easy, fun, and visually appealing content tapped into the psychology behind trends like Spotify Wrapped, making users excited to post on platforms like TikTok.
Influencer partnerships were the primary force behind the surge in getting views through the power of the TikTok platform, creating a self-running user-generated content cycle.
Users were funneled back into the main Verse app through a built-in call to action that invited them to further customize their digital spaces, turning casual users into engaged ones.
Viral Loop Type | How Verse Used It |
Inherent Viral Loop | Users were naturally encouraged to try and share the app because of the personalized value (Spotify-based bedroom) it provides |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Users were motivated to share more as they gained entertainment and social recognition. |
Practical Insights:
By using personal data like Spotify history, Verse showed users that they can make experiences feel meaningful and worth sharing
Without the roadblock of a signup form, users can get involved and share the experience fast
By mimicking familiar formats like Spotify Wrapped, it helped users to instantly understand and engage with the product
Early partnerships with influencers have given a boost to products that needed reach and offered the chance to be picked up by platform algorithms
Creating a playful side-project acted as a gateway to drive traffic and installs for the main app
Launch Date: May, 2023
Dimitris Nikolaou, Youssef Rizk, and Oskar Serrander created Wondercraft, which is an AI-based platform that creates realistic-sounding artificial voices for audiobooks, podcasts, and commercials for entrepreneurs.
How Wondercraft Utilized Viral Loop:
Wondercraft incentivized sharing and offered Product Hunt members exclusive discounts that increased the more they shared the content.
Wondercraft mixed great offers (discounts and free trials) and used real examples of how their product created value to promote it like repurposing content into podcasts for startups, newsletters and educators.
Wondercraft also drove a social viral loop by sharing their product in the Product Hunt community and provided early users with exclusive perks to engage early customers in a cycle of sharing.
Viral Loop Type | How Wondercraft Used It |
Savings-Driven Viral Loop | Distribute limited-time discounts, and raise them even more when users share the content. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Provided mutual value where users receive deals and others find valuable content creation tools. |
Practical Insights:
Offer time-sensitive, exclusive discount codes to spark urgency and give users a reason to share.
Sweeten the deal with extra rewards or perks when they share your product, turning one share into a chain reaction of motivation.
Use real use cases to demonstrate immediate social proof outlining value, and helping users envision how they might use your product
Encouraging users to share their creations publicly naturally assists in generating social proof and awareness.
Participate in niche communities- early, like Product Hunt to take advantage of visibility and trust from early adopters.
Launch Date: March, 2024
Divya Banda and Aakash developed CloneMyTrips. It is an app on which travel influencers can post and sell their travel itineraries so that their followers can book the same vacations easily.
It is equivalent to having a personal travel planner but with the option of booking the same thing independently.
Here's how CloneMyTrips employed the viral loop:
CloneMyTrips also has a viral loop based on travel influencers. The followers spot the travel plans being published and are excited to the point that they even download the application.
More people book travel and post their experience, so the application keeps acquiring more users, providing a growth loop.
Travel influencers create and publish trip itineraries on the site and share single booking links with their followers.
Influencers earn a commission when followers book these curated trips, either manually or through auto-cloning which motivates them to promote their itineraries more actively.
As followers take and enjoy the trips, they're encouraged to use the platform themselves, either to clone trips or become creators, and the cycle continues.
This word-of-mouth and commission-based model favors organic growth and participation through social proof and financial incentive.
Viral Loop Type | How CloneMyTrips Used It |
Incentivized Viral Loop | Influencers were given commission on bookings that motivated them to repeat promotion and engagement. |
Word of Mouth Loop | Through leveraging positive trip experience, followers organically recommend or use the platform. |
Practical Insights:
When you reward creators for promoting your product, growth can snowball without spending a dime on ads.
Giving commissions on content created by users encourages them to keep sharing naturally.
If your product turns regular users into creators, you keep the viral loop going and even expand it.
Public sharing and being easy to discover through influencers helps build trust and brings in new users organically.
When you combine user rewards with platform growth, you create a system that basically fuels itself.
Launch Date: March, 2024
Anuj Ashar founded AI Launchpad, who also started Launchpad AI Technologies which is a 6-week worldwide initiative that offers mentorship, necessary tools, and a chance to win a cash award for AI entrepreneurs.
How AI Launchpad Utilized Viral Loop:
The goal of AI Launchpad's viral loop is to provide early-stage AI entrepreneurs with useful resources, mentorship, and enhanced visibility while enabling its most successful alumni to serve as its best promoters.
Founders go through the 6-week program, receive expert mentorship, partner perks, and a chance at a $20K Demo Day prize.
As startups grow and find success, like Virtual Staging AI and SiteGPT, they become public success stories.
This generates word-of-mouth buzz, social proof, and testimonials that encourage other AI founders to apply.
Every year, new applications were created thanks to the community’s ongoing growth and the growing number of success stories, which kept the cycle going.
Viral Loop Type | How AI Launchpad Used It |
Word of Mouth Loop | Success stories shared by alumni founders naturally encourage other AI founders to apply. |
Value-Driven Viral Loop | Benefits, visibility, and good mentoring encouraged the participants to speak constructively about the program. |
Practical Insights:
When the users are provided with real value, that is, exposure or mentorship, they are most likely to reciprocate their success
Transforming alumni into advocates creates a word-of-mouth virality engine that fuels long-term growth
Publicly publishing public testimonials and public wins creates trust and inspires other people to join or to apply
Creating momentum through engagement with the community can create a sustained viral loop without relying solely on paid acquisition
Periodic updates and alumni spotlights are two of the methods to keep the brand name at the top of the customer's minds and close the loop
Not only are these 5 successful SaaS companies reliant on one viral loop but they even employ a combination of more than a single loop to drive their growth, engagement, and reach.
Step-by-step strategies to build your own viral loop
If you want your SaaS company to grow super fast, creating a viral loop is a great way to do it. Here's how to create one:
Step 1: Define Your Viral Loop Framework
Start by deciding how your viral loop will work. What will your users do to acquire new users? Keep the following important things in mind:
Incentives: Give users something that matters, e.g., coupons, special information, or extended functions, so you can motivate them to share.
Simple Sharing: Keep it simple when it comes to sharing like trying referral codes or copying and pasting links.
Track Metrics: Track your going-viral success using the K-factor so that you can watch how well it's going and where you can tweak.
Step 2: Offer Appropriate Incentives
Your incentives have to be valuable to both the referrer and the referred person. Here's how to do it:
Mutual Rewards: Reward both. For example, reward both the new user and referrer with discounts.
Recurring Rewards: Reward with the things that keep coming back. For example, reward with more space such as Dropbox.
Exclusive Content: Reward with special access to content or features to the people who refer others.
Step 3: Make Referrals Easy
Make referring people as simple as possible:
Simple Sharing: Use sharable referral codes and links that can be sent out with minimal effort.
Monitor Progress: Use leaderboards or progress bars to engage users and make them want to refer more people.
Step 4: Leverage Social Proof
Trust is massive, so use social proof to help it grow:
User Testimonials: Show happy comments or success stories from your users.
Influencer Partnerships: Work with influencers in your area to become more reputable.
User-Generated Content: Display content created by your users to create stronger trust and interaction.
Step 5: Refine with Data
Refine your viral loop again:
A/B Testing: Try different incentives or referral methods to see what works best.
Track Metrics: Monitor your K-factor (how quickly your loop is growing) and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) to know how good your loop is performing.
Step 6: Add Game-Based Features
Make referring more enjoyable and interactive:
Badges and Rewards: Give top referrers badges or rewards to make it competitive.
Contests: Host referral contests to keep the users engaged and motivated to refer more users.
Step 7: Focus on Long-Term Value
Make sure your product continues to provide value over time:
Email Campaigns: Re-activate users with tailored emails and unique offers.
Feature Updates: Make it fresh by constantly adding fresh features that will make users wish to share them.
By doing so, you can create a viral loop which not only widens your base of users but also keeps them engaged and coming back for more.
Final Thoughts
Viral loops are the secret force behind SaaS products that don't just acquire users, they breed them.
There's a single pattern that rings true: that is, the product sells itself when it's designed to spread.
But, here's the twist: viral loops don't look like viral loops.
It can be as subtle as signing up without knowing what you're signing up for, like Otter.ai showing you half a meeting summary until you invite others.
That mild annoyance directly leads to viral loop growth.
Here at Rank Wizards, we research SaaS marketing strategies for our clients.
Stay tuned for more.
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Check our other project Blogs with useful insight and information for your businesses
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Check our other project Blogs with useful insight and information for your businesses