103 lines
5.9 KiB
Markdown
103 lines
5.9 KiB
Markdown
# Viral Mechanisms
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Virality can be **engineered through product design**, not just bought with reward programs. But don't force it — decide *whether* virality fits your product before building anything.
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## Contents
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- Viral Potential Spectrum (the diagnostic)
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- The 7 Viral Mechanisms
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- Referral Best Practices (presentation, timing, friction)
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- Affiliate Mechanics (buyout clauses, the 20/80 power law, launch tactics)
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---
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## Viral Potential Spectrum
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Before engineering virality, place your product on the spectrum. **Don't force virality where it doesn't naturally fit.**
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**Natural viral potential (build for it):**
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- **Collaboration tools** — value grows when you invite others (docs, whiteboards, project management)
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- **Communication tools** — you can't use them alone (email, scheduling, messaging)
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- **User-facing outputs** — every use produces something others see (design, video, forms, links)
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**Limited viral potential (don't force it):**
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- **Backend / infrastructure** — invisible to end users
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- **Competitive-advantage tools** — users *hide* that they use them (their edge)
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- **Internal-only tools** — never leave the org
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- **Infrastructure** — plumbing no one talks about
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If you're on the limited end, invest in referral programs, content, and partnerships instead of embedding viral loops that won't fire.
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---
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## The 7 Viral Mechanisms
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Most are **non-incentive** — the loop is built into the product, not paid for.
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### 1. "Powered By" Badges
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A small attributed badge on user-facing output ("Powered by [Product]"). Every page/form/widget a customer ships becomes an ad. Often free-tier only (paid tier removes it).
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### 2. Exposure Loops
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The product's normal use exposes it to non-users.
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- **Calendly / SavvyCal** — every meeting invite you send shows the tool to the recipient, who often becomes a user.
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- **Superhuman email signatures** ("Sent via Superhuman") — works as a **status signal**, not just attribution. The signature signaled early-adopter status, so recipients *wanted* it. Exposure loops are strongest when using the product confers status.
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### 3. Social Sharing
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Make output natively shareable with a branded hook.
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- **#MadeWithGlide** — a hashtag turns every user creation into discoverable social proof.
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- One-tap "share to X/LinkedIn" on any milestone, result, or artifact.
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### 4. Embed Options
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Let users embed their content elsewhere; the embed carries your brand and a link back.
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- **Notion, Figma, Loom** — embedded docs, designs, and videos spread the product to every viewer on every host site.
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### 5. Watermarks / Mandatory Badges
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Like "Powered By" but harder to remove — baked into the output itself.
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- **OpusClips** watermark on generated clips.
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- **"Made in Webflow"** badge on free-plan sites.
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Free tier carries the mark; paid tier removes it. The free users become the distribution.
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### 6. Referral Programs
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Explicit incentives for referring. Covered in detail in [program-examples.md](program-examples.md) and below. The one *incentive-driven* mechanism on this list — use it when the product itself doesn't naturally spread.
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### 7. Product-Driven Word-of-Mouth
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The purest form: the product is so good, novel, or useful that people tell others unprompted. Not a mechanism you bolt on — it's earned through the product experience. Engineering the other six makes this easier to trigger.
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---
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## Referral Best Practices
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Detail beyond the core referral loop (trigger → share → convert → reward).
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### Value Presentation: Lead With the Larger Number
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Frame the reward with whichever number *looks* bigger.
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- On a $25 product, say **"$10 off"** — not "40% off."
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- On a $500 product, say **"20% off"** — not "$100 off" if the percentage frames better... but usually the absolute dollar figure wins for smaller prices.
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- Rule of thumb: **under ~$100, lead with the dollar amount; over ~$100, test the percentage.** Always pick the bigger-*feeling* number.
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### Reward Timing: Fire at the Aha / Milestone
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Trigger the referral ask (and reward) at the moment the user has just felt the product's value — the **aha moment** or a **milestone** (first success, upgrade, streak). Motivation to share peaks right after value is experienced, not at signup.
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### Double-Sided Rewards
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Both referrer and referred get value. Higher conversion than single-sided, and gives the referrer a generous, non-selfish reason to share ("here's $10 for you too").
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### Friction Reduction
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Every extra step kills share rate.
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- **One-click sharing** — pre-generated link, no form.
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- **Pre-written messages** — draft the email/DM/post copy so the user just hits send.
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- In-product placement at the trigger moment, not buried in settings.
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---
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## Affiliate Mechanics
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Detail deferred from the partnerships side — for building an affiliate motion into a referral/partner strategy.
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### Buyout Clauses (~12× Monthly Commission)
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For high-performing affiliates on **recurring** commissions, include a **buyout clause**: the right to buy out the affiliate's future commission stream for a lump sum, commonly around **12× the monthly commission**. Protects margin on a customer the affiliate referred once but earns on forever, and gives the affiliate an attractive cash-out.
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### The 20/80 Affiliate Power Law
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Roughly **20% of affiliates drive ~80% of results**. Don't spread effort evenly across a long tail of dormant sign-ups. **Identify super-promoters and invest in them** — higher tiers, custom assets, co-marketing, direct relationship, early access. Recruiting 1,000 passive affiliates is worth less than activating 10 great ones.
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### Launch-Affiliate Tactic (Cometly / Demio)
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Time affiliate promotion around a **launch or a hard deadline** to concentrate volume. Cometly drove **$251K on a single launch day** by mobilizing affiliates simultaneously; Demio ran launch-window affiliate pushes. The mechanic: give affiliates a shared date, shared assets, and a reason for their audience to act *now* (bonus, cohort, closing offer) so promotion stacks instead of trickling.
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