Traction

“Traction is the best way to judge and build a start-up’s success.” Is your start-up ready to gain the steady footing it needs to grow?

1. Traction Must Be a Priority from Day One

Traction is the lifeline of any start-up—it transforms ideas into measurable growth by driving customer demand. Too many start-ups assume that having a great product is enough, but they fail without a concerted effort to gain traction. Building and maintaining customer interest must begin as soon as your start-up takes shape, not after your product is finished.

Balancing time between product development and marketing is essential. Spend 50% of your time on gaining traction alongside creating your product. Early marketing efforts lead to user feedback that helps refine your product before launch. It’s a strategy that aligns customer needs with product success.

Dropbox exemplifies this approach. While initially testing ineffective paid advertising, they pivoted to viral referral marketing, which proved both cost-effective and successful. Similarly, Marketo began blogging long before launching its product. This effort led to 14,000 eager customers at launch and valuable user insight for future improvements.

Examples

• Dropbox abandoned expensive advertising to use referral incentives, increasing user growth cheaply.
• Marketo’s early blogs created a 14,000-strong buyer base ahead of product launch.
• Early traction saved the founders of DuckDuckGo by driving necessary user interest during critical stages.

2. Traditional Media and Public Relations Still Matter

Traditional and creative public relations (PR) strategies remain effective traction builders. Traditional media like newspapers and blogs offer reliable pathways for spreading the word about your product. Begin with smaller outlets—larger publications often take notice of what’s trending among these sources.

Unconventional PR tactics can also bring attention to your start-up. Flash mobs or clever brand stunts make your product stand out, but these fun ideas must clearly communicate your message to avoid misinterpretation. Both PR methods focus on amplifying visibility, creating buzz, and connecting with users who may otherwise overlook your brand.

Consider DonorsChoose.org: their initial coverage by small local outlets snowballed into an appearance on Oprah’s show, dramatically boosting visibility and donations. Another example is Airbnb famously using quirky guerrilla campaigns and targeted storytelling in its early days to attract the attention of users and the media.

Examples

• DonorsChoose.org moved from local headlines to Oprah’s show, expanding its audience exponentially.
• Airbnb’s original guerrilla marketing earned attention and trust, growing its platform.
• Creative flash mob campaigns by brands like T-Mobile entertained while advertising.

3. Social Media is Powerful—If Used the Right Way

Social media is more than just for personal use—it can transform brand presence and traction. Viral marketing strategies use existing users to attract new ones at low cost, but executing the right approach is key. Incentives, such as discounts or extra features, can motivate sharing and referrals.

Simplicity is another factor that drives social-sharing. Referral and sign-up processes must require minimal effort to ensure higher conversion rates. Blogs, another social-savvy approach, share your product story effectively and allow potential users to engage directly with your brand, slowly building loyalty and presence.

Dropbox’s incentive-driven referral campaign—offering additional storage—helped it grow rapidly. Warby Parker is another example: by encouraging customers to post selfies wearing their glasses, they built organic brand visibility without traditional advertising expense.

Examples

• Dropbox’s referral program provided extra storage to users, scaling its community.
• Warby Parker encouraged customer social posts, building brand visibility indirectly.
• Regular blog posts by HubSpot educated and attracted its target audience early on.

4. Effective Online Advertising Reaches Targeted Customers

Online advertising guides the right audience straight to your product. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) places your ads where relevant searches are happening, while Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improves your site's visibility on search result pages.

Social and banner ads boost brand recognition but require creativity to avoid annoying users. These ads often perform well when the focus is educational or relationship-building rather than simply transactional. Monitoring ad performance helps ensure cost efficiency and clear returns on investments.

Warby Parker has leveraged organic user-generated content on platforms like Facebook to effectively combine social engagement with marketing. Conversely, smaller companies have used display advertising on less crowded niche sites to specifically target their unique audience base.

Examples

• Longer-tail SEM keywords, such as "lightweight Danish backpacks," can focus ad budgets.
• SEO improvements like adding detailed keywords elevated Danish backpack brands in search ranks.
• Interview-style Facebook ads offering honest advice performed better than hard-sell approaches.

5. Partnerships Are a Strategic Shortcut

By collaborating with complementary companies, start-ups share resources and expand exposure. Business development partnerships create mutually beneficial pathways, reaching customers faster and more effectively.

Google leveraged this very strategy as a growing start-up, partnering with Netscape and Yahoo! to elevate its reach. Offline collaborations also play a significant role, demonstrated by SlidePad Technologies’ deal with a major manufacturer secured at a trade show without any final product.

Another example is Twitter’s creative marketing approach at the SXSW conference. TVs displaying Twitter feeds helped its app grow from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000 in less than a week—proving how partnerships and events co-function to raise awareness.

Examples

• Google secured users by enhancing search features on Netscape and Yahoo!.
• SlidePad Technologies forged strategic trade show relationships before launching.
• Twitter captured attention at SXSW by presenting live feeds of content.

6. Email Marketing: A Timeless Tool

Emails establish direct communication lines, efficiently building customer loyalty and awareness if used responsibly. Avoid spammy tactics—focus instead on engaging opt-in messages offering something of value.

Gather email lists authentically, such as sign-up sheets at events or voluntary subscription forms. Emails can be pivotal for sharing updates, encouraging purchases, or offering insights, keeping your audience consistently engaged.

Platforms like Mailchimp have perfected dedicated email newsletters to maintain customer retention rates. Some brands even use email campaigns to drive community sentiment surveys, enhancing interactions later.

Examples

• Mailchimp used optimized email marketing to nudge free users into paying customers.
• Retailers offer personalized discounts through loyal subscriber emails.
• Company updates shared via email create ongoing conversations with supportive users.

7. Experimentation Identifies the Best Traction Channel

No single traction method works universally. To discover the best approach, try the Bullseye Framework—a five-step analysis that explores, tests, and refines strategies based on incremental learning loops.

From brainstorming channels to running inexpensive tests, the framework underscores evaluating customer acquisition costs against realistic and scalable results. Be persistent in changing strategies where experiments reveal room for improvement.

Zapier tested multiple methods simultaneously, scaling its affiliate referrals only after it greatly surpassed lower-performing channels like Facebook PPC ads. Similarly, ride-sharing apps constantly retarget based on regional spending data.

Examples

• Zapier’s testing process shifted toward high-performing affiliate partnerships.
• YouTube influencers gave initial traction to niche brands like Dollar Shave Club.
• Regional marketing choices maximized Uber’s launch ads in competitive cities.

8. Clear Goals Direct Start-Up Success

Setting clear, achievable goals provides your start-up with direction and focus. These overarching markers streamline resources, prioritize actions, and push team efforts toward concrete progress rather than scattered, reactive activities.

DuckDuckGo defined precise targets as a search engine: 100 million queries per month became their guiding milestone. This focus determined which steps to take and when, allowing smaller goals like gaining press coverage to align tightly with larger objectives.

Structure paths critically; concentrating on results like user growth instead of secondary design decisions creates sharper momentum. Regular reviews allow for pivots that adapt with emerging priorities.

Examples

• DuckDuckGo’s measurable traction targets influenced workflow.
• Fewer choices let Basecamp organize development sprints better during launch windows.
• Monitoring lead conversions proved essential steps down the product funnel refinement.

9. Flexibility Helps Sustain Long-Term Traction

Traction-building is dynamic—it evolves as your audience scales or trends shift. Just like products need updates, marketing initiatives must adjust too, aligning with changing customer needs and motivations.

Revisiting traction strategies as business phases progress keeps campaigns optimized for success. What worked pre-launch might fade ineffective during scaling periods—adaptability allows future-proofing.

Trello regularly iterates its engagement efforts. Similarly, brands attending key start-up incubators reevaluate output under new conditions yearly.

Examples

• User growth curves shifted Evernote’s top priority marketing tools after year three.
• Consumer habits pushed Audible’s platform expansion methods into premium blogs late-stage.
• Ecommerce seasonal demand changes software-to-subscription pull-factors frequently over cycles.

Takeaways

1. Synchronize your product work with focused traction-building efforts from the outset.
2. Test promising channels before committing long-term—compare data across reasonable variables.
3. Embrace change: review channel alignments bi-annually while expanding traction holistically.