How to Promote Your Product: 7 Strategies That Actually Drive Users

There's a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in when you're staring at your product analytics dashboard at 2 AM, watching the user acquisition numbers refuse to budge despite everything you've tried.

You've launched on Product Hunt. You've posted on every relevant subreddit (and gotten banned from two, raise your hand). You've run ads that burned through your budget faster than a crypto bro explaining NFTs at a dinner party.

And yet… crickets.

Here's what nobody tells you when you're building a product: the "if you build it, they will come" philosophy is complete nonsense.

It's a comforting lie we tell ourselves when we're deep in development mode, convinced that our product is so obviously valuable that users will simply materialize out of thin air once we hit "deploy."

They won't.

I've been in the trenches of product marketing since the days when "growth hacking" was a revolutionary concept rather than an overused buzzword, and I've seen the landscape transform completely.

What worked in 2015 doesn't work now. What works now probably won't work in 2027.

But heading into 2026, there are strategies that still cut through the noise… not because they're sexy or new, but because they're built on fundamental human psychology and actual market dynamics.

The companies that win at product promotion in 2026 won't be the ones with the biggest ad budgets or the most viral TikToks (though those don't hurt).

They'll be the ones that understand something crucial: user acquisition is about doing what works—intentionally, creatively, and in sync with how people actually discover and adopt products today.

So let's talk about the seven strategies that actually drive users. Not downloads. Not signups that ghost you after day one. Real, engaged users who stick around because you've made their lives demonstrably better.

1. Product-Led Growth: Let the Product Sell Itself

Remember when every SaaS company required you to "schedule a demo" before you could even see what the damn thing looked like? We've all been guilty of this. But those days are dying, and honestly good riddance.

Product-led growth (PLG) has become the dominant acquisition model heading into 2026 for one simple reason: buyers want to try before they talk to anyone. They're weary of sign-up walls and sales calls.

PLG aligns with how people now evaluate software—on their own terms, in their own workflows.

What PLG Actually Looks Like:

The model is deceptively simple, your product becomes your primary acquisition channel. Instead of gating everything behind forms and qualification calls, you let people experience value immediately.

According to recent data, PLG companies are 2X more likely to experience 100%+ year-over-year revenue growth than sales-led businesses. Why? Because when the product is genuinely useful, every active user becomes a potential promoter.

The Real-World Winners:

• Calendly markets itself as "free online appointment scheduling software" and actually delivers on that promise. But here's the genius: every time a user shares a Calendly link to invite someone to a meeting, they introduce the platform to potential new customers. The product has virality baked into its core function.

• Miro uses a bottom-up growth strategy where individual contributors try the product, love it, invite their teams, and suddenly the entire organization is using it. At that point, upgrading to a paid account becomes a no-brainer.

How to Build PLG Into Your Product:

1. Minimize time-to-value: Users should reach their "aha moment" within minutes, not weeks. If your onboarding takes longer than a TikTok binge, you're losing people.

2. Create natural sharing mechanics: Like Calendly's link sharing or Figma's collaborative boards. If using your product inherently involves other people, you've built a growth engine.

3. Offer a genuinely valuable free tier: Not a crippled trial that expires in 14 days, but something users can actually accomplish work with. The upgrade should feel like a natural next step, not a hostage situation.

4. Use in-product triggers wisely: Don't be the app that bombards users with upgrade prompts. Wait until they've hit a meaningful use case, then show them how the paid tier removes friction.

The Catch: PLG only works if your product is actually good. If your free tier is confusing, buggy, or delivers marginal value, you're just giving people a low-friction way to reject you faster.

2. Strategic Content That Ranks and Converts

Content marketing isn't dead. LAZY content marketing is dead.

Heading into 2026, content that covers a broader range of subtopics consistently outperforms keyword-dense content. Google now values topic completeness over keyword repetition. If your page isn't the most comprehensive resource, it won't win.

The Companies Crushing Content:

• Ahrefs owns the "SEO how-to" category by publishing long-form, evidence-backed guides with screenshots, real results, and internal data from their platform. Every post ranks, gets backlinks, and shows you how to use Ahrefs to get the job done. Their content doesn't just educate—it sells without pitching.

• Grammarly targets long-tail searches like "How to write a resignation email" or "Apology email to a client" and serves SEO pages with examples, templates, and a live grammar tool preview. They built content around jobs to be done, not just keywords.

• Zapier quietly rolled out dynamic landing pages for specific integrations like "How to connect Airtable to Google Sheets"—each one AI-assisted, SEO-tuned, and loaded with embedded workflows. They didn't blog about integrations. They ranked for them.

The 2026 Content Strategy:

1. Think Beyond the Blog

Content in 2026 means more than 800-word posts on your company blog. It means:

• SEO-optimized landing pages for every use case

• Interactive tools and calculators that solve specific problems

• Video tutorials that rank on YouTube

• Templates and frameworks people actually use

2. Use AI as a Drafting Tool, Not a Publishing Engine

According to Ahrefs analysis, content created with AI still performs well in search, as long as there's a human editor in the loop. Fully AI-written content lacks depth and often fails to rank.

The smart play? Use AI to generate initial outlines or first drafts, then inject proprietary data, expert commentary, and a clear editorial voice.

This is where platforms like Averi become invaluable—combining AI-powered content generation with expert-level editing and strategy ensures you're not just pumping out generic content that reads like every other AI-generated piece on the internet.

3. Create Content Hubs, Not Random Posts

Group related content into comprehensive topic clusters. When someone finds one piece, they should naturally flow to the next, spending more time on your site and signaling to Google that you're the authority on that topic.

4. Optimize for "Search Everywhere," Not Just Google

SEO now means "search everywhere" optimization. People are searching on TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and increasingly, inside AI tools like ChatGPT. Your content needs to be discoverable across all these channels.

The Reality Check: Content marketing is a long game. Some pieces might catch fire immediately, but most take weeks or even months to gain traction. The key is consistency and compounding—every piece builds on the last.

3. Viral Loops and Referral Programs: Turn Users Into Advocates

Here's a counterintuitive truth… the most effective marketing isn't marketing at all. It's your existing users spreading the word because they genuinely believe in what you've built.

Friends trust friends—92% of consumers trust peer recommendations over ads. For SaaS, where acquisition costs can be steep, referrals lower expenses while building a community.

The Mechanics of a Real Viral Loop:

A viral loop isn't just "tell your friends and get a discount." That's a referral program. A true viral loop means using the product inherently creates exposure to potential new users.

Legendary Examples:

• Dropbox utilized a referral program inspired by PayPal to grow its user base. They gave users extra storage for referrals, turning their most engaged customers into a distribution channel.

• Hotmail embedded signup links into every outbound email—a simple tactic that accelerated user growth exponentially.

How to Build Your Viral Mechanism:

1. Make Sharing a Core Function, Not an Afterthought

If your product only becomes useful when multiple people use it (like Slack, Notion, or Figma), you've built virality into the core value proposition. Every new user needs to invite others to get full value.

2. Incentivize, But Don't Bribe

Good referral programs reward both parties. 62% of SaaS companies say free trials and referrals drive over 10% of their business. But the incentive should feel like a bonus, not the primary motivation.

3. Reduce Friction to Zero

The best viral loops require almost no extra effort from users. Calendly's sharing is literally just sending a link. Any additional steps drastically reduce participation rates.

4. Track Your Viral Coefficient

If your viral coefficient is above 1 (meaning each user brings in more than one additional user), you have true organic growth. Below 1, and you're still relying primarily on paid acquisition.

The Catch: You can't engineer virality into a bad product. The best viral loops amplify something that's already working—they don't create demand where none exists.

4. Build Community, Not Just an Audience

Heading into 2026, an impactful social strategy should always focus on building community, not just chasing viral moments.

The difference is profound: an audience consumes. A community participates, creates, and evangelizes.

Why Community Beats Everything:

• Communities create network effects that compound over time

• They provide social proof and validation for new users

• They generate user-generated content that does your marketing for you

• They give you direct access to your most passionate users for feedback and beta testing

Real Community Plays:

1. Own Your Platform

Don't just build your community on Twitter or LinkedIn. You're building on rented land. Create a Slack, Discord, Circle community, or forum where you control the experience and own the relationships.

2. Facilitate Peer-to-Peer Value

The best communities aren't just brand-to-user. They're user-to-user. When community members help each other, they're more invested than if they're just consuming branded content.

3. Give Members Status and Recognition

Power users love being recognized. Create tiers, badges, featured member spotlights—whatever gives your most engaged community members something to aspire to.

4. Host Events (Virtual and IRL)

Figma turned its annual Config conference into a long-tail content machine. Every talk, demo, and keynote was repurposed into blog posts, replay pages, and YouTube videos. This wasn't just a one-day event—it became a year-round content hub.

The Execution Challenge:

Building community is resource-intensive. You need dedicated community managers, consistent engagement, and patience. The payoff comes in 12-24 months, not 12-24 days.

But here's where smart founders are getting creative: instead of hiring a full community team from day one, they're using modular approaches—bringing in expert community strategists on-demand through platforms like Averi to lay the foundation and train internal teams, then scaling up as the community grows.

5. Partner with Micro-Influencers and Domain Experts

Influencer marketing is set to hit $39 billion in 2025, but here's what most companies get wrong: they chase follower counts instead of relevance.

Micro-influencers, with 10,000–50,000 followers, are especially effective for SaaS due to their niche, engaged audiences. Their engagement rates crush those of mega-influencers, and their audiences actually trust their recommendations.

The Smart Approach to Influencer Marketing:

1. Choose Alignment Over Reach

Don't partner with influencers just because they have big numbers. Partner with people whose values, audience, and content style align with your brand. Identify creators who reflect your audience's values—not just their interests.

2. Give Them Creative Freedom

Nothing kills an influencer campaign faster than overly scripted talking points. The best partnerships let influencers tell your story in their voice. Their audience can smell inauthenticity from a mile away.

3. Think Long-Term Collaboration, Not One-Off Posts

Develop long-term collaborations with content flexibility and storytelling freedom. One sponsored post gets lost in the feed. An ongoing partnership where an influencer genuinely uses and talks about your product creates sustained impact.

4. Focus on Domain Experts, Not Just Social Media Personalities

For B2B products especially, domain expertise matters more than social media clout. A well-regarded industry expert with 5,000 highly relevant followers is worth more than a lifestyle influencer with 500,000 random followers.

Track What Matters:

Don't just measure impressions and reach. Track:

• Click-through rates to your product

• Trial signups from influencer campaigns

• Conversion rates of influencer-referred users

• Long-term retention of these users

If influencer-referred users have high churn, the partnership might be driving the wrong audience.

6. Leverage AI-Powered Personalization

Personalized content boosts engagement by 40%, and users share what resonates. Heading into 2026, AI-driven personalization isn't optional—it's table stakes.

What Personalization Actually Means:

We're not talking about "Hi [FIRST_NAME]" emails. We're talking about:

• Tailored onboarding flows based on user behavior

• Custom dashboards showing the data each user cares about

• Content recommendations based on usage patterns

• Pricing and feature suggestions that match specific use cases

How to Build Personalization at Scale:

1. Leverage Data to Understand User Behavior

Use AI to analyze user behavior and preferences. Which features do they use? Where do they get stuck? What workflows do they prefer?

2. Create Dynamic User Journeys

Not every user should see the same onboarding. Power users need different guidance than beginners. Enterprise users have different needs than solopreneurs.

3. Personalize Outreach and Communication

Use AI for A/B testing to find what drives shares. But remember: AI should help you scale personalization, not replace human empathy and understanding.

The Balancing Act:

Personalization done well feels helpful. Personalization done poorly feels creepy. The line is thinner than you think.

7. Distribution Channels That Match Your ICP

Here's where most product marketing fails… spray-and-pray distribution. Posting everywhere, targeting everyone, hoping something sticks.

The best acquisition strategies combine a few high-intent channels with consistent experimentation, using data to double down on what works. Spread too thin, and you lose clarity. Go deep on the right channels, and acquisition becomes a growth engine.

Finding Your Channels:

1. Start With Where Your Users Already Are

Don't guess. Research. Where does your ideal customer spend time? What do they read? Who do they follow? What communities are they active in?

For a project management tool targeting freelancers, that might be niche subreddits, YouTube channels covering freelancing tools, or coworking spaces. For a developer tool, it's GitHub, Stack Overflow, and dev Twitter.

2. Test Small, Then Scale What Works

Launch small-scale campaigns on each channel and keep a close eye on their performance. A/B test different messages, visuals, and targeting options. Don't be afraid to experiment with new channels—you might stumble upon a hidden gem.

3. Don't Ignore Emerging Channels

AI platforms and embedded tools are emerging trends in 2026. Products that integrate with or are accessible via AI tools (like ChatGPT plugins) are seeing real traction by meeting users at the point of curiosity.

Another creative customer acquisition strategy emerging in 2026 is building your own AI agent—one that's trained on your product's content. Instead of pushing traditional ads, you create an interactive experience where users discover your product organically as the source of insight.

4. Own Your Distribution Where Possible

• Build an email list (yes, still)

• Create a community (Slack, Discord, forum)

• Develop strategic partnerships with complementary products

• Get featured in product directories and app marketplaces

The Channel Mix That Actually Works:

Most successful companies in 2026 use a combination of:

• 1-2 primary channels where they invest heavily (usually content + one other)

• 2-3 experimental channels they're testing at low budget

• 1 owned channel they're building long-term (email, community, etc.)

The Execution Bottleneck:

Here's the problem: executing across multiple channels at a high level requires either a massive team or extraordinary efficiency. Most early-stage companies have neither.

This is where the marketing operating system has evolved. Instead of choosing between expensive agencies with long contracts or building a full team before you can afford it, smart founders are using platforms like Averi to access AI-powered insights plus on-demand expert execution across channels. You get the strategic thinking and craft quality without the overhead—letting you test and scale faster than was possible even two years ago.

The Bottom Line: Execution Beats Theory Every Single Time

I've spent over a decade watching companies succeed and fail at product promotion.

The pattern is clear: the companies that win aren't the ones with the most innovative strategies or the biggest budgets. They're the ones that execute relentlessly on the fundamentals.

You don't need to do all seven of these strategies simultaneously. In fact, trying to do everything at once is how you do nothing well. Pick 2-3 that align with your product, your market, and your resources. Then execute them better than anyone else in your category.

The Hard Truth:

Companies that excel at client acquisition are 60% more likely to outperform their competitors. But excelling isn't about working harder—it's about building systems that let you execute at a level your competition can't sustain.

Heading into 2026, the winners will be the companies that understand this: promotion isn't separate from your product. It's not something you tack on after you've shipped. It's woven into every decision—from product design to pricing to the words on your homepage.

The companies that will dominate 2026 won't just have good products. They'll have products designed to be promoted, marketed, and talked about. They'll use the strategies above not as isolated tactics, but as interconnected systems that compound over time.

So stop waiting for the perfect launch moment. Stop hoping for organic virality. And definitely stop burning money on channels that don't convert just because everyone else is doing it.

Start with one strategy from this list. Execute it properly. Measure what works. Then layer in the next one.

Because at the end of the day, your product won't promote itself. But with the right strategies and ruthless execution, you can build a growth engine that doesn't rely on luck, timing, or your entire marketing budget.

And that's the only sustainable path forward.

Want to execute on these strategies without building a massive marketing team?

Get Started With Averi

FAQs

How long does it take to see results from these strategies?

It depends entirely on the strategy. PLG and paid campaigns can show results within weeks. Content marketing and community building? That's a 12-24 month game. The companies that win combine quick wins (paid ads, influencer partnerships) with long-term plays (content, community, PLG). Don't expect overnight miracles, but don't wait years to see any traction either.

Should I focus on one strategy or try multiple?

Start with 2-3 strategies that align with your product and resources. Trying to execute all seven poorly will get you worse results than executing two brilliantly. Pick strategies that complement each other—for example, content marketing + PLG, or community building + referral programs.

How much budget do I need for product promotion?

This is the wrong question. The right question is: "What's my unit economics?" If you're spending $100 to acquire a user who generates $300 in lifetime value, you have a business. If it's inverted, you have a problem. Start small, prove profitability on one channel, then scale. Companies that excel at acquisition are 60% more likely to outperform competitors, but they do it through efficiency, not just spend.

Does viral marketing still work in 2026?

Yes, but not the way you think. The definition of viral marketing is evolving—it's no longer just about reaching millions overnight. Micro-virality (going viral within specific niche communities) is more valuable than broad, unfocused reach. Focus on creating content that resonates deeply with your target audience, even if it's a smaller group.

How do I know which channels to focus on?

Test, measure, iterate. Start by researching where your ideal customers already spend time. Then run small experiments on 4-5 potential channels. Double down on the 1-2 that show the best unit economics (lowest CAC, highest LTV). Kill everything else ruthlessly.

Can I do this without a full marketing team?

Yes. The marketing landscape has changed dramatically. You don't need to choose between hiring a full team or doing everything yourself anymore. Modular approaches—using platforms like Averi for AI-powered execution plus on-demand experts, combined with smart automation—let you execute at a level that used to require 5-10 full-time marketers. The question isn't "how many people do I need?" It's "how can I execute at the highest level with the resources I have?"

What's the biggest mistake companies make with product promotion?

Treating promotion as something you do after building the product. The best products have promotion baked in from day one—through PLG features, built-in viral loops, and distribution-focused design. If you're trying to bolt on distribution after launch, you're already behind.