Pull Virality

Pull virality is when a product is shared because doing so increases its benefits. Users “pull” in others to get the most out of a product.

Pull virality applies to product types like:

• Social media: You’ll have a better experience on Instagram or Snapchat if more of your friends are on it.
• Collaboration and communication tools: There’s not much point in using Dropbox, Slack, or Zoom if your collaborators aren’t on there too. Collaboration tools aren’t just for work—apps like Strava (workouts) and Nextdoor (community news) also encourage in-app interaction.
• Practical tools: For instance, if you need to get paid and the person doing the paying uses a specific payment app, you’ll download it too.

You have a little more control over pull virality than word of mouth, since you can build it into your product. On the other hand, it can be challenging to enable this type of virality after a product build. Just another reason why it’s so important to understand, from early on in your company’s life, your five fits and how to optimize your product for your growth lanes.

Here are two ways to build pull virality into your product.

1. Design your product so its content is meant to be shared.
2. Design your product so users collaborate or have transactions with others.

Design your product so its content is meant to be shared.

Social media is the most prominent platform type for user-generated content (UGC) that’s meant to be shared. No one would use LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., if they didn’t have connections there.

If content sharing is central to your core product value, make it a) easy to make content, and b) easy to share content.

Besides social media, here are some other examples of products with content-sharing pull virality:

• RedPen lets you leave comments on design mockups. In order to leave feedback on a design, you have to use RedPen.
• Spotify users can create playlists of their favorite songs, then share them with friends or anyone else who might be interested.
• GoPro users often share their camera footage with their networks, inspiring others to consider getting GoPros themselves.
• Eventbrite: To accept an invitation through an events service, you almost never reply “yes” or “no” to the invitation email. Instead, you have to register through the platform.

For a deeper dive on viral and user-generated content, visit our Content Marketing modules, where we discuss tactics for making editorial content and UGC gain traction.

Design your product so users collaborate or have transactions with others.

When users need to work with non-users during natural use of the product, those non-users can become your next conversions.

Collaborative or transactional pull virality is particularly powerful for B2B companies with a “land and expand” strategy. You land by getting one person to use your product, and then you expand when they invite the rest of their team.

Here are a few B2B examples of collaborating and transacting:

• Bid Ops: You know how Costco has super cheap prices because you buy in bulk? Bid Ops lets companies and local governments band together to buy at super steep discounts.
• Poshmark connects people interested in buying and selling clothes, shoes, and accessories. Sellers need accounts to create listings, and anyone who wants to make a purchase must also create an account.
• GitHub: If you want to make changes to a team’s codebase, you need a GitHub account.

Pull virality main takeaway‌s

The most important takeaway on pull virality is don’t force it. The referral should enhance—not detract from—the value users get from your product.

Another important takeaway is to always think about the benefits to both the inviter and the invitee. Two common ones are:

• Entertainment: e.g., the existing user just watched a hilarious video they know their friend would love too.
• Ease: e.g., the existing user’s workload would get lighter if their colleague signed up for the same app. And the non-user might discover a workload-management system they like too.

Both sides have to have something to gain. Something they can’t get without extending or accepting that invitation.