Software Growth

Billboarding

Billboarding is when using a product exposes it to people who are not yet users, such as a "Sent from my iPhone" footer, so they discover it and try it.

Billboarding is a growth tactic where the normal use of your product shows it to people outside your customer base. Every email signature, shared link or branded page acts as a small billboard. The people who see it and have the same need eventually click, try it and sometimes pay. You do not ask users to invite anyone, which separates it from referral programs.

How it works

The loop is simple: a user does their normal work, the output carries your brand to someone else, and some of those people sign up and repeat the cycle. It is one form of growth loop, and an inexpensive one, because the exposure is a by-product of the product being used.

A write-up of viral loop types on HackerNoon calls the email version a signature loop: users send an email and the message carries a "sent with" line or logo, as with Superhuman and Mailchimp. It lists two other forms: downloaded assets that keep a watermark, and embedded features that show "powered by" labels, such as chatbots powered by Drift and surveys powered by Typeform (Mai Luong, HackerNoon).

Common patterns

  • Footers: "Sent from my iPhone" or "Sent via Superhuman".
  • Branded shared links: a Calendly booking page that the invitee sees and uses. OpenView's Blake Bartlett notes that in scheduling both parties share the problem at the same time, so discovery is natural.
  • Badges and watermarks: "Powered by" on a widget or a logo on the free tier of a form tool.
  • Public outputs: pages, reports and sites built with the product and visible to anyone, covered further under user-generated content.

When it works

The output must be seen by many people who share the creator's problem. A branded survey sent to 500 customers reaches 500 people who might run surveys themselves. A branded internal accounting export reaches nobody. The audience must also be able to click through and try the product without a sales call, so billboarding pairs well with product-led growth.

The trade-off

Branding on shared output is a feature users sometimes dislike, which is why many tools offer to remove it on a paid plan. That turns the badge into a reason to upgrade as well as a source of reach. Keep the mark small and make clear it is a link to something useful, not an advertisement. Intrusive branding hurts the experience of the very users who spread it.

Measuring it

Add a tracking parameter to every branded link and count signups from it. Divide new signups by the number of exposures to get a conversion rate. A rate of 0.1 percent on 20,000 monthly exposures gives 20 signups, which is real value for a mark you added once. Unlike a referral program, it usually produces a viral coefficient well below 1, so treat it as a steady supplement, not a growth engine on its own.

Related terms

Sources

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