Viral Promotion in B2B • GrowthStudy #1

I’ve been asked for case studies, so I figured I’d create a little series of shorts that are a mashup of growth hacks and case studies. I’ve unimaginatively named them GrowthStudies. Here we go!

There aren’t many easy ways to get viral promotion in B2B, But I’ve seen one work consistently. Best of all, it reduces campaign CPA and generates highly relevant leads!

Here’s how it works…

When I was at Census, we ran a webinar with an influencer in the data space to promote their new book. We offered a free copy of the book to anybody that got one of their colleagues to sign up as well.

As a result, about 1 out of 10 registrants invited at least one colleague, increasing our acquisition by over 10%. Even better, these additional signups came at the cost of the book (~$20), which was less than half of the cost per signup on paid social (~$50).

We even saw invitees inviting people! 🤯

✨ The best part: it was an inexpensive way to increase our influence among a target persona within target accounts—more people learned about us and could be swayed over time.

How to make a viral loop

Creating this viral loop requires two things:

1. Hubspot automation: Upon webinar registration, the registrant is enrolled in an email workflow that does the standard confirmation, but it also provides an offer to receive a free copy of the speaker’s book if the registrant can get others to register.
2. Some clever link tracking: The viral invites are tracked via a tracking link in the email that looks something like this:
   example.com/landingpage?ref={{referrer’s_Hubspot_contact_ID}} When the registrant’s invitees click the link, the form on the landing page automatically populates the ref field in the form, and when the form is submitted, the field is recorded on the new contact’s profile.
3. Validation and fulfillment: Crediting the invited is easy. Just export a list of contacts that have a non-null ref property and find the unique Hubspot Contact IDs. This is the list of individuals who will receive a free book.

This can be made a bit more automated with tools like Census, but this is the low-fi version.

Want to read more about personalization hacks with Hubspot? Check out this post about Hubspot web personalization.

And, of course, if you’re looking for help with B2B growth or data activation? Let me know!