Embedded Virality: Your Logo on Every Output

Embedded virality is a PLG acquisition pattern where your product’s branding appears during normal usage, exposing non-users to your product. Every support widget, form response, or email sent becomes a branded impression at zero cost. Intercom’s chat widget, Typeform’s form footer, and Mailchimp’s email badge pioneered this approach.

What separates embedded virality from referral programs (active promotion) or co-experience (recipients use the product) is that it works through passive brand exposure. The brand simply appears where business happens, requiring no action from the user:

The loop converts through exposure: awareness (badge visible) → interest (click-through) → acquisition (signup). The key is that exposure happens at the moment of value. When someone gets great support via Intercom, they notice the brand. When they fill out a beautiful Typeform, they see who made it.

When embedded virality works

Best Fit Products

Embedded Virality Examples

Intercom: The Widget That Built a $150M Business

“Powered by Intercom” on every free-tier widget. Visitors click, sign up, deploy their own widgets. Intercom ($150M revenue in 2020) pioneered this growth loop where paid users can remove the branding, but free users pay with impressions.¹

How It Works

Every website using Intercom’s free tier displays a small “Powered by Intercom” link in the chat widget. Visitors see it, click it, sign up, add it to their own sites. The loop never stops.

Lessons

1. Place branding where traffic is highest and value is felt. Intercom’s widget appears on every page, visible precisely when users receive helpful support, creating positive brand association.
2. Target business audiences with budget authority. Website visitors often include business owners and decision-makers who can act on what they see.
3. Link badges directly to signup to reduce friction. Every click should lead straight to conversion, not a marketing page.
4. Make branding removal a paid feature. Free users pay with impressions; paid users pay with money. This creates a sustainable value exchange.
5. Design for perpetual growth loops. Every new customer creates more impressions, acquiring more customers who create more impressions.

Mailchimp: The Freddie Badge That Built an Empire

85K to 450K users in one year. 650% profit increase. Mailchimp achieved this largely through their MonkeyRewards badge in email footers. By 2012, they reached 1.2M users. Each free email became a billboard for the service.²

How It Works

Lessons

1. Place branding where volume is highest. Each user sends thousands of emails, and email footers get millions of impressions per customer.
2. Target business contexts for B2B spread. Email recipients are often businesses who could become customers themselves.
3. Combine branding with incentive programs. Don’t just show a logo; reward users with credits when their branding converts others, creating urgency alongside awareness.
4. Show branding at the moment of value delivery. The badge appears when the email provides value to the recipient, creating positive association.
5. Make branding feel native, not intrusive. Freddie is charming, not annoying. Design your badge to fit naturally into the experience.

Typeform: Beautiful Forms That Spread

“Made with Typeform” on every free form. Respondents fill out beautiful, conversational surveys, then click the badge wanting to create their own. The experience IS the marketing.³

How It Works

Lessons

1. Create an experience that stands out from competitors. Typeforms feel dramatically better than alternatives, making respondents think “I want forms like this.”
2. Let non-users experience the product before signing up. Respondents use Typeform while filling out forms, getting a demo without knowing it.
3. Target audiences who will need your product. Survey respondents often have their own business needs for forms.
4. Build for repeat usage. Businesses create many forms, so each conversion leads to high lifetime value.

Buffer: “Posted via Buffer” as Bootstrapped Growth

$20.8M ARR. 85 people. No sales team. Buffer reached this by showing “Posted via Buffer” on every scheduled post, reaching social media managers who are the exact target market ($240K+ revenue per employee).⁴

How It Works

Lessons

1. Build attribution at scale. Each user schedules many posts, so each customer creates thousands of impressions at zero marginal cost.
2. Reach your exact target audience. Social media managers who see “Posted via Buffer” are precisely the people who need a scheduling tool.
3. Use embedded virality to stay bootstrapped. Viral distribution reduces sales and marketing spend, enabling $240K+ revenue per employee with no sales team.
4. Make the branding non-intrusive. A small attribution on social posts feels professional, not spammy.

ConvertKit: Every Embed Is an Ad

800-1,000 daily signups. ConvertKit ($3.6M+ MRR, 4.2% churn) earns them through “Powered by ConvertKit” badges on signup forms that spread creator-to-creator. Bloggers see the badge on other creator sites and recognize a tool built for them.⁴

How It Works

Lessons

1. Design for niche-focused virality. ConvertKit spreads creator-to-creator because it’s built specifically for creators, not generic email marketing.
2. Embed where your target audience looks. Blog signup forms reach aspiring creators who read creator blogs, creating a self-selecting audience.
3. Use category specificity in your positioning. “Email for creators” is more compelling than “email marketing” when a creator sees the badge on another creator’s blog.
4. Place forms on high-traffic placements. Popular blogs get significant views, maximizing impression value.

Tally.so: “Made with Tally” Bootstrapped to 500K Users

Tally, a form builder with 500K+ users and $2M ARR (bootstrapped), lets users build forms without creating an account first. Every form displays “Made with Tally”. Respondents experience the quality, click through, and build their own forms immediately.⁵

How It Works

Lessons

1. Deliver value before asking for identity. Tally lets users build forms without creating an account, so commitment comes after value is demonstrated.
2. Show branding at the moment of engagement. The badge appears on every form completion, visible precisely when respondents experience quality.
3. Use embedded virality to enable bootstrapped efficiency. 500K users on $2M ARR shows how viral distribution reduces the need for paid acquisition.
4. Let users preview results instantly. Seeing value before committing lowers the barrier to creation.

DocuSign: Every Signer Becomes a Sender

130,000 new users daily from viral loop. DocuSign optimized the signer-to-sender onboarding to increase conversion 10% and free account creation 15%. Every signed document creates a new potential sender.⁶

How It Works

Lessons

1. Build on inherently two-party interactions. You can’t sign a contract alone, so every use of DocuSign involves a non-user who experiences the product.
2. Convert at peak engagement. After signing a contract successfully is the highest-intent moment, so onboard immediately.
3. Guide recipients to become senders explicitly. Don’t just create accounts; show new users how to send their own documents.
4. Leverage high-stakes contexts. Contracts are important and memorable, so the product experience sticks.

RB2B: Slack Notifications as Viral Distribution

RB2B, a website visitor identification tool, reached $5M ARR in 15 months with 14K+ signups in 6 months. Their 200 free leads/month with Slack alerts makes value visible to entire sales teams, but 10% monthly churn signals that PLG growth alone isn’t enough.⁷

How It Works

Lessons

1. Make value visible to entire teams, not individuals. Slack alerts go to public channels where the whole sales and marketing team sees them, not siloed to one user.
2. Demonstrate value in real-time continuously. Every alert proves the product works, building confidence across the organization.
3. Offer generous free tiers to enable deep experience. 200 leads per month lets teams truly understand the value before paying.
4. Balance growth with retention investment. RB2B’s 10% monthly churn shows that fast PLG growth doesn’t equal sustainable business. Build retention mechanisms alongside viral distribution.

Wispr Flow: LinkedIn as Viral Channel

Wispr Flow, a voice-to-text dictation tool, grew 100x year-over-year with 50% month-over-month growth (90% from word-of-mouth). Users type 3x faster, post about it on LinkedIn, and achieve 20% paid conversion (vs 3-4% typical). VCs were already daily users before the Series A pitch.⁸

How It Works

Lessons

1. Enable dramatic, share-worthy improvements. 3x faster typing is remarkable enough that users post about it organically on LinkedIn without any prompts.
2. Reach power users with influential networks first. LinkedIn users are professionals whose testimonials reach exactly the right audience.
3. Let results speak without prompting. Don’t ask users to share. Create enough value that they want to tell others naturally.
4. Build products your investors already use. When Wispr raised Series A, every VC in Silicon Valley was already a daily user. No demo needed.

Free Users Pay With Distribution

Free users get value. You get distribution. That’s the trade. Mailchimp’s badge, Intercom’s widget, Typeform’s branding: these aren’t taxes on free users. They’re an alternative currency. Pay with money or pay with impressions. Users choose.

Action Items

1. Map customer-facing surfaces: Where does your product appear to your customers’ customers? Widgets, forms, emails, embeds, exports? Intercom’s chat widget, Typeform’s form footer, Mailchimp’s email badge. List every touchpoint where non-users see your product.
2. Audit current branding placement: Is your brand visible? Clickable? Linking directly to signup? If badges exist but don’t link anywhere, you’re wasting impressions. Every badge should be one click from signup.
3. Place branding at value moments: Put badges where users experience quality, not frustration. Typeform badge appears after completing a beautiful form. Intercom badge appears after getting helpful support. Positive association drives clicks.
4. Create branding tiers: Free = branding visible. Paid = branding removed. This isn’t punitive. It’s a value exchange. Free users pay with impressions instead of money. Make this explicit in your pricing.
5. Measure impression-to-signup rate: Track how many badge views convert to signups. If you have 1M monthly impressions and 100 signups, that’s 0.01% conversion. Benchmark and optimize. Small improvements compound with volume.