šŸ™ How to build in virality into your product using ChatGPT

How Dropbox grew by 4.1 million users in 2 years

Read time: 6 minutes | Sponsor this newsletter

Greet from the deep,

It's Ole from the AI Solopreneur here, the AI newsletter that's like a Tinder date with Elon Musk:

You never know what you're going to get, but you know itā€™s gonna be a unique experience.

Also, I love your feedback.

A few weeks back, you told me:

ā€¦so today, Iā€™m bringing you a more uncommon, deeper use case of ChatGPT.

By the end of todayā€™s email, youā€™ll know:

  • The power of built-in product virality

  • How to use ChatGPT to add virality to your products

  • 3 ways to build virality into your product

If you have a service, content, or software business, this will be helpful to you.

Let's dive into it! šŸ¤æ

From our partners

3 weeks ago, I went on a call with another AI creator.

He was spitting fire, dropping more Chatgpt hacks than I could handleā€¦..

I furiously tried to write them down, afraid to lose them forever.

The result:

I was a worse listener than my deaf grandpa (while my notes still missed most essential points).

This is why AI note-taking tools like tl;dv are a lifesaver for me.

Let the AI do the work. Get transcripts and summaries faster than I can chug an iced coffee (I need around 3 seconds).

It also works in over 30 languages.

The power of built-in product virality

To make a product viral, you need to design it in a way that it generates:

a) Social shares

b) Referrals

ā€¦on autopilot.

Social shares are word-of-mouth on steroids:

You make your users share your product with their network.

Referrals are like the McDonaldā€™s limited-edition Szechuan sauce of the business world.

They:

  • Bring in new customers

  • Lower your customer acquisition costs (CAC)

  • Create powerful word-of-mouth marketing

Just take a look at Dropbox:

They grew from 100,000 to 4.2 million users in 2 years just by bribing us with 500MB of additional storage for each friend we brought in.

(iā€™ve almost lost friends because of thisā€¦)

Oversimplified, you could say there are 2 types of virality:

Active virality: 99% of startups do this. Active virality means that your customers only share your product when prompted to do so in a marketing campaign.

Built-in virality: The holy grail of virality is when you design your product in such a way that it passively prompts users to share it. This is where you wanna be.

Problem is, most startups and solopreneurs donā€™t know how to make their products viral.

But thereā€™s a simple cure to thisā€¦

Prompt: How to use ChatGPT to add virality to your products

This prompt comes up with ideas for viral elements that you can build into your product:

I am a solopreneur and am building a product that [WHAT IT DOES] for [TARGET CUSTOMER].

Brainstorm and develop three actionable ideas to incorporate viral elements into our product. These ideas should:

1) Encourage social sharing: Find creative ways to incentivize users to share your product on their social media platforms, spreading the word organically.

2) Gamify the experience: Introduce game-like elements into your product that engage and motivate users to invite their friends, creating a sense of friendly competition.

3) Foster user-generated content: Implement features that encourage users to create and share their own content related to your product, generating buzz and attracting new users.

Hereā€™s what the prompt told me about making the AI Solopreneur newsletter a more viral product:

These suggestions are actually pretty coolā€¦

If you want me to create an AI ā€œegg huntā€ in this newsletter, let me know with a reply!

3 Ways To Build In Virality Into Your Product

Share-to-unlock features

Share-to-Unlock features basically do this:

You offer your customer free access to exclusive functions or content in exchange for them sharing it with their network.

Examples:

  • Special newsletter for all your subs whoā€™ve referred 1 person

  • Free usage credits for each customer your user brings in

Create public user-generated challenges and contests

If youā€™ve been on Twitter for a month or so, youā€™ve probably seen one of these screenshotted essays:

Theyā€™re from a cohort-based-course called Ship30For30.

For 30 days, the participants learn to write and form a massive accountability group where they post 1 essay per day on Twitter like this.

Today, there are over 35,000 essays like this on Twitter, driving traffic to the companyā€¦

If you have an education business, consider if you can make your participants share their progress online somehow.

Forge strategic partnerships

How do you create virality if you offer a high-ticket service?

By giving your clients free McDonald LEGENDARY LIMITED EDITION Szechuan Sauā€¦ šŸ¤¤

I mean through your network.

When you donā€™t have a product or course to drive virality for you, your virality comes from your reputation and network.

A few ways to do this:

  • Always overdeliver

  • Jump on 2-3 calls with people in your niche every week

  • Help people

3 WAYS TO BUILD VIRALITY INTO YOUR PRODUCT:

  • Share-to-unlock features

  • Create public user-generated challenges and contests

  • Forge strategic partnerships

Wrap up

WHAT YOU LEARNED TODAY

  • The importance of incorporating viral elements into your product

  • How to put viral elements into your product with ChatGPT

  • 3 ways to build in virality into your product and/or service

I'm in Budapest, eating way too much goulash and pickles.

This is my preparation for a post-AGI takeover world, where pickled vegetables are the only food available in my underground bunker.

Jokes, aside, I LOVE pickles.

Keep diving,

Ole

P.S. Whatā€™s your fav food? Let me know!

What did you think about today's edition?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.