Product-Led Growth
A go-to-market strategy where the product itself drives customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion through user experience rather than traditional sales.
Definition
Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a business methodology where the product serves as the primary driver of customer acquisition, conversion, and retention. Instead of sales-led approaches requiring demos and negotiations, PLG companies let prospects experience value immediately through free trials or freemium models.
Companies like Slack, Zoom, and Dropbox exemplify PLG—users discover value independently, then advocate internally for company-wide adoption.
Why It Matters
PLG fundamentally changes marketing's role from generating leads for sales to driving product adoption and activation. Success metrics shift from MQLs to product-qualified leads and activation milestones.
For marketing teams, PLG requires deep product understanding and close collaboration with product teams—marketers become growth engineers rather than campaign managers.
Examples in Practice
A SaaS company redesigns their marketing around PLG principles, replacing gated content with a free product tier. Customer acquisition cost drops 60% while deal velocity increases as prospects arrive pre-educated.
A marketing team creates in-product messaging and activation campaigns rather than traditional email nurtures, driving conversion through product experience rather than sales pressure.