s
Login Join Starter Story
Source
Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 11 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →
Buttondown logo

How Buttondown Grew

Newsletter platform for creators and bloggers.

How did Buttondown grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Buttondown grew primarily through traditional marketing channels such as Twitter, blogging, and drip emails, with the founder being very active and transparent across these platforms. The service also benefited from its inherent virality, as most emails and hosted web archives include a “powered by Buttondown” call-to-action, leading customers to attract and retain others. Additionally, word of mouth and referrals played a significant role, with many paid users coming from knowing someone who used Buttondown for free or converting from free to paid plans. Sharing work-in-progress content publicly on Twitter and receiving encouragement from friends also contributed to user sign-ups and payments.

Channels

11 channels · grouped by how Buttondown grows

  • Organic social media

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “I also honestly haven’t figured out any sustainable marketing channels besides the traditional ones: Twitter, blogging, drip emails. I try to be very active and transparent across all three (you’ll notice on Buttondown’s blog that the tone is extremely playful and casual, which users love)...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “it wasn't until I started sharing sort of the, you know, working in public style screenshots on Twitter and with a couple of friends where they're like, if you publish this thing, like I want to sign up, I want to pay for it. This looks like exactly what I would use.”
    high

  • Word of mouth

    · 1 mention
    “people are just discovering it independently because their friend is sending out a newsletter and they're so entranced by that they're signing up.”
    high

  • Email marketing

    · 1 mention
    “I also honestly haven’t figured out any sustainable marketing channels besides the traditional ones: Twitter, blogging, drip emails.”
    high

  • Referral Program

    · 1 mention
    “so many of ButtonDown's paid users came because they knew someone who's using ButtonDown for free or even the conversion from starting out free and then moving to paid has been really, really good.”
    high

  • Email List Growth

    · 1 mention
    “I also honestly haven’t figured out any sustainable marketing channels besides the traditional ones: Twitter, blogging, drip emails. I try to be very active and transparent across all three...”
    high

  • Product Hunt

    · 1 mention
    “I posted on HN and Product Hunt and hit the front page on both, but it wasn’t some meteoric success. I got around thirty thousand unique, out of which only came around five hundred registered users and maybe ten paying customers.”
    high

  • Hacker News

    · 1 mention
    “I posted on HN and Product Hunt and hit the front page on both, but it wasn’t some meteoric success. I got around thirty thousand unique, out of which only came around five hundred registered users and maybe ten paying customers.”
    high

  • Viral growth

    · 1 mention
    “Buttondown is slightly atypical in that it’s an inherently viral SaaS: almost every email and hosted web archive has a “powered by Buttondown” CTA in the footer, which means my customers do most of the attraction and retention.”
    high

  • Trade shows

    · 1 mention
    “I feel like Buttondown is slightly atypical in that it’s an inherently viral SaaS: almost every email and hosted web archive has a “powered by Buttondown” CTA in the footer, which means my customers do most of the attraction and retention.”
    high

  • SEO

    · 1 mention
    “I also honestly haven’t figured out any sustainable marketing channels besides the traditional ones: Twitter, blogging, drip emails.”
    high

  • Twitter

    · 1 mention
    “I also honestly haven’t figured out any sustainable marketing channels besides the traditional ones: Twitter, blogging, drip emails. I try to be very active and transparent across all three (you’ll notice on Buttondown’s blog that the tone is extremely playful and casual, which users love), but i...”
    high

How 2,994 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Buttondown’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    67% ◀
  • Social media
    63% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    58% ◀
  • Email
    48% ◀
  • Community
    37% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    35%
  • Partnerships
    33%
  • Events
    25% ◀
  • Paid ads
    24%
  • Outbound/Sales
    19%
  • Press/PR
    18%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    11%
  • Podcasting
    4%
  • Building in public
    3%
S
Starter Story
Support Privacy Terms