Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter by GTMnow – read by 50,000+ to scale their companies and careers. GTMnow shares insight around the go-to-market strategies responsible for explosive company growth. GTMnow highlights the strategies, along with the stories from the top 1% of GTM executives, VCs, and founders behind these strategies and companies.
Often we think about a press release piece first when we think “launch.”
While this is often true, it’s one part of the wave that is created around a launch.
One part of that is creating a hype train — a coordinated effort to turn your earliest users into your loudest champions.
In one of the company Superhuman’s most successful campaigns to date, the team turned beta testers into a distributed marketing engine that amplified their messaging, created social proof, and drove a 60% increase in new seats. This was all done before any major paid push.
Why beta users are a hidden growth channel
Beta users are incredible feedback loops. Beyond the product build feedback loop, they can also be go-to-market accelerators.
Here’s why they’re so valuable:
- They understand your product deeply.
- They’re naturally inclined to share tools they love.
- They’ve opted in to be early, and often want to be part of the story.
The trick is to make it easy (and exciting) for them to do so.
The hype train framework: 5 steps
Step 1: Curate your beta list like a GTM asset
Start by segmenting your most aligned and influential users.
Prioritize:
- Power users based on usage data
- Ideal customer profile (ICP) matches
- Active social users (LinkedIn, Twitter, Slack communities)
If you’re short on data, send a short survey:
“Would you be open to sharing feedback or posting about the product?”
Step 2: Make the beta experience feel exclusive
This isn’t just early access, it’s a backstage pass.
Things you can include:
- A welcome note from the founder or an exec
- A clear list of what to try
Access to a private Slack or user group - Light gamification (unlockables, invites, perks)
Make it feel like a community.
Step 3: Launch the hype (with nudges, not nagging)
Carta’s move into fund administration and private equity made technical expertise non-negotiable. Standing up a strong solutions engineering function became critical to navigating larger, more complex deals.
Scaling without technical depth leads to slow deals and lost trust.
Once beta users are active, it’s time to encourage sharing. The ideal timing is 3–7 days after consistent product use.
Channels you can use:
- Personal emails
- In-product prompts
- Social messages from execs or marketing team
Example message:
“Hey [Name], you’ve been one of our most active early users — we’d love if you shared your experience so far. Your voice helps others discover us. Bonus: we’re giving away swag to our top sharers this week.”
Superhuman ran a campaign using similar outreach and it worked extremely well. Their marketing leader breaks this down below.
Case Study: Superhuman’s “New Year, New Inbox” campaign
In January, Harmony Anderson, marketing leader at Superhuman, launched a full-funnel campaign centered around a timely and relatable theme: “New Year, New Inbox.” The campaign aligned with the fresh-start mindset that often comes with the new year.
The team leaned heavily into user-generated content. Existing customers, many of whom were already sharing their experiences organically, were encouraged to post on social. Harmony’s team reached out directly to engaged beta users, providing them with suggested copy and creative assets to make it easy to spread the word.
To build additional momentum, Superhuman hosted a virtual event tailored to both customers and prospects. They also ran coordinated paid and organic campaigns across multiple channels, all tied together by clear, outcome-focused messaging, like “save 4 hours per week with Superhuman.”
The results were impressive: a 60% increase in new seats month-over-month, a significant uplift in social shares (without needing to ask in many cases), and a clean transition into evergreen messaging once the seasonal hook had run its course.
Step 4: Make sharing effortless
To get more people talking, lower the barrier to entry.
You could provide:
- Copy-paste tweet and post templates
- Beautiful images or GIFs they can use
- A simple referral link (optional)
- A lightweight “campaign-in-a-box” with everything included
The easier you make it to participate, the more likely your users will contribute.
Step 5: Reward and recognize champions
This is where flywheels are born.
Ways to show love:
- Feature their posts in your company channels
- Send a personal thank-you or DM
- Offer exclusive swag, early access, or shout-outs
- Invite them into future beta programs
People support what they help build. Make them feel like insiders, not just users.
—
You don’t need a massive ad budget to launch big.
You just need 100 engaged users, a few good prompts, and a clear invitation to help. Let your biggest believers do the talking and your launch will go a lot further.
Tag GTMnow so we can see your takeaways and help amplify them.
✅ Recommendations
👂 More for your eardrums
Oji Udezue is the former CPO of both Typeform and Calendly. He’s a veteran product executive who has led product strategy at some of tech’s most iconic companies, including Twitter, Atlassian, and Microsoft.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts by searching “The GTM Podcast.”
GTM 144: How AI is Rewriting Product and GTM Playbooks | with Oji Udezue (CPO – Typeform, Calendly)
Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts by searching “The GTM Podcast.”
🚀 Startup to watch
Keyplay – introduced Keyplay AI agents to help companies leverage AI for ICP targeting. The result is 20-30% less wasted non-ICP spend, higher conversion, and a competitive advantage with unique targeting. The video linked provides a great visual example.
👀 More for your eyeballs
Fivetran to acquire Census, creating the first end-to-end data movement platform for the AI era. The deal positions Fivetran as the only fully managed solution for bi-directional, governed data movement – powering real-time, AI-driven insights across warehouses and business apps.
Your sales playbooks need to adapt or die. It’s not that playbooks don’t matter, it’s that you have to build a new one everywhere you go. You just can’t bring that same playbook with you.
🔥 Hottest GTM jobs of the week
- Marketing & Events Associate at GTMfund (Vancouver, CAN) – come join the team behind this newsletter!
- Customer Success Manager – Enterprise at Capchase (Hybrid – San Francisco / New York City)
- Director of Marketing at Amper (Hybrid – Chicago)
- Sales Development Representative (SDR I) at UserEvidence (Hybrid – Jackson Hole / Denver preferred; Open to Remote)
- Director of Revenue Operations at Gorgias (Hybrid)
- Mid-Market Account Executive at Noibu (Ottawa,ON)
See more top GTM jobs on the GTMfund Job Board.
If you’re looking to scale your sales and marketing teams with top talent, we couldn’t recommend our partner Pursuit more. We work closely together to be able to provide the top go-to-market talent for companies on a non-retainer basis.
🗓️ GTM industry events
Upcoming go-to-market events you won’t want to miss:
- SaaStock USA: May 13-14, 2025 (Austin, TX)
- SaaStr Annual: May 13-15 (San Francisco, CA)
- Web Summit: May 27-30, 2025 (Vancouver, CAN)
- Pavilion CRO Summit: June 3, 2025 (Denver, CO)
- GTMfund AGM: June 5-6, 2025 (NYC, NY)
- GTMfund Dinner: June 11, 2025 (London, UK)
- Pavilion GTM Summit: September 23-25, 2025 (Washington, DC)
