Growth idea action plan
Adjacent-product onboarding email loop
Use your main product's onboarding emails to introduce one adjacent tool or feature that solves a near-term follow-on job for new users.
Why this can grow a startup
New users are already opening your onboarding emails to understand the product they just signed up for. That makes the sequence one of the cheapest high-attention surfaces you own. If the adjacent product is genuinely useful in the same workflow, the email becomes more than a cross-sell. It turns activation in product A into discovery for product B without buying another audience.
Key metric to watch
Onboarding email tweak doubled Start Page landing-page traffic; 73% of new Start Pages later came from new Buffer users
Ian's take
From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. Email still works when it reads like one person noticed one real thing. If the message could be sent to anyone, it usually works on nobody. I would make the first line specific enough that the right reader knows it was meant for them. For activation, the useful question is not whether users liked the page. It is whether they got to the first meaningful win faster. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.
Action plan
- Define one narrow startup segment where adjacent-product onboarding email loop can create a measurable lift.
- Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Email and Lifecycle channel.
- Use the evidence from buffer.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
- Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
- Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.
Source-backed example
Buffer noticed that only about 10% of new users were creating Start Pages, so it added Start Page promotion into the main Buffer onboarding sequence. The onboarding emails alone doubled traffic to the Start Page landing page from January to March, and Buffer later reported that 73% of new Start Pages were created by new Buffer users.
Source: Buffer Open Blog (buffer.com)
GrowthDex source hub: Buffer Open Blog
Last checked: May 24, 2026
Adjacent tactics in the same lane
If this page is close to your problem, these tactic pages usually belong in the same working set.
- Login-page cross-sell billboard same source · 2 shared channels · 2 shared stages
- Manual empty-state concierge onboarding same source · 2 shared channels · 1 shared stage
- Release-notes email cadence between major launches same source · 2 shared channels · 1 shared stage
- Support replies that surface shipped improvements same source · 1 shared channel · 2 shared stages
Related GrowthDex essays
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GrowthDex starts with tactics that founders, marketers, and product teams have actually tried. Each essay turns the evidence into a practical move you can test without pretending one case study is a guarantee.
Ian Goh has helped grow consumer platforms across Southeast Asia, India, and MENA. His work includes scaling Tiki to 100M+ users, doubling BIGO's MENA revenue in 7 months, and increasing OYO's direct booking share across 6 Southeast Asian markets.
- Helped scale Tiki to 100M+ users.
- Doubled BIGO's MENA revenue in 7 months.
- Raised OYO's direct booking share by 50% across 6 Southeast Asian markets.
Want help turning this into a growth system?
If you want someone to pressure-test this against your real market, Ian works with founders on growth, market entry, and operator-led distribution.
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