When GTM Becomes the Product: Why Growth Teams Need to Design Experiences, Not Just Campaigns

Read time: 3 minutes.

Welcome to the 108th edition of The Growth Elements Newsletter. Every Monday and sometimes on Thursday, I write an essay on growth metrics & experiments and business case studies.

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Most growth teams are still running on the old playbook:

• Ship campaigns

• Run paid ads

• Build landing pages

• Fill the funnel

But that playbook is losing leverage.

In 2025, the highest-performing startups are treating go-to-market (GTM) like product design, not distribution.

They're building growth experiences that users interact with, not just click through.

Because the real funnel isn’t your ads.

It’s what happens after the click.

GTM as a Product: What Does That Even Mean?

Instead of treating GTM as marketing content layered on top of the product, these companies are baking GTM into the product itself and designing loops that drive:

• Awareness

• Engagement

• Activation

• Expansion

All without ever relying on “traditional” marketing channels.

Why Campaigns Alone Don’t Scale Anymore

Here's what broke:

• Acquisition costs are up. CAC is inflated across channels.

• Attribution is fragmented. Between AI, dark social, and AI search, you no longer control the top of funnel.

• Buyers have changed. They want to touch the product before they hear from a human.

If you're not meeting the user in-product, you're meeting them too late.

What GTM-as-Product Looks Like in Practice

[1] Interactive Demos That Self-Qualify

Instead of “Book a demo,” modern SaaS lets users play before they pay.

• Vercel: One-click deploy -> try the product without commitment.

• Jasper: AI writing playground converts better than any ad.

• Miro: Instant whiteboarding without sign-up.

Why it works:
The “demo” is the activation experience.

[2] Onboarding That Feeds the Funnel

Your best campaign might be your onboarding.

• Arc Browser turns every setup step into a value moment.

• Superhuman used white-glove onboarding to create viral FOMO.

• Linear rewards first use with delightful speed and shortcuts.

Why it works:
You are not pushing people into the product, you are pulling them through it.

[3] Side Products That Drive Growth

These aren’t just lead magnets. They’re GTM tools embedded into the ecosystem.

• Ahrefs' free tools rank for 1000s of keywords

• OpenAI's ChatGPT is a wedge to drive API adoption

• Webflow’s template marketplace builds SEO, community, and activation in one move

Why it works:
These tools are the campaign and they compound over time.

[4] GTM Loops Built into Core UX

The best growth teams today design for resurfacing, not just acquisition.

• Calendly links = organic growth

• Figma sharing = free virality

• Notion embeds = product-as-distribution

Every share, export, or referral is a GTM Motion.

The New Mandate for Growth Teams

You’re not just running campaigns.

You’re designing moments of interaction, retention, and expansion, inside the product.

This means:

• Working closer with product and engineering

• Owning onboarding, activation, usage not just traffic

• Designing experiences that feel native, not bolted on

Because in 2025, GTM is not a department, it’s a layer of the product.

Final Words

1. Campaigns are temporary. Experiences compound.

2. Your best GTM assets aren’t in Figma, they are in the product UI.

3. Growth is now about building interactions, not just pipelines.

4. If you want scalable demand, stop launching campaigns. Start shipping moments.

That's it for today's article! I hope you found this essay insightful.

Wishing you a productive week ahead!

I always appreciate you reading.

Thanks,
Chintankumar Maisuria