How to Gain Traction in Your Business.

When I consult for startups or established small businesses, one topic often takes center stage… TRACTION. 

In business, getting traction means gaining measurable progress and momentum in attracting customers, generating revenue, or validating your product or service. It signals that your idea resonates with the market.

Without traction, even the most innovative products or well-designed services risk fading into obscurity due to lack of market adoption or investor interest.

Traction demonstrates product-market fit — the alignment between what you offer and what customers actually want. It provides early evidence that your business model is working and that there is real demand. 

This momentum is essential not only for growth but also for credibility. Investors, partners, and stakeholders often evaluate businesses based on their traction, making it a prerequisite for securing funding and scaling operations.

How to Quickly Build Traction.

There are many ways to build traction, and some work better than others based on your industry, target customers, etc. However, here are several effective strategies I’ve seen work to build traction:

1. Focus on a Niche Market: Start small. By targeting a specific audience with a clearly defined problem, you can build strong word-of-mouth and gain early adopters who become brand advocates. Once you've saturated a niche, you can expand outward.
2. Leverage Content Marketing: Valuable, relevant content attracts and retains customers. Blog posts, videos, podcasts, and infographics can position your business as an authority and drive organic traffic to your site or product.
3. Use Paid Advertising Strategically: While expensive, paid ads (Google Ads, social media ads) can help you quickly test messaging, validate your audience, and generate leads. Track return on investment carefully to ensure sustainable results.
4. Partnerships and Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with established brands or influencers gives your business credibility and exposes it to larger audiences. These partnerships should align with your brand values and target demographic.
5. Referral Programs: People trust recommendations from friends. A referral program incentivizes your existing customers to promote your product, creating a cost-effective growth loop.
6. Participate in Communities: Engaging with online communities (e.g., Reddit, LinkedIn, industry forums) allows you to directly interact with potential customers, gather feedback, and promote your solution without overt advertising.

​So What Counts as Traction?

The best example of traction is paying customers. You may measure paying customers in terms of the number of paying customers, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), or annual recurring revenue.  

If your product or service is not yet ready for delivery, preorders can demonstrate traction. Like paying customers, you can track your preorders by a count or potential revenue.

Depending on the type of product or service you offer, another sign of traction can be active trials, proofs-of-concept (POCs), or letters-of-intent (LOIs).

Signing up a strategic partner can also constitute traction. For example, if you are selling a cloud computing solution, signing a strategic marketing agreement with one of the large public cloud providers could show traction.

Finally, getting noticed in the marketplace could be a form of traction. Winning industry awards, receiving positive reviews, or getting press coverage are all positive.

The Takeaway.

Getting traction is about proving that your business can deliver consistent value to real customers. It’s not just about hype or vanity metrics — it’s about building sustainable growth and validating your path forward. Businesses that prioritize traction early are far more likely to survive, thrive, and scale in competitive markets.

What about you? How have you gained traction for your business? Please comment – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,
Tom Myers