Most software brands treat creators like billboards. They write a script, pay for sixty seconds and hope the audience doesn't skip ahead.
Notion took a different route. Much of its growth came from people: users who built templates, recorded tutorials, organised meetups and answered questions in online communities. According to an interview with Decibel, community and social became Notion's largest sources of new users.
What stands out is how Notion approached creators. Its head of community, Ben Lang, has said that many brands pay influencers to read scripts and that the return often isn't there. For Notion, it mattered that creators actually used and understood the product before partnering.
That difference is easy to underestimate. A creator reading a script is borrowing their audience's attention. A creator showing how they really work is sharing something their audience came for in the first place. The first feels like an interruption. The second feels like advice.
It also explains why the right creator isn't always the biggest one. Someone with a smaller audience who builds their week around a tool, and can show exactly how, often says more than a larger channel reading lines about it.
The lesson isn't that every brand should copy Notion's playbook. It's simpler than that: a recommendation only works when it's real. The tool has to fit the creator and the creator has to fit the audience.
That's the part we focus on.
This article is an analysis based on public sources. Lowqé is not affiliated with Notion. Source: Decibel.