Howdy marketer!

After COVID, I’ve seen so many folks use Calendly links on their LinkedIn bios to automate discovery calls, onboarding, etc.

It was everywhere. Everyone was using Calendly. It had quickly become a household name – and to be honest, I can see why. Scheduling has always been a nightmare, so a better way was embraced.

But, as someone who likes different for different’s sake, I was unsatisfied.

Calendly always felt like railroading, more than convenience.

In reaction, Cal.com was introduced in 2021.

Like DeepSeek is an open source alternative for ChatGPT, Cal.com is an open source alternative for Calendly. 

This means that it can do a lot without much marketing!

Today's Treasure Trove

• What is Cal.com?

• Cal.com’s Market Position

• What Makes Cal.com Different?

• Product-Led Growth Strategy

• Instagram Marketing & Creator Program 

• What Cal.com Could Do Next

• Wrap Up

What is Cal.com?

Quick Stats:

Instagram: 1,167 followers

X: 13.4K followers

YouTube: 1.57K subscribers

A Calendly alternative, Cal.com is designed for enterprise, teams, and developers that require more customization than what other platforms offer. 

It also allows white-labeling, meaning you can operate automations like bookings with your own branding!

Cal.com’s Market Position

Cal.com doesn’t challenge the bread and butter of Calendly, i.e casual users or solopreneurs. 

Its audience is people who need more. Like:

• Developers and tech teams that prefer self-hosting and an open API for customization

• Mid-to-large enterprises that need white-labeling and deeper integrations

• SaaS and platform businesses wanting to embed scheduling directly on their software

The scope honestly blows my mind!

Yes, as far as market share goes, they’re small, but they’re mighty.

What Makes Cal.com Different?

While there are many scheduling tools available, like Acuity, Doodle, YouCanBook.me, Zoho Bookings, and HubSpot Meetings, the major competitor to Cal.com still remains Calendly. 

The biggest problem is that it is not built for scale or customization – it’s a black-box solution. This works well early on, when a product can leverage product-led growth to skyrocket it’s user base, but as the product matures, more is necessary.

This stiff-arming has led users to often have to find their way around the limitations.

However, Cal.com adapts to individual user needs, making scheduling feel more like a natural flow rather than robotic. 

The bottom line is – it fits into your workflow. 

How do they fare against each other?

In a nutshell: 

Calendly = simple, plug-and-play scheduling for individuals and small teams

Cal.com = flexible, self-hosted, highly customizable scheduling for individuals as well as enterprises.

Product-Led Growth Strategy

A powerful feature of calendar apps is that they have a built-in viral loop.

Every time someone books a meeting with you, they experience the tool firsthand. 

And if they like it, they start using it themselves, and the chain reaction goes on!

This product-led growth is a great method for “free” marketing, as users become your strongest advocates!

If you’re already using Cal.com, that’s probably how you discovered it, too. 

The feature of “team plans” is also useful in driving this growth – SaaS platforms like Notion and Slack have also become popular with the same playbook. 

What seems like it might be a consumer product at first glance, actually works even better when using it with the rest of your work team.

Instagram Marketing & Creator Program 

Though it has a humble following and reach, Cal.com is majorly posting meme-driven reels on Instagram:

They also have a creator program to help with this. 

It lets creators earn money by making helpful content around Cal.com like tutorials on self-hosting, setup guides, Zapier integrations, and code reviews.

They get up to 20% commission on any “team plan” sold through the referral code. 

This is clever because:

• They don’t have to spend big on ads

• The creators already have an audience that trusts them, Cal.com can access this

• Though there’s an incentive, it’s almost user-generated content (authentic word-of-mouth)

This boosts the product-led growth and the revenue!

So, it’s a low-cost, high-impact strategy to scale. While affiliate programs are nothing new, the unique combination of affiliate + PLG is like a dynamite chain reaction.

What Cal.com Could Do Next

Because the platform attracts a more tech-savvy audience, it can target developers and tech teams by hosting hackathons and coding challenges for subscription discounts. 

For this, it can collaborate with other open-source platforms like GitHub or Product Hunt to help increase visibility. 

On Instagram, it can do more than just meme marketing. Potential content ideas:

• Collaborating with users who post about Cal.com to give them some discount codes to give away

• Mini tutorials on the features offered (though not all posts should be just about the product), like really quick hits in YouTube Shorts or TikTok videos

• Use ‘response to comment’ style videos to address any questions

• A mini social show like Canva India’s pinned posts – tons of folks need to schedule meetings, highlight some of those stories

• Potential collaboration with Slack or Notion to show integrations in use – a tag team even just to cross-market could be amazing

Wrap Up

While there are existing alternatives for simpler needs, there is always room for flexible or customized solutions, and that’s where Cal.com found its sweet spot. 

As a SaaS brand, it shows how a great product, an engaged community, and the right influencers can fuel organic, sustainable growth.

Cal.com shows us how you can grow by niching down, community-driven growth, and product-first marketing.

✌️,

Tom from marketer gems