How Grammarly’s Evolution from B2C to B2B Propelled It to a $13B Valuation
Mar 20, 2025
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Yuriy Timen, a seasoned marketing advisor and former Global Head of Marketing at Grammarly, shares insights into the company's incredible growth journey. He discusses the strategic shift from targeting students to knowledge workers, revealing how this pivot opened new market opportunities. By implementing a freemium model and leveraging YouTube for marketing, Grammarly successfully reached a broader audience. Yuriy also reflects on the challenges of transitioning from B2C to B2B and the importance of building trust through word-of-mouth and AI-driven solutions.
Grammarly successfully pivoted from targeting students to focusing on professional knowledge workers to leverage a larger market opportunity.
The company's transition to a freemium business model allowed users to experience the product's value before making a financial commitment.
Deep dives
Grammarly's Evolution and Market Shift
Grammarly transitioned from a focused grammar-checking web app designed for students to a more inclusive tool for knowledge workers and eventually an enterprise software solution. Initially targeting students with an emphasis on improving academic writing, the company recognized that around 50% of its user-generated content stemmed from non-academic writing. This highlighted the need to reach users where they naturally wrote, such as in email and document collaboration tools. As a result, Grammarly began to integrate its services into these platforms, expanding its user base beyond just students.
Adapting Marketing Strategies
To effectively market Grammarly to a broader audience, it was essential to pivot from a demand capture strategy to a demand generation approach. While the initial marketing efforts were centered around high-intent search queries, attracting students directly, targeting knowledge workers required storytelling that addressed their implicit needs for better writing. The company utilized YouTube and other visual storytelling platforms to demonstrate the product's value, emphasizing how effective communication could lead to professional success. This shift allowed Grammarly to engage potential users in a way that resonated with their everyday writing tasks.
Freemium Model and User Acquisition
Grammarly's business model evolved from a paywall-based approach to a freemium model to attract casual users among knowledge workers. Recognizing the importance of providing an initial free experience encouraged users to see the benefits of the tool before committing financially. The introduction of a browser extension exemplified this user acquisition strategy, allowing users to experience Grammarly's capabilities without immediate costs. By leading with a free product, the company successfully expanded its top-of-funnel visibility, resulting in increased adoption rates.
Entering the B2B Market
The launch of Grammarly Business in 2018 marked the company's entry into the B2B space, driven largely by organic demand from existing users wanting team licenses. However, transitioning to a business model tailored for enterprise sales proved challenging, as the needs and buying motivations of businesses differed significantly from those of individual consumers. Initial efforts focused on basic functionalities for teams, but the company quickly learned that effective messaging and proof points needed to be crafted specifically for different team functions. By articulating Grammarly's impact on business outcomes, it successfully expanded its reach and established a strong foothold in the enterprise market.
Yuriy Timen is a seasoned growth and marketing advisor with 15+ years of experience scaling technology companies. Yuriy joined Grammarly as the company’s first marketing hire in 2012 when it had just 10 employees and left in 2020 as Global Head of Marketing and Growth. Since then, Yuriy has advised more than 40 companies, including Airtable, Canva, Oyster, Whimsical, and Otter.ai. He specializes in marketing, product-led growth, and hiring and developing high-performing growth teams.
Key Takeaways:
Grammarly started by building a web app with a 7-day free trial marketed to students through paid channels like Facebook and Twitter, and through SEO given the high volume of students searching online for help with their writing.
After realizing the global market opportunity for professional knowledge workers was much larger than for students, Grammarly pivoted its product, business model, and growth strategy to serve this new customer segment.
Product: Grammarly created browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, built plugins for Microsoft Office apps, and launched a mobile keyboard, all of which helped it integrate into existing prosumer workflows.
Business Model: The company also introduced a freemium business model with a free tier that gave prosumers more time to experience the value of Grammarly's product before needing to make a purchase decision.
Growth Strategy: Grammarly cracked YouTube as the perfect channel for explaining its nuanced core value promise to knowledge workers.
In 2018, the company launched Grammarly Business and began selling to entire teams of professionals, with enhanced admin and security features, function-specific value props, and updated ad campaigns to reposition it as an enterprise solution.
As Grammarly has gained traction with businesses, it has benefitted from word of mouth within and across professional teams that has helped the company to land and expand within enterprises.