GTM 114: Audience-First GTM, Fueling Startup Growth via LinkedIn with Adam Robinson
Sep 24, 2024
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Adam Robinson, the Founder/CEO of Retention.com and RB2B, dives into the art of building an audience before launching a product. He discusses the importance of personal branding and thought leadership in driving early-stage growth, particularly on LinkedIn. Adam shares insights on transforming major challenges into breakthroughs and emphasizes the need for SaaS founders to utilize organic social media to connect with their audience. With a focus on storytelling and authenticity, he reveals how genuine engagement can become a powerful growth engine.
Building demand through audience engagement and content creation should precede product development for better market alignment.
Authenticity in social media interactions enhances brand visibility and helps differentiate successful brands from their competitors.
Adopting a customer-centered approach over reliance on venture capital fosters sustainable growth and operational agility for startups.
Deep dives
The Importance of Resilience in Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship can present significant challenges, and the speaker recounts a harrowing experience where an engineer accidentally deleted an entire codebase weeks before a multi-million-dollar acquisition. This situation underscores the importance of resilience and preparation, as they managed to recover most of the code after much panic and uncertainty. The speaker emphasizes that such crises can feel overwhelming, yet they are pivotal moments that test a founder's ability to handle adversity. Understanding that setbacks are part of the journey allows entrepreneurs to build stronger mental fortitude for future challenges.
Harnessing Organic Content for Growth
The discussion emphasizes the transformative power of organic content creation for building audience engagement and driving growth. The speaker describes how, initially focused on B2B product development, they pivoted after witnessing the effectiveness of their content strategy. By leveraging their organic social media presence, they effectively engaged with prospective customers, resulting in increased interest and eventual product development. This approach reflects a significant shift in how products can be developed based on direct audience feedback, fostering a stronger market fit.
Redefining Marketing Through Authenticity
Authenticity has emerged as a key factor in modern marketing strategies, distinguishing successful brands from others. The speaker highlights how their transparent and often controversial interactions on social media led to heightened visibility, even resulting in engagement from competitors. These authentic exchanges not only served as free public relations but also helped solidify their brand identity among target customers. This strategy illustrates the growing demand for brands to present genuine narratives rather than polished marketing messages.
The Role of User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content is highlighted as an advantageous strategy for generating leads and building community engagement. The speaker describes how collaborating with lead generation agencies, leveraging their content to bolster mutual growth, has proven successful. By empowering others to create and share content on platforms like LinkedIn, businesses can amplify their reach and impact without heavily investing in traditional advertising. This approach not only strengthens relationships within the community but also utilises the audience's voice effectively.
Shifting Focus from Venture Capital to Customer Happiness
The belief that venture capital is essential for early-stage growth is questioned in favor of a customer-centered approach. The speaker argues that the priority should be on making customers happier, as this ultimately leads to sustainable growth. They assert that excessive funding can complicate operations and hinder agility, rather than accelerating progress. This perspective encourages founders to focus on directly improving customer experience as a pathway to success, challenging conventional wisdom about the necessity of venture capital.
Adam Robinson is the Founder/CEO of Retention.com and RB2B. Adam bootstrapped Retention.com to $22m ARR in 4 years by helping ecommerce stores identify their anonymous website visitors and send them triggered emails. He launched RB2B in March of 2024 to help SaaS companies identify anonymous website visitors and see their LinkedIn profiles in Slack for free! Adam lives in Austin, TX with his wife Helen and daughter Emma.
Discussed in this Episode:
Building demand and an audience before creating a product, rather than the traditional approach of building a product first.
The power of a founder's personal brand and thought leadership to drive growth, especially in the early stages.
The shifting landscape of B2B marketing and sales, and why every SaaS founder will need to build an audience via organic social media to succeed.
Persevering through major challenges and low points as a founder, and how these moments can lead to breakthroughs.
Highlights: (1:09) The experience of people feeling like they know you from your content. (2:27) Shifting from searching for demand to building demand, then building a product to match. (5:25) Why LinkedIn content creation is an efficient growth engine for startups. (13:29) Factors that led to Adam's LinkedIn content resonating and driving massive growth. (20:56) Swapping value with other founders by cross-pollinating audiences. (22:25) Feeling like content creation is work, not play, and how to build the habit. (30:33) The story of Adam's entire codebase being deleted right before an acquisition. (32:32) Hitting rock bottom with a failed product launch and discovering the next opportunity. (53:36) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Adam thinks is bull$***. (56:17) One thing that is working for Adam in go-to-market right now.
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The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Scott Barker, GTMfund Partner, featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.
Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.
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