Tim Soulo is CMO at Ahrefs and in this episode we’re talking about the amazing story of how Ahrefs got to +$50M in ARR with +65% year-on-year growth by ditching expert advice and embracing unconventional wisdom. The Ahrefs story is nothing short of incredible and they seemingly came out of nowhere to take on heavyweights like Moz and SEMrush in the SEO space. In this episode Tim explains how they did it and he also opens up on their marketing strategy, content playbook, and how they were able to achieve such impressive hypergrowth. Links Ahrefs >> https://ahrefs.com/ Why We Charge $7 for Our 7-day Trial Vlog >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09avD7Y4xpc Bitcoin Billionaires by Ben Mezrich >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41433284-bitcoin-billionaires The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6326920-the-accidental-billionaires Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28815.Influence How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4865.How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People Intercom on Starting Up >> https://www.intercom.com/resources/books/intercom-starting-up --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Matt Epstein is CMO at Rippling and today we’re talking about why SaaS marketing is broken and how you can get more creative. Matt is not known for doing things traditionally and in this episode he breaks down a bunch of his creative marketing exploits, including: - How to fish in new ponds - How Rippling slashed 50% of their marketing budget but still got 80% of the demos - Running an outbound pizza party campaign - Getting a cease and desist order from a competitor following a billboard campaign - Testing and perfecting messaging with outbound campaigns - How to run outdoor campaigns - How to build a creative marketing team and foster a culture of creativity - How Matt spent almost all his life savings on a campaign to land a job at Google Links Rippling >> https://www.rippling.com/ Behind The Cloud >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6659874-behind-the-cloud The Orange Code >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3328401-the-orange-code?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=4KcRXV46no&rank=1 --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Adam Rogers is a Content Marketer at Shopify and in this episode he talks to us about how SaaS marketing teams can scale up content marketing. Before working at Shopify, Adam was a content marketing team of one at Kayako where he was competing with the likes of Intercom, Zendesk, and Helpscout, and Adam shares his stories and advice of how you can build an efficient and effective content marketing unit that will let you take on your competition. In addition, Adam talks about: - Understanding the why behind your content - Why you should focus on longer form evergreen content - How you can be savvy with resources to scale up production of this time consuming content - Tips on ensuring quality when scaling - Why and how to work with agency and freelance partners - How to manage your content marketing operations Links Shopify Blog >> https://www.shopify.com/blog Kayako Blog >> https://www.kayako.com/blog Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24737268-badass --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Marc McDougall is a CRO Specialist at Clarity First and in this episode he joins us to talk about hidden opportunities for SaaS companies during an economic recession. In 2011, Ben Horowitz wrote his famous article titled Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO, which outlined how company leaders should change their approach depending on whether they’re enjoying good times of market growth or dealing with tough times caused by external challenges. Right now we’re operating in war time, so what should marketing teams do to get through and overcome a downturn? Marc has identified four opportunities for SaaS companies, which are: - Positioning & Value - Churn Reduction - Cost Reduction - Marketing Effectiveness Marc also provides different examples throughout of how SaaS companies have switched up their marketing strategies and playbooks to help weather the storm. Links Don't Make Me Think >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18197267-don-t-make-me-think-revisited Reddit, SaaS & Startups >> https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS+startups --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Kevan Lee is VP of Marketing at Buffer and in this episode we’re talking about how to run a successful remote SaaS marketing team. 🚨 Please note this interview was recorded well before the Covid-19 outbreak, but given the situation and that many SaaS companies are moving to fully remote operations, we hope you find this episode helpful 🙏 In this episode, Kevan discusses: - How to do strategic planning on an annual and quarterly basis using a framework called BETS - What a typical remote week looks like at Buffer - How their marketing team runs across 5 continents - The tools and tech stack Buffer uses - How to overcome challenges such as loneliness - How to manage individuals remotely when you don’t meet face to face Links Buffer >> https://buffer.com Alchemy by Rory Sutherland >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26210508-alchemy Demand Curve Newsletter >> https://www.demandcurve.com/newsletter Product Habits Newsletter >> https://producthabits.com/blog/ Marketing Example Newsletter >> https://marketingexamples.com/ Follow Kevan on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/kevanlee --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Guillaume Moubeche is CEO & Founder of Lemlist, Lempod, and Lemtalk. In this episode we’re talking about how SaaS companies can find product-market fit and scale. Guillaume has launched three SaaS companies and grown them to $1M ARR without any funding. In this episode Guillaume shares: - Frameworks his team use to validate product ideas and test product market fit - How Lemlist reduced their high churn numbers soon after launching - Tests you can run to prove you have, or don’t have, product market fit - The tactics Guillaume and his team use to rapidly scale post product market fit Links Lemlist >> https://www.lemlist.com/ Lempod >> https://lempod.com/en/home Lemtalk >> https://lemtalk.com/en/home Predictably Irrational >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1713426.Predictably_Irrational Follow Guillaume on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/guillaumembh Growth Hackers >> https://growthhackers.com/posts --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

OKRs are a management framework to help companies and teams align behind key business objectives. Liz Elfman is a former Googler, instructor at General Assembly, and an expert on OKRs and in this episode she'll explain how you can make OKRs work for you to improve the results of your SaaS marketing team. We cover: - Aligning OKRs between marketing and the rest of your company - A simple way to frame OKRs - Examples of what good OKRs look like - How to track and grade OKRs - Team Vs Individual OKRs - OKRs and bonus programs - How Liz and her team use OKRs at Toggl - OKR dos & don'ts Links Toggl >> https://toggl.com/ Measure What Matters >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41956823-measure-what-matters What Matters >> https://www.whatmatters.com/ OKR Examples >> https://okrexamples.co/ Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/30556551-nobody-wants-to-read-your-sh-t Imperica Newsletter >> https://www.imperica.com/en/newsletter --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Jaleh Rezaei is CEO & Co-Founder at Mutiny. In this episode we explore how to optimize your SaaS website for conversion, growth, and sales. Prior to joining Mutiny, Jaleh spent six years at VMWare in product marketing before joining Gusto to lead their marketing team. She then founded Mutiny, which is YC-backed, which helps you personalize your website and turn it into your number one growth channel. We discuss: - The components of a highly effective SaaS website - The people and processes needed for rapid and effective website experimentation - How to improve the conversion rate of your website - Strategies, tactics, and case studies from real-life that have helped various companies create effective SaaS websites Links Mutiny >> https://www.mutinyhq.com/ Thinking Fast & Slow >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Sonja Jacob is Content Marketing Lead at AppDynamics. In this episode we explore the world of content marketing in B2B SaaS and redefine what content means in the age of growth, including: - How content marketing has evolved over the last 10+ years in B2B SaaS - How to create a growth-centred content marketing strategy - How to align content with business goals and measure ROI of content - Library vs Publication thinking in content - How to diversify risk in your content marketing - What content marketers should focus on in 2020 and beyond Links AppDynamics >> https://www.appdynamics.com/ Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13155290-several-short-sentences-about-writing Tech Bound email newsletter by Kevin Indig >> https://www.kevin-indig.com/tech-bound/ --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Richard Makara is Growth Marketing Engineer at Smartly.io. In this episode, Richard discusses how growth teams can achieve real-time automated ABM at scale, including: - Why Smartly decided to set up a growth team - How their global, remote growth team operates across 3 continents to achieve 24/5 ops - Richard's approach to tackling ABM - A simple ABM campaign, called Operation Royal Mail, that Smartly ran across the UK & Europe - How to avoid sales-marketing disalignment in ABM - How to scale your ABM operations Links Smartly >> https://www.smartly.io/ Clearbit >> https://clearbit.com/ Hull Blog >> https://www.hull.io/blog/ Alice in Wonderland >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6324090-alice-s-adventures-in-wonderland --- Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward