The Growth Hub Podcast: Recent Episodes
Advance B2B
The podcast for all things B2B SaaS marketing, brought to you by growth marketing agency, Advance B2B.
The Growth Hub Podcast is for SaaS marketers, CEOs and founders who want to level up their knowledge, skills, and wisdom on how to build a high-growth SaaS business.
With a mix of strategic frameworks, actionable insights, and inspiring tales, we catch up with some of the top minds in SaaS from across the world to gain their insight and advice on all things growth. Hosted by Seija Lappalainen and Reeta Westman.
In episode 106 of the Growth Hub Podcast, you’ll hear from Jean Bonnenfant, Head of Growth at Trezy.Jean has been playing a LOT with Engineering as Marketing in the past and has many concrete examples to share as well as amazing advice to get it done the right way.The episode, in short- Jean gives a thorough definition of what Engineering as Marketing is- shares his experience with this practice,- shares advice to limit the number of unqualified leads free stuff usually generates,- and what you need to be careful about not to damage your sales when giving too much away for free and what you should focus on to track the performance of your free tools.❤️ Don't forget to like and subscribe ❤️About the show:The podcast for all things B2B SaaS marketing is brought to you by marketing agency Advance B2B. The Growth Hub Podcast is for B2B marketers, CEOs, and founders who want to increase their knowledge, skills, and wisdom about building a high-growth SaaS business. With a mix of strategic frameworks, actionable insights, and inspiring tales, we catch up with some of the top minds in B2B tech from across the world to gain their insight and advice on all things growth.⬇️ Useful links ⬇️More episodes: https://www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhubVisit: https://www.advanceb2b.com/Become an Insider: https://www.advanceb2b.com/advance-insider⬇️ Find us on ⬇️Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-growth-hub-podcast/id1219957221Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/66pDW5uwWT1n7164vvYdZiSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thegrowthhub
In episode 105 of the Growth Hub Podcast, you’ll hear from Kathryn Strachan, Founder and CEO of CopyHouse, a UK Content Marketing agency that recently successfully entered the US … without a US team.The episode, in short:- CopyHouse’s GTM playbook,- How to enter a country without a dedicated team, - Whether marketing or sales should come first- How they had to rework messages that resonated in the UK, but not in the US.About the show:The Growth Hub Podcast—the podcast for all things B2B SaaS marketing—is brought to you by marketing agency Advance B2B. The Growth Hub Podcast is for B2B marketers, CEOs, and founders who want to increase their knowledge, skills, and wisdom about building a high-growth SaaS business. With a mix of strategic frameworks, actionable insights, and inspiring tales, we catch up with some of the top minds in B2B tech from across the world to gain their insight and advice on all things growth.
In episode 104 of the Growth Hub Podcast, we invited Joel Gaudeul to discuss a topic we all face: team misalignment.Joel had quite a lot to say - and he took the gloves off, no-bullshit-style."I am not going to be popular by saying that (...) but you need to work, to make it work".Joel worked in B2C and B2B in companies like Ubisoft, Ulule, Mention, France Digitale, and Alma. He's worn the hats of brand manager, product marketer, CMO, COO, and CRO.The episode, in short:- How did wearing so many executive hats change the way he does marketing?- What metrics should sales, marketing, CS, and product follow together?- Joel's routine to ensure that alignment efforts stick- Go-to tools to make it happenAbout the show:The podcast for all things B2B SaaS marketing is brought to you by marketing agency Advance B2B. The Growth Hub Podcast is for B2B marketers, CEOs, and founders who want to increase their knowledge, skills, and wisdom about building a high-growth SaaS business. With a mix of strategic frameworks, actionable insights, and inspiring tales, we catch up with some of the top minds in B2B tech from across the world to gain their insight and advice on all things growth.
How much revenue can you tie to your content marketing operations? Should you place your Content Marketing Strategy in the hands of AI?To discuss this, we’re joined by Alexis Chevallier, Former CMO, now Part-Time CMO, who’s successfully achieved 3M in ARR directly attributed to content marketing operations for Content Marketing Agency YouLoveWords.We cover:> What does a part-time CMO do?> What are the requirements for Content Marketing to become a growth engine?> What would prevent Content Marketing from supporting growth?> How do you get your CEO to understand content marketing?> How to achieve 3M in ARR from content marketing> How to build a high-performing marketing team?> The right split between long and educational content and snack content?> What AI is really bringing to content marketingTune in to hear from Alexis Chevallier, Content-Led Part-Time CMO.About the show: The SaaS Growth Hub podcast is powered by Growth Marketing Agency Advance B2B. We cover marketing strategy, sales and marketing alignment, content marketing, and brand marketing to help B2B marketers grow and scale up their companies.
Communities can be super powerful.They carry trends, they generate awareness, and if you play your cards right, they can even significantly affect your overall business growth.Now, communities are far from easy to build.To explore the topic, we invited Alex Theuma, founder of SaaStock a successful community helping SaaS founders and their teams connect via expert conferences around the world.In this episode, we cover: - The origins of SaaStock- How to start a community- How to keep your audience engaged to grow the community- The KPIs of community building- More advice for aspiring community builders- And, as per usual, the Fast Five.So, is community building just a nice to have, or should SaaS B2B companies really try to benefit from it? Answer in episode 102 of the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast, with Alex Theuma, founder of SaaStock.
Are you really making good use of video to promote your SaaS company, products, and services? If not, the latest SaaS Growth Hub Podcast episode might be of interest to you as it is about ... video marketing, and everything it touches.To cover this creative topic, we invited Nora Sandell, Head of Marketing at Videoly, a leading product video platform, serving over 1000 online retailers and brands around the world.We discussed:- The evolution of how we consume content- Video marketing trends B2B SaaS marketers absolutely need to know about- How to produce professional and engaging content when you’re an absolute rookie in the field.- How to measure performance of your video marketing efforts- And a couple of DOs and DON’Ts to help you get startedTune in to hear from Nora Sandell, Head of Marketing at Videoly.About the showThe SaaS Growth Hub podcast is powered by Growth Marketing Agency Advance B2B. We cover marketing strategy, sales and marketing alignment, content marketing, and brand marketing to help B2B marketers grow and scale up their companies.
After Joining Supermetrics as employee number 32 — and marketer number 4 — in 2019, Edward is now Demand Generation Director at Supermetrics, a fast-growing SaaS company with a stunning 50M ARR, in a very competitive space.
In this exceptional episode with Edward, we cover: — The secret sauce to Supermetrics’ growth — Who should be driving growth? — What's the next stage at Supermetrics? — A full-funnel brand test Supermetrics ran (and what they learned from it) — Where is 'marketing data' going? — The alternatives to the traditional attribution models — Is there a go-to funnel for B2B SaaS companies?
Tune in to hear from Edward Ford, Demand Generation Director at Supermetrics.
About the show The SaaS Growth Hub podcast is powered by Growth Marketing Agency Advance B2B. We cover marketing strategy, sales and marketing alignment, content marketing, and brand marketing to help B2B marketers grow and scale up their companies.
- What’s an efficient process for creating customer stories?
- Can one scale the process?
- Do you have a secret formula to get around this and still tell compelling stories?
- How to tell stories when you can’t share numbers
- How to hook the visitor from the get-go?
Tune in to hear from Joel Klettke, Founder at Case Study Buddy.
About the show The SaaS Growth Hub podcast is powered by Growth Marketing Agency Advance B2B. We cover marketing strategy, sales and marketing alignment, content marketing, and brand marketing to help B2B marketers grow and scale up their companies.
- Why are customer stories so important?
- Why is it so difficult to create and publish quality customer stories?
- How to ensure customer stories serve business and revenue goals?
- How should marketers measure the ROI of a case study?
- How to ask a customer for a story?
Tune in to hear from Joel Klettke, Founder at Case Study Buddy.
About the show The SaaS Growth Hub podcast is powered by Growth Marketing Agency Advance B2B. We cover marketing strategy, sales and marketing alignment, content marketing, and brand marketing to help B2B marketers grow and scale up their companies.
What is the role of LinkedIn in a B2B advertising strategy? What is the best use of LinkedIn ads? Is LinkedIn really expensive? What's the Future of LinkedIn Ads?
Tune in to learn from Gabriel Ehrlich, CEO at Remotion and LinkedIn Ads expert.
About the show The SaaS Growth Hub podcast is powered by Growth Marketing Agency Advance B2B. We cover marketing strategy, sales and marketing alignment, content marketing, and brand marketing to help B2B marketers grow and scale up their companies.
What makes it so difficult to make LinkedIn ads work?How should marketers approach targeting on LinkedIn ads?What does a good LinkedIn ads campaign look like?Tune in to learn from Gabriel Ehrlich, CEO at Remotion and LinkedIn Ads expert.About the showThe SaaS Growth Hub podcast is powered by Growth Marketing Agency Advance B2B. We cover marketing strategy, sales and marketing alignment, content marketing, and brand marketing to help B2B marketers grow and scale up their companies.
What should founders do to fix sales and marketing alignment once and for all?Dave Kellogg is an Executive in Residence at Balderton Capital. He also comes with 10 years of experience both as a CEO and a CMO.In other words, he has a lot to say about sales and marketing.Dave recently wrote “The Founder's Guide to B2B Sales”, and we invited him on the podcast to hear his thoughts on how founders should kickstart selling and what they can do to ensure a strong alignment between Marketing and Sales. In the second part of our chat, Dave discusses marketing and sales alignment, how to do it right, and what founders should do from the get-go to make it happen. Hope you enjoy it!> Why are sales and marketing so often misaligned?> … and what to do about it > What founders & CEOs should understand about marketing> How to find the right balance between building and scaling sales and marketing? Happy listening!
How much do founders know about Sales and Marketing? How much should they?Dave Kellogg is Executive in Residence at Balderton Capital. He also comes with 10 years of experience both as a CEO and a CMO.In other words, he has a lot to say about sales and marketing.Dave recently wrote “The Founder's Guide to B2B Sales”, and we invited him on the podcast to hear his thoughts on how founders should kickstart selling and what they can do to ensure a strong alignment between Marketing and Sales. In the first part of our chat, Dave tells us about the importance of understanding the basics of sales.> CMO vs. CEO: What’s best?> What do founders need to know about selling?> How can a founder become a good “Chief Salesperson”?> The impact of technology in the sales landscape.Happy listening!
We’ve all heard stories from companies successfully entering new markets. Now, if every other B2B SaaS company is always trying to expand to new markets, success in that field is actually quite scarce.We had the pleasure of welcoming Teemu Ilola on the show to tell us more about this. Teemu is VP of Sales Operations at Leadoo, a Finnish SaaS company founded in 2018 with already +6M€ in ARR and operating in several countries, including the UK.In Part II of episode 96 of the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast, Teemu tells us about: — The most challenging markets to enter, and why.— The walls they hit on the way…— … and what they learned from it— How to deal with recruitment when entering a new market.Happy listening!
We’ve all heard stories from companies successfully entering new markets. Now, if every other B2B SaaS company is always trying to expand to new markets, success in that field is actually quite scarce.We had the pleasure of welcoming Teemu Ilola on the show to tell us more about this. Teemu is VP of Sales Operations at Leadoo, a Finnish SaaS company founded in 2018 with already +6M€ in ARR and operating in several countries, including the UK.In Part I of episode 96 of the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast, Teemu tells us about: — Leadoo’s expansion (so far)— Market research before entering a market— The role marketing should play when entering a new market, from a salesperson perspective— How to deal with ongoing marketing operations when operating in different countries. Happy listening!
Lead generation is usually great for acquiring many contacts, but it also favors quantity over quality.Demand generation, on the other hand, focuses on attracting relevant people based on what they need to solve at a given time. It favors quality over quantity and has a greater impact on revenue.Put simply, companies focusing solely on lead generation may be missing out BIG TIME 😱.In part 2 of episode 95 of the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast, Adam Holmgren (Global Demand Generation Strategy Lead at GetAccept) shares his thoughts on what it takes for B2B SaaS companies to steer away from Lead Generation and run a Demand Generation Playbook.Adam, Reeta and Seija cover:— State of demand generation in Europe— Mistakes companies make with demand generation— How to convince your organization of the importance of demand generation— Is lead generation evil? (The answer surprised even Adam!)— The difference between demand generation and lead generation— The role of experimentation in demand generation— How to switch from a lead generation playbook to a demand generation playbook?— Key demand generation metricsHappy listening!
How do you view the current economic situation — through the threat or the opportunity lens? As companies scramble to cut back on budgets, marketers are finding themselves in one of the following situations:— 😱 A panic mode. They’re ready to pack up, head for the hills, and prepare for the worst (threat lens).— 🧐 A hyper-focused mode. They're ready to scale back to basics to focus on getting the right fit customers and experiment with new ways of increasing the pipeline (opportunity lens). In episode 95 of the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast, Adam Holmgren (Global Demand Generation Strategy Lead at GetAccept) shares tips and marketing opportunities to capitalize on during an economic downturn.Adam, Reeta and Seija cover:— The worst mistakes companies can make with their marketing.— The importance of investing in your brand.— A mindset shift towards seeking marketing opportunities amidst turbulence.— How to survive the current economic situation.
Do you know what rhymes with Marketing?P-L-A-N-N-I-N-G.We recently welcomed Sophie Hedestad (CMO at Netigate) in episode 94 of the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast to discuss how marketers can move growth needles by working agile and being more strict with planning things ahead.Sophie, Reeta and Seija cover:> What it means to work agile> How can marketing benefit from it > The prerequisites for working agile> The benefits of using OKRs in marketing?> How deep should one go when setting OKRs> Ill-planned OKRs (and how to avoid them)Happy listening!
When things get hectic - and they are pretty wild right now -, looking at facts and data might be the best thing to do.
Paddle recently published an insightful report: The State of SaaS Growth: Uncovering the growth levers that see SaaS businesses achieve long-term success. So, we invited Andrew Davies, CMO at Paddle, to share some of the key learnings of the said report.
Episode 93 of the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast covers:
The main growth barriers for SaaS businesses The main growth levers for SaaS businesses How marketing can support growth in the wake of an economic recession How to find your product-market fit How to experiment with pricing The impact of self-serve on growth
Happy Listening!
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Visit Advance B2B: www.advanceb2b.com Visit Paddle: https://www.paddle.com/ Find the report: https://www.paddle.com/offers/outliers-state-of-saas-growth
We love Halloween here at the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast.
So, we decided to bring you a special episode on Marketing Horror Stories!
Every marketer out there has either been involved in projects that have gone terribly wrong or they have had to do something they are now ashamed to admit.
In this special episode, Seija and Reeta share a couple of marketing horror stories to make you shiver...!
On the menu: - The spooky tale of a product launch relying on imaginary dollars. - The Curious Case of the Missing Roadmap. - The Legend of the cursed Email List - The Monster Marketer. - The tale of the monstrous motion machine called MQL.
Happy Halloween everyone! 🎃
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Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> www.twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> www.twitter.com/rhtoivanen
Mia Mäkipää is Data & Analytics Strategist here at Advance B2B. We invited her on the SaaS Growth Hub Podcast to discuss how the latest developments in the data and analytics world are impacting marketing and how to make the best out of it.
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In short, the episode covers:
- What a Data & Analytics Strategist (really) does?
- How our use of cookies is evolving.
- How Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a good change.
- The great alternatives to GA4
- How to solve common data challenges most organizations face.
- How to grow one’s data literacy skills.
Happy listening!
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Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> twitter.com/rhtoivanen
Ryan Law is VP of Content at Animalz, a content marketing agency for SaaS companies. We discussed AI and game-changing technologies for Content Marketing in episode 91 of the Growth Hub Podcast.
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Ryan and his team have been playing with GPT-3 (short for Generative Pre-trained Transformer), an artificial intelligence that can generate human-like text and, in this episode, he shares their learnings, failures and expectations for AI in Content Marketing.
We cover:
What GPT-3 is What it’s great at - and its limits The results of Ryan’s experiments with GPT-3 Can GPT-3 replace human writers? AI and ethics: how to use it for good? How AI is expected to impact the world of marketing in the coming years
Happy listening! ❤️
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Visit Advance B2B >> https://www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> https://www.twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> https://www.twitter.com/rhtoivanen Visit Animalz >> https://www.animalz.co/ Follow Ryan on Twitter >> https://www.twitter.com/thinking_slow
"Does your workforce represent your customers? Does your board represent your customers? Does your leadership represent your customers?" — Harini Gokul
In the latest episode of the Growth Hub Podcast, we had the privilege to chat with Harini Gokul, Head of Customer Success at Amazon Web Services.
With over 20 years of global business experience in companies like IBM, Microsoft and AWS, Harini is laser-focused on customer success.
Now, Harini is also exploring key topics such as diversity and inclusion and how to build the foundations for sustainable growth (and she suggests a couple of great reads on those topics during the episode).
To make a long story short, the key to growth is a mix of honesty, transparency and a customer-centric approach.
Here’s what we covered during this great episode:
How to acquire the right talent. The importance of diversity and inclusion. How to build and maintain brand credibility. How to increase collaboration with customers to grow.
Happy listening! ❤️
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Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
— Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> twitter.com/rhtoivanen — Visit AWS >> https://aws.amazon.com/ —
Book recommendation: Speed & Scale: A Global Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now, by John E. Doerr >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/58796563-speed-scale
If you do competitive analysis by stalking your competitor's website, then creating a table to compare features, and then writing down their value prop and main messages.... this is for you.
This time on The Growth Hub, we're talking to Andrew McCotter-Bicknell, Head of Competitive Intelligence at ClickUp, so we can find out how to actually do competitive analysis. 👀
It's a simple truth that most marketers kind of struggle with competitive intelligence. 🤷
During the episode, you’ll hear about competitive intelligence, and more specifically: - How to conduct competitive intelligence research and actually impact your revenue with that - How to discover and research the right competitors (direct competitors in the same space with a similar product vs. legacy providers in a different category) - What the difference between poor & comprehensive competitive intelligence is - Who should own competitive intelligence at your company - What is the role marketing should play in competitive intelligence - How to measure the whole thing - And a lot lot more!
Happy listening! ❤️
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Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
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Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> twitter.com/rhtoivanen
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Visit ClickUp >> clickup.com Follow Andy on Twitter >> https://mobile.twitter.com/amcbick
Fast five recommendations: - Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition by Anthony Iannarino - Wynter >> https://wynter.com/ - Product marketing alliance >> https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/
This episode is all about customer support, and Klaus CEO and Co-Founder Martin Kõiva's experience in learning how to deliver great customer experience at scale. 🤩
At his former position as Global Head of Customer Support at Pipedrive, Martin felt the struggles of growing a customer support function (think 7 to 70 support agents) while trying to keep up the quality of conversations.
And so the idea for Klaus was born: a tool that helps companies ensure the quality of their customer support conversations, no matter how fast they’re growing.
They also have the best cat-themed brand marketing, but that’s a whole other story. 🐱
As well as touching on how Martin’s team at Klaus approach customer support, you’ll hear about:
- The three elements you need for quality customer support
- What SaaS companies need to build and scale their support function
- What ‘optimizing customer support’ actually means
- How to make customer support a competitive differentiator
Enjoy the episode!
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Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> twitter.com/rhtoivanen
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Visit Klaus >> www.klausapp.com/ Follow Martin on Twitter >> twitter.com/k6iva
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Book recommendation:
Founder Brand: Turn Your Story Into Your Competitive Advantage by Dave Gerhardt >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60227444-founder-brand
In this episode, Reeta and Seija sat down with Pinja Virtanen, Marketing Manager at Swarmia; a fast-growing company founded just 3 years ago. In the past 6 months alone, Swarmia doubled its customer count and MRR.
What makes Pinja’s journey particularly interesting is her eclectic experience. Before Swarmia, Pinja worked as a Content Marketing Strategist at Advance B2B, and she was also in charge of Demand Gen later at Supermetrics. With both in-house and agency experiences, she became the first marketing hire at Swarmia.
We invited her to hear her thoughts on what it's like to start as the first marketer in a fast-growing company.
During the episode, you’ll hear about: - What motivated Swarmia to hire their first marketer - How Pinja onboarded herself to create her role - What she decided to focus on at first (and why) - How to prioritize when there’s so much you want to do - How to experiment pragmatically to get relevant results - Pinja’s views on the eternal “hire a Generalist vs. Specialist” debate
Happy listening!
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Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
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Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> twitter.com/rhtoivanen
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Visit Swarmia >> swarmia.com/ Follow Pinja on Twitter >> twitter.com/pinjaerika
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Book recommendation: Founder Brand: Turn Your Story Into Your Competitive Advantage by Dave Gerhardt >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60227444-founder-brand
Katrina Wong is VP of Product Marketing & Demand Generation at Twilio Segment. Katrina spent over 15 years growing and scaling early-stage SaaS companies, and she had a few golden nuggets to share with us.
We sat down with her to talk about growth strategies, including the following:
— What is a growth strategy, and why create one? — How should different-stage companies address their growth strategy? — Who in a company should be involved in creating the growth strategy? — How to get buy-in from everyone in your organization? — What are mistakes companies make when creating their growth strategies? — How it works over at Twilio
Happy listening!
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Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
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Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/rhtoivanen
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Visit Segment >> https://segment.com/ Follow Katrina on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/katchmesocial
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Book recommendation: — Memos from the Chairman >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1069335.Memos_from_the_Chairman — Atomic Habits >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits — Artificial Intelligence Basics >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52362494-artificial-intelligence-basics
Disclaimer! If you’re used to listening to the show, you might be a little surprised to hear how it sounds! Reeta Westman — content marketer at Advance B2B — and Seija Lappalainen — Growth marketer at Advance B2B — are now hosting The Growth Hub Podcast!
Jesus Requena is VP of Growth Marketing at Figma. Formerly VP of Growth at Algolia and Growth Marketing Director at Unity, Jesus has been in the SaaS world for quite some time and he had many golden nuggets to share on user activation and the role of data in it.
In this episode, we caught up with Jesus to hear how he’s done it so far and covered great topics, including:
How Jesus became such a PLG (Product-Led Growth) enthusiast What makes PLG so interesting for SaaS businesses The role of growth marketing in user activation How growth marketing can support PLG Why data plays a central part in PLG and how to leverage it
Happy listening!
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Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
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Visit Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Reeta on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/rhtoivanen
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Visit Figma >> https://www.figma.com/ Follow Jesus on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/JRequenaFranco
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Book recommendation: Product-Led SEO by Eli Schwartz >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57659600-product-led-seo
Bill Macaitis is former SVP of Marketing & CMO at Salesforce, Zendesk & Slack, and today we’re talking about how to build a billion dollar SaaS company.
Many SaaS founders, CEOs, and marketers dream of building a unicorn business and it’s something Bill has done on several occasions throughout his career. So, we caught up with him to hear how it’s done and Bill covers some great topics, including: - How Marc Benioff convinced him to leave the world of consumer marketing and make the move to B2B SaaS - What it was like to work with Marc Benioff directly - How Bill brought a B2C mindset to the world of B2B marketing - How marketing teams can help create a billion dollar valuation - How you should structure your marketing teams for growth - The marketing philosophies and playbooks Bill ran at Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack
Links
Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
Manager Tools Podcast >> https://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Frida Ahrenby is CMO at GetAccept and in this episode we’re talking about how to build a world-class SaaS marketing team.
As companies scale, teams need to scale, so this is something all SaaS marketing leaders and managers will need to work on along their journey. However, it’s easier said than done.
So just exactly how do you build a world-class SaaS marketing team? I caught up with Frida to hear how she’s scaled GetAccept’s marketing org from a team of 3 in Sweden to a global team of 25 marketers spread across multiple international markets.
In this episode, we cover: - How GetAccept scaled their marketing team, in what order, and why - How all their teams work together - What to look for when hiring top marketers - How to nurture talent and enable marketers to grow their careers within your company - An insight into the culture within GetAccept’s marketing team - How to get your marketing team working well and aligned with your product & sales teams
Links
Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
GetAccept >> https://www.getaccept.com Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16071764-lean-in
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Chris Walker is CEO at Refine Labs and in this episode we’re talking about Category Evangelism and the modern marketing playbook to grow pipeline and revenue.
Chris has started a marketing revolution. He is host of the hugely popular Demand Gen Live series and the State of Demand Gen podcast. Forbes described him as “The B2B demand generation guru every Series C company should be listening to” and so we got Chris on the show to break down what B2B marketers should be doing to grow their companies and their careers.
We cover: - The limitations of the traditional view of demand gen
Why you shouldn’t centre on lead gen How to move away from demand capture to demand creation Where we went wrong with attribution - The modern playbook for successful demand gen How to know your customer better than anybody else How to win in dark social Why Category Evangelism is the future of marketing
Links
Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
Refine Labs >> https://www.refinelabs.com/ State of Demand Gen >> https://sptfy.com/6Nvh Mastery by Robert Greene >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13589182-mastery
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Kaylee Edmondson is Senior Director of Demand Gen at Chili Piper and in this episode we’re talking about the future of demand gen.
Essentially this episode is lifting the lid on where the marketing playbook is going as Kaylee shares her thoughts on how B2B SaaS companies should be gearing up for the future, including: - What demand gen is and where it sits in the marketing funnel - The major issues with the old demand gen playbook - Why the future of demand gen sits in the dark funnel - The playbooks SaaS marketing teams should be running - How to get senior buy in for that kind of playbook - How the Chili Piper team does marketing and measures success - The skills marketers will need in the future
Links
Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
Chili Piper >> https://www.chilipiper.com Obviously Awesome by April Dunford >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45166937-obviously-awesome
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Aggelos Mouzakitis is Growth Product Manager at Growth Sandwich, and in this episode we’re talking about how customer research can help B2B SaaS companies grow to their potential.
We hear about various approaches to growth, such as product-led growth, sales-led growth, or marketing-led growth, but in this episode we look at it from another perspective, and that’s customer-led growth.
Aggelos is an expert on customer research and advocate of customer-led growth, and in this episode he breaks down this methodology that puts the customer at the core of everything you do, including: - What being customer-led truly means - How customer-led growth helps marketers - How to use the jobs-to-be-done framework to support customer-led growth - The “value gap” issue in marketing - What it really means to have customer empathy as a marketer
Links
Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
Growth Sandwich >> https://www.growthsandwich.com/ What Customers Want by Anthony Ulwick >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/426683.What_Customers_Want
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Anna Holopainen is Head of Growth at Kide Science and in this episode she's talking about why your marketing isn't getting results.
All marketing teams are focused on one main objective, growing the business, but instead of just looking at ways to grow the business, we need to invert the problem and look at what is stopping us from growing and why we're not getting results.
In this episode, Anna joins us to share some of these reasons, including: - Typical growth and marketing related reasons why you're not getting results - Why you should never start to uncover growth blockers with a marketing audit - A simple 4-step process to identify what’s stopping you from growing - How to make sense of your data by putting it into context - How to identify growth opportunities if you don’t have access to enough data
Links
Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> https://www.advanceb2b.com/tgh
Kide Science >> https://www.kidescience.com/en SaaS Reads >> https://saasreads.com Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3828902-thinking-in-systems
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Skyler Reeves is CEO & Founder at Ardent Growth, and in this episode we’re talking about why SaaS companies fail with content marketing.
Almost all B2B SaaS companies will be doing content marketing in some form or another, but are you doing it the right way? In this episode, Skyler talks us through some of the pitfalls SaaS companies fall into when it comes to content, and what you should be doing instead. He covers: - The two primary factors that should dictate your content marketing strategy - How to set goals and measure the success of your content - How to prioritise topics in a search-led content strategy - How to acquire quality backlinks to your content - The importance of content refreshes and audits - How smaller B2B SaaS companies can catch up with established competitors
Links
Mindset by Carol Dweck >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40745.Mindset
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Margie Agin is Founder & Chief Strategist at Centerboard Marketing, and in this episode we’re talking about how to turn your brand strategy into tangible marketing tactics.
We often hear about how important it is to build a brand in B2B SaaS, but how do you bridge the gap between your brand strategy and your marketing tactics? Well Margie tells us how as she covers:
- How to accurately and consistently reflect a company's strategic brand positioning and voice
- How to get your company bought in and aligned on brand
- How to turn brand strategy into demand gen campaigns
- How to modify your brand strategy as your company grows
- Examples of B2B SaaS companies that do a great job of reflecting and amplifying their brand (and which companies miss the mark)
Links
Centerboard Marketing >> https://centerboard-marketing.com/ Brand Breakthrough >> https://centerboard-marketing.com/brand-breakthrough/ Winning The Story Wars >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13088627-winning-the-story-wars
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Caroline Guo is Head of Growth at HashiCorp and in this episode we’re talking about how to 2X pipeline and user acquisition in just 1.5 years.
Caroline joined HashiCorp just over three years ago to build, hire, and lead the growth team, and in this episode she covers: - How HashiCorp has grown its growth team - How to build effective go to market models - How Caroline and her team built out HashiCorp’s entire SaaS business segment - How her team operates across the entire funnel from acquisition & activation to monetization & retention - The main factors that enabled their growth team to double pipeline and user acquisition - The importance of diversity within hiring, your team, and the workplace
Links
HashiCorp >>https://www.hashicorp.com/ Getting To Yes >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/313605.Getting_to_Yes
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Krista Martin is VP of Growth at Boardable and in this episode we’re talking about career acceleration and how to go from Marketing Manager to VP of Growth in just three years.
Krista joined Boardable where she was able to align her professional and personal passions. Krista shares her journey of how she was able to grow her career so quickly, including: - How she leads growth at scale - How her growth team operates - What product-led growth at Boardable looks like - The qualities she looks for in people who are to join her team - How to actually make the move from mid-level manager to a VP or C-level role
Links
Boardable >> https://boardable.com/ Product-Led Onboarding >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58294382-product-led-onboarding
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Emily Kramer is Marketing Advisor, Angel Investor & Co-Founder at MKT1, and in this episode we’re talking about how to build and organise your early stage SaaS marketing org.
Emily has built and scaled the marketing teams at Ticketfly, Asana, Carta, and Astro and in this episode she talks us through her framework for structuring your marketing team, including: - The roles you should hire first - Why you shouldn’t hire t-shaped marketers - How marketing teams should prioritise and focus - How much hierarchy you need in your marketing org - The story of how Emily built and structured Asana’s marketing team
Links
MKT1 >> https://www.mkt1.co/ High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40536148-high-growth-handbook
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Hilary Kay is CMO at Wibbitz and in this episode we’re talking about how to evolve your marketing strategy from a sales-led enterprise model to a product-led hybrid model.
This is a transition Wibbitz went through about 1.5 years ago and it’s something many SaaS companies are looking at today.
In this episode, Hilary covers: - Why Wibbitz made the change - What some of the signs and indicators are that you should make this transition - The impact it has on understanding your target audience, customer lifecycle, and marketing tactics/channels you use - How it influences sales & marketing alignment, product & marketing alignment, and the marketing team’s structure - The things that shouldn't change when making this transition
Links
Wibbitz >> https://www.wibbitz.com/ Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51942513-think-like-a-monk OpenView Build >> https://podcast.openviewpartners.com/
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Rudan Zhang is VP of Marketing at Clubhouse.io and in this episode we’re talking about how Clubhouse positioned themselves to focus on a niche segment.
Clubhouse is a project management platform for modern software teams, but with so many project management tools on the market, Rudan discusses why Clubhouse decided to intentionally focus on a niche audience segment and how they did it.
We cover: - The process Clubhouse used to find their points of differentiation for each of their ICPs - How they compete with well-known horizontal products - How to market to technical audiences - The marketing channels they use to reach their niche audience - How their marketing team is structured - The KPIs they use to measure success
Links
Clubhouse >> https://clubhouse.io/ Product-Led SEO by Eli Schwartz >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57659600-product-led-seo
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Mike McDerment is Co-Founder, former CEO, and Board Chair of FreshBooks, and in this episode we’re talking about how to not kill your SaaS business.
Mike went from accidental founder to CEO of a SaaS company with over 24 million users and he’s learned a lot of lessons along the way having almost killed the business on multiple occasions.
In this episode, Mike talks about: - How he accidentally founded a SaaS company - Why moving too fast almost killed FreshBooks early on - Why he underestimated word of mouth as a growth driver - Why raising at the wrong time can be very dangerous - The counter-intuitive idea of why Mike decided to start a direct competitor company to FreshBooks called BillSpring
Links
FreshBooks >> https://www.freshbooks.com/ The E-Myth by Michael Gerber >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81942.E_Myth_Mastery
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Audrey Agahan is Content Marketing Strategist at Advance B2B and in this episode we’re talking about what the heck is growth marketing.
Audrey introduces us to Advance B2B’s growth marketing formula that blends brand strategy with agile marketing operations, as well as: - The difference between growth marketing and traditional marketing - How growth marketing differs from growth hacking - The sprint-based agile operating model Advance B2B uses to run their growth marketing activities - A framework to prioritise growth ideas and experiments - How to use content marketing as a growth driver - How Audrey and Advance B2B worked with a client to achieve over 100% YoY growth - How to get started with growth marketing
Links
Advance B2B >> https://www.advanceb2b.com/ Product-Led Growth by Wes Bush >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46033247-product-led-growthT The Power of Vulnerability >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23500254-the-power-of-vulnerability
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Zandra Moore is CEO & Co-Founder at Panintelligence and in this episode we’re talking about how small SaaS companies can take on big competitor. Zandra discusses Panintelligence's David Vs Goliath story of how a SaaS underdog from a small city in northern England is competing against legacy BI heavyweights such as Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce.
Zandra discusses the process of how they positioned themselves, identified points of differentiation, and built out their go-to-market strategy using Geoffrey Moore’s framework from Crossing The Chasm. We also hear how this translates into their marketing strategy, their marketing playbook, and how they compete with much smaller budgets than their competitors.
Links
Panintelligence >> https://www.panintelligence.com/ Crossing The Chasm >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61329.Crossing_the_Chasm Latka >> https://nathanlatka.com/podcast-thetop/ Winning By Design >> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7LXR8Pi5fr-N8OQ8XtP9g
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Stephanie Cox is VP of Sales & Marketing at Lumavate and in this episode we’re talking about why marketing should lead sales - as well as support, success, and product.
Stephanie has a very unique role as a SaaS marketing leader since she also directly leads four other key departments and in this episode we hear: - Why she ended up taking such a broad role - The benefits of having marketing lead sales - What channels and tactics are working for the Lumavate marketing team - How all her teams work together - What her typical week looks like - How her teams move at a super fast pace and just get shit done
Links
Lumavate >> https://www.lumavate.com/
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Derek O’Carroll is CEO of Brightpearl and in this episode we’re talking about their incredible SaaS turnaround story from near failure to +$15M ARR & +40% year-on-year growth.
When Derek took over as CEO of Brightpearl, he described the company as a "distressed asset". It was burning cash, had very high churn, and a culture where talented people were rowing in different directions. Fast forward to today and Brightpearl is growing rapidly and Derek has masterminded a successful SaaS turnaround story.
In this episode, Derek discusses: - Brightpearl's three-pronged turnaround strategy - How they realigned product-market fit - How they grew ACV - Building a talented team where the right people are in the right place - The impact the strategy has had - How Brightpearl reduced churn from 28% to below 8%
Links
Brightpearl >> https://www.brightpearl.com/ Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42611483-escaping-the-build-trap
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Rebecca Reynoso is Senior Content Editor & Guest Post Program Manager at G2 and in this episode we’re talking about how to actually run a successful guest post program.
Rebecca manages G2’s editorial calendar for all guest article contributions, which combined have generated over 550K yearly website sessions, 80% of which are organic.
In this episode, Rebecca discusses: - The value of guest posting - How to draft a thorough and clear set of guest post guidelines - What goes into strong guest posting editorial standards - The story of how G2’s guest post program has evolved over time - The results G2's guest post program has generated
Links
G2 Learning Hub >> https://learn.g2.com/ G2's guest post guidelines >> https://learn.g2.com/guest-post-guidelines Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6334.Never_Let_Me_Go
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Katheriin Liibert is Head of Marketing at Outfunnel and in this episode we’re talking about how to grow your SaaS business as a solo marketer.
Katheriin joined Outfunnel as the first, and currently, only marketer in the company. With many SaaS marketers in a similar situation, how do you grow your SaaS business as a solo marketer?
Katheriin shares her experience on what's worked for her, including: - how you should set expectations for marketing and work with your CEO & founders - why you should create a 100 day plan (but still get quick wins) - how to figure out which tactics and channels to focus on - how to work with freelancers and agencies - how to scale your team in future
Links
Outfunnel >> https://outfunnel.com/ Thinking, Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman >> 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
Asia Orangio is CEO & Founder at DemandMaven and Board Member at Moz.
In this episode, we’re talking about a 5-step framework to create a B2B SaaS go-to-market strategy, including: - 1. Goals - 2. Product-Market-Model-Channel fit - 3. Defining your customer - 4. Success gaps - 5. Guiding principles - As well as practical examples of building go-to-market strategies
Links
DemandMaven >> https://demandmaven.io/ Strategy by HBR >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9612515-hbr-s-10-must-reads-on-strategy
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Nick Harley is VP of Growth at Raygun and in this episode we’re talking about how Raygun bootstrapped their way to become a multi-million dollar SaaS business all the way from the remote location of New Zealand.
Not all SaaS marketing teams have VC funding behind them so we caught up with Nick to hear how their small marketing team of four people helped Raygun bootstrap their growth. Nick discusses: - The challenges of working from a remote location like Wellington, NZ - How they make every penny count by measuring marketing performance with attribution models & LTV to CAC ratios - The channels working for the Raygun marketing team - Their current team set up - Whether you should hire generalists or specialists - The challenges of marketing to technical audiences
Links
Raygun >> https://raygun.com/ Radical Candor >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29939161-radical-candor
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Eoghan McCabe is Chairman & Co-Founder at Intercom and in this episode we’re talking about leadership lessons from founding & scaling Intercom into a billion dollar company.
Eoghan founded Intercom in a Dublin coffee shop with three friends and went from CEO of a four person startup to CEO of an almost 700 person Silicon Valley unicorn. In this episode, we hear about Intercom’s growth story from Eoghan’s perspective and what it meant for him personally as a leader, including: - Eoghan’s view of leadership - How Eoghan developed his leadership skills - The dangers of complacency and the importance of reinvention - The work people should prioritize to become effective leaders
Links
Intercom >> https://www.intercom.com I Can Do It by Louise Hay >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129607.I_Can_Do_It Insight Timer >> https://insighttimer.com Hey >> https://hey.com
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Camille Ricketts is CMO at Notion. In this episode we’re talking about how Notion built a multi-billion dollar brand by humanizing enterprise marketing.
Camille was the first marketing hire at Notion and she explains how B2B SaaS enterprise marketing doesn’t need to be stiff, boring, and overly-formal but just real, authentic, and human. This approach has helped Notion build a brand valued at over 2 billion dollars with a team of less than 10 marketers within a 50-person company.
In this episode, we discuss: - How Notion segments its customer base - How they do enterprise marketing and the shift they’re driving towards the consumerization of the enterprise - Notion’s approach to brand building, storytelling & crafting their brand voice - The tactics & channels that are working for Notion's marketing team today - How Notion's marketing team measures success
Links
Notion >> https://www.notion.so/ Obviously Awesome by April Dunford >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45166937-obviously-awesome The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33517721-the-culture-code Hiten Shah's Product Habits >> https://producthabits.com/blog/ Figma >> https://www.figma.com/
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Ross Simmonds is Founder & CEO at Foundation Marketing and in this episode we’re breaking down the content distribution playbook and exploring how to get good traffic that converts.
Ross has been creating and distributing content ever since he started writing about fantasy football in college and he’s been perfecting the craft of content distribution ever since. Today we dig into this topic and Ross discusses: - The role of customer research in content distribution - How to bake distribution into your content creation process - Why people share content - How to distribute and repurpose your content - How to convert your traffic into leads, trials, demos, and ultimately customers
Links
Foundation Inc >> https://foundationinc.co/ Canva >> https://www.canva.com/ 2PM Links >> https://2pml.com/ How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13425570-how-will-you-measure-your-life
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Steffen Hedebrandt is Chief Revenue Officer at Dreamdata and today we’re talking about how to map the customer journey and attribute revenue.
A big challenge all marketers face is connecting marketing activities with revenue. To do that, you need attribution. In this episode we dig into mapping the customer journey and attributing revenue to different touchpoints. We cover how to map the customer journey, how to attribute revenue between different teams and marketing channels, which attribution model Steffen thinks B2B SaaS marketing teams should use, and how Steffen and his team do attribution at Dreamdata.
Links
Dreamdata >> https://dreamdata.io 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
Marcus Andrews is Product Marketing Group Lead and narrative designer at HubSpot. In this episode we’re talking about how to craft killer product narratives and launch new products to market.
Marcus leads a team of Product Marketing Managers responsible for the positioning, launches, adoption, and continued success of HubSpot's largest product line, Marketing Hub. In this episode Marcus talks us through his 5-step narrative design framework to give your products and launches a strong strategic foundation upon which to build. Marcus talks about how narratives turn into marketing and he gives some examples of different narratives HubSpot has used to grow into a $10 billion dollar brand, such as inbound marketing and the flywheel.
Links
Narrative Design Masterclass >> https://productmarketingalliance.com/narrative-design-masterclass/ Why narrative design will replace product positioning in 2020 >> https://productmarketingalliance.com/why-narrative-design-will-replace-product-positioning-in-2020/ Sapiens >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Dan Murphy is Director of Marketing at Privy and creator of The Product Launch Masterclass, and today we’re talking about the 7 steps to crush your next product launch.
Dan knows all about this as he’s launched over 60 products to market throughout his career to date and we cover his product-launch framework including: 1. Strategy 2. Goals 3. Audience & positioning 4. Launch activities 5. Internal marketing 6. Launch day 7. Post-launch activities
If you launch products in SaaS, you'll love this episode!
Links
The Product Launch Masterclass >> http://www.theproductlaunchmasterclass.com/ Privy >> https://www.privy.com/ Ben & Jerry's: The Inside Scoop >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/261822.Ben_Jerry_s The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33449.The_22_Immutable_Laws_of_Marketing
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Molly Norris Walker is Head of Design & User Research at InfluxData. Today we’re talking about how to smash your growth targets through design experimentation.
A big part of Molly’s role is scaling design experimentation for a better UX to support growth, which is something Molly calls Growth Design. Molly not only practices this on a day-to-day basis within the world of B2B SaaS but she is also author of Design-Driven Growth: Strategy & Case Studies For Product Shapers.
In this episode, Molly discusses: - Why growth design is super important in B2B - The relationship between growth design and product-led growth - A 5-step framework for implementing growth design - How you can design growth loops into your SaaS business model - A growth design AB-Test challenge
Links
InfluxData >> https://www.influxdata.com/ Design-Driven Growth: https://www.design-driven-growth.com/ Design-Driven Growth: Strategy & Case Studies For Product Shapers >> https://www.amazon.com/UX-Design-Growth-optimize-conversion-ebook/dp/B07BYX1GY8 Lex Roman on Medium >> https://medium.com/@calexity GrowthDesigners.Co >> https://growthdesigners.co/
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Wes Bush is Principal at Product-Led Institute and today we’re talking about how to turn your product into a growth engine.
Wes is the bestselling author of "Product-Led Growth: How To Build a Product That Sells Itself" and is also founder of Product-Led Summit, so Wes lives and breathes all things product-led in the world of SaaS.
In this episode Wes shares his expertise with us as we cover: - How to align perceived and experienced value - An in-depth walkthrough of his bowling-alley framework for better onboarding - The components of a product-led marketing strategy - Why product-led growth is a team sport - And some examples of great product-led growth in SaaS
Links
Product-Led Institute >> https://productled.com/ Product-Led Summit >> https://summit.productled.com/ Product-Led Growth: How To Build a Product That Sells Itself by Wes Bush >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46033247-product-led-growth How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4865.How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Alina Benny is SEO & Content Lead at Nextiva. In this episode we’re talking about how to create content that acquires high-intent traffic that converts.
Alina and the Nextiva demand gen team have grown blog traffic by 500% through a combination of hard work, consistency, and a set of high-quality, systematic SEO and content practices. Alina breaks down all these processes and frameworks, including: - How to do keyword research - A 5-step framework for planning and outlining articles - 3 tips for better writing - Ways to avoid making your content difficult to read - A comprehensive review and editing process - How to work with freelancers effectively - How to overcome content decay
Links
Nextiva >> https://www.nextiva.com/ The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40097951-the-silent-patient Kevin Indig's Newsletter, Tech Bound >> 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
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
Kristen Bryant works in partnerships, production, and brand marketing at Wistia. In this episode we explore the brand affinity marketing playbook as we cover the following topics:
- Why B2B SaaS companies need to get serious about building a strong brand
- The 4-steps of the Brand Affinity Marketing Playbook
- Why the future of B2B content marketing is episodic, binge-worthy shows like you’d find on Netflix or HBO
- Why Wistia started a marketing talk show called Brandwagon
- How to create a brand people love and have affinity for
Links
Wistia >> https://wistia.com/ Brandwagon >> https://wistia.com/series/brandwagon The Brand Affinity Marketing Playbook >> https://wistia.com/about/brand-affinity-marketing Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29540318-year-of-yes The Wistia Blog >> https://wistia.com/learn digitalmarketer.com >> https://www.digitalmarketer.com/ Marketing Showrunners >> https://www.marketingshowrunners.com/ Follow Kristen on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/_kristenbryant_
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Ryan Bonnici is CMO at G2 and he's been named as one of the World's Most Influential CMOs by Forbes.
In this episode Ryan explains how you can 10X your career growth as he outlines the factors behind how he made it to the marketing C-suite before the age of 30.
In addition, this episode covers: - How you can map out your career path and set goals & milestones - How to move from an individual contributor to proficient manager and manage up - The characteristics and skills Ryan looks for when hiring - How to discuss and get raises & promotions - Overcoming challenges such as imposter syndrome and career anxiety - How marketers can move into leadership positions such as VP or CMO
Links
G2 >> https://www.g2.com/ Trust Me I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542853-trust-me-i-m-lying The Power of Now by by Eckhart Tolle >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6708.The_Power_of_Now?from_search=true Follow Ryan on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/ryanbonnici
Bring Change To Mind & G2 Campaign >> https://www.g2.com/g2gives/bring-change-to-mind
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Corey Haines is Head of Growth at Baremetrics and this episode is about the five factors of growth for profitable SaaS businesses.
Corey uses first principles thinking and mental models in marketing to break down a profitable SaaS business in to its most foundational elements and reconstruct those pieces to understand what we as marketers should be doing. The five factors Corey has identified are Market, Product, Model, Messaging & Positioning, and Channels. Corey also explains how he and the Baremetrics team applied this model and first principles thinking to the growth of their own business.
This episode will make you rethink the way you think about marketing!
Links
Getting Product Strategy Right – Des Traynor >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-498BBUJJE The Mission Matrix >> https://www.advanceb2b.com/blog/the-mission-matrix-saas-go-to-market-strategy Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34460583-building-a-storybrand Obviously Awesome by April Dunford >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45166937-obviously-awesome?from_search=true How I increased conversion 2.4x with better copywriting by Amy Hoy >> https://stackingthebricks.com/how-i-increased-conversion-2-4x-with-better-copywriting/ Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models by Gabriel Weinberg & Lauren McCann >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41181911-super-thinking Mental Models by Julian Shapiro >> https://www.julian.com/blog/mental-model-examples Mental Models: Learn How to Think Better and Gain a Mental Edge by James Clear >> https://jamesclear.com/mental-models Mental Models for Marketers by Corey Haines >> https://mentalmodelsformarketers.com/ Refactoring Growth by Corey Haines >> https://www.refactoringgrowth.com/ This Is Marketing by Seth Godin >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40549476-this-is-marketing?from_search=true
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Katelyn Bourgoin is a Growth Strategist, Trainer, and 3X founder who was named in Forbes’ list of top female influencers.
In this episode Katelyn explains how you can identify your right fit customers, what triggers them to buy, and how you can use that to outsmart your competition.
Katelyn also discusses her trigger technique framework, shares real world examples of how marketing teams have leveraged buying triggers for growth, and how you can translate your customers’ buying triggers into actionable marketing tactics.
Links
Katelyn's Website >> https://katelynbourgoin.com/ How Crafty Marketers Use Buying Triggers To Outsmart Their Competition >> https://katelynbourgoin.com/marketing-buying-triggers-to-outsmart/ How To Interview Customers Continuously >> https://www.userinterviews.com/blog/how-to-interview-customers-continuously-with-teresa-torres-of-product-talk Atomic Habits >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits Follow Katelyn on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/KateBour
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
JD Prater is Evangelist at Quora. In this episode, JD takes us behind the scenes of this Silicon Valley startup, which boasts over 300 million monthly visitors, and explains how Quora is monetising its business and developing its marketing strategy.
In addition, JD talks about how Quora’s marketing team are competing for a share of digital marketer’s ad spend, their positioning strategy, and some of Quora’s most effective marketing tactics and channels.
JD also talks about his role as an evangelist, what it entails, and how you can embrace an evangelist mindset to grow your personal brand.
Links: Quora >> https://www.quora.com The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble To Get Inside Our Heads >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28503628-the-attention-merchants Follow JD on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/jdprater
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Phil Byrne is Onboarding & Activation Lead at Intercom and in this episode we look at how you can turn your new users into long-term paying customers. Phil talks us through the Intercom playbook for onboarding & activation, including: - Why you should build multiple onboarding flows based on user intent - How Intercom productises their “aha moment” and how Phil and the team help users reach it - How to maintain communication after a trial is complete to boost free to paid conversions - The way Intercom’s onboarding team works with marketing to ensure they’re delivering right fit users
Links: Intercom >> https://www.intercom.com/ Start With Why >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7108725-start-with-why Inside Intercom Blog >> https://www.intercom.com/blog/ Follow Phil on Twitter >> twitter.com/noisey_music
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Anna Shutko is Product Marketing Manager at Supermetrics, a MarTech SaaS company that lets digital marketers bring all their marketing data into one place.
Supermetrics is a product-driven company and in this episode we look at the role of product marketing at Supermetrics, how to market your product to different key stakeholder groups, Anna’s framework for launching new products to market, how to do customer research and translate that into marketing messaging and collateral, as well as how to generate strong word of mouth growth around your product.
Supermetrics was also recently featured in OpenView’s product-led market map, so Anna also tells us how Supermetrics has leveraged the product as a driver of user acquisition, conversion and expansion.
Links: Supermetrics >> https://supermetrics.com/ Rework >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6732019-rework Influence >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28815.Influence SaaStr Podcast >> https://www.saastr.com/podcasts/ Social Media Examiner >> https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/shows/ Follow Anna on Twitter >> twitter.com/superpoweranna
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Bruno Bin joined Smarp as their Head of Marketing just under one year ago and in this episode we hear how Bruno and the Smarp marketing team were able to 10X lead gen and 2.5X pipeline during his first six months.
We hear about their strategic shift to focus purely on the enterprise segment and discuss topics from positioning and narrative storytelling, right through to Bruno’s four step framework for building a pipeline engine and some of Smarp’s most effective demand gen tactics.
Links: Smarp >> https://smarp.com/ The Sales Acceleration Formula >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24953002-the-sales-acceleration-formula
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Octave Auger is VP of Marketing and first marketing hire at Paddle, a SaaS platform for software companies to run and grow their business.
Paddle has been called “The best kept secret in Europe” and it’s also the fastest growing software company in the UK, and in this episode we get a peek inside their business to figure out what they did and what we can learn from Paddle.
We go from marketing strategy and building a minimum viable brand all the way to customer acquisition tactics and demand gen initiatives - we also hear about the role ice cream played in Paddle’s journey to becoming the fastest growing software company in the UK.
Links: Paddle >> https://paddle.com/ Start With Why >>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7108725-start-with-why
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Mikko Honkanen is the Co-founder & CEO at Vainu.io - a bootstrapped Finnish SalesTech SaaS company.
In this episode Mikko shares his experience of growing Vainu, which has bootstrapped its way to +15M ARR, and Mikko talks about: - Why the founding team decided to bootstrap - How Vainu validated demand and established product market fit - Differentiation and positioning within the crowded martech & salestech space - Challenges Vainu faced with internationalisation - Scaling localised product & marketing - How Vainu pivoted their strategy when entering the US market - The impact bootstrapping had on Vainu’s go-to-market strategy & demand gen tactics - The Vainu sales and marketing playbook
Links: Vainu >> https://vainu.io/ When Breath Become Air >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25899336-when-breath-becomes-air
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Dani Hart is the former Head of Growth at GrowthHackers.
In this episode Dani gives us a behind the scenes pass to life at GrowthHackers and as she shares her experiences leading their growth team. We discuss: - their growth team’s objectives and goals - the different roles they had - the process and methodology the team used to run their operations - challenges of growing a multi-product business - how growth and marketing worked together - what it was like working with Sean Ellis, GrowthHackers CEO & Godfather of the GrowthHacking movement
Links: GrowthHackers >> https://growthhackers.com/ Growth Gal >> https://growthgal.com/ Never Split The Difference >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split-the-difference Peak Performance >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450959-peak-performance Zapier >> https://zapier.com/
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
David Cancel knows what it takes to grow a successful SaaS company. Why? He's done it five times.
After his fourth company, Performable, was acquired by HubSpot in 2011 he became Chief Product Officer. But in late 2014, with just one month to go until their IPO, David left HubSpot to set up Drift with his co-founder Elias Torres. They didn't have an idea. They didn't have a product. But what they did have, was an obsession to solve problems for their customer.
With a contradictory, unconventional, and unscalable approach to growth, David and the Drift team have combined customer-centric strategies with counter-intuitive tactics to unlock hypergrowth and scale from 0-150K customers in just over four years.
This episode explains how, including: - Why Drift jumped into a highly commoditised and competitive market - The evolution of SaaS and the three waves of software as a service -- The Edison Wave -- The Henry Ford Wave -- The Procter & Gamble Wave - How to find your wedge and be focused in your early stage - The importance of investing in brand from day one - Why Drift created a brand new category, conversational marketing, and how it’s changing the way marketing & sales teams operate - The unconventional and unscalable things Drift have done to grow their business
Links Drift >> https://www.drift.com/ Conversational Marketing book >> https://www.drift.com/conversational-marketing-book/ This Won't Scale book >> https://www.drift.com/books/this-wont-scale/ Hypergrowth >> https://hypergrowth.drift.com/ Managing Oneself >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2477223.Managing_Oneself Invision >> https://www.invisionapp.com/ Follow David on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/dcancel
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
One of the great things about marketing is that it requires you to be both analytical yet creative, and perhaps there are fewer people who know as much about both sides of this coin as Allen Gannett, CSO at Skyword.
Allen is Founder and former CEO of TrackMaven, a SaaS marketing analytics platform, and author of The Creative Curve, a book that breaks down the four laws of creativity.
In this episode we bring these worlds together as we explore the science behind creativity to understand how we as marketers can create things that are both novel and valuable. With real life examples from J.K. Rowling and Kanye West to Ben & Jerry's and Pixar, Allen challenges stereotypes around creativity and explains the science behind achieving creative success in any field, including B2B growth marketing.
This episode covers: - What creativity actually is and how we can learn to become creative - An introduction and breakdown of The Creative Curve, a step-by-step framework that explains the four laws of creativity: Consumption, Imitation, Creative Communities, and Iterations - How we as marketers can become more creative - Creative marketing initiatives Allen and the TrackMaven team have run in the past
Links Skyword >> https://www.skyword.com/ TrackMaven >> https://trackmaven.com/ The Creative Curve >> https://www.thecreativecurve.com/ Creativity Inc. >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077903-creativity-inc Content Marketing Institute Blog >> https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/blog/ Ann Handley's Blog & Newsletter >> https://annhandley.com/ Follow Allen on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/Allen
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/NordicEdward
If you've ever looked at Scot Brinker's MarTech 5000, then you know the B2B SaaS market is extremely crowded. The modern buyer has a vast amount of options when it comes to software that will help them be more successful in their work. And that's great for buyers, but less so for sellers.
So how can you stand out and differentiate within noisy, crowded, and competitive markets?
Well, the answer is positioning.
And to explore this topic in more detail we caught up with April Dunford, an expert on market strategy and positioning in B2B SaaS. Having launched 16 products to market, held multiple executive roles, and secured successful exits, April explains how companies can bring products to market and get them into the hands of customers that are willing to pay for them. In this episode we explore the world of positioning and what it means for B2B SaaS companies, including: - What positioning is and the factors that impact and influence your positioning - A step by step walkthrough of a positioning framework you can use to help ensure you reach the right positioning for your product - How you can use positioning to stand out in noisy, crowded markets - The role of positioning as part of your category strategy - Some real life stories of positioning challenges April has faced throughout her career - A sneak peek into April’s upcoming book on positioning, Obviously Awesome, and what we can expect when it launches
Links: April Dunford >> https://aprildunford.com/ Obviously Awesome: How to nail positioning so customers get it, buy it, love it >> https://aprildunford.com/positioning-book/ Positioning: The battle for your mind >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/760025.Positioning The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Startups That Win >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762542.The_Four_Steps_to_the_Epiphany Sampler >> https://sampler.io/ Level Jump >> https://www.leveljumpsoftware.com/ SparkToro Trending >> https://sparktoro.com/trending Follow April on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/aprildunford
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> @SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> @NordicEdward
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah launched HubSpot in 2006 and since then the company has grown to a team of over 2000 people across 8 offices around the world, filed for an IPO in 2014, and achieved revenue of $375M in 2017. HubSpot Co-Founder & CEO Brian Halligan was recently in Helsinki and he stopped by the Advance B2B office for a fireside talk where he shared several lessons from his 12+ years in SaaS and building HubSpot, including: - A typical week in the life of HubSpot’s CEO - The 5 growth chapters of HubSpot and the evolution of B2B marketing & sales - The importance of building a gorgeous end to end customer experience and why SaaS is now a platform game - Challenges, mistakes and learnings from building HubSpot and things Brian would do differently now - How HubSpot has shifted from funnel thinking to flywheel thinking - The evolution of marketers and the importance of investing in your people
Links HubSpot >> https://www.hubspot.com/ Blitzscaling >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38398157-blitzscaling Platform Leadership >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/323472.Platform_Leadership?from_search=true Shoe Dog >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27220736-shoe-dog?from_search=true Follow Brian on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/bhalligan
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> @SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> @NordicEdward
There are few people who know the worlds of B2B SaaS and B2B marketing as well as Rand Fishkin. Rand has worked in the field for over 15 years and throughout the course of his career he's founded two SaaS companies, Moz & SparkToro, co-founded inbound.org with HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah, published his book "Lost & Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World", is a renowned keynote speaker, and you might also know him as the star of Moz's ever so popular Whiteboard Friday video series. In this episode we draw on all those years of experience as Rand shares his field guide to B2B SaaS Marketing where we discuss: - The actual purpose of marketing and what it should achieve - The evolution of the SaaS space from 2003 to 2018 and what it means for marketers today - How to balance between long-term growth strategies and short-term growth tactics - How to develop your content marketing strategy and factors you need to consider - The importance for marketers and SaaS companies to be behaviour-driven and not goal-driven - Why Rand started SparkToro and some of the important lessons he learned from building Moz that he’s applied to SparkToro - How Rand’s developing the marketing strategy for SparkToro - The marketing strategies that worked for Rand back in 2003 and that still hold true today
Links: SparkToro >> https://sparktoro.com/ Moz >> https://moz.com/ SparkToro Trending >> https://sparktoro.com/trending The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs >> https://andrewchen.co/the-law-of-shitty-clickthroughs/ Lost & Founder >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35957156-lost-and-founder The Billionaire Who Wasn't >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2842145-the-billionaire-who-wasn-t Indie Hackers >> https://www.indiehackers.com/ Typeform >> https://www.typeform.com/ Follow Rand on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/randfish
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> @SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> @NordicEdward
Tanja Törnroos is Brand Manager at Zervant, a Helsinki-based SaaS company where she joined as employee number three over five years ago.
A central theme on this podcast is growth and growth should be the true north for every SaaS company and every SaaS marketer. In this episode we look at growth from a personal perspective and explore how you can adopt a growth mindset, including: - Why we need to adopt a growth mindset - The importance of having a growth mindset in marketing - Tanja's three-step framework to adopt a growth mindset 1. Think like an entrepreneur 2. Explore like a pioneer 3. Grow on your own terms - Examples from Tanja's professional and personal life - The Magic 20 Framework, an exercise to help you adopt a true growth mindset
Links: Zervant >> https://www.zervant.com/en/ Marie Forleo >> https://www.marieforleo.com/ Marie Forleo: How to get anything you want >> https://www.marieforleo.com/how-to-get-anything-you-want/y/ Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24453082-big-magic Teachable >> https://teachable.com/ Connect with Tanja on LinkedIn >> https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanjatornroos/
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
When Gia Laudi joined Unbounce she was the first hire in the marketing team. From the early startup days where she dug into all areas of marketing right through to becoming VP where she led a team of 35 marketers, Gia has seen first hand what it takes to build a high-performing marketing team in B2B SaaS.
In this episode Gia shares the story of how the Unbounce marketing team grew, including: - what kind of person founders should look for in their first marketing hire - how to evangelise the role of marketing in product and tech led SaaS companies - skills and core-competencies marketing teams need as they scale - the benefits of hiring generalists and specialists and when to look for them - how your skill set and mentality needs to adapt as you transition from a marketing ops role to a marketing leadership role - key reasons why the Unbounce marketing team performed at such a high-level and achieved the results they did - the future skills B2B SaaS marketers and marketing teams will need
Links:
Unbounce >> https://unbounce.com/ Forget The Funnel >> https://forgetthefunnel.com/ A Better CX >> https://abettercx.com/ April Dunford's book, Obviously Awesome: How to nail product positioning so customers get it, buy it, love it >> https://aprildunford.com/positioning-book/ Gia's recommended resources >> http://www.valgeisler.com/ https://nicholeelizabethdemere.com/ https://aprildunford.com/ https://getuplift.co/ https://copyhackers.com/ https://www.reforge.com/brief/ Follow Gia on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/ggiiaa
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Marketing Mary. Developer Dave. Consultant Carol... We've all built "buyer personas", but can we truly say that we understand our customers? Claire Suellentrop of userlist.io and Forget The Funnel is super passionate about this topic, so I caught up with her to explore the world of customer research and uncover how marketers can better understand their customers.
In this episode we hear about: - what it really means to be customer-centric - how you should go about building buyer personas - the jobs-to-be-done framework and how marketers can use it to conduct customer research - questions to ask in customer interviews - how to apply your findings in your marketing
Links:
User List >> https://userlist.io/ Forget The Funnel >> https://forgetthefunnel.com/ Claire's JTBD Interview template >> https://docs.google.com/document/d/183PzYjQi2vsIRlPMUrtzRwZF1VdnZWNDAZsrJ4MRT4Q/edit When Coffee & Kale Compete >> http://www.whencoffeeandkalecompete.com/ Alan Klement's post on Copy Hackers about jobs to be done >> https://copyhackers.com/2014/11/jobs-to-be-done-copywriting/ Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6570502-switch Claire's recommended resources >> https://sixteenventures.com/ https://copyhackers.com/ http://www.valgeisler.com/blog/ Follow Claire on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/ClaireSuellen
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Sangram Vajre is Co-founder & Chief Evangelist at Terminus and this episode is all about how marketing teams can start a movement and market like a category leader.
When Sangram was on a flight home to Atlanta from Scott Brinker's MarTech conference in San Francisco, the internet wasn't working and he only had a pen and napkin for the journey. He'd been discussing the classic marketing funnel during the conference and sketched one out on the napkin. Then he flipped it. This was the Eureka moment for Sangram and that one sketch would trigger the #FlipMyFunnel movement.
In this episode we hear about: - the #FlipMyFunnel story and how you can start a movement in marketing - account-based marketing and how to get started with this marketing strategy - why you should build communities, not commodities - how to build new categories and dominate existing ones - how to market like a category leader
Terminus >> https://terminus.com/ Flip My Funnel >> https://flipmyfunnel.com/ Behind The Cloud >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6659874-behind-the-cloud SaaStr >> https://www.saastr.com/blog/ Follow Sangram on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/sangramvajre
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Blake Bartlett is Partner at OpenView and this episode is all about product-led growth. This is a term that the OpenView team developed and Blake stopped by the podcast to introduce us to the concept, explain what it actually is, and discuss how companies can start developing a product-driven growth culture within their DNA, including: - how cross-functional teams can leverage a product’s inherent virality as an acquisition channel - how you can build in virality into your product - the implications of product-led growth on pricing and packaging - the role of marketing and sales teams as part of a product-led growth strategy - some examples of good product-led growth companies
OpenView >> https://openviewpartners.com/ Product-led growth resources from OpenView >> https://openviewpartners.com/product-led-growth/
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
John Bonini is Director of Marketing at Databox and by the end of this episode you’ll know how to set goals, track KPIs and measure the performance of your marketing. With so much data available to us as marketers, that's often siloed across multiple tools, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with where to start, and in this episode John discusses:
- How to simplify everything to focus on tracking the right numbers to improve performance
- The evolution of data in marketing and how marketers can follow progress in real time
- What data you should be reporting to various levels of the organisation whether that’s the board, the C-level, or marketing teams
- How the Databox marketing team sets goals and tracks KPIs as a way to measure and improve performance
Databox >> https://databox.com/ Influence >> https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529935378&sr=1-1&keywords=infleunce Positioning >> https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/0071373586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529935349&sr=8-1&keywords=positioningasecamp.com First Round Review >> http://firstround.com/review/ Wistia Blog >> https://wistia.com/blog Baremetrics Blog >> https://baremetrics.com/blog Price Intelligently Blog >> https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog Seeking Wisdom >> https://www.drift.com/seeking-wisdom/ Follow John on Twitter >> twitter.com/Bonini84
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Nicola Anderson is VP of Marketing at GoCardless and she joined us on The Growth Hub Podcast to explore the topics of innovation, diversity, coaching, and personal development in SaaS.
This is one of the rawest interviews we’ve had on The Growth Hub Podcast and this episode all comes back to development on multiple levels, including as a SaaS company, as a marketing team, and as an individual.
In this episode we discuss: - The ingredients needed for innovation, how it’s impacted teams at GoCardless, and the building blocks needed to start building a culture of innovation - The importance of diversity in SaaS and what we can do to address the issue and get more women in tech - Imposter syndrome and how to overcome mental barriers that may be blocking your self-development - The differences between coaching & mentoring as well as how to develop yourself and those around you
GoCardless >> https://gocardless.com/en-eu/ Brené Brown on vulnerability >> https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability Play Bigger >> https://www.amazon.com/Play-Bigger-Dreamers-Innovators-Dominate/dp/0062407619/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528121181&sr=1-1&keywords=play+bigger Slaughterhouse Five >> https://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Novel-Modern-Library-Novels/dp/0385333846 ChartMogul Blog >> https://blog.chartmogul.com/ Occam's Razor >> https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ Follow Nicola on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/nic365
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Ben Cotton is Principal Marketing Manager of Sales Enablement at HubSpot and this episode of The Growth Hub Podcast is all about how marketers can help their sales team to sell more.
We hear about some of the things Ben has done at HubSpot including the roll out of an on-demand service for sales reps called Deal Support that’s influenced over $1.5 Million in revenue, the launch of a sales bootcamp that helped sales reps who were struggling to hit quota, and how Ben has scaled up sales enablement with chatbots.
In addition we hear: - Ben’s view on the similarities between football and sales as he talks about weak-link and strong-link thinking - How sales and marketing teams can better work together What the best marketers are doing to enable their sales team to succeed - How SaaS companies can get started with Sales Enablement
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HubSpot >> https://www.hubspot.com/ Ben's Blog >> https://www.ben-cotton.com/blog/ Ogilvy on Advertising >> https://www.amazon.com/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/039472903X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526393906&sr=1-1&keywords=ogilvy+on+advertising The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong >> https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Game-Everything-About-Soccer/dp/0143124560?ie=UTF8&Version=1&entries=0 Follow Ben on Twitter >> twitter.com/bencotton
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Patrick Campbell is the CEO and Co-Founder of ProfitWell — and he's also the OG of all things SaaS pricing.
From strategy to tactics, Patrick explains how to build a value-based pricing framework, quantify your buyer personas, and ensure you don't leave any money on the table with your SaaS pricing.
In addition, this episode digs into: - The benefits and limitations of pricing tactics such as relativity and anchoring - The impact of localising your pricing for different regions and currencies - How to align your pricing with your customers and quantify your buyer personas - What the best marketers are doing to help the fight against churn - How ProfitWell built their own pricing model using the hub and spoke framework - The inside scoop on how Patrick and the team approached their own marketing using something called bottom-top-of-the-funnel content
ProfitWell >> https://www.profitwell.com Price Intelligently >> https://www.priceintelligently.com High Output Management by Andrew Grove >> https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884 Follow Patrick on Twitter >> twitter.com/Patticus
SaaStock on Tour Helsinki >> https://www.saastock.com/ontour/city/helsinki 20% Discount Code: ADVANCEB2B-20
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode of The Growth Hub Podcast we’re joined by two superstars of SaaS, Marie Prokopets & Hiten Shah, co-founders of Draftsend & Product Habits, as we hear their views on how to build, launch and market new products in SaaS, including:
- The product strategy for Draftsend
- The marketing strategy when launching Draftsend + Hiten's key learnings from earlier ventures
- How to leverage Product Hunt when launching new products
- Hiten and Marie’s plans for developing both product & marketing as Draftsend looks to scale up
- How you can overcome your fears of public speaking so you can crush it next time you’re on stage
- What Hiten and Marie have planned for the future and where they go to read and stay up to date on all the latest things in SaaS
Marie and Hiten's newest product FYI >> https://usefyi.com/ Draftsend >> https://draftsend.com Product Habits >> https://producthabits.com/ The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (Marie's Book Pick) >> https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-25th-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B006H19H3M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1521466335&sr=1-1&keywords=the+artists+way The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (Hiten's Book Pick) >> https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1936891026/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521467307&sr=1-4&keywords=The+War+of+Art "Growth hacking was invented with a mint julep and two beers" >> hitenism.com/growth-hacking Follow Marie on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/marieprokopets Follow Hiten on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/hnshah
Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/ Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Krish Subramanian stopped by The Growth Hub Podcast to share the story of Chargebee's journey to 5000 customers. Krish and his founding team set up Chargebee back in 2011 and the Chennai-based company's growth was built upon three key pillars, those being product, marketing and customer support.
In this episode Krish opens up on these topics including: - Why Krish decided to set up a subscription billing solution in the relatively early days of SaaS back in 2011 - Why Chargebee went with a freemium business model and how they acquired their first customers - The role of Inbound Marketing as a growth driver - How to build commitment and dependence to your product before new customers have spent a dollar - The secrets to building a world-class global support team - The four key teams within Chargebee's marketing unit - How the SaaS landscape has evolved since 2011 and how Chargebee have ensured they’re able to stand out and differentiate in the face of increased competition
Chargebee >> https://www.chargebee.com/
Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella >> https://www.amazon.com/Hit-Refresh-Rediscover-Microsofts-Everyone-ebook/dp/B01HOT5SQA
Mindset by Carol Dweck >> https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck-ebook/dp/B000FCKPHG/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1519638218&sr=1-2&keywords=mindset+carol+dweck
Scaling Up by Verne Harnish >> https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-Up-Companies-Rockefeller-Habits-ebook/dp/B00O5RR7QO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1519638277&sr=1-1&keywords=Scaling+Up
Follow Krish on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/cbkrish
Advance B2B >> http://www.advanceb2b.com/ Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode of The Growth Hub Podcast we're joined by Liam Boogar to explore the world of brand strategy and its critically important role in the world of B2B SaaS.
But what is brand? How do you go about building a brand strategy? And why is it so important? As former Brand Director at Algolia, Liam answers all these questions - and more - whilst advocating that whatever your brand strategy may be, authenticity must be at the heart of it. In this episode we explore:
- What brand actually is and why it's so imporant in SaaS
- The role of storytelling in brand marketing
- How Algolia developed a brand strategy that spoke to their core audience
- Methods to align everyone within your company around your brand
- Challenges of brand consistency across international borders and how to tackle issues such as language and culture
- Some of Algolia’s most successful brand campaigns and projects
- How to measure the performance of your brand
- The role of authenticity in your company's brand
Algolia >> https://www.algolia.com Gibson Biddle's blog post on building the Netflix brand >> https://medium.com/emerging-tech-insights/branding-for-builders-19e103ef3f1d The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing >> https://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667 Follow Liam on Twitter >> twitter.com/liamboogar
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Guillaume Cabane, aka G, is a well known name within the world of SaaS. He's also well known by his other name, The Mad Scientist, for his original and out of the box experiments in marketing; he doesn't follow the playbook, he rewrites it.
Having recently joined Drift as VP of Growth, G shares with us his insights on growth marketing and how he’s planning to build up the growth function at Drift, including: - Why G decided to join Drift - How he handled his first 100 days as the founding member of their growth team - The purpose of growth marketing at Drift and its role within their monthly product launches, known as marketable moments - How the team operates inbetween other functions and the SLAs they use to align sales and marketing - Some of G’s craziest experiments he’s run while at Drift - The big challenges facing growth marketers - How G plans to build out the growth team during 2018 - The inside scoop on his famous hot coffee experiment
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
For any SaaS company, the journey to $10M in ARR is anything but easy; just ask Hotjar Founder & CEO, David Darmanin.
In this episode, David takes us on an adventure along this rocky road as he shares some of the highs and lows of building Hotjar.
Starting from pre-Hotjar times, David talks about his background growing up in Malta and how he went from studying a Doctorate in Law to becoming a serial MarTech entrepreneur, and he gives us a very open and honest account of what it really takes to build a successful B2B SaaS business, including:
- Why David decided to start Hotjar
- How Hotjar generated 60,00 beta signups in 6 months through a gamified referral program
- The big challenges in converting these free beta users into paying customers
- The difficulties with pricing and how David and the team dealt with a European Tax Law issue just days before Hotjar’s commercial launch
- How Hotjar was able to scale up and the key factors that enabled them to reach $10M in ARR
- The benefits and challenges of growing a fully remote team including how to build a strong remote company culture and the keys to successful leadership
Hotjar >> https://www.hotjar.com/ The Essential Guide to Growing Your Early-Stage SaaS Startup >> https://www.hotjar.com/grow-your-saas-startup/ Radical Candor >> https://www.radicalcandor.com/ SaaStr >> https://www.saastr.com/ SaaStock >> https://www.saastock.com/blog Follow David on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/daviddarmanin
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
When Ed Shelley joined Berlin-based ChartMogul as the company's first full-time hire, his task was to develop and roll-out their entire content strategy. Two years later Ed and the ChartMogul team have built up a highly engaged SaaS audience through a combination of content including cheat sheets, blog posts, a podcast and their Friday SaaS Roundup newsletter.
In this episode Ed shares his insight on how you can build a highly engaged content audience, including: - How Ed started building out ChartMogul’s content strategy - How to measure the success of your content efforts using a north star metric for content - The keys to creating successful, engaging, evergreen content that compounds over time - How Ed uses Quora to retain traffic and keep people coming back to ChartMogul’s content - Why ChartMogul decided to ungate all their content and the impact it had on their marketing and growth funnel - Why ChartMogul decided to launch a podcast alongside what it takes to create and run your own show - Ed's philosophy on the ultimate purpose of why we do content marketing
ChartMogul >> https://chartmogul.com/ The Ultimate SaaS Metrics Cheat Sheet >> https://chartmogul.com/resources/saas-metrics-cheat-sheet/ Ed's Interview with Tope Awotona of Calendly >> https://blog.chartmogul.com/tope-awotona-ceo-calendly/ Total Recall >> https://www.amazon.com/Total-Recall-Unbelievably-True-Story-ebook/dp/B006VGGAC4 Shoe Dog >> https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike/dp/B01CRJA470 The Red Rising Trology >> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0159OZVHS/ref=series_rw_dp_sw Inside Intercom Podcast >> https://blog.intercom.com/category/podcast/ Y-Combinator Podcast >> https://blog.ycombinator.com/category/podcast/ The Tim Ferris Show >> https://tim.blog/podcast/ Exponent Podcast >> http://exponent.fm/ Follow Ed on Twitter >> twitter.com/Mr_Ed
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
When Lidia Lüttin joined Bynder in 2013 she was the fourth person to join the team. Her focus was marketing Bynder's Digital Asset Management platform to enterprise customers in Germany from the Dutch startup's home base of Amsterdam. Fast-forward four years and Bynder now has a team of 275 people spread across their six global offices, and Lidia is leading the company's rapid growth as CMO...
In this episode Lidia gives us a behind the scenes look at Bynder’s incredible journey and we discuss a variety of marketing topics, including:
- How Bynder built up their marketing function and acquired their first customers
- How Bynder rapidly scaled up their growth despite the long enterprise sales cycles
- A look at Bynder's product marketing, sales-marketing alignment and brand strategy, alongside Lidia’s keys when marketing to the enterprise
- How Bynder adapted their marketing strategy for Orbit, their new product targeting the SMB segment
- Bynder's marketing team structure, why they moved to an agile marketing model, the role of their flagship event OnBrand, alongside what 2018 has in store for the Bynder marketing team
Bynder >> https://www.bynder.com/ Bynder Orbit >> https://www.bynder.com/en/orbit/ Open View >> https://labs.openviewpartners.com/ Follow Lidia on Twitter >> twitter.com/lidialuettin
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Today we are delving into the world of Product Marketing, and I’m delighted to say we’re joined by Jessica Webb, who is Product Marketing Manager at everyone’s favourite collaboration platform, Trello.
Since moving to Trello, Jessica has worked in content marketing and she’s now driving the growth of Trello’s products in a role that connects the dots between their marketing, sales, product and growth teams.
In this episode we explore the topic of Product Marketing to understand its role, its purpose, and how it differs from other forms of marketing, and Jessica also gives us a peek inside how Trello does product marketing including:
- The differences in product marketing when targeting new customers versus existing customers
- How to measures the success of product marketing
- How Trello’s marketing, sales, growth and product teams collaborate when it comes to product marketing
- How Trello’s product marketing team work together as a fully remote team distributed across the globe
- How Trello communicates its product messaging and value proposition alongside how they localise it for different regions and markets around the world
- Common mistakes product marketers tend to make alongside the keys to success when it comes to product marketing
Trello >> trello.com Jessica's headline experiment >> https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-growth-hacking-experiments Follow Jessica on Twitter >> twitter.com/jessicawebbica
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
Slack is the fastest growing software application of all time. We've all seen the incredible hockey-stick growth curve and know that it was the quickest company in history to reach Unicorn status. But what we don't know is, how did it actually happen?
To answer that question I caught up with Bill Macaitis, Slack's first marketing hire & CMO, to hear the story of what happened behind the scenes of Slack’s phenomenal growth. In this episode Bill also shares his thoughts, wisdom and learnings on all things marketing including:
- How Bill handled his first 100 days as CMO of Slack
- The role of customer centricity in marketing and Slack's hypergrowth
- How Slack built its brand strategy and how to measure the performance of a brand marketing campaign
- The role of content marketing as a growth driver
- How to develop your marketing strategy when going upmarket from the SMB to the mid-market and enterprise sectors
- The key factors, from a marketing perspective, that enabled Bill to build multiple billion dollar unicorns
Slack >> https://slack.com/ Zendesk >> https://www.zendesk.com/ Follow Bill on Twitter >> twitter.com/bmacaitis
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
For a lot of SaaS companies, building an audience and acquiring a steady flow of traffic is one of the big challenges when it comes to growth, brand awareness and ultimately new customer acquisition.
Karola Karlson, growth marketer at Taxify & Aggregate, faced this challenge when she started at Scoro, a work management SaaS company based in Tallinn, Estonia. Despite being relatively new to the field of digital marketing when she started, Karola developed Scoro's content strategy and grew organic monthly blog traffic from 1,6k visitors to 30k visitors in just 20 months! In this episode we talk about how she did that alongside: - How to build a growth-focused content marketing strategy - Common mistakes B2B marketers make when it comes to content marketing - The importance of 10x content and how to balance quality versus quantity in your content marketing - A two hour hack to quickly boost your organic traffic - Some of the most important SaaS marketing lessons Karola learned during her 20 months working at Scoro
Taxify >> https://taxify.eu Aggregate >> https://aggregateblog.com Scoro >> https://www.scoro.com From 1.6K to 31K Monthly Blog Visitors In 20 Months – How We Did It >> https://aggregateblog.com/growing-organic-blog-traffic 35 SaaS Marketing Lessons I Wish I'd Known Sooner >> https://aggregateblog.com/saas-marketing-lessons The 2 Hour Hack To Double Your Organic Traffic >> https://aggregateblog.com/increase-organic-traffic-rewriting-blog-headlines The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott >> https://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Marketing-PR-Podcasting/dp/0470379286/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me= Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris >> https://toolsoftitans.com Follow Karola on Twitter >> twitter.com/karolakarlson
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
About one year ago, Dave Gerhardt received a phone call from Drift CEO David Cancel saying they should kill all their lead forms. As Marketing Director, Dave was a little shocked since this was one of the most important conversion points in their entire growth funnel...
So to hear how 40,000 businesses signed up to Drift without the use of a single lead form, I caught up with Dave to find out what really went down, including: - How Drift distinguishes between marketing, growth and sales and how they operate their growth funnel without generating leads through forms and gated content - How marketers can make their growth funnels more conversational, human and shorter - How bots can supplement your marketing team and keep the conversation going 24/7 - The importance of podcasting and how to exploit opportunities where your competitors aren’t - What Dave sees on the horizon when it comes to B2B SaaS marketing
Drift >> https://www.drift.com Hypergrowth 2017 Conference >> https://hypergrowth.drift.com Why We’re Throwing Out All Of Our Lead Forms And Making Content Free >> https://blog.drift.com/no-more-forms A Side Project Helped Jumpstart My Career (Dave's blog on Medium) >> https://medium.com/the-mission/a-side-project-helped-jumpstart-my-career-7cd6f8e9b07f Follow Dave on Twitter >> https://twitter.com/davegerhardt
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode we're joined by Ed Fry, Growth at Hull.io
One of the big challenges facing sales, marketing and growth teams is the abundance of customer data scattered across multiple tools and platforms. Ed Fry of Hull.io knows this all too well so I caught up with him to hear how you can collect all that data to build the ultimate customer profile in order to segment, personalise and automate your sales and marketing — at scale.
In addition to these topics, Ed talks to us about: - What growth really means within the context of B2B SaaS - The importance of defining and building your growth model around your North Star Metric - His 5-part framework to achieve personalisation at scale alongside how he used email to solve this issue at inbound.org - Why we should stop using the term “Marketing Stack” and use “Customer Stack” instead - And the story of how he secured a funding round for inbound.org over lunch with Rand Fishkin & Dharmesh Shah at MozCon, alongside the tremendous importance of conference beers
Hull >> www.hull.io Ed's 5 Part Framework For Personalisation >> hull.io/blog/personalization-everywhere-create-a-personalization-strategy Stop Calling It a "Marketing Stack" >> hull.io/blog/stop-calling-it-a-marketing-stack Do Fewer Things, Better >> onstartups.com/do-fewer-things-better Inbound >> www.inbound.org Follow Ed on Twitter >> twitter.com/edfryed
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode we're joined by Steve Rayson, Director at BuzzSumo.
When it comes to SaaS growth, a lot of content and discourse focuses on hyper-growth tactics with a (false) promise that they'll magically turn you into a unicorn. But unicorns a rare. They are outliers, so I caught up with Steve Rayson, Director at BuzzSumo, to hear about another path you can take, and it's that of a SaaS Donkey.
By putting sustainability and profitability above hyper-growth, BuzzSumo have built a steady SaaS business that is loved by growth and content marketers alike, going from beta launch to $5M ARR over the last three years or so. In this episode, Steve tells us about: - How BuzzSumo challenged the Unicorn Orthodoxy and became a so called SaaS Donkey - Some of the key factors that enabled BuzzSumo to go from $0 to $2.5M ARR - The role of influencer marketing in SaaS growth including how influencers such as Rand Fishkin & Matthew Barby helped spread the word about BuzzSumo - How BuzzSumo set growth targets and went from $2.5M to $5M in ARR - The things BuzzSumo might have done differently with the gift of hindsight alongside what they have planned for the future
BuzzSumo >> buzzsumo.com Proud To Be A SaaS Donkey >> buzzsumo.com/blog/proud-donkey-buzzsumo-reflections-growing-5m-saas-business Anders Pink >> www.anderspink.com Follow Steve on Twitter >> twitter.com/steverayson
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode we're joined by Kieran Flanagan, VP of Marketing & Growth at HubSpot.
Two of the biggest challenges facing SaaS marketers who operate a freemium model is the acquisition of new users and then converting them into paying customers; but that's exactly what Kieran is responsible for. In addition to this Kieran leads HubSpot's global web strategy team and in this episode Kieran opens up about what it really takes to build a successful freemium SaaS growth funnel, including: - How HubSpot approaches new user acquisition for their sales tools - How to balance between no-touch automation and high-touch human interaction when converting free users into paying customers - Best practices when it comes to actual freemium user acquisition and customer conversion tactics - How HubSpot runs its global web strategy team to facilitate its growth funnel, including how they relaunched the HubSpot website within 6 weeks ahead of the Inbound conference
HubSpot Free Sales Software >> www.hubspot.com/products/sales Kieran's Personal Website >> www.kieranflanagan.io Follow Kieran on Twitter >> twitter.com/searchbrat
The Growth Hub >> www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode we're joined by Alex Theuma, Co-Founder of Europe's biggest SaaS conference, SaaStock.
SaaStock 2017 is a must-attend event for everyone working in SaaS, especially if you're based in Europe, so we caught up with Alex to hear more about his journey and how he developed SaaStock into a central component of Europe's SaaS ecosystem. This year's event is taking place from September 18th-20th in Dublin, Ireland, and in this episode Alex talks to us about: - The history of the conference and how he got the idea and inspiration to establish SaaStock - How he was able to raise a funding round from some of Europe’s top SaaS investors ahead of this year’s event - A sneak peak into what attendees can expect from SaaStock 2017 - SaaStock on Tour, which is a set of mini events being held across Europe in the run up to the main conference in September
SaaStock: www.saastock.com SaaStock Tickets: https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-2017 SaaStock On Tour: www.saastock.com/tours Follow Alex on Twitter: twitter.com/alextheuma Follow SaaStock on Twitter: twitter.com/SaaStock
The Growth Hub: www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B: www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter: twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter: twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode we're joined by Madhav Bhandari, Marketing Manager at Hubstaff.
Madhav joined Hubstaff at the beginning of 2015 as the company’s first full-time marketing hire and in this episode Madhav reflects on the last 2 years which saw Hubstaff increase their revenue by 658%. He does this by going through his 6 key lessons that helped them achieve this milestone, including: - The importance of team focus and common goals - Nurturing a culture of ownership and establishing clear KPIs - Embracing the 80-20 rule and doubling down on your most effective growth strategies - Autonomous processes and automating growth - Being completely driven by business revenue - And the role of patience in SaaS growth
Hubstaff: www.hubstaff.com Madhav's Blog: www.madhavb.com Madhav's post on Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2017/02/kpis-empower-employees-drive-results.html Madhav on Twitter: twitter.com/themadbhandari
The Growth Hub: www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B: www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter: twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter: twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode we're joined by Luke Summerfield of HubSpot, Founder of the Growth-Driven Design movement.
Luke discusses the one thing that is at the focal point of all SaaS businesses, the website, and more specifically about Growth-Driven Design (GDD) which is a smarter and more agile way to approach web design and development.
In this episode Luke opens up the topic of GDD and discusses how SaaS companies can benefit from this methodology, including: - The similarities between Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest expedition and the website redesign process - How the GDD movement was born - What the GDD model is - The importance of GDD for SaaS businesses - How SaaS companies can get started with the agile GDD model - Where you can go to learn more about GDD
Growth-Driven Design: http://www.growthdrivendesign.com Luke on Twitter: twitter.com/savvyluke
The Growth Hub: http://www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B: http://www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter: twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter: twitter.com/NordicEdward
In this episode we're joined by Pedro Magriço, Director of Growth at Typeform.
Pedro joined the Barcelona-based company in 2013 when they had just 10 employees and the product was in closed beta. Now Typeform employs over 160 people and has achieved double digit ARR in the millions.
In this episode Pedro tells us about: - The evolution of Typeform’s growth team and how they operate - How typeform built virality into their product with one simple button - A small tweak Typeform made to their onboarding process that increased the conversion quality of visitors into users - How typeform retains their users and minimises churn - Typeform’s growth-model, their viral-loop, and some of their most successful growth-tactics
Typeform: www.typeform.com Pedro on Twitter: twitter.com/pedro_magrico
The Growth Hub: http://www.advanceb2b.com/thegrowthhub Advance B2B: http://www.advanceb2b.com The Growth Hub on Twitter: twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub Edward on Twitter: twitter.com/NordicEdward