In B2B SaaS, the expectations for a $10,000/mo marketing team are totally different from a $100,000/mo one.  As a Founder, CEO, COO or CMO, you need a way to know: • How do I forecast the amount of lead gen and revenue results to expect? • How large a marketing team do I really need? B2B SaaS companies move through predictable stages of marketing focus, cost and size (as described in the popular T2D3 book). With people cost being a majority of the cost involved, every hire needs to be well worth the investment. B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks is one of the most respected voices in the SaaS i ..read more

A simple 4-step approach to get your goals back on track: Define the problem.  Write it down—be specific. Make sure everyone agrees on the problem. This step is incomplete until everyone interprets the problem in the same way. Uncover the ~real~ root cause. People often jump too quickly to conclusions and favor obvious explanations for symptoms. Most problems are nuanced with many contributing factors. Try to unpack all of the potential causes. Document all possible solutions. Once you’ve uncovered the root cause, go from theory to execution. List out all of the things you can do to move ..read more

Jason Fried (37Signals) recently published an open challenge to the software subscription model—their stance is that customers should once again be able to buy and own software products. To pay for them once and own the source code. We discuss both models' pros and cons and speculate why Jason and the 37Signals teams introduced this strategy and manifesto. Here are some of our key takeaways: In the last few years, many software companies were able to get away with neglecting the second “s” in SaaS (service). But given the state of the tech industry, that’s now sometimes a determinant factor ..read more

Google has always guarded its search ranking factors. But thanks to the recent antitrust suit between the DOJ and Google, we now get a glimpse into the inner workings of their ranking systems through previously confidential internal documents.  Here’s what we’ve confirmed about the process so far: Whenever new content is published and indexed on the internet, Google’s goal is to (as fast as possible) understand how relevant it is for searchers using its engine. Google uses three main factors of a document (or article) to do this: - Body - What a document says about itself (i.e., what do t ..read more

Our best practices for presenting your marketing plan to the board of directors as companies are in the thick of 2024 planning. General guidelines: First, there are general guidelines you should always keep in mind when presenting your plan to the board: Come prepared - Don’t lead with plans that aren’t pressure tested. If you ask for money, be ready to answer questions about the specifics—results, how you’ll get there, data behind your hypotheses.  Lead with the red - You’re not expected to be perfect at your job, but you do need to show that you’re the perfect person for your job. Th ..read more

Strong product marketing is crucial for early-stage software companies. But it’s also the most significant gap for many. Whether it’s your first marketing hire or someone from your founding team, someone on your team should be able to connect their deep understanding of your product (features, capabilities, value delivery) with an overarching go-to-market plan. Some of the core product marketing capabilities your team needs are: Positioning: Understand your market and the competition. Create a point of view & product narrative. What makes you unique, different, or better than the altern ..read more

The content playbook that worked in the 2010’s doesn’t work anymore. Things like search keyword search volume, word count, post date/time don’t have the same impact they used to. Instead working backwards from keyword to content, good content marketing does the reverse—start with a question you think you can answer better than someone else.  Don’t worry about the keywords for now. There are two steps to nailing good content in 2023: Understand the problem. Who are you talking to? What are the questions they’re asking? Articulate the problem in terms they connect with. Look at existing ..read more

..read more

2022 and 2023 brought new pressure to the software industry that many mature industries have felt for a long time. Here’s our take on what happened and where we go from here. What happened? 2010–2021 were the years of plenty, with an extra push in the back from COVID Since growth capital was so cheap, it was easy to get away with mediocre performance  The bar of performance was not high enough Growth was seen as a metric of success, not profit  Where do we go? Add discipline to how you run, just do the basics really well Deliver at a higher standard of execution When you apply suc ..read more

Part 2 of Ep. 17. Customer (or Contact) Relationship Managers (CRM) are an invaluable resource but can quickly turn into a complex and costly mess if they’re not managed properly or set up to be used by all of your teams (Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, etc). Effective marketing leaders can be hard to find, and as your company and product evolve over time, the things you need from your marketing leader evolve too. Knowing where, when, and how to match skills with your company’s maturity stage can be complicated and daunting. These and other common marketing mistakes are addressed in today ..read more