Ahrefs

You don’t have Google Analytics on your site?” “Nope, or the Facebook Pixel.”, said Tim. You don’t have the Facebook Pixel on your site?” I asked, completely horrified. “Nope”, said Tim Soulo from Ahrefs. There was a tone to his voice that I couldn’t quite make out… it felt like a sense of pride. Ahrefs like to do things their way. Since joining the business as Product Marketing Director (he was the only person in marketing) in 2015, Ahrefs has grown from 15 to just under 50 employees and over $40m in ARR (as per this Tweet from CEO Dmitry). That’s approx. $800k in revenue per employee – the same as Facebook. And the kicker? They are 100% bootstrapped. How? This episode of Confessions of a B2B Marketer explains 🤓

What did we learn?

For a kick start on how to build remarkable products that drive word of mouth, go read these two books: Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger and All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin.
What are you or your marketing team doing that is not talking to customers or creating and promoting insanely good content? Do you really need to do it?
Do something different at your next conference and when it gets traction… fuel the fire with paid spend.
If you are going to commit to create an organic audience on a channel, put in the years of hard work.
What do you do really well? And what don’t you do so well that you can completely ignore.
What is your customer acquisition funnel and how can paid social fuel this fire?
Is there a way that you can create content that your prospects and customers LOVE… that still sells your product?
Where can you add friction to your sign up process to increase the amount of resources you invest in those customers that are willing to pay?
What can you put on your SEO optimized pages to SHOW Google that people like you?
Can you create and giveaway information that helps prospects achieve a desired end result whilst advertising your product or service?
Consider making customer support a mandatory part of your onboarding process.
What is the big trend you can jump on to propel your word of mouth?
If you are an employee – build your personal brand. If you are not an employee – allow your employees to build a personal brand
Is there any way you can show that value of your SaaS without requesting any investment from your prospects?
How can you continuously obtain feedback on how your product is being received by the market?
How focused is the content on your blog/YouTube channel… and should you split our different types to focus growth?
List all the actions that customers can take within your SaaS that seem “simple” to you and test including “how it works” buttons to potentially increase usage.
Podcast interviews may not result in a direct uptick in revenue, but the time investment Vs brand benefit is favorable
Understand your prospect journey from awareness to consideration to purchase and place strategic CTA’s to minimize interruption to the flow whilst maximizing conversions.

9 Unconventional SaaS Marketing Strategies with Tim Soulo
Semrush
19 SaaS Marketing Strategies That Bootstrapped Ahrefs To $40m ARR
Tim Soulo 🇺🇦 on Twitter
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