Actionable interviews with SaaS marketers and founders.
It's here! That's the end of season 4.Many thanks to the guests of this season. Each of them provided very actionable direction on how to apply strategic theories in practice.Based on this season, I need to narrow and define the vision for this podcast moving forward. I may restart the podcast sometime next year.In the meantime, if you would like to support the show, please interact with the guests by leaving comments or likes on their episodes. This will help encourage the guests, and also give me some feedback on what people like to listen to.Thank you again for listening. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiemarketingplays.substack.com
Sankar is the CEO and Founder of SkyGeni, a Growth Insights platform for B2B revenue leaders. SkyGeni's Explainable AI-powered actionable insights enable CROs to drive more efficient and predictable growth and boost sales productivity.In this episode, Sankar shares experience and guidance on building your first sales team at a new venture, without existing sales processes.Key takeaways:* Hiring junior vs senior when building the team* The role of the founder in preparing sales processes* The key 2 traits to look for in new sales hires for the best return* How to set targets for a new vs developed team* What roles to fill in as the team grows, and how to fill them* How to troubleshoot poor sales team performanceKey links:* SkyGeni* Sankar Sundaresan on LinkedInLooking for faster, scalable lead generation?Once developed, paid ad channels can provide consistent, profitable lead flow without the rollercoaster results of organic methods like content marketing.If you'd like help, contact me for a chat or learn more on my agency's website Hungry Bear Digital. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit substack.benjaminboman.com
Kevon Cheung is the founder of Public Lab and author of the book Find Joy in Chaos: How to Build Your Twitter Presence so Connections and Opportunities Come Find You. He is also the Creator and Head Teacher of Build in Public Mastery, a program that teaches others how to share their business journey authentically on social media.In this episode, Kevon teaches you how to share your journey authentically on social media to naturally attract followers, clients, and opportunities. Key takeaways:* How Building in Public (BIP) typically works* Two common mistakes in using the technique* How to build in public for services vs digital products* Kevon's core framework for building in public* What to post, other than simple updates* How to consolidate your following and audience* How BIP content is changing, and what to post nowKey links:* Kevon's Build in Public Essays* The Build in Public Mastery Program* Kevon's book, Find Joy in Chaos: How to Build Your Twitter Presence so Connections and Opportunities Come Find YouBig news. This newsletter is now sponsored by… me!Recently I've struck out on my own to help people generate more leads through paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Google. If you'd like to learn more or make an inquiry, please check out my agency's website Hungry Bear Digital. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit substack.benjaminboman.com
Paul Xue is the founder of Spacestation Labs, a solo developer agency he grew to over $500k p/year since 2017, while working a regular 40-hour week.Key takeaways* Client quality vs quantity in scaling* How to actually do value-based pricing* How to position clients for value-based pricing* Examples of price negotiation in practice* Getting leads inbound via communitiesKey links* Paul on Twitter* Guide to building a $500k solo dev agency* Spacestation LabsLooking for faster, scalable lead generation?Once developed, paid ad channels can provide consistent, profitable lead flow without the rollercoaster results of organic methods like content marketing.If you'd like help, contact me for a chat or learn more on my agency's website Hungry Bear Digital. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiemarketingplays.substack.com
Looking to encourage the maximum amount of signups from your product's traffic, but unsure how to organize your efforts? I asked Chris McCarron how.Chris has a depth of experience in CRO, having worked with names like Noah Kagan and Neil Patel, Chris has run the award-nominated CRO agency GoGoChimp since 2013. In this podcast, he shares:* How to A/B test with low traffic* Tips on issue diagnosis* The 5-step CRO process* Chris' thoughts on the role of design* And more.Visit GoGoChimp or find Chris on LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
Copywriting product pages is super hard (for me). Trying to find the balance between something that hooks readers, without being cringy, while still being effective.
Recent data found that 79% of people say watching a video has convinced them to sign up for an app.But too many of my favorite products don't even have one.Hunting for best practices, I connected with , who explained:* What exactly to put in the video* How (bootstrappers) can put one together* Annoying mistakes to avoid* And how to give your video the X factorHere are the details:Important note: The following is a summary written by me based on the interview, not quotes. Please listen to the audio version for the exact wording.What to put in your video?
This is why I love doing interviews on Substack.I got to ask everything about building out a killer onboarding sequence, including:* The 3 part foundational setup* Design and copy tips, as a founder and marketer* A review checklist for onboarding championsAs the co-founder of Userlist, a B2B SaaS email platform, Jane knows this inside out and shared generously in the interview. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
It's done! That's the end of season 3, which went far better than I expected. I really appreciate all the kind feedback that people have given.Many thanks to the six guests of this season. Each of them provided very actionable direction on how to apply strategic theories in practice.
Samuel Brealey is a UK based chartered marketing consultant specializing in helping SMBs grow. In this episode we discuss solid practices around media planning including:* Why you need to plan media spend* Common mistakes and red flags* How to define which channels to use* How to work out spend for each channel* how to measure spend performanceIf you have any questions for Samuel, check him out on LinkedIn or add a comment below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
Ian Barnard is the Strategy Director at the Creative Business Company and sat down to chat with me about having your brand come to mind first. In this discussion, he detailed the steps of creating video campaigns to improve this and the exact measurable impact this can have on your short and long-term marketing efforts.You can learn more about Ian on LinkedIn, or check out some of the resources from his team below:* How To Grow A Big Brand On A Small Budget* How Challengers Can Position For Growth* Ian's website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
In this episode I discuss with Jonny Westcar the creative portion of expressing your brand strategy.You can probably tell I was completely out of my depth on the creative aspects, but we managed to cover some important ground including:* The two phases of the brand creation process* The key elements to have in place brand creation* The difference between positioning, repositioning and brand refreshes* how to choose a strategic brand creation partnerTo learn more or contact his team, you can visit the Studio Phoenix website here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
In this week's Q&A discussion, I asked positioning specialist Faisal Siddiqui the following questions:* How to evaluate the positioning of brands and products?* What are the signs that positioning has been done incorrectly?* What are the steps to positioning a brand or product?* How does positioning change for early-stage versus late-stage brands?* How do you measure brand performance?If you'd like to learn more about positioning or connect with Faisal, you can visit his website or connect with him on LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
Professor Sara Dolnicar is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, author and Tedx speaker with deep expertise in segmentation.In this episode, Sara explains why segmentation is essential in marketing strategy, and why it has been missed by many practitioners.She also discusses the techniques of creating segmentation via data analysis, while comparing the process to those used within the practical constraints of many smaller businesses.This episode includes a case study walkthrough where segmentation is applied to a hypothetical software application.If you want to learn more after listening to this episode be sure to check out these free resources:* The book, Market Segmentation Analysis: Understanding It, Doing It, and Making It Useful* The Market Segmentation Analysis course This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Matthew Seltzer (LinkedIn), the Senior Vice President at Intuify and an expert in market research. Matt shared his insights on how market research can help founders solve campaign problems and plan their general marketing strategy.He explained how to do the 5 steps of the market research process: Starting with problem identification, question development, surveys, and interviews, and how to design effective questionnaires to get the insights you need. He then shared some best practices for analyzing research data and how to draw conclusions and implement the insights.Subscribe for future episodes, like the next one coming on market segmentation.PS. Let me know in the comments if you ended up getting a burger too after listening to the recording. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benjaminboman.substack.com
This is it for season 2, on SaaS marketing. This season's great highlights include the episodes with Alex Berman, Fed at GummySearch, and the founder journey story with Jimmy Rose. Thank you to all the guests of this season. Next season will be focused on traditional marketing applied to smaller businesses, among tech and other non-traditional industries. I see there's a real need to explain how these theories and principles apply in practice, so I hope that these guests will help us better understand how to implement them. See you there, or connect with me on Twitter @benjaminboman_ or on my website here.
Will van der Sanden is the founder of Dux Soup, one of the largest LinkedIn automation tools. In this episode, Will shares best practices around how to think about LinkedIn networking for SaaS, the step-by-step play, and how to leverage automation tools. Be sure to read the full show notes here.
Oli Bridge is the CMO at Bonjoro, taking the SaaS application from 0 to 50+ users. In this episode, we discuss the best practices he's discovered around video messaging to improve activation and conversions. Oli describes when to send video, what to include, how to scale your efforts, an example case study of these techniques and more. Check out the show notes on my blog, connect with Oli on Twitter, or read the Video Funnel Playbook.
Paul-Louis Valat is the acquisition marketer at Plezi, a marketing automation solution for marketers. In this episode, we discuss Paul-Louis experience of spending $8,521 on newsletter placements and securing users for $52 per user. You can read his original article on his learnings on Medium here, or check out the full analysis in the show notes on the blog.
Alex Berman is the founder of Leadshark, Taplio, X27, and author of Cold Email Manifesto. In this episode, we discuss how to leverage cold email for B2B SaaS companies. Alex shares his framework for writing authentic emails and getting responses that turn cold email into a superpower. You can get Alex's book on cold email here, read the full analysis of this episode and find show notes here.
Nicholas Scalice is the Founder of Earnworthy, a marketing agency specializing in landing pages, automations, email outreach, and audits. In this episode, Nicholas takes us through 7 questions to improving landing pages, how to measure performance, key mistakes people make and upcoming trends in the space. Learn more about Nicholas here, subscribe to his Growth Marketer newsletter or see his podcast the Growth Marketing Toolbox.
Teemu Raitaluoto is the founder and CEO of Markettailor, a no-code website personalization product. Teemu takes us through the strategy behind personalization, when to use it, what elements to personalize and examples of personalization in practice.
Yannick Veys is the co-founder and CMO of Hypefury, a Twitter growth tool. In this episode Yannick shares the strategy behind growing a new account for your product, including tweet content, strategy, engagement and how to leverage Twitter marketing tools properly. Read the full analysis of this episode here.
AbdulGaniy Shehu is the founder and chief content strategist and Your Content Mart, an agency focused on SEO-driven SaaS content marketing, leveraging this part of the funnel. We had a fantastic chat about how to do this, including the 5 main content types, how to get the ideas, and producing and measuring the content. Read the full show notes and summary analysis here.
Jimmy Rose is the co-founder of Content Snare, a tool for collecting documents and information from clients. In this episode Jimmy shares his startup journey including finding product market fit, what worked in marketing, his approach to hiring, and more. Be sure to check out the extended show notes on my website and subscribe for future episodes.
Rishabh Bhandari is the CEO and founder of Content Beta, a multimedia content agency for B2B SaaS companies. Video is something he knows a tonne about so in this episode, Rishabh talks me through where and how to use video at each stage of the funnel. This includes awareness, conversion and customer success videos. Don't forget, you can see the highlights and summary notes on my blog here.
Jacob is the founder of Email Empire and the host of The Great Escape Podcast. In this episode, Jacob shares his strategies around how to use email to convert trial users into paid, including: the principles behind the email sequence, how many and how often to send email, what to say and how you can maintain a healthy list. For a summary, see the show notes here.
Reddit can be a pretty intimidating place to do marketing. But in this episode Fed, founder of GummySearch and fellow indie hacker takes me through how to properly promote products and links on the platform, in a way that subreddits appreciate. Fed covers: 3 ways to market on Reddit, what type of posts work and don't work and an actionable marketing routine. Be sure to read the article version of this episode here for the full show notes, summaries, infographics, and links.
This wraps up season 1, which was about digital lifestyle businesses. All episodes were very interesting to do but I am looking forward to changing pace and focusing more on marketing, particularly related to SaaS businesses which is the theme for the upcoming season 2. See you there, or connect with me on Twitter @benjaminboman_ or on my website here.
Recently I caught up with Jaryd Krause from Buying Online Businesses. Jaryd has a wealth of knowledge on content sites, in particular, so we discussed his views on buy vs build. We also cover: What niches are good for content sites, the balance of owning many smaller sites, vs one big website, what improvements you can make after buying a website, how you can be a more hands-off operator of a content website, and omre. You can learn more about Jaryd on his website here or check out his podcast with the same name.
Elaine Pofeldt is a business journalist, speaker, and author of The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business and Tiny Business, Big Money: Strategies for Creating a High-Revenue Microbusiness. In this episode, Elaine shares her findings on how entrepreneurs built million-dollar manufacturing businesses while keeping a small operational footprint.
Super stoked for this interview. This month I got to chat with Greg Elfrink about his advice on buying and selling eCommerce businesses. Greg is the head of marketing at Empire Flippers, the number one curated marketplace for online properties, so he has awesome insight into what works, things to look out for, and some great tips, too. Read my article version of the interview. In this interview we cover: The buying and selling process When you should sell your website How to maximize your eCommerce site's sale value Things to look out for as a buyer, or seller Key traits of good sellers and good buyers What are the pros and cons of each type of eCommerce site And as usual, a whole bunch more. Key Resources: Due diligence guide for eCommerce
Second interview out of the gate and already one of my favourites. Today, we're talking to Ryan Kulp of the digital fund Fork Equity about building a digital business portfolio. Ryan has an interesting background spanning New York and Silicon Valley and both building and marketing, with success in this leading to his current portfolio of apps and businesses. This gives him a very well rounded view on the buy, grow or build question and very practical advice to share. We cover: Why ‘micro'? Starters versus growers How to source opportunities How to vet opportunities Ryan's secrets to better deal-making Advice on structuring deals and contracts How to make multiple projects flourish Advice on installing managers for digital businesses For those looking to build their own portfolio, check out Ryan's training here. Or learn more about Fork Equity.
Hello there, how's it going? Today I'll be chatting to David Woodworth, CMO and Co-Founder of Hilokal, a drop-in language learning social app. David has grown the app from zero to 200,000 users with a highly engaged community. We discuss his journey from where he pivoted out of his brick-and-mortar business into a technology-based application with significant month-over-month user growth. We also discuss: The approach to growing the application overall The most challenging bottlenecks in growing the business Role models, people or companies David uses as a metrics of success David's favorite learning sources and tools If you liked this interview, please consider subscribing to my podcast to ask questions to future guests and to hear interviews related to building, financing and growing new products.
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