Rand's presentation from RECUR 2018 on how to address many of the core issues that cause SaaS marketing to go off the rails.

1. Why your SaaS Marketing Sucks
Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO
(and some smart things you can do about it)

2. Many SaaS Companies Plateau or Die
Because…
They Cannot Affordably Acquire New
Customers Above Their Churn Rate

3. ViaChaoticFlow
“You must not only acquire
new customers, but you must
acquire them at an increasing
rate that outpaces your
increasing churn.”
- Joel York

4. Why Does Marketing Hold Back So
Many SaaS Companies’Growth?
(and what can we do to overcome that?)

5. #1
Your Customers Have No
Incentive to Amplify

6. Being a high-
quality, useful
product isn’t
enough.

7. Having a lovely,
effective, minimalist
design isn’t
enough.

8. Social proof and smart
CTAs may help convert
visitors, but won’t help you
earn visitors.

9. 7
Sharing is inherent to the product’s value proposition
Your site/product provides a high-value customer community
Content on your site consistently fires emotional triggers that encourage
amplification
Users financially benefit from sharing (but not in sleezy/inauthentic ways)
Your company regularly engages in press-worthy activities
The product makes your customers look good to their own audience
Your product or content targets a highly-likely-to-share group
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
Ways SaaS Products Earn Amplification
from Customers & Users

10. #2
Your Marketing Overvalues
First Exposure

11. SaaS Marketing Mythology
Step 1: Build a Great Product
Step 2: Get on PH/HN, or run ads
Step 3: Customers! $$$! Funding!

12. This is a long process,
with many steps

13. Yay! You made it to the top of PH & received
15,000 visits + 500 email signups
But, only ~0.01% of people are looking for
email verification APIs that day 

14. Every day, a few dozen people search
for this (and don’t find you)

15. Loads of searches for your
service, but none of these
people can find you 

16. They visit lists like this
(but you’re not here)

17. They ask friends +
colleagues (who’ve
never heard of you)

18. They rely on existing
providers

19. They lean on social
proof from their
networks

20. Via Wordstream
New to a market? This
happens.
Known & loved?
Welcome to Profitville.

21. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, &
display ads all work the same way
Via Resolution Media

22. How to Win at Digital Advertising
Step 1: Earn brand exposure w/ your target audience
Step 2: Get >1 organic visit (or social engagement)
Step 3:Advertise to those who already know + like you

23. If you only play here
(first exposure)
Or here
(decision time)
You’re gonna have a bad time 

24. SaaS Marketing Reality
Step 1: Get known + trusted by your audience
Step 2: Grow a presence across the channels they use
to find solutions your product solves
Step 3: Be visible throughout their discovery,
consideration, and decision processes

25. #3
You’ve Been Sold on
Chasing Growth Hacks

26. Hack-Chasing Usually Leads to Death
Before Success
Via ProStart
Hack Hack Hack Hack Crap.

27. You’re Fighting the “Law of Shitty Clickthrough Rates”
Via
Andrew Chen
A lot of exploitable, short-term
“growth hacks” start here
And end here

28. Great Marketers Focus on Flywheels
(systems that scale w/ decreasing friction)

29. Content
Marketing
Flywheel
KW Research +
Industry Intuition
Publish
Content
Promote via Social
Channels
Push to email +
RSS subscribers
Earn Links +
Amplification
Grow social, email, RSS,
& WoM channels
Grow Domain
Authority
Earn Search &
Referral Traffic
Rank for More
Competitive KWs

30. PR+Ads
Flywheel
ID Sources of
Customer Influence
Craft Stories to
Draw Coverage
Earn Press
Coverage
Pitch Media
Amplify +
Promote
Run Ads Targeting
Cookied Visitors
Expand Social
Following
Slowly Convert
Fans + Followers
Refine Ad+CRO
Processes

31. Events +
Sponsorship
Flywheel
ID Events w/
Customer Targets
Sponsor + Pitch to
Present
Capture
Visitor Info
Host Booths,
Dinners, Parties
Reach Out w/
Direct+Indirect
Emails Cookie Site Visitors &
Email Opens
Run Hyper-
Personalized Ads
Improve CRO +
Sales Process
Uncover Customer
Connections & Affinities

32. Hard at first, but
gets easier
(& more profitable)
with scale
Find
Find
Create
Create
Amplify
Amplify
Convert
Convert
Learn & Apply

33. Growth Hacks
Can Accelerate a Flywheel

34. KW Research +
Industry Intuition
Publish
Content
Promote via Social
Channels
Push to email +
RSS subscribers
Earn Links +
Amplification
Grow social, email, RSS,
& WoM channels
Grow Domain
Authority
Earn Search &
Referral Traffic
Rank for More
Competitive KWs
If lack of social
promotion is causing
friction in your flywheel,
HACK away!

35. Hacks aren’t necessarily evil,
spammy, or without value.
They can be useful when applied to
a sound marketing strategy.

36. Find a Balance Between Long-Term
Investments & Short-Term Hacks
High upfront costs Pay (in time/$$) as you go
Long-Term Investments
Slow to show ROI
Earn customers while you
sleep
Low Risk (PR/legal/etc)
Can Show Fast ROI
Effort In = Links Out
Often High Risk
Short-Term Hacks

37. The Formula for Marketing that Will Work
for Years to Come:
Strategic
Roadmap
Scalable
Flywheel
Long-Term
Investments
Hacks to
Remove
Friction
+ + +

38. #4
You’re Ignoring Your
Easiest-to-Reach Audience

39. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads

40. It’s Foolish to…

41. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
1) Lack any strategy to increase the
size of these groups

42. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
2) Not targeting
these people first

43. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
3) Aiming 100% of your tactics at
only these groups

44. But Rand…

45. Ben & Dan didn’t start MailChimp with…
Oh dang… They totally did.

46. Alex & Max didn’t start Grammarly with…
Oh dang… They totally did.

47. Jeremy didn’t start Yelp with…
Oh dang… He totally did.

48. Dharmesh & Brian Didn’t Start Hubspot with…
Oh dang… They totally did.

49. NOT THE ONLY WAY!

50. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
Pro Tip: Having a lot of target customers in your
personal network makes EVERY PART of
marketing + sales easier.

51. #5
Your CRO Process
Misses the Big Picture

52. Incremental testing of headlines,
colors, layout, pricing, etc.
Local Maxima
Uncovering why most
qualified customers
who visit don’t buy &
addressing their core
issues
Global Maxima

53. Early Stage:
Build a community &
recruit folks excited
about your product.

54. Later Stages:
Once you have real people
signing up for your product,
you can learn more about
them

55. A few dozen emails &
names give you a
treasure trove of info
about your customer
targets
Now we can find more
people like this!

56. Interview or
survey this
audience to ID
their clones.

57. Then we can identify traits that separate right
prospects (who’ll use & love our product) from
wrong (those who won’t).

58. Ideally You Want to:
A: Identify right customers
B: Find what/who influences them
C: Clone, expand, & repeat

59. My Favorite
Process:
From Conversion Rate Experts’ case study
Boom.
And Shakalaka.

60. Didn’t try the product Tried, but didn’t love
it
Tried & loved the
product
What do you think the
product does?
What made you try it? What made you try it?
What would make you
more likely to try it?
What are your biggest
objections to signup?
What objections did you
have and how did you
overcome them?
What caused you to stop
using the product?
What would have made you
stay a customer?
What objections did you
have and how did you
overcome them?
What’s been most
valuable to you?
If you’ve loved it, can we
share your story?

61. #6
You’ve Ignored
Brand Marketing

62. Brand is…
Apromise.
i.e. when you see “Brand X” it means “YAttributes”
Amemory trigger.
i.e. when you experience problem Z, you think of “Brand
X” as the potential solution

63. Brand Marketing is…
Acoded message.
Reminding you of the brand’s existence
Reinforcing the brand’s colors, shapes, sounds,
experiences, & feelings
Nudging you to use the brand at the right time

64. What do you think of when you
see this brand?

65. Brand marketing reinforces that:

66. What do you think of when you
see this brand?

67. Brand marketing reinforces that:

68. What do you think of when you
see this brand?

69. Brand marketing reinforces that:

70. Before you can brand, you need a
Brand Promise
We
provide…
We evoke
feelings…
We remind
you of…
We share the
values of…
product/
service that
solves a
problem you
have
that make our
customers most
anxious about
whether our
solution is right for
them
Memories that our
target
demographics &
psychographics will
have ++
associations with
People who are
statistically most
likely to be our best
customers

71. Everything Should (Subtly) Reinforce the Message
SEO Snippets
PPC Ads
Big
Content
CommentsTweets
Photos
Landing
Pages
UI & UX
Brand Name
Facebook
Posts
Emails
Product
Names
Videos
Visual
Branding
Outreach
Onboarding
Press & PR
The Brand
Promise

72. Cost of paid acquisition drop b/c people prefer to click on your ads
Retention increases, as does customer lifetime value
You earn more free coverage, amplifying your reach, your SEO rankings, and
reinforcing your brand
It feels difficult, even impossible to reverse engineer your success
Switching costs feel higher (even if your competitors make it easy)
People want to take your calls, open your emails, and respond to you with a
“yes,” making all your bizdev activities easier
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
The Awesome Powers of Brand

73. Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO
Thank You!
Curious about what we’re building?