SaaS Weekly

Are SaaS companies becoming media businesses? Over the past few years, a handful of SaaS companies have either launched or acquired a media arm, placing content at the center of their growth strategy. • HubSpot acquired The Hustle • Pendo acquired Mind the Product • Salesforce launched Salesforce+ • Profitwell launched Recur Media (later acquired by Paddle) In today's noisy landscape, where it's harder to stand out and easier to be forgotten, SaaS companies are now embedding a media business inside them. Here's why. --- 👉 Treating content as a core product. When SaaS companies focus on content that serves the reader, not just to service the funnel, they build trust with an audience and a community around their brand. For example, you open the Hustle or engage in Mind the Product's forum, consume the content, and receive the promised value. The content is the destination – and it drives a conversation. 👉 Owning the distribution channel. Like traditional media, SaaS companies opt to 'own' the relationship with their audience – instead of relying on third-party players for distribution. Instead of paying high CPMs or relying on social for reach, they deliver content directly to your inbox. Or nowadays, they have a content hub you consistently tune into. What are your thoughts – how are you using media-like content for growth? --- Every Friday, I source and summarize resources covering a single topic. And this week's theme is all about: 🎥 SaaS meets media: Growth unlocked --- Here's a preview of the most clicked-on links so far 👀 1️⃣ Are SaaS companies becoming media businesses? - by Ian Ito at SaaS Weekly 2️⃣ Why SaaS companies are embracing owned media - by Scott Barker at GTMnow 3️⃣ Should you buy a media company? 🎙️ - by Kyle Poyar at Growth Unhinged 4️⃣ For buyers of GTM tech, the #1 consideration is integration - by GTM Partners PLUS, featured SaaS Social posts by: • Anthony Kennada at AudiencePlus • Pierre Herubel Dive into the full issue below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gjutWGny #saas #newsletter #media

🔥 Hottest SaaS reads of May! One of the coolest parts about writing a curated newsletter is seeing what readers are interested in. After sending over 100+ weekly roundups, I'm still surprised by the results. (I'm either getting good or getting worse at curating content 🤷🏻♂️) Every weekend, I meticulously review the engagement report to see where the hot spots are. "Which articles were the most popular?" "Has a topic been consistently getting the most clicks?" This quick feedback loop helps inform what articles I should source more of, and what topics I should write about (like front-running interest). So looking back at all of May, SaaS Weekly readers were interested in: • GTM strategies • Demand gen plays • and outbound emails --- Here's a preview of the most clicked-on posts last month 👀 (Sorted by click count) 1️⃣ A killer go-to-market slide for your company - Maja Voje 2️⃣ B2B SaaS demand generation explained - by Alex Kracov 3️⃣ The ultimate guide to B2B cold email copywriting - by Mishti Sharma at Clay 4️⃣... 5️⃣... 6️⃣... 7️⃣...? (Only subscribers get to see the full list 😬, the good news is that it's free to join) PLUS, explore featured SaaS Social posts by: • Aakash Gupta • Emily Kramer Dive into the full issue below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gbB4qAJa #saas #newsletter

How to scale trust. In the last SaaS Weekly roundup, I talked about how trust is the battle that comes before product adoption. While thought leadership content helps to build trust by providing value first, SaaS companies can use this one lever to scale their efforts: displaying social proof. Social proof is evidence that individuals and companies use your product – or, more importantly, they trust it. These displays of social influence reduce friction in the funnel by scaling the concept of recommendations. There are six common types of social proof displayed on a website. • Long-form customer case studies • Snippets of customer testimonials/ quotes • A carousel of customer logos • Customer/ user quantity metrics • Awards and badges • Number of integrations While this concept of social influence might seem like a fluff term, some companies have used it to grow to a billion dollars (I’m looking at you ShipBob and G2). No promises on the big billion mark, but I can promise that in this week’s roundup, you'll learn a few strategies on social proof. --- Every Friday, I source and summarize resources covering a single topic. And this week's theme is all about: "Scaling trust: Your guide to using social proof in SaaS" --- Here's a preview of the most clicked-on links so far 👀 1️⃣ ShipBob’s billion-dollar social proof formula - by Jessica Tee Orika-Owunna and Foundation Marketing 2️⃣ Testimonial examples from leading SaaS pages - by Olly Meakings at Roast My Landing Page 3️⃣ The 36 best user onboarding examples from analyzing 150+ companies - by Laura Kluz & Ramli “RJ” John and ProductLed 4️⃣ 5-step Flow Review to Uncover Growth Opportunities - by Kate Syuma PLUS, featured SaaS Social posts by: • Adam Robinson • Kyle Poyar Dive into the full issue below 👇 https://lnkd.in/g78KksrY #saas #newsletter

Building trust is the battle that comes before product adoption. And the quickest way to earn trust is to provide value consistently. In my view, this is the core principle behind B2B SaaS demand gen. You begin building an audience around your brand by offering insights and guidance across different channels. You drive awareness of the problem space and your company by orchestrating a series of inbound and outbound marketing tactics. These cross-functional efforts don't aim to sell your product but nurture a relationship with potential future buyers. Over time, there's a seamless handoff between demand-gen and lead-gen campaigns (no, they are not the same) – where the goal is to move prospects further down your funnel. --- Every Friday, I source and summarize resources covering a single topic. And this week's theme is all about: "A demand gen masterclass: the workflows, the campaigns, and the metrics" --- Here's a preview of the most clicked-on links so far 👀 1️⃣ B2B SaaS demand generation explained - by Alex Kracov 2️⃣ How to run effective campaigns - by Emily Kramer at MKT1 3️⃣ Thought leadership for demand generation - by Ayush Poddar at Startup GTM 4️⃣ How to build a demand gen engine for a product-led business  - by Wes Bush at ProductLed PLUS, featured SaaS Social posts by: • Jakub Czakon 🍐 • Maja Voje Dive into the full issue below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gKuEtmTh #saas #newsletter

What's new at SaaS Weekly 👀 Despite the recent “death of outbounding” rants, reaching out to buyers via email still works. But there's a new way to do things. In today's buyer market, the old "Predictable Pipeline" playbook needs a refresher, and we've curated resources to help you rewrite it. In the latest roundup, we tackle: 1. Does outbound still work for B2B SaaS? Short answer is "Yes" 2. Why are intent signals so important for outbounding? It improves your targeting 3. How do you build a scalable outbound engine? The tech stack to use Dive into the full details below 👇 https://lnkd.in/dAtuGwY8 #saas #newsletter #outbounding

Do outbound emails still work? The short answer is "Yes". But not everyone may agree. A recent survey by Jason M. Lemkin at SaaStr found that almost half of respondents think outbound doesn't work today. (Guess cold emails are a hot take 🤷🏻♂️) But despite the recent “death of outbound” rants, emailing buyers still builds pipeline. But only if you revamp your approach. The modern-day GTM strategy has these three elements: 1. First & third-party intent signals 2. Multi-layer personalization  3. A data orchestrator to sequence prospects In today's buyer market, the old Predictable Pipeline playbook needs a refresher, and I’ve curated resources to help you rewrite it. --- Every Friday, I source and summarize content to tackle a single problem. And this week's theme is all about: "How to win at outbound emails: the tools, the tactics, and the tech stack." Here's a quick preview 👀 1️⃣ Does Outbound Still Work? - by Jason M. Lemkin at SaaStr 2️⃣ How to automate signal-based selling - by Brendan Short at The Signal Club 3️⃣ The ultimate guide to B2B cold email copywriting - by Mishti Sharma at Clay 4️⃣ A killer Go-to-Market slide for your company - by Maja Voje at GTM Strategiest PLUS, featured SaaS Social posts by: • Nick Broekema • Andy Mewborn Dive into the full issue below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gnvsShnR #saas #newsletter

Five lessons I learned from acquiring a SaaS newsletter. Back in January, I acquired a newsletter called Category Surfers from Stan Rymkiewicz and rolled it up under SaaS Weekly. While the acquisition doubled my subscriber count overnight (to 4K subs), the process taught me a few things. 🧵 Here’s a brief breakdown of the deal 🧵 👉 Why I bought a newsletter  At the start of the year, I gave myself a pretty ambitious goal: reach 10K subscribers by December. My growth rate last year wouldn’t get me to that target, so I was banking on some big plays going into 2024. One crazy idea was to buy another audience. However, I didn’t want to start with a large deal. Instead, I took a stair-step approach to an acquisition playbook (start small and increase in size over time). So I started compiling a target list and eventually found Category Surfers. 👉 How I sourced the deal I found that the best cold outreach either adds value first (ideally) or doesn’t start with a hard sell. Here’s what I sent. — 📧 My message: “Happy New Year, Stan! Excited to read more of your content this year!! Just putting it on your radar. If you ever consider selling Category Surfers, please add me to your list of buyers. Until then, keep up the great content!” 📧 The reply: “I'd be interested in selling!” — After a few back-and-forth exchanges, it became clear that a deal was worth exploring. Pretty wild! 👉 How much I paid This is where things get interesting. Diligence: • We did an audience overlap and removed any subs I already owned • We aligned on only acquiring engaged subscribers (based on open and click rates) • I reviewed how these subscribers were acquired – making sure they weren’t nefariously sourced Deal terms: • I paid about $1 per sub • The owner agreed to remove any copies of the subscriber lists (and not email them) • The owner also agreed to send several announcement emails + do a social post 🧵Here’s what I learned and what I would do differently 🧵 1️⃣ Co-marketing the acquisition announcement is a growth hack, so create a campaign out of it – I got over 60 subs from the posts 2️⃣ Look for publications that have both a topic overlap and a similar content format – the latter is more important than you think 3️⃣ Price in at least a 10 - 15% churn when setting the valuation – the relative valuation only increases with attrition 4️⃣ Start emailing subscribers in batches, not all at once to save your IP/ domain health 5️⃣ Create a dedicated onboarding flow for these subscribers – you need to educate them/ sell them on WHY you should read your content This is a brief version of the acquisition. If you subscribe to SaaS Weekly, you’ll get the full details in the newsletter :)

How to win on LinkedIn? For most creators (myself included), posting on LinkedIn is somewhat of a black box. Add an image and your impressions increase, but add a link and the opposite happens (most of the time). While there is no silver bullet to gaming LinkedIn's algorithm, there are tried and true ways to boost reach. To help your own LinkedIn post playbook, Maja Voje analyzed 199 pieces of LinkedIn content to see what top creators are doing and what worked for them. (I highly recommend diving into her Miro diagram.) Here my three takeaways: 👉 Product launches: Tell the story behind the product (the story arc from pain to publish) and be generous with product images. 👉 Long-form posts: The posts need a good hook and, from my experience, should be well-structured to break up the sections. This type of post is intended to add high value to readers and can be impactful for your reach. 👉 General posts: An image with text is the most common format. The image acts as a visual hook while the post itself has elements to draw in the reader (e.g., numbers/ metrics and quick tips on the benefits of the content.) (Curious what other LinkedIn secrets are out there.) --- In the latest SaaS Weekly roundup, we feature Maja's article and other resources on how SaaS Startups can gain traction. Here's a preview 👇 1️⃣ How to win the LinkedIn game fair and square? - by Maja Voje 2️⃣ Why More SaaS Companies Are Shifting to Usage-Based Pricing - by Vendr 3️⃣ Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups - by Lenny Rachitsky 4️⃣ How Potion Used “Building in Public” to Gain Its First 100 Paying Customers - by Ian Ito & Noah Bragg PLUS, featured SaaS LinkedIn posts by David Spitz & Maxim Poulsen Read the full issue linked in the comments below 👇 (since this practice seems to boost reach 🤷🏻♂️) #saas #newsletter

In the latest SaaS Weekly roundup, we cover topics on: 👉 Pincone's growth journey: From seed to 10,000 signups per day 👉 Community-led growth: Potion's path to its first 100 paying customers 👉 Scaling too fast: The common pitfall of VC-backed startups Dive into the full list of reads below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gyzjKxEb #saas #newsletter

Go-to-market efficiencies were top of mind for readers. From wedge marketing to partnership plays, and writing high-converting email flows, the focus was finding levers to pull to drive scalable pipeline creation. At a high level, the top reads fell into two buckets: 1. How to increase the volume at the top of the funnel 2. How to improve the stage-to-stage conversion rate of existing leads/ deals While both levers are important, the latter held more focus as companies look to unblock their existing pipeline. Here's a review of the most clicked-on articles from the SaaS Weekly roundups so far! https://lnkd.in/dPECwdci #saas #newsletter