Fractional CMO and Marketing-as-a-Service Results in $2M Sales Growth
The Problem ~ SaaS & Tech Company Struggling to Scale
The founder of a $15M SaaS and technology integration firm has built a solid reputation over 17 years, becoming a trusted provider of software solutions for document-intensive sectors, serving both private and government clients.
Despite its rapid growth to 130 employees (mainly software engineers), the company was facing challenges in an evolving market. Newer competitors are effectively capturing leads online, moving away from traditional networking and cold calls.
This shift has left the established $15M/year company facing an uncertain future, struggling to secure new deals in a highly competitive landscape.
Discoveries from Our Initial Marketing Audit and Assessment
Many SaaS and Tech companies prioritize technical innovation to fuel growth. However, in today’s competitive market, technical prowess alone isn’t enough. Digital marketing has become a critical growth driver.
In a company with 130 engineers there was no marketing department. The initial audit assessment of their marketing revealed several gaping holes:
❌The absence of basic tools like Google Analytics
❌There was no ongoing digital marketing to build a steady flow of leads for their SaaS company.
❌The website used an outdated, corporate-y language that was from a bygone era.
❌The design of the website was dated and not in line with their brand as an innovative tech company.
❌There was no marketing strategy in place for their 3 key offerings
❌There was a lack of understanding of the Customer Journey as a driving principle of their digital marketing strategy
These issues had left their website stagnating at just 500 visitors per month. Our initial evaluation had to rely on AWStats to uncover these figures, signaling a dire need for a strategic overhaul.
SaaS companies hope for technical innovation as the key growth-driver.
But what got you here; won’t get you there.
Smart SaaS and Tech leaders know when it’s time to leave the Engineering hat, and allow for a Marketing expert to take the lead on business growth. Otherwise, competitors will teach them an expensive, life-altering lesson.
The Solution: Modernize
The SaaS founder was not ready yet for the comprehensive multi channel marketing program, so we just started with Content Marketing. As results became obvious, the dynamics of the conversation changed, and we were up for an interesting ride for the next 6 years. Then things went south. And then things started changing again. But let’s take this one step at a time.
The Services: Onsite SEO, Content Marketing, Website Modernization
Our team of SEO experts conducted comprehensive research which
✔️identified missed opportunities on the SaaS site.
✔️gathered insights and data on prevalent search trends to inform
✔️the right value-driven 2 year content editorial to grow organic traffic
Our content experts then went to work to:
✔️craft highly informative, authority building blog articles
✔️optimize each content piece with precise keywords
✔️tailor the text to align closely with user search intent preferences.
The Results from Strategic Content Marketing
- We initially published four blog posts per month, which led to a 10% increase in monthly organic traffic.
- Several months later we tested increasing to six posts per month which immediately increased a 15% monthly traffic growth.
- In the first year, we achieved a milestone of 5,000 visitors per month, marking a 10X increase in organic traffic.
- The owner noted an unprecedented increase in phone inquiries and averaged 30 form submissions per month (leads!) from their website.
The marketing investment this Tech company made
resulted in $2M increase in revenue in their first year,
yielding a 16X return on investment (ROI).
Choosing the right person to spearhead Marketing operations is critical.
When challenges arise, Marketing is the lifeline. If you cut that out, and you’ve killed the business’ ability to grow.
Conclusion
This SaaS Tech company is in a highly competitive niche where each deal is six figures per year. Losing a single deal can result in significant losses. But winning a few good ones can propel you much further than you’d imagined possible.
Our engagement with this client, and the results we generated in the first few years were an amazing case study of how content marketing drives organic growth in a highly competitive niche.
Partnering with our team drove his inhouse marketing costs to zero, while all strategic and tactical decision making is done and implemented by our world class team at Trustbook Media.
