B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks
58 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsConversational short-form marketing strategies, frameworks, and tactical advice to help early-stage B2B software (SaaS) companies on their journeys from MVP to PMF and beyond. Hosted by Brian Graf, CEO at Kalungi, and Stijn Hendrikse, Co-Founder at Kalungi, serial CMO for B2B SaaS companies and ex-Microsoft Global Marketing Leader.
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Episodes
53 - Scaling Smart: B2B SaaS Marketing Spends from $10-100K/mo
April 20, 2024 12:18 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBIn B2B SaaS, the expectations for a $10,000/mo marketing team are totally different from a $100,000/mo one. As a Founder, CEO, COO or CMO, you need a way to know: • How do I forecast the amount of lead gen and revenue results to expect? • How large a marketing team do I really need? B2B SaaS companies move through predictable stages of marketing focus, cost and size (as described in the popular T2D3 book). With people cost being a majority of the cost involved, every hire needs...
52 - Make your sales forecasts more predictable
February 27, 2024 18:47 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBMany sales forecasts are inaccurate. Let's make yours more predictable: 1. Ground your projections in actual data instead of feelings. Many forecasts are based on opinion rather than actual data. If you’ve been in business for 3 or more months, you likely have access to data you can use. Let’s say you had 20 demos and 2 closed-won deals in the past three months—with this information, you can start to build a picture of your conversion rates. Roughly 10% of your demos convert to c...
51 - A simple problem solving framework
January 27, 2024 23:12 - 9 minutes - 8.88 MBA simple 4-step approach to get your goals back on track: Define the problem. Write it down—be specific. Make sure everyone agrees on the problem. This step is incomplete until everyone interprets the problem in the same way. Uncover the ~real~ root cause. People often jump too quickly to conclusions and favor obvious explanations for symptoms. Most problems are nuanced with many contributing factors. Try to unpack all of the potential causes. Document all possible solutions. Onc...
50 - Software without the subscription?
January 17, 2024 16:36 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBJason Fried (37Signals) recently published an open challenge to the software subscription model—their stance is that customers should once again be able to buy and own software products. To pay for them once and own the source code. We discuss both models' pros and cons and speculate why Jason and the 37Signals teams introduced this strategy and manifesto. Here are some of our key takeaways: In the last few years, many software companies were able to get away with neglecting the s...
49 - Google’s exposed search ranking system
December 20, 2023 00:21 - 19 minutes - 18 MBGoogle has always guarded its search ranking factors. But thanks to the recent antitrust suit between the DOJ and Google, we now get a glimpse into the inner workings of their ranking systems through previously confidential internal documents. Here’s what we’ve confirmed about the process so far: Whenever new content is published and indexed on the internet, Google’s goal is to (as fast as possible) understand how relevant it is for searchers using its engine. Google uses three m...
48 - Presenting your 2024 plan to the board
December 06, 2023 20:42 - 25 minutes - 58.5 MBOur best practices for presenting your marketing plan to the board of directors as companies are in the thick of 2024 planning. General guidelines: First, there are general guidelines you should always keep in mind when presenting your plan to the board: Come prepared - Don’t present plans that aren’t pressure tested. If you ask for money, be ready to answer questions about the specifics—results, how you’ll get there, data behind your hypotheses. Lead with the red - You’re not ...
47 - Critical product marketing capabilities every team needs
November 29, 2023 22:28 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBStrong product marketing is crucial for early-stage software companies. But it’s also the most significant gap for many. Whether it’s your first marketing hire or someone from your founding team, someone on your team should be able to connect their deep understanding of your product (features, capabilities, value delivery) with an overarching go-to-market plan. Some of the core product marketing capabilities your team needs are: Positioning: Understand your market and the competi...
46 - A simple framework for content creation
October 19, 2023 22:26 - 14 minutes - 33.7 MBThe content playbook that worked in the 2010s doesn’t work anymore. Things like keyword search volume, word count, and post date/time don’t have the same impact they used to. Instead of working backward from keyword to content, good content marketing does the reverse—start with a question you think you can answer better than someone else. Don’t worry about the keywords for now. There are two steps to nailing good content in 2023: Understand the problem. Who are you talking to? W...
45 - How to diagnose product-market fit
September 15, 2023 19:49 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MBThe true definition of product-market fit is highly contested online. But one thing is clear from our experience: most founders think they’ve hit PMF far before they truly have. What does product-market fit (PMF) actually mean; and how should your go-to-market techniques change once you get to PMF? Product-market fit means finding a defensible beachhead of customers (a cluster of similar customers) who pay, stay, and refer others like them. In this episode, Stijn shares a simp...
45 - How to identify product-market fit in your SaaS business
September 15, 2023 19:49 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MBThe true definition of product-market fit is highly contested online. But one thing is clear from our experience: most founders think they’ve hit PMF far before they truly have. What does product-market fit (PMF) actually mean; and how should your go-to-market techniques change once you get to PMF? Product-market fit means finding a defensible beachhead of customers (a cluster of similar customers) who pay, stay, and refer others like them. In this episode, Stijn shares a simp...
44 - The party is over
September 07, 2023 02:27 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MB2022 and 2023 brought new pressure to the software industry that many mature industries have felt for a long time. Here’s our take on what happened and where we go from here. What happened? 2010–2021 were the years of plenty, with an extra push in the back from COVID Since growth capital was so cheap, it was easy to get away with mediocre performance The bar of performance was not high enough Growth was seen as a metric of success, not profit Where do we go? Add discipline...
43 - What to do when your numbers stall
November 09, 2022 21:02 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBToday we talk about what to do when your company is falling behind. What are the first things you should focus on? How do you prioritize your problems? It’s easy to get caught in the weeds and forget that SaaS companies are relatively simple. Before anything else, take a step back and look at the three core levers for ARR growth: Monetize (expansion) Upsell and monetize your existing audience & customers Grow number of units per account (i.e., expand user penetration). Increas...
42 - What research says about common SaaS startup missteps
July 29, 2022 23:21 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBToday we talk about our marketing audit. It’s a 15 category scorecard where we dig into the details of and assess our clients' full marketing and sales functions. Typically our clients score about 32 points out of 75. Today we’re diving into all the categories, and discussing what clients usually get right, and what they usually get wrong. From the first 8 audits we’ve analyzed, we’ve picked up some trends. Here’s a quick look: Best things: 1. PMF 2. Content marketing ...
41 - What should marketing contribute to revenue?
June 14, 2022 19:59 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBTo make decisions about where and how you deploy and focus your teams, you need to answer the question: “where does our pipeline & revenue come from?” Leadership ultimately has to decide who owns what part of revenue contribution, especially when you’re ramping up in the early stages. We identify that there are three main buckets where revenue can originate from: Relationships from sales organization (sales generated leads) Outbound (prospecting and lead generation) Inbound ...
40 - When do you need a truly strategic marketing leader?
April 26, 2022 15:25 - 30 minutes - 27.5 MBToday’s topic comes from a user question on the T2D3 office hours voting app. “What should you look for in a new marketing leader? When should you bring marketing resources in house as you scale and at what level of seniority? […] When do you bring on the strategic marketing resource who helps you develop a true go to market?” It’s hard to bring on a marketing leader for an early stage (MVP) SaaS company. In the beginning, when getting to MVP, you need to answer critical strate...
39 - When you should(n't) start channel partnerships
March 31, 2022 19:04 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBWhen and why should you or shouldn’t you partner with other companies? We tackle the 3 biggest factors you should look to when making a decision about whether to partner or not, and some of the potential risks and pitfalls. It’s very important to partner for the right reasons and at the right time—don’t start too early.
38 - How to employ situational awareness as a go-to-market leader
March 14, 2022 22:20 - 9 minutes - 8.54 MBIn today’s episode, Stijn discusses situational awareness as it relates to your go-to-market strategy. In other words, understanding your business’ stage in the T2D3 journey, as well as your market maturity, and how it affects your budget, pricing, and a number of other important factors in your GTM. Inside we provide examples, tactical advice, and stijn’s philosophy behind the framework.
37 - What demand generation channels should you start with?
February 22, 2022 20:17 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBToday we’re addressing a question from a member of our community about demand generation, and which channels to tackle first in your go-to-market. Our answer is simple: start with inbound. In our explanation, we discuss how to best approach inbound, why there is a need for it early on, as well as different channels and when and how they work best. During our time we also share with you our exciting new initiative. The content from today’s episode was taken directly from our ne...
36 - When and how to use an agency (or agencies), or outsource your entire marketing function
February 10, 2022 01:05 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBEspecially when ramping up, software companies have a ‘need for speed’ and it is oftentimes best to contract with outside talent. Today, in addition to a special product announcement, Mike and Stijn discuss best practices for when and how to best outsource some or all of your marketing function. Do you go for a piecemeal solution, with multiple agencies for specific problems? This can be a great choice, especially when you only have one or two jobs to be done. But, we’ve seen ...
35 - Getting started with SEO
January 21, 2022 23:42 - 11 minutes - 10.8 MBToday Mike and Stijn discuss early stage B2B content marketing efforts, specifically how to tackle SEO (Search Engine Optimization). They address how you can find your own priority keywords when you’re getting started, best practices, and Stijn shares a bit about how he built the inbound engine for T2D3, along with his typical strategy and approach. Inside you’ll find information about tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, and Ahrefs, and you’ll see what kind of data you sh...
34 - New verticals and your go-to-market
December 21, 2021 17:28 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBToday we’re addressing a question from a community member around the idea of expanding your beachhead, and what it means for your go-to-market. We discuss how and when you should introduce new verticals and industries you service into your website and other assets. We discuss our philosophy, tracking technologies like Hotjar, Clarity, and Google Search Console, as well as the customer journey and how you should optimize your website with landing pages and overall structure. Some...
33 - Why you should narrow your positioning
November 13, 2021 01:03 - 13 minutes - 12 MBMike and Stijn talk about why saying “no” can help you find early success. Every large company started small. And most started by doing one thing really well, then built more offerings or repositioned as they grew. While (understandably) founders don’t prefer restrictive positioning, we’re convinced there is a lot of power in building your initial customer base by providing a specialized service for a small & committed audience. Today we share some of the stories we use in work...
32 - How to manage your team’s OKRs
November 04, 2021 22:53 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBOKRs are hands down the best goal tracking system we’ve found for SaaS. In Episode 11, we discussed how to create them for your marketing team. Today, we’re going deeper, and talking about how to most effectively use, and manage them throughout your organization, from a leadership perspective. We provide our framework, address common mistakes, and provide insight and best practices into how to succeed using OKRs. Some of the questions we answer inside include: Should OKRs ‘c...
31 - T2D3: How some software startups scale, where many fail
October 28, 2021 20:54 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBToday we discuss Stijn’s new book, which he wrote alongside Mike, called T2D3. The book is a tactical and strategic playbook for how to go-to-market, and achieve T2D3 growth. That’s when you triple your growth two years in a row, and then double it two years after that. This is the growth path most “unicorn” companies follow. We go deep into why Stijn wrote the book, what you’ll find inside, and why it’s important. Some of what's inside the book: Building a complete marketing fu...
30 - Why you should invest in content early
September 22, 2021 14:58 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MBToday we celebrate 30 episodes. We talk about founder made content, and how important it is to invest in content for your company early on (hint:very). We also give some tips on how you should approach making content, and talk about our own journey. Content creation is not as hard or time consuming as you might think, but it pays dividends.
How to manage discounts and special terms with an Empowerment Matrix
September 13, 2021 21:37 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBGiving special terms to customers, such as discounts or payment plans, is a tried and true method of acquiring new business, maintaining and bolstering relationships, and an important facet in achieving T2D3 growth. As a member of the executive team, you can usually do this whenever you like. But what flexibility should your sales, customer success, marketing, or other teams have to make decisions around discounts and concessions? When are they (or anyone else) empowered to change t...
29 - How to manage discounts and special terms with an Empowerment Matrix
September 13, 2021 21:37 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBGiving special terms to customers, such as discounts or payment plans, is a tried and true method of acquiring new business, maintaining and bolstering relationships, and an important facet in achieving T2D3 growth. As a member of the executive team, you can usually do this whenever you like. But what flexibility should your sales, customer success, marketing, or other teams have to make decisions around discounts and concessions? When are they (or anyone else) empowered to change t...
28 - How to manage and grow your SDR/BDR team
September 03, 2021 18:32 - 26 minutes - 24 MBToday we discuss SDRs and BDRs in detail. In addition to explaining what they are and what the difference is, we do a deep dive into topics like who is responsible for their management (sales or marketing?), what types of metrics they should be accountable for (emails sent, dials, ROI influenced?), and even whether or not you can or should outsource the roles (hint: we don’t think it’s a good idea). We also talk about how to best develop and manage your own team, BDR and SDR automat...
27 - Should you ban slides for marketing reviews?
August 26, 2021 20:46 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBToday Stijn introduces a topic he is passionate about: slides in internal marketing reviews. He posits that not only do you not need them, but also they waste valuable time and resources. Instead, your internal meetings should be data driven. Simple data promotes productive and necessary conversations, and too often the marketing function does not discuss the most essential data on a regular basis. Do you agree? More inside.
26 - How to define and create your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
August 19, 2021 21:51 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBToday we get into the nitty gritty of Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). In episode 16 we talked about how to verify your ICP, but didn’t address the basics. After viewer feedback, today we revisit the topic to answer important questions about ICP. We discuss what it is, why you need it, how to come up with it, what it should look like, and how to use it. Some specific conversations within the episode include how to use your existing CRM data to better outline your ICP, using segment...
25 - Pricing and packaging your SaaS offering (Part 2)
August 11, 2021 21:28 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBContinuation of episode 24. Today we continue the conversation from episode 24 on pricing and packaging. We begin with an examination of freemium vs. try-buy and their specific use cases. We address how to set a price and where to start. Lastly we discuss price increases for SaaS products.
24 - Pricing and packaging your SaaS offering (Part 1)
August 06, 2021 15:20 - 16 minutes - 15.6 MBPricing and packaging is one of the most important aspects of a SaaS business. Without calculated prices and packages that align with your customers, you will lose out on ROI and sour against the competition. Not only do you need to provide the right value, but also you need to effectively monetize it. Value based pricing is key here - give the buyer attractive choices on your terms, instead of following market trends. Today we take a deep dive into the many factors that go into p...
23 - Product led growth vs. sales led growth
July 26, 2021 15:52 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBIn today’s episode, Mike and Stijn discuss product led growth and sales led growth through an illustrative metaphor of hunting vs. gathering. If huge, high monetary value accounts are elephants (high ARPU), then the executive or relationship driven sales teams are the expert hunters. If low value, but plentiful accounts are berries and low hanging fruit (low ARPU), then the teams that build content and the inbound apparatus are gatherers. What’s the right go-to-market? How these...
22 - How to get your most important piece of content
July 05, 2021 19:51 - 33 minutes - 53.5 MBStrong testimonials are your important piece of content. A testimonial from a happy customer means a lot more than a list of product features coming from your marketing team. Anything you can say, a customer can say better. Today we give you an overview of why testimonials are so important, how you should use them, and tactical advice on how to gather them. We even include a 28-question tactical playbook on how to guide a customer testimonial conversation. 2 simple ways of gather...
21 - How to report Marketing to the board of directors
June 23, 2021 21:29 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MBToday we dive into the subtleties of board meetings, and offer a framework for how you should leverage them as a marketing leader, founder, or CEO. We talk about what boards are for - how can they help you? What do the members want out of the meetings (and the company)? We also talk about how to interact with the board, and how to prepare for meetings. What should your presentation include? What questions should you be prepared to answer? What questions should you ask? One key...
20 - How much should you invest in Marketing?
June 11, 2021 23:39 - 19 minutes - 35.9 MBHow much money should a B2B SaaS company be spending on marketing? The answer is “it depends”, but there are a few ways to get a solid calculation. Today, with our special guest Brian Graf, we discuss the four factors you should consider when trying to create your marketing budget: product maturity, market maturity, growth targets, and growth velocity. We also share the methodology behind our new and improved budget calculator for early-stage B2B SaaS companies. It’s easy to w...
19 - What to expect from a B2B SaaS Marketing Agency
June 07, 2021 21:34 - 18 minutes - 33.4 MBToday we get into the weeds of what working with marketing agencies should look like as a rapidly growing B2B SaaS company. We discuss the functions agencies should be performing for your business throughout its early growth stages. We address how to structure KPIs around both short and long term metrics so agencies are accountable for both quick wins and sustainable growth. We also give a ballpark marketing budget figure for software companies between $1-$10 million in ARR, and dis...
18 - The biggest early-stage marketing mistakes to avoid (Part 2)
June 03, 2021 18:33 - 20 minutes - 37.5 MBPart 2 of Ep. 17. Customer (or Contact) Relationship Managers (CRM) are an invaluable resource but can quickly turn into a complex and costly mess if they’re not managed properly or set up to be used by all of your teams (Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, etc). Effective marketing leaders can be hard to find, and as your company and product evolve over time, the things you need from your marketing leader evolve too. Knowing where, when, and how to match skills with your company’s ...
17 - The biggest early-stage marketing mistakes to avoid (Part 1)
May 24, 2021 23:27 - 16 minutes - 30.5 MBIn today's part 1 of 2 episode, we tackle 3 major marketing mistakes and bad practices that can often get you into trouble as a young B2B SaaS company. Shutting down initiatives too soon, not knowing when and where to ramp up marketing efforts, and dreaming of brand awareness as a fix-all, are all avoidable issues that can be remedied with some planning and strategic marketing know-how. Experimenting is always encouraged while growing and scaling, but knowing how to read your progre...
16 - How do you verify your ICP and positioning?
February 28, 2021 00:26 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBIn today's longer-than-usual episode, we talk about how account-based marketing can help test your go-to-market hypotheses. In episodes 14 and 15, we talked about sizing our niche and positioning ourselves within it. Once that's done it's time to check if our positioning, messaging, ICP, and personas are correct by putting it all to the test. Step 1 is making a list of companies that fit your ICP. This could be buying a third-party one or building your own. Step 2 is finding a list...
15 - How do you position yourself within a niche?
December 23, 2020 16:54 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBTo further nail down your niche, think of your positioning. Can you proclaim a unique value proposition you're confident only you can deliver on? If not, it might be worth revisiting your SOM filters. In cases where your offering is similar to that of competitors, positioning on a couple of vectors you're better at can help you arrive at that unique value proposition. A guarantee based on speed and safety if you can't compete on price and completeness, for example.
14 - How big (or small) should your niche be?
December 15, 2020 13:45 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBGoing after the promise of a large market is a common mistake. By defining your Ideal Customer Profile, you can focus down from the Total Addressable Market to your Serviceable Addressable Market and finally to your Obtainable Addressable Market where you'll encounter a higher win-rate due to specialization. In this episode we talk about the niche concept, the TAM SAM SOM methodology with its filters and signals, and how it integrates with the ICP in B2B settings.
13 - What to look for in your CMO (or marketing leader)
December 11, 2020 22:00 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MBThe best marketing leader marries both the art and science of marketing, the creative and the analytic. They also excel and demonstrate a proven track record in three distinct areas: Marketing leadership – the ability to generate buy-in and followership from peers, direct reports, and superiors. Marketing management – managing the marketing function and rhythm through the use of KPIs, OKRs, daily stand-ups, etc. Marketing ROI – at the end of the day, all the of the work and all o...
12 - Who should your first marketing hire be?
December 08, 2020 18:56 - 14 minutes - 13.8 MBThe answer is a good copywriter. But it doesn't stop there. There's five skill groups that need to be fulfilled. It starts with the copywriter because they will take care of the most primordial aspect of marketing: addressing your audience's pain. Then comes the growth hacker, the automation specialist. Marketing and sales go hand-in-hand and that's where your product evangelist shines. Number 3 is often confused with product marketing, which will be the fourth gap you'll try to...
11 - What OKRs should your marketing team use?
December 02, 2020 22:49 - 17 minutes - 15.7 MBOKRs help you stay on track with your larger company objectives while also keeping an eye on the day-to-day things and doing the right kind of projects that support the objectives. So it balances the short-term and the long-term. That means: The objective asks "why are you here? What's the reason you're doing marketing?" The key result is something that you can use to measure your progress against that objective during a quarter. Actions, or activities come below the key result. ...
10 - What role does brand play in your marketing?
November 07, 2020 02:03 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBBrand awareness can be divided into the following categories: Brand recall: ensure that prospects you marketed to months prior will remember your brand once they encounter the challenge you solve Brand recognition: refers to the concept of demarcation, that’s where logos and jingles come in to identify your brand and also drive brand recall later on Brand dominance: achieved when you dominate the niche market you carved for yourself – it’s the highest level of brand awareness. B...
9 - How to forecast revenue with CAC, ARPU and churn
October 23, 2020 01:12 - 12 minutes - 11.6 MBCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) can be calculated a few different ways based on the goal. For financial forecasting and valuation purposes, CAC as a profitability number should be all-inclusive. On the other hand, for the purposes of strategic and tactical marketing management, CAC might not include salaries and instead focus on discretionary spend. Knowing what your CAC number really means is important to help make better sense of other numbers like Months to Recover CAC (MRC) and...
8 - What should you put on your first marketing dashboard?
October 16, 2020 01:45 - 14 minutes - 13 MBYou don’t need a sophisticated tech stack, you can start with a simple manual spreadsheet (like a bowler chart) then create automated dashboards as you scale: Start small – pick 10–15 of the most important metrics Tracking both leading and lagging indicators – the full ‘story’ is only told when they’re looked at together Input numbers on a weekly basis Use absolute numbers, try to avoid percentages Use raw numbers – limit the number of formulas to calculate things Define every...
7 - How do you run quick go to market experiments?
October 09, 2020 21:07 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBBefore you get to product-market fit, you need to test your go to market hypotheses. Here's a 5-step framework to help you execute quick GTM tests.
7 - How to run quick go to market experiments
October 09, 2020 21:07 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBBefore you get to product-market fit, you need to test your go to market hypotheses. Here's a 5-step framework to help you execute quick GTM tests: Pick an audience. Who’s your product for? Envision a persona who has a problem. A job to be done so to speak. Some kind of pain. Maybe they are in a specific industry, or have certain titles. Create a value proposition to address the job to be done. What’s it for? Ideally you can make a promise, and create some compelling content that...