In this session, I delved into practical strategies for small business owners to effectively grow and engage their email lists. Here’s a breakdown of the key points discussed:
Watch the Video
1. Identify Your Audience
Understanding your target audience is crucial. I emphasized the importance of defining who you’re speaking to, as this clarity informs the content and tone of your emails.
2. Create a Valuable Lead Magnet
Offering something of value, like a free tool or resource, can incentivize sign-ups. I discussed how to develop lead magnets that resonate with your audience’s needs.
3. Design an Effective Landing Page
Your website’s landing page should clearly communicate the benefits of subscribing. I shared tips on crafting compelling headlines and calls-to-action that convert visitors into subscribers.
4. Segment Your Email List
Not all subscribers are the same. I highlighted the benefits of segmenting your list to send more personalized and relevant content, which can lead to higher engagement rates.
5. Craft Engaging Email Content
Consistency and value are key. I provided insights into writing emails that not only capture attention but also build trust and encourage ongoing interaction.
6. Monitor and Adjust Your Strategy
Finally, I stressed the importance of tracking your email campaigns’ performance and being willing to adjust your approach based on what the data tells you.
If you have any questions or need further assistance with your email marketing strategy, feel free to reach out!
B2B SaaS Founders are often overwhelmed with their own workload as CEO, CFO, and CIO. Taking the time to publish on LinkedIn seems frivolous in comparison. But it’s crucial to brand building which is vital for sales.
Also, if you’re taking the time to post on LinkedIn about your company, you may as well also publish an article there as well.
Why should you make time out of your busy schedule to publish on LinkedIn?
The short answer is for visibility, thought leadership, brand authority, and off-page SEO.
Building Visibility On LinkedIn
If you’re a B2B founder, CEO, or Marketer, you need to be on LinkedIn. It’s not outdated, it’s not becoming Facebook. It’s where people network online. CEOs aren’t typically in Reddit looking for customers and investors.
Networking on LinkedIn as an intentional exercise (even before and after conferences) is a great way of making it easier to hold meaningful conversations in person. Over 60% of the audience on LinkedIn depends on it for “event information and company news,” reports Statista.
Visibility that makes the sales process easier? Yes, please! Even better, 90% of the decision makers and C-Suite who consistently read your content are obviously more interested in a sales pitch. Warming up leads by publishing articles on LinkedIn seems like a no brainer.
“9 in 10 decision makers and C-suite executives say they are moderately or very likely to be more receptive to sales or marketing outreach from a company that consistently produces high-quality thought leadership.”2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report
If you knew that over 50% of decision makers and C-Suite members spend over an hour a week reading thought leadership articles, would you change your strategy? It’s important to post consistently in order to break through the noise.
“Aim for five LinkedIn posts per week, creating a steady rhythm of content.” EverythingDesign
And while you’re doing that be sure to form new connections and reply to other people’s posts. You can easily fit this into your schedule with my 3-2-1 Method.
“54% say the piece of thought leadership got them to realise there were other suppliers they could work with that had a better understanding of the challenges their organisation was facing.” Di Mace
Building Brand Authority on LinkedIn
Building brand authority on LinkedIn is important for any business; for startup SaaS companies – it’s crucial. You’ve built the Uber for [Industry] or the Google for [Industry]. People have to both want a new solution and know you exist.
Writing about problems that customers actually have? That’s the way to get it done. In fact, all of a SaaS founder’s posts on LinkedIn should inform website content, email marketing campaigns, and sales decks. Why? Because it’s the current thinking. Be sure to include as much data as possible, too.
“Effective thought leadership has three key attributes: it cites strong research and data, helps buyers understand their business challenges, and offers concrete guidance.” Edelman
He consistently posts insights for the event marketing space as well as insights into their platform adoption. The best part is that he extracts insights for other founders. This kind of vulnerability is compelling for decision makers as well.
“Over the past 12 months, our average deal size has grown by 113% while win rates have increased from 54% to 58%.”
He goes on to cite learnings and how it has helped their ten-year Event Platform to start custom implementations. He ends with:
“The future of enterprise tech is Software & Service.That’s what we are building for.”
We often talk about Software as a Service (SaaS) and forget about the service. This right here hits decision makers. It’s enough to make them change. And Jonathan (or a marketing exec on his behalf) could easily convert these long-form posts on LinkedIn into LinkedIn Articles.
Building Off-Page SEO on LinkedIn
One of my favorite SEO tools is Google Alerts for my name, “Bridget Willard.” I set them for “as-it-happens” and “all results.” For the last couple of years, even posts on LinkedIn have been ranking and this helps me keep tabs of any mentions as well.
A simple “Bridget Willard SaaS” search shows my website first, then my LinkedIn profile, then an article I wrote for BetterCloud – a SaaS Management Platform. Incognito results were similar. The BetterCloud article was number 5 in the SERPS with my X profile (3) and Instagram profile (4) both ahead of it.
Warren Laine-Naida has consistently A/B tested publishing on LinkedIn versus his website. Every single time, these articles are on Page 1 of Google SERPs and his website version is “nowhere to be found,” he told me. Indeed, for the following set of articles, the LinkedIn one shows up as the second entry under videos for the phrase “boost visiblity in search llms.”
Oh yeah, articles on LinkedIn are indexed within 24 hours, too.
You don’t always need people on your website. Especially when 44% of all Google searches are for brand names. When you are a SaaS founder or Freelancer, your brand is your name. You both want and need customers and investors to follow you.
Get Marketing That Works
I’ve been helping SaaS companies build a name for themselves in the B2B space since 2015. My company offers the perfect SaaS Marketing Package to help your internal team. And, if you’re ready to have your LinkedIn posts repurposed as articles on LinkedIn, we can certainly make time for you.
SEO best practices are still best practices. If you have a product company (digital or physical) don’t just rely on your product pages. You need a blog.
It’s tempting to think blog posts are so 2013. Although with companies relying upon ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI agents to write quick overviews and summary posts for (virtually) free, it’s surprising that product companies still don’t get it.
TL;DR: People searching for knowledge are sent to blog posts. People searching for action are sent to product pages.
Blogs Versus Short Video Dopamine Hits
Physical products like fashion and beauty heavily rely on influencers and affiliate marketing. Tech companies rely on affiliate marketing, too. Why? Other people market for you which means a lower cost for marketing and lower Customer Aquisiton Cost (CAC).
Relying on other people to do the work can be a good thing. Until TikTok shuts down and you have no content on your own website.
Snapchat introduced the short vertical video and TikTok capitalized on them – thanks to the pandemic. Short, vertical videos are now the new podcast. My Gen Z niece listens to TikTok videos with her earbuds for hours.
“Are you watching them?” I asked.
“Sometimes. I mostly listen when I vacuum and clean the apartment. Of course, you have to stop to swipe to see the next video.” (I’m surprised TikTok hasn’t changed that yet.)
Against biology (our eyes are made to scan right to left, left to right), every platform has this vertical, dopamine-inducing binge watch. Even LinkedIn has vertical video feeds now. (But that’s another rant.)
Relying upon third-party platforms for your marketing is a scary place to be.
If Amazon’s bid to buy TikTok is accepted, it’s going to become the modern Home Shopping Network. How’s that going to change the user experience? Want to binge on commercials? Unlikely. TikTok will become as annoying as over GIF-ed, loud MySpace pages.
If Amazon's bid to buy TikTok is approved, it's going to become the modern Home Shopping Network.
Yes. SEO best practices work as a whole to drive sales. Now, if your product pages aren’t optimized for PPC keywords, and you’re not running PPC ads, and you don’t have email marketing, and you don’t have blog posts to explain the why behind your products, then you have bigger problems.
This is a good time to say that unless you’re tracking your leads, you really don’t know how to attribute those leads. And, first-click leads? Those don’t exist.
Here’s another thing I say a lot: the internet is blind. Videos may have captions (or craptions if you don’t edit them) and photos may be beautiful, but search works from words.
You still need customers. And how do you get customers to find the thing you just built if they don’t even know it exists? There’s no keyword research for terms people aren’t using. Keyword research is mostly for PPC anyway.
I say this a lot on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and in videos. No one will search for you if they don’t know you exist. If you built a product no one knows exists yet (like the product by my new client Green Link), no one is searching for a baseboard for a chain-link fence. It just got patented, and the website went live in January 2025.
Do Blogs Still Work For Tech & SaaS Companies?
Yes, blogs still work for tech and SaaS companies. Now, if you’re a product company, you may be ignoring your blog in favor of product development, writing their pages and documentation. (I know you’re behind on documentation.)
You’re super excited about this new tool or feature you built. That’s awesome. Do you hear us saying, “but why” when we read your tweet? What use case does this apply to? What problem does this solve? Why do I want a project management tool inside of WordPress? But Why?
Well-written blog posts translate product pages into sales copy that answers the why. You can’t just post on X that you created a new tool with the link to the product page and expect sales (with or without lifetime deals).
The study by AN Digital found that if someone is looking for the best running shoes, they’ll be shown blog posts. If they’re looking for the best Nike running shoes, they’ll be shown a product page. What happens with Google also happens with ChatGPT.
SEO best practices haven’t changed. Modern SEO – being found in an AI search tool like ChatGPT – means you need to feed the machine.ChatGPT recommends real content by real experts. If you want to show up in AI-generated answers, an expertly-written blog post beats a static brochure site with product pages any day.
“Because ChatGPT relies both on pre-trained data and real-time web access, SEO becomes critical in ensuring a company’s content is visible and usable by the AI.” AN Digital
Get Marketing That Works
I’m a marketing specialist in the SaaS space. That means easy onboarding for you. Let’s translate the features and specs of your product into compelling marketing copy for your blog.
Have you ever seen an image on social media that made you turn your head sideways? Or maybe a billboard or even a written post. There are whole accounts on Instagram dedicated to Photoshop fails and the like.
Sometimes a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor is appreciated by your audience. And sometimes good intentions get separated from the intended message. It could be your body language, word choice, or accessibility. (I can’t even get going on the PDF flyers I see on IG that no one over 40 can read.)
So this is why you need a professional to not just “manage” your social media. You need a social media marketer. You need a bit of pushback to make your ideas better. They should think about all of the possible outcomes.
This is why a good marketer always does some version of a SWOT analysis.
They don’t just post and hope things work out.
SWOT Analysis Basics
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. An experienced marketer just automatically thinks of these with each new idea they encounter. But you can definitely make a chart, especially if you’re presenting to an internal team or an external client.
“A SWOT analysis can help you to challenge risky assumptions, uncover dangerous blindspots, and reveal important new insights.” Mindtools
Many large agencies use focus groups as the research arm of a SWOT analysis. Politicians use opposition research. You have to really understand your audience. How they think and their values will determine their perception of your campaign.
Strengths
Before you post a photo on Instagram, think about what it says about your brand. What’s good about that social post? How does it make people feel about your brand? Does it have easy-to-read text, great captions, and a call to action? Do the colors evoke the feelings you’re hoping it would?
Weaknesses
What will people say about your brand if you do that? If you wear that? If you post an image of a QR code on a mobile ad? They’ll think you don’t know what you’re doing. You can’t scan a QR code on an image on your phone with your phone. Make sense?
Opportunities
How does this social post give you more opportunities? Does it make people think? Does it give them a tool? Does it encourage them? Do they want to see more of what you have to offer?
Threats
How could this image damage you? Do you think people will make negative comments? Will your competition use this against you? Will your hashtag come across wrong? Are there double entendres that you didn’t intend? Will women be offended? Men? Non-binary folks?
Example: Swot Analysis of Black Friday Deal by a WordPress Plugin
Strengths
A well-executed marketing plan around Black Friday/Cyber Monday including email marketing, social media, and PPC can bring in a bunch of new business and attention to a new WordPress plugin.
Weakness
Having a sale on Black Friday for a software company doesn’t make sense. Black Friday is for retail stores to shore up their finances before the end of the year. If you want to have an online sale after Thanksgiving, keep it at Cyber Monday.
Opportunity
The reason why so many WordPress plugins jump in on Black Friday is to get in front of people’s eyes. It does give you visibility and keeps your plugin top-of-mind.
Threat
A major threat of Black Friday deals is price integrity. Not only are you devaluing your plugin, but you’re training your customers to wait for predicted sales. Furthermore, if you have an annual license, all of your renewals will come back up at the same time next year. Essentially, you’d have to reverse engineer the cost you really want and charge that on Black Friday if you want a sustainable business.
If your marketer just says “yes” to your idea they aren’t doing their job.
Sometimes it seems offputting or even rude but it’s always better to let you know before you proceed. That way you can execute a well-thought-out campaign that achieves your business goals.
“She’ll tell you what she thinks is best regardless if it is what you think you want to hear, she’ll challenge you to think broadly about your vision and goals with social, and she’ll curate storytelling into each component of your content strategy.” Michelle Keefer, MA MBA
Start Your Year Strong with a Social Media Strategy That Works
New year, new goals, and—let’s be honest—a fresh chance to stop winging your social media.
If you’re reading this — this is your chance to stop winging your social media. Don’t wait for January 1.
If you’ve been posting sporadically and hoping for the best, now is the perfect time to get a real plan in place. That’s where I come in. My social media strategy services help businesses like yours build a sustainable, effective online presence without the stress and guesswork.
Why the New Year Is the Best Time to Reset Your Social Media
The start of the year is all about fresh starts and setting the tone for success. Whether you’re a small business owner, consultant, or nonprofit, your audience is actively searching for new solutions, fresh perspectives, and brands that stand out. A well-thought-out social media strategy ensures you’re positioned exactly where you need to be—front and center.
Plus, let’s face it: social media isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s more crowded than ever. The businesses that thrive? They have a plan. Let’s make sure yours does, too.
What My Social Media Strategy Service Includes
Forget cookie-cutter approaches. My service is tailored to your brand, goals, and audience. Here’s what you get:
A full social media audit – What’s working? What’s not? We’ll figure it out.
Customized content strategy – A plan that makes sense for your business, not just trends.
Engagement tactics – Because posting and ghosting is not a strategy.
A scheduling framework – No more scrambling for what to post.
You don’t have to spend another year feeling overwhelmed by social media. Let’s make it work for you. I’ll help you create a strategy that aligns with your business goals, attracts the right audience, and gives you peace of mind.
Ready to start the year with a solid plan? Contact me today, and let’s make this the year your social media finally works for you.
