{"id":37225,"date":"2021-08-05T06:07:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T13:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/?p=37225"},"modified":"2021-08-05T06:07:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T13:07:51","slug":"startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup SaaS Growth: Almanac\u2019s Content-Only Approach That Crushed It!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large\"><p>BAMF has helped Almanac reach a wider business audience than ever before.<\/p><cite>Adam Nathan<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Creating a badass solution is just the first part of the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Getting people to use it is a whole other story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s the challenge that we had with Adam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His company developed this totally bada** piece of software, but they were struggling to get people on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, that\u2019s a real problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a story of how we were able to help the guys over at Almanac.io with their SaaS growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If it was going to work, it had to be a content-only campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, we know that sounds crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, this is BAMF.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-table-of-contents-block ub_table-of-contents\" data-showtext=\"show\" data-hidetext=\"hide\" data-scrolltype=\"auto\" id=\"ub_table-of-contents-c240dbda-f4ba-4c57-b8d0-9b600affb69b\" data-initiallyhideonmobile=\"false\"\n                    data-initiallyshow=\"true\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header\">\n                    <div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-title\">Table of Contents<\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-extra-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-container ub_table-of-contents-1-column \"><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#0-who-is-adam-nathan->Who is Adam Nathan?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#1-what-was-the-problem->What Was the Problem?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#2-this-is-what-we-needed-to-do->This is What We Needed to Do<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#3-how-adam-and-bamf-grew->How Adam and BAMF Grew<\/a><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#4-content-was-going-to-be-key->Content Was Going to Be Key<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#5-its-not-just-about-words->It&#8217;s Not Just About Words&#8230;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#6-the-results->The Results<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/startup-saas-growth-almanacs-content-only-approach\/#7-takeaways>Takeaways<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-who-is-adam-nathan-\"><strong>Who is Adam Nathan?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam Nathan is the CEO of <a href=\"http:\/\/Almanac.io\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Almanac.io<\/a>, a forward-thinking operating system that\u2019s built for distributed work, automatic documentation, and teams that want to minimize the amount of time they spend updating documents and going to meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/Almanac.io_-1024x399.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37227\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a collaborative platform on steroids and it\u2019s the perfect solution for teams that work remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, there\u2019s something seriously wrong with their growth strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-what-was-the-problem-\"><strong>What Was the Problem?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The solution that they were selling is <em>good<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re not joking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, the problem is their marketing wasn\u2019t exactly where it needed to be and they were having difficulty gaining the initial bout of traction that they needed to get things moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One way to do gain any sort of momentum was to get people on the Almanac OS, but getting professionals on board to try it out was a tall order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They need to act fast or their path to growth would be in serious jeopardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-this-is-what-we-needed-to-do-\"><strong>This is What We Needed to Do<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>They had a unique product and we needed to act fast so that they could maximize their advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol type=\"1\"><li>They needed to get recognized for what they were doing, this meant they needed to be on board with an awareness campaign.<\/li><li>They needed a figure to serve as the spokesperson for the brand, so naturally we needed to turn Adam Nathan into an influencer.<\/li><li>We needed to get professionals on board to start trying out the solution for themselves.<\/li><li>We needed to do it fast.<\/li><li>There was a strict budget that we had to stick to.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>And, there was just so much work to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-how-adam-and-bamf-grew-\"><strong>How Adam and BAMF Grew<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Almanac.io is a startup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They didn&#8217;t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nor could they afford to distract their current team from working on developing the product even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Almanac.io to be able to make use of specialized tools, tracking, and training, they needed a third party to come along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of people often dismiss hiring an external marketing firm to help them out because of costs, but that&#8217;s a myth. Hiring the services of a third party allows you access to specialized teams, expensive tools, and proprietary systems at only a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since Almanac.io needed to build momentum quickly, they decided to reach out to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company didn&#8217;t need literal leads just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What they needed was to get people to notice what they were doing. They needed a product and brand awareness campaign built to get people on board to try out the solution that they had come up with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-content-was-going-to-be-key-\"><strong>Content Was Going to Be Key<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to achieve the goals that we had set out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Content was going to be the number one driving force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were going to leverage content to get people curious about what Adam had to stay, and turn his content into a passive lead generation machine to get more people to sign up for Almanac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the content was also going to serve as a way for Adam to establish himself as a thought leader in the industry, building not only brand awareness but social proof as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first thing we did was get on a series of interviews with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We took stock of a lot of his experiences and started planning out stories that we could publish around them, this was a good chance for us to start planning founder stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, we didn&#8217;t just stop there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We needed to find out what his personality was so that we could incorporate it with the posts we wanted to publish. We even studied his writing style in prior engagements on social media so that we could package everything well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We needed to help Adam come up with his voice and style on the platform, and we needed to start pushing content out yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-its-not-just-about-words-\"><strong>It&#8217;s Not Just About Words&#8230;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We planned a release of a batch of founder stories because they always elicit an emotional response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, that&#8217;s not what content is just about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We made sure that we were hitting it from different dimensions so we rolled out a lot of slides posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We created slides posts that were designed like miniature infographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the reader has to manually click on the slides, there is interactivity baked into the post itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We focused on releasing posts that had value for the end-user, content where they could learn something. In between, we added some brand awareness posts that discussed the benefits of using Almanac.io.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, we didn&#8217;t stop there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We needed more natural engagement coming through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We made sure that we were using a lot of LinkedIn polls as well to drive traffic to the content being released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Polls have been a great help for a lot of people who are looking for a quick way to bring in traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They&#8217;re technically &#8220;gamified&#8221; and people love finding out where they stand amongst the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-the-results-\"><strong>The Results<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We ran with the content-only campaign for three months and it yielded some of the best results we&#8217;ve seen in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the first month, Adam was able to bring in more than 45,000 views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It might not be as high as some of the other influencers we&#8217;ve worked with in the past, but we&#8217;re talking about a highly competitive niche in SaaS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s also worth nothing that the Almanac.io founder started with only 399 views!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s a increasing his views by more than 111 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, that&#8217;s only the first month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the second month, he was close to 100,000 views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/adam-nathan-saas-growth.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37228\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He faced a dip on the third month, but on the fourth he was close to the 250,000 views mark, and cumulatively he racked up more than 400,000 views from the start of the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These were outstanding results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the fourth month, we weren&#8217;t just celebrating the approach to 450,000, we were also taken aback by the amount of people who have joined the Almanac.io platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A couple of individual posts were doing so well that we had a poll that got more than 2,200 votes and 60,000 views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/adam-nathan-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37229\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We had another poll that had managed to bring in 142,186 views and 174 reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/adam-nathan-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37230\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point it was safe to say that the content-only campaign was indeed bringing Adam the viewers that he needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s the thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These views weren&#8217;t just people who were casually strolling by, these are impressions being made and real people being converted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He actually had people reaching out to him on LinkedIn directly to ask if they could be part of the Almanac user base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were more than 300 new users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not bad for a content-only SaaS growth approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-takeaways\">Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam Nathan&#8217;s SaaS growth struggle, is one that a lot of startups share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Getting the momentum for your company to start rolling is difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resources are tight and there&#8217;s a lot of pressure to do it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, sometimes it&#8217;s the simplest methods that bring in the best results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By establishing a thought leadership position on LinkedIn, he was able to host an effective brand awareness campaign, bring in new subscribers, and, more importantly, set the foundation to use LinkedIn as a medium for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you read this, Adam Smith has been steadily growing his presence and is onboarding more and more people to try out Almanac.io.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How&#8217;s your growth doing lately?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BAMF has helped Almanac reach a wider business audience than ever before. Adam Nathan Creating a badass solution is just the first part of the journey. Getting people to use it is a whole other story. That\u2019s the challenge that we had with Adam. His company developed this totally bada** piece of software, but they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4536,3386,3254,218,136,4537,3392,293,3376,3380,3252,4538],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Startup-SaaS-Growth-Almanacs-Content-Only-Approach-That-Crushed-It.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Houston","author_link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/author\/houston\/"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}