Edward Ford Episodes

Rebecca Reynoso is Senior Content Editor & Guest Post Program Manager at G2 and in this episode we’re talking about how to *actually* run a successful guest post program.

Rebecca manages G2’s editorial calendar for all guest article contributions, which combined have generated over 550K yearly website sessions, 80% of which are organic.

In this episode, Rebecca discusses:
- The value of guest posting
- How to draft a thorough and clear set of guest post guidelines
- What goes into strong guest posting editorial standards
- The story of how G2’s guest post program has evolved over time
- The results G2's guest post program has generated

Links

G2 Learning Hub >> https://learn.g2.com/
G2's guest post guidelines >> https://learn.g2.com/guest-post-guidelines
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6334.Never_Let_Me_Go

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Rebecca Reynoso - Guest Post Program Manager at G2 - How To Run A Successful Guest Post Program

Derek O’Carroll is CEO of Brightpearl and in this episode we’re talking about their incredible SaaS turnaround story from near failure to +$15M ARR & +40% year-on-year growth.

When Derek took over as CEO of Brightpearl, he described the company as a "distressed asset". It was burning cash, had very high churn, and a culture where talented people were rowing in different directions. Fast forward to today and Brightpearl is growing rapidly and Derek has masterminded a successful SaaS turnaround story.

In this episode, Derek discusses:
- Brightpearl's three-pronged turnaround strategy
- How they realigned product-market fit
- How they grew ACV
- Building a talented team where the right people are in the right place
- The impact the strategy has had
- How Brightpearl reduced churn from 28% to below 8%

Links

Brightpearl >> https://www.brightpearl.com/
Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42611483-escaping-the-build-trap

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Derek O'Carroll - CEO at Brightpearl - From Near Failure To +$15M ARR & +40% YoY Growth

Stephanie Cox is VP of Sales & Marketing at Lumavate and in this episode we’re talking about why marketing should lead sales - as well as support, success, and product.

Stephanie has a very unique role as a SaaS marketing leader since she also directly leads four other key departments and in this episode we hear:
- Why she ended up taking such a broad role
- The benefits of having marketing lead sales
- What channels and tactics are working for the Lumavate marketing team
- How all her teams work together
- What her typical week looks like
- How her teams move at a super fast pace and just get shit done

Links

Lumavate >> https://www.lumavate.com/

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Stephanie Cox - VP at Lumavate - Why Marketing Should Lead Sales (and Support, Success & Product)

Zandra Moore is CEO & Co-Founder at Panintelligence and in this episode we’re talking about how small SaaS companies can take on big competitor. Zandra discusses Panintelligence's David Vs Goliath story of how a SaaS underdog from a small city in northern England is competing against legacy BI heavyweights such as Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce.

Zandra discusses the process of how they positioned themselves, identified points of differentiation, and built out their go-to-market strategy using Geoffrey Moore’s framework from Crossing The Chasm. We also hear how this translates into their marketing strategy, their marketing playbook, and how they compete with much smaller budgets than their competitors.

Links

Panintelligence >> https://www.panintelligence.com/
Crossing The Chasm >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61329.Crossing_the_Chasm
Latka >> https://nathanlatka.com/podcast-thetop/
Winning By Design >> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7LXR8Pi5fr-N8OQ8XtP9g

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Zandra Moore - CEO at Panintelligence - How SaaS Underdogs Can Beat Big Competition

Audrey Agahan is Content Marketing Strategist at Advance B2B and in this episode we’re talking about what the heck is growth marketing.

Audrey introduces us to Advance B2B’s growth marketing formula that blends brand strategy with agile marketing operations, as well as:
- The difference between growth marketing and traditional marketing
- How growth marketing differs from growth hacking
- The sprint-based agile operating model Advance B2B uses to run their growth marketing activities
- A framework to prioritise growth ideas and experiments
- How to use content marketing as a growth driver
- How Audrey and Advance B2B worked with a client to achieve over 100% YoY growth
- How to get started with growth marketing

Links

Advance B2B >> https://www.advanceb2b.com/
Product-Led Growth by Wes Bush >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46033247-product-led-growthT
The Power of Vulnerability >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23500254-the-power-of-vulnerability

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Audrey Agahan - Content Marketing Strategist at Advance B2B - What The F#%k Is Growth Marketing?

Mike McDerment is Co-Founder, former CEO, and Board Chair of FreshBooks, and in this episode we’re talking about how to not kill your SaaS business.

Mike went from accidental founder to CEO of a SaaS company with over 24 million users and he’s learned a lot of lessons along the way having almost killed the business on multiple occasions.

In this episode, Mike talks about:
- How he accidentally founded a SaaS company
- Why moving too fast almost killed FreshBooks early on
- Why he underestimated word of mouth as a growth driver
- Why raising at the wrong time can be very dangerous
- The counter-intuitive idea of why Mike decided to start a direct competitor company to FreshBooks called BillSpring

Links

FreshBooks >> https://www.freshbooks.com/
The E-Myth by Michael Gerber >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81942.E_Myth_Mastery

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Mike McDerment - Co-Founder of FreshBooks - How To Not Kill Your SaaS Business

Rudan Zhang is VP of Marketing at Clubhouse.io and in this episode we’re talking about how Clubhouse positioned themselves to focus on a niche segment.

Clubhouse is a project management platform for modern software teams, but with so many project management tools on the market, Rudan discusses why Clubhouse decided to intentionally focus on a niche audience segment and how they did it.

We cover:
- The process Clubhouse used to find their points of differentiation for each of their ICPs
- How they compete with well-known horizontal products
- How to market to technical audiences
- The marketing channels they use to reach their niche audience
- How their marketing team is structured
- The KPIs they use to measure success

Links

Clubhouse >> https://clubhouse.io/ 
Product-Led SEO by Eli Schwartz >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57659600-product-led-seo

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Rudan Zhang - VP of Marketing at Clubhouse.io - How To Position Your SaaS For A Niche Audience

Hilary Kay is CMO at Wibbitz and in this episode we’re talking about how to evolve your marketing strategy from a sales-led enterprise model to a product-led hybrid model.

This is a transition Wibbitz went through about 1.5 years ago and it’s something many SaaS companies are looking at today.

In this episode, Hilary covers:
- Why Wibbitz made the change
- What some of the signs and indicators are that you should make this transition
- The impact it has on understanding your target audience, customer lifecycle, and marketing tactics/channels you use
- How it influences sales & marketing alignment, product & marketing alignment, and the marketing team’s structure
- The things that shouldn't change when making this transition

Links

Wibbitz >> https://www.wibbitz.com/
Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51942513-think-like-a-monk
OpenView Build >> https://podcast.openviewpartners.com/

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Hilary Kay - CMO at Wibbitz - How To Transition From Sales-Led To A Product-Led Hybrid Model

Emily Kramer is Marketing Advisor, Angel Investor & Co-Founder at MKT1, and in this episode we’re talking about how to build and organise your early stage SaaS marketing org.

Emily has built and scaled the marketing teams at Ticketfly, Asana, Carta, and Astro and in this episode she talks us through her framework for structuring your marketing team, including:
- The roles you should hire first
- Why you shouldn’t hire t-shaped marketers
- How marketing teams should prioritise and focus
- How much hierarchy you need in your marketing org
- The story of how Emily built and structured Asana’s marketing team

Links

MKT1 >> https://www.mkt1.co/ 
High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40536148-high-growth-handbook 

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Emily Kramer - Co-Founder at MKT1 - How To Build & Organise Your Early Stage SaaS Marketing Org

Krista Martin is VP of Growth at Boardable and in this episode we’re talking about career acceleration and how to go from Marketing Manager to VP of Growth in just three years.

Krista joined Boardable where she was able to align her professional and personal passions. Krista shares her journey of how she was able to grow her career so quickly, including:
- How she leads growth at scale
- How her growth team operates
- What product-led growth at Boardable looks like
- The qualities she looks for in people who are to join her team
- How to actually make the move from mid-level manager to a VP or C-level role

Links

Boardable >> https://boardable.com/
Product-Led Onboarding >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58294382-product-led-onboarding

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Krista Martin - VP of Growth at Boardable - How To Go From Manager To VP In 3 Years

Caroline Guo is Head of Growth at HashiCorp and in this episode we’re talking about how to 2X pipeline and user acquisition in just 1.5 years.

Caroline joined HashiCorp just over three years ago to build, hire, and lead the growth team, and in this episode she covers:
- How HashiCorp has grown its growth team
- How to build effective go to market models
- How Caroline and her team built out HashiCorp’s entire SaaS business segment
- How her team operates across the entire funnel from acquisition & activation to monetization & retention
- The main factors that enabled their growth team to double pipeline and user acquisition
- The importance of diversity within hiring, your team, and the workplace

Links

HashiCorp >>https://www.hashicorp.com/
Getting To Yes >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/313605.Getting_to_Yes

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Caroline Guo - Head of Growth at HashiCorp - How To 2X Pipeline & User Acquisition In 1.5 Years

Margie Agin is Founder & Chief Strategist at Centerboard Marketing, and in this episode we’re talking about how to turn your brand strategy into tangible marketing tactics.

We often hear about how important it is to build a brand in B2B SaaS, but how do you bridge the gap between your brand strategy and your marketing tactics? Well Margie tells us how as she covers:

- How to accurately and consistently reflect a company's strategic brand positioning and voice
- How to get your company bought in and aligned on brand
- How to turn brand strategy into demand gen campaigns
- How to modify your brand strategy as your company grows
- Examples of B2B SaaS companies that do a great job of reflecting and amplifying their brand (and which companies miss the mark)

Links

Centerboard Marketing >> https://centerboard-marketing.com/
Brand Breakthrough >> https://centerboard-marketing.com/brand-breakthrough/ 
Winning The Story Wars >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13088627-winning-the-story-wars

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Margie Agin - Founder at Centerboard Marketing - How To Turn Your Brand Strategy Into Tactics

Skyler Reeves is CEO & Founder at Ardent Growth, and in this episode we’re talking about why SaaS companies fail with content marketing.

Almost all B2B SaaS companies will be doing content marketing in some form or another, but are you doing it the right way? In this episode, Skyler talks us through some of the pitfalls SaaS companies fall into when it comes to content, and what you should be doing instead. He covers:
- The two primary factors that should dictate your content marketing strategy
- How to set goals and measure the success of your content
- How to prioritise topics in a search-led content strategy
- How to acquire quality backlinks to your content
- The importance of content refreshes and audits
- How smaller B2B SaaS companies can catch up with established competitors

Links

Mindset by Carol Dweck >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40745.Mindset

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Skyler Reeves - CEO at Ardent Growth - Why SaaS Companies Fail With Content Marketing

Anna Holopainen is Head of Growth at Kide Science and in this episode she's talking about why your marketing isn't getting results.

All marketing teams are focused on one main objective, growing the business, but instead of just looking at ways to grow the business, we need to invert the problem and look at what is stopping us from growing and why we're not getting results.

In this episode, Anna joins us to share some of these reasons, including:
- Typical growth and marketing related reasons why you're not getting results
- Why you should never start to uncover growth blockers with a marketing audit
- A simple 4-step process to identify what’s stopping you from growing
- How to make sense of your data by putting it into context
- How to identify growth opportunities if you don’t have access to enough data

Links

Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> https://www.advanceb2b.com/tgh 

Kide Science >> https://www.kidescience.com/en
SaaS Reads >> https://saasreads.com 
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3828902-thinking-in-systems

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Anna Holopainen - Head of Growth at Kide Science - Why Your Marketing Isn't Getting Results

Aggelos Mouzakitis is Growth Product Manager at Growth Sandwich, and in this episode we’re talking about how customer research can help B2B SaaS companies grow to their potential.

We hear about various approaches to growth, such as product-led growth, sales-led growth, or marketing-led growth, but in this episode we look at it from another perspective, and that’s customer-led growth.

Aggelos is an expert on customer research and advocate of customer-led growth, and in this episode he breaks down this methodology that puts the customer at the core of everything you do, including:
- What being customer-led truly means
- How customer-led growth helps marketers
- How to use the jobs-to-be-done framework to support customer-led growth
- The “value gap” issue in marketing
- What it really means to have customer empathy as a marketer

Links

Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh

Growth Sandwich >> https://www.growthsandwich.com/ 
What Customers Want by Anthony Ulwick >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/426683.What_Customers_Want 

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Aggelos Mouzakitis - Growth Manager at Growth Sandwich - How Customer Research Can Help You Grow

Kaylee Edmondson is Senior Director of Demand Gen at Chili Piper and in this episode we’re talking about the future of demand gen.

Essentially this episode is lifting the lid on where the marketing playbook is going as Kaylee shares her thoughts on how B2B SaaS companies should be gearing up for the future, including:
- What demand gen is and where it sits in the marketing funnel
- The major issues with the old demand gen playbook
- Why the future of demand gen sits in the dark funnel
- The playbooks SaaS marketing teams should be running
- How to get senior buy in for that kind of playbook
- How the Chili Piper team does marketing and measures success
- The skills marketers will need in the future

Links

Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh

Chili Piper >> https://www.chilipiper.com
Obviously Awesome by April Dunford >> https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45166937-obviously-awesome

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Kaylee Edmondson - Senior Director of Demand Gen at Chili Piper - The Future of Demand Gen

Chris Walker is CEO at Refine Labs and in this episode we’re talking about Category Evangelism and the modern marketing playbook to grow pipeline and revenue.

Chris has started a marketing revolution. He is host of the hugely popular Demand Gen Live series and the State of Demand Gen podcast. Forbes described him as “The B2B demand generation guru every Series C company should be listening to” and so we got Chris on the show to break down what B2B marketers should be doing to grow their companies and their careers.

We cover:
- The limitations of the traditional view of demand gen
>> Why you shouldn’t centre on lead gen
>> How to move away from demand capture to demand creation
>> Where we went wrong with attribution
- The modern playbook for successful demand gen
>> How to know your customer better than anybody else
>> How to win in dark social
>> Why Category Evangelism is the future of marketing

Links

Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh

Refine Labs >> https://www.refinelabs.com/
State of Demand Gen >> https://sptfy.com/6Nvh 
Mastery by Robert Greene >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13589182-mastery 

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Chris Walker - CEO at Refine Labs - Category Evangelism: The New Playbook To Grow Pipeline & Revenue

Frida Ahrenby is CMO at GetAccept and in this episode we’re talking about how to build a world-class SaaS marketing team.

As companies scale, teams need to scale, so this is something all SaaS marketing leaders and managers will need to work on along their journey. However, it’s easier said than done.

So just exactly how do you build a world-class SaaS marketing team? I caught up with Frida to hear how she’s scaled GetAccept’s marketing org from a team of 3 in Sweden to a global team of 25 marketers spread across multiple international markets.

In this episode, we cover:
- How GetAccept scaled their marketing team, in what order, and why
- How all their teams work together
- What to look for when hiring top marketers
- How to nurture talent and enable marketers to grow their careers within your company
- An insight into the culture within GetAccept’s marketing team
- How to get your marketing team working well and aligned with your product & sales teams

Links

Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh

GetAccept >> https://www.getaccept.com
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16071764-lean-in

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Frida Ahrenby - CMO at GetAccept - How To Build A World-Class SaaS Marketing Team

Bill Macaitis is former SVP of Marketing & CMO at Salesforce, Zendesk & Slack, and today we’re talking about how to build a billion dollar SaaS company.

Many SaaS founders, CEOs, and marketers dream of building a unicorn business and it’s something Bill has done on several occasions throughout his career. So, we caught up with him to hear how it’s done and Bill covers some great topics, including:
- How Marc Benioff convinced him to leave the world of consumer marketing and make the move to B2B SaaS
- What it was like to work with Marc Benioff directly
- How Bill brought a B2C mindset to the world of B2B marketing
- How marketing teams can help create a billion dollar valuation
- How you should structure your marketing teams for growth
- The marketing philosophies and playbooks Bill ran at Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack

Links

Claim your free SaaS marketing assessment from Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com/tgh

Manager Tools Podcast >> https://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Bill Macaitis - SVP/CMO at Salesforce, Zendesk & Slack - How To Build A Billion Dollar SaaS Company

Katheriin Liibert is Head of Marketing at Outfunnel and in this episode we’re talking about how to grow your SaaS business as a solo marketer.

Katheriin joined Outfunnel as the first, and currently, only marketer in the company. With many SaaS marketers in a similar situation, how do you grow your SaaS business as a solo marketer?

Katheriin shares her experience on what's worked for her, including:
- how you should set expectations for marketing and work with your CEO & founders
- why you should create a 100 day plan (but still get quick wins)
- how to figure out which tactics and channels to focus on
- how to work with freelancers and agencies
- how to scale your team in future

Links

Outfunnel >> https://outfunnel.com/ 
Thinking, Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman >> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow

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Advance B2B >> www.advanceb2b.com
Follow The Growth Hub on Twitter >> twitter.com/SaaSGrowthHub
Follow Edward on Twitter >> twitter.com/NordicEdward

Katheriin Liibert - Head of Marketing at Outfunnel - How To Grow Your SaaS Biz As A Solo Marketer

The podcast for all things B2B SaaS marketing is brought to you by marketing agency Advance B2B.

The Growth Hub Podcast is for SaaS marketers, CEOs, and founders who want to increase their knowledge, skills, and wisdom about building a high-growth SaaS business.

With a mix of strategic frameworks, actionable insights, and inspiring tales, we catch up with some of the top minds in SaaS from across the world to gain their insight and advice on all things growth.