Content & Inbound Marketing

Content & Inbound Marketing for SaaS

How SaaS founders used content to drive growth. SEO, blogging, community building, and the inbound strategies that generated leads without ad spend.

Real founder strategies. Delivered weekly.

Free weekly newsletter · No spam

Ahrefs grew from 15,000 to 250,000 monthly visitors through content and built a $40-million-plus per year business almost entirely on organic traffic. CoSchedule published over 500 blog posts, built an email list of 100,000 subscribers, and turned that list into their primary growth engine. Browserless reached $4M ARR with content as the main acquisition channel. Content marketing compounds — and these episodes show you how.

The founders here didn't just write blog posts. Stuart McKeown at Gleam found that one well-targeted post made visitors 600 percent more likely to sign up, because it solved the exact problem their product addressed. ProdPad built an SEO-driven blog before the product even existed and launched to a pipeline of ready prospects. GoSquared spent roughly 1,000 pounds on ads over an entire decade because content did the heavy lifting.

You'll hear about the strategies that work specifically for SaaS. How to pick topics that attract buyers, not just browsers. How to turn blog posts into demo requests. How writes content that teaches people to use SEO tools, naturally leading readers into their product. The formula shows up again and again: write about the problems your product solves and target keywords with buyer intent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does content marketing work for SaaS?+

Ahrefs grew from 15,000 to 250,000 monthly visitors through content and built a $40M-plus per year business almost entirely on organic traffic. CoSchedule published over 500 blog posts and built an email list of 100,000 subscribers that became their primary growth engine. Joel Gascoigne grew Buffer's early traction through guest blogging before the product had significant features. Browserless reached $4M ARR with content as the main acquisition channel. It works, but it requires 12 to 18 months of consistent investment before compounding kicks in.

How long does it take for SaaS content marketing to work?+

GoSquared spent roughly 1,000 pounds on ads over 10 years because content did the heavy lifting, but it took years of consistent publishing. Ahrefs invested heavily in SEO content for over a year before traffic compounded to 250,000 monthly visitors. CoSchedule built their 100,000-subscriber email list over several years of weekly publishing. The pattern: SEO-driven content takes 6 to 18 months to gain real traction, but once it compounds, it becomes your cheapest and most reliable acquisition channel.

Should I focus on SEO or social media for my SaaS?+

Ahrefs built a $40M-plus business almost entirely on SEO content. Stuart McKeown at Gleam found that one well-targeted blog post made visitors 600 percent more likely to sign up. ProdPad built an SEO-driven blog before the product existed and had a pipeline of interested prospects at launch. SEO brings buyers who are actively searching for solutions; social builds brand and community. Most successful SaaS content strategies on the podcast start with SEO for lead generation and layer social on top for awareness and trust.

How do I create content that generates SaaS leads?+

Gleam found that visitors who read a specific blog post were 600 percent more likely to sign up, because it solved the exact problem their product addressed. Ahrefs writes content that teaches people to use SEO tools, naturally leading readers to try their product. Browserless reached $4M ARR by creating developer-focused content that attracted their exact buyer persona. The formula: write about the problems your product solves, target keywords with buyer intent, and include clear calls to action. Bottom-of-funnel content like comparison pages and use-case guides converts far better than generic thought leadership.

Garrett Moon, CoSchedule

500 Posts to 7,000 Customers: SaaS Content Marketing

Garrett Moon is the CEO and co-founder of CoSchedule, a content marketing and social media publishing calendar for small businesses and marketing teams. CoSchedule helps over 7,000 customers organize their content marketing and social media publishing in more than 100 countries around the world. CoSchedule was founded in 2013 and to date has raised around $500,000 in funding. This episode is the story of two guys who ran a web design and marketing consulting business. One day they hatched a plan for a new SaaS product on a plane ride between North Dakota and Atlanta. By the time they landed, they were fully committed to the idea and had decided what they were going to do next. This wasn't the first time these two had launched a product. They had already tried four times without much success. But this time felt different because their idea would solve a problem their consulting clients were often complaining about - organizing content creation and social media promotion in one place. They started by writing a blog post about the problem and how their new product would solve it. They mocked up some screenshots in Photoshop of a product that didn't exist yet. Within 24 hours, they had 300-400 email signups from people interested in the idea. Then Garrett did something remarkably disciplined. He went through that email list, threw out all the Gmail and Yahoo addresses, and identified 10 potential customers. He created a slide deck and scheduled calls with each of them to get feedback before writing any code. The SaaS content marketing didn't stop there. Garrett blogged once a week about the entire process of building CoSchedule - sharing wireframes, early ideas, and getting community feedback along the way. After launch, they scaled to three posts per week, published over 500 actionable blog posts, and grew their email list to over 100,000 subscribers. What makes this story different from every other "we used content marketing" narrative is Garrett's Blue Ocean strategy. Instead of competing on volume, CoSchedule published fewer but dramatically better posts - several thousand words each, deeply researched, always actionable, and always including downloadable worksheets or resources. Most competitors wouldn't put in that level of effort. That became their moat. Garrett also shares the painful lessons about building features customers didn't want, why he deliberately avoided selling to his consulting clients, and why focus is the single most important attribute for any entrepreneur.