GE 161: How Content Marketing as a Growth Channel Propelled BuildFire into a 7-Figure ARR SaaS Company (podcast)

Hi everyone, today we have Ian Blair who is the CEO of BuildFire, which provides the easiest way to build mobile apps in under five minutes. It’s a no-coding-required app-building platform where people can quickly build their own mobile apps and it works in any industry because every brand can benefit from an app.

Today we’re chatting about how BuildFire grew to a seven-figure ARR by using content marketing rather than paid advertising, the main factors that got them there in the very competitive SaaS industry, the reason keyword research is essential, and why you must have a methodology for creating and tracking your content’s progress and success.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Content Marketing as a Growth Channel Propelled BuildFire into a 7-Figure ARR SaaS Company TRANSCRIPT

Episode highlights:

• [06:00] – Content has been an amazing traffic driver. They find out what is ranking and crush it. Bring value and rank.
• [6:51] – They track how many come to the site, convert to free trials, and sign up to the mailing list. It’s a matter of building the audience and getting free trial sign ups.
• [7:52] – Keyword research is a forgotten piece of the content marketing puzzle. Keyword research isn’t easy, it takes time.
• [8:22] – To be successful in business, you need to have a plan and strategy and measure what is and is not working.
• [9:32] – Paid advertising isn’t the best method for this startup, for now, they are sticking with the content marketing, the potential is exciting
• [11:02] – The mobile app space is a very early market
• [11:18] – They use CoSchedule for their content marketing calendar, keyword, opportunity, how to measure success, what does the next month look like, research planning and a team of writers work on the piece, they have five writers but work with about 15
• [12:35] – Work with successful writer contractors that have worked for them
• [12:52] – Weekly output is 2-3 articles a week
• [13:05] – They are just under 6 figure mark with content marketing numbers
• [14:48] – Biggest struggling when first starting a company, you have to wear every hat, as you grow you have to hire people, the biggest challenge is transitioning from a small team to a bigger team, you want people to have autonomy, but it needs to be done effectively and quickly and monitored. How to scale teams is a challenge and a great learning process
• [16:31] – Always be learning, best advice, Ian loves the online marketing space and learn from successes and failures of others

Resources from this interview:

• BuildFire
• Zero to One Million Page Views
• CoSchedule
• Buffer
• GrooveHQ
• Must-read book: From Good to Great

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