Ep. 126 - ​​Driving SaaS Growth with Audience Research - with Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder of SparkToro

With the growing frustration among marketers with traditional pay-per-click and social media advertising, what can a SaaS CMO do to get their message in front of the right people at the right time? In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, Co-Founder and CEO of SparkToro Rand Fishkin joins us to discuss how they’re solving this problem by providing valuable data on where to reach target audiences outside major platforms like Google and Facebook.  SparkToro is a market research and audience intelligence tool designed to help small and medium businesses, independent entrepreneurs, and challenger brands uncover the publications and people influencing their target audiences. Rand discusses the challenges and opportunities in the current marketing landscape, emphasizing the need to return to traditional media planning and the importance of investing in sources of influence beyond the big platforms.  He also touches on the recent leak of Google"s Content Warehouse API and its implications for SEO, stressing the importance of earning media and retaining valuable content creators. Our conversation with Rand covers audience research, marketing strategies, team building, content marketing, AI impact, SEO, and predictions for the future of marketing. This episode provides a wealth of insights for SaaS CEOs and CMOs looking to navigate the evolving marketing landscape and leverage audience research to drive growth.  Key takeaways from this episode:How having known and trusted team members, like co-founders, can reduce risk and improve the success of a startupThe importance of thought leadership in content marketing and the need to create content that resonates with amplifiers, not just customersSEO and link-building strategies and the importance of focusing on quality links from pages that receive traffic rather than just acquiring links from various domains Other resources to check out: Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publishes a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing. The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer. And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting --- Thanks for listening to the SaaS Backwards Podcast, brought to you by Austin Lawrence Group. We help SaaS firms reduce churn, accelerate sales, and generate demand. Learn more at AustinLawrence.com. --- Is your messaging a sales ally or sneaky saboteur? Let us help with our free messaging audit. We’ll look at your website’s messaging, content, and conversion potential from the eyes of today’s buyer and deliver a presentation with new combinations to more sales conversations and demos. And the best part? It’s absolutely free. Get started today!