Here are 6 simple marketing principles that got us there:
1. Create content that will make you “discoverable.”
One of the superpowers of content marketing is increasing the ‘surface area’ of your business. You're creating hundreds and thousands of additional chances for people to find you, to resonate with something you say, to develop affinity for you and your beliefs.
2. Create “AHA moments” in your content.
Most people think that the "AHA moment" should happen after users sign up for your product. Wrong! It should happen BEFORE! It is what compels them to sign up in the first place. Your website, your blog, your YouTube channel… - they should make it easy for people to imagine themselves using your product.
3. Give away (expensive) FREE stuff.
When you offer real value for free, people notice. We launched dozens of online tools, created educational courses, hosted events – all 100% free. “Giving away value” worked for us, even when it wasn’t intentional. Some people found ways to exploit our free trial instead of paying… but that actually helped us gain tons of traction in the SEO community.
4. Let marketers shape your product.
If your product is the best at something, marketing becomes a matter of simply stating the facts. But what if it’s not? Then your marketing team should help make it better. Marketers often have the clearest view of the competitive landscape and customers’ needs & pain points. And they therefore should have a strong say in shaping the product roadmap.
5. You don’t need more data. You need more guts.
Marketers are under constant pressure to be “data-driven.” Track everything. Measure ROI. Build forecasts. Create dashboards. You could easily keep five people busy with just that. But who’s left to actually do the marketing? At Ahrefs, we’ve always favored action over analytics and intuition over attribution. Don’t let “analysis paralysis” stop you from doing what you truly believe in.
6. It’s okay to do things just because they’re fun.
During my ten years as CMO at Ahrefs, we’ve done plenty of quirky things simply because they were fun. Maybe you’ve seen our bedtime book for kids, my selfie battle with Jason Hennessey, or those internet meme re-enactments to promote Ahrefs Podcast. What’s the ROI? Honestly, I have no idea. All I know is they made people smile. And that is meaningful enough.
…
Actually…
There were more than 6 marketing principles that helped Ahrefs grow past $100M ARR without funding, salespeople or fluff.
Would you want me to break them all down in a book?
(I hope you do, because I’m already in the process of writing it. 😅 )
And yes — we’ll be giving away TONS of free copies. 😉
Leave a comment (or hit “like”) if you’d like a copy – it’ll help us gauge how many to print.
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