Insights, Marketing
founder of Rocket SaaS
What you’ll learn in this blog:
✅ Why company pages SUCK on LinkedIn
✅ The role and importance of a Brand Champion
✅ Identifying and supporting your Brand Champion
I’ve been working with SaaS startups for over a decade. The ones that succeed to grow and become successful often have one particular thing in common… A Brand Champion
As a startup, you don’t have marketing budgets to compete with the big boys in the space, so you need to stand out and show uniqueness on a small budget. This is not easy to do from purely a company marketing level, as you can appear like “just another platform”.
Most B2B SaaS startups will naturally use LinkedIn as their main social channel. One of the challenges with LinkedIn is that people buy from people, not companies.
Company pages for startups perform terribly when compared to personal brands.
As you may have experienced already, LinkedIn Ads from company pages are extremely expensive and often do not bring an ROI.
A brand champion is someone who is going to be the face of the company. They need 2 things:
They need to be willing to create content, particularly video content. If the thought of making video content makes you cringe, fear not. I used to feel like this! Take training, practice and throw yourself in the deep. After a couple of months and embarrassing outtakes, you’ll be a natural.
Personal brands enjoy higher engagement rates compared to company pages because people buy from people.
A Brand Champion makes your company more personal and memorable, driving organic growth and trust.
Personal brand content is also cheaper than running expensive LinkedIn ads, providing a cost-effective marketing strategy.
By having a well-known brand champion in your space, leads will naturally flow towards them. Additionally, they’ll be invited to partnerships, webinars, and podcasts, creating a growth flywheel effect.
A brand champion in a startup is usually the founder as they have the expertise and passion for the industry. But I’ve also seen effective brand champions in sales, product or marketing roles. Although founders are the best choice they are not going to leave the business anytime soon.
Here is a list of content types that your brand champion can create:
It is critical that you create this content frequently and consistently.
Whether you are going to be the brand champion or someone else in the business, you’re going to need to create a lot of content.
The biggest challenge or objection will be “I don’t have the time”. Thankfully, there are ways to reduce the content burden.
Start by creating a content plan and schedule. Outline what types of content need to be created and when they should be published. Break down the process into manageable steps.
Interview the subject matter expert and create the content brief from that. This can save a lot of the expert’s time and ensure that the content is high quality. Use tools and resources to automate and streamline content creation, such as scheduling posts in advance and repurposing existing content into different formats. For example, write a blog, then repurpose that into a webinar, video or podcast.
Rocket SaaS has grown from £0 to £1,200,000 ARR in 3 years. The main factor of this growth has been my personal brand, specifically daily LinkedIn content, regular videos and a webinar series.
Stora, a Rocket SaaS client, are one of the fastest-growing storage company SaaS products in the world. Gavin’s frequency of blogging, Loom videos, event attending, podcasts and webinars are key factors of this success.
Tom from Salesloft started in sales and then transitioned into a brand awareness role. He creates regular (and often hilarious) videos on social media.
Rand is a legend in the SaaS space, being the founder of Moz, and more recently Sparktorro. Most people in the space know who Rand is, due to his frequency of personal brand-building.
In conclusion, becoming a Brand Champion is not just beneficial but essential for the growth of your SaaS startup. By investing time in building a personal brand, you can significantly increase your company’s visibility, credibility, and growth potential.
Start small, be consistent, and leverage your unique voice to stand out in the crowded SaaS market.
Remember, the key is authenticity and consistency. You’ve got this!
P.S. If you need help developing a content strategy or have any questions about becoming a Brand Champion, feel free to reach out. I’m here to help!
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Insights, Marketing
Insights, Marketing
