Articles on Content Marketing, SEO, & Agency Growth
SaaS Content Marketing
Driving traffic and sign-ups for SaaS companies with content and SEO.
How We Grew a SaaS Company’s Leads by 571% in 5 Months
A while back, a SaaS client approached us about their content marketing and lead generation strategy. They recently launched their blog and already written some great content, but they weren’t getting any traffic. They’d discovered that great content isn’t...
How We Helped HelloSign Scale Their Traffic 1,308%
Optimist is a full-service SaaS content marketing agency and this case study is based on the content marketing strategy we executed with HelloSign’s team from 2017 to 2021. It was a frigid cold day in Des Moines on January 28, 2019. Like most January days, I was...
How to Build a Growth-Focused Search Strategy for Every Stage of the Funnel
This post is about how to build a growth-focused SaaS SEO strategy. But first, a little story... Six weeks ago, I was struggling.I was trying to art direct some updates to our website. (Cue 🙄) But, I’m not a designer.So, I went to Google. "How to do web design for...
How Intercom Built a $50MM ARR Empire Using Strategic Content Marketing and SEO
When it comes to building a startup, growth is king. Close second? Recurring revenue. Especially in the world of SaaS companies, having a steady stream of monthly and annual revenue is the hallmark of success. So, imagine building a business and scaling it to $50MM...
Content Marketing Secrets from Buffer’s Rise to 4 Million Users (And Beyond)
If you’ve been on Twitter at all in the last half decade, then you’ve likely heard of Buffer. The social media sharing and scheduling app has been a catalyst for a new paradigm in social media marketing. It allows users to find content or schedule messages to be...
Startup Content Marketing
Building a sustainable growth engine for bootstrapped and venture-backed startups.
How Intercom Built a $50MM ARR Empire Using Strategic Content Marketing and SEO
When it comes to building a startup, growth is king. Close second? Recurring revenue. Especially in the world of SaaS companies, having a steady stream of monthly and annual revenue is the hallmark of success. So, imagine building a business and scaling it to $50MM...
Content Marketing Secrets from Buffer’s Rise to 4 Million Users (And Beyond)
If you’ve been on Twitter at all in the last half decade, then you’ve likely heard of Buffer. The social media sharing and scheduling app has been a catalyst for a new paradigm in social media marketing. It allows users to find content or schedule messages to be...
SEO for Startups: How Content Marketing Drives Organic Growth
If you’re a startup, you probably already know that one of the best marketing channels you can master is search. With the right SEO for your startup, you can bring in hundreds or even thousands of targeted visitors looking for your product or service every day and...
How We Scaled a Startup from 0 Organic Traffic to 100,000 Visitors/Mo (In About One Year)
A few years ago, I was tapped for a startup content marketing opportunity that quite literally changed my life. This is the story... My friends at College Raptor had just raised a Series A round for their incredible college matching technology. And the CEO asked me to...
B2B Content Marketing
Using content marketing and SEO to drive demand and generate leads.
How We Helped HelloSign Scale Their Traffic 1,308%
Optimist is a full-service SaaS content marketing agency and this case study is based on the content marketing strategy we executed with HelloSign’s team from 2017 to 2021. It was a frigid cold day in Des Moines on January 28, 2019. Like most January days, I was...
The Only B2B Lead Gen Strategy that Matters for Technology Companies Right Now
There’s a paradox of opportunity happening right now for B2B technology companies. Many teams are being forced to cut back on marketing and lead generation efforts due to uncertainty. According to a survey from the B2B Marketing Zone, more than 60% of marketers expect...
How Our Team Built a $1.5MM Agency in 3 Years with No Managers
Over the last three years, Optimist has grown tremendously. We started as an outgrowth of my personal freelancing work. Within a year of launching, we reached a $500,000 annualized run rate. By the end of year 2, we had doubled in size--building a seven-figure...
How to Build a Growth-Focused Search Strategy for Every Stage of the Funnel
This post is about how to build a growth-focused SaaS SEO strategy. But first, a little story... Six weeks ago, I was struggling.I was trying to art direct some updates to our website. (Cue 🙄) But, I’m not a designer.So, I went to Google. "How to do web design for...
The Framework We Used to Generate $1.5MM in Sales Opportunities in Our First Year
One year ago, we launched Optimist. The vision was pretty straight-forward: A full-service content marketing agency that works with clients on a monthly retainer. Our goal is to grow it to $1.5 million annual run rate in 2018. In our first year, we made a pretty big...
How Intercom Built a $50MM ARR Empire Using Strategic Content Marketing and SEO
When it comes to building a startup, growth is king. Close second? Recurring revenue. Especially in the world of SaaS companies, having a steady stream of monthly and annual revenue is the hallmark of success. So, imagine building a business and scaling it to $50MM...
Content Marketing Secrets from Buffer’s Rise to 4 Million Users (And Beyond)
If you’ve been on Twitter at all in the last half decade, then you’ve likely heard of Buffer. The social media sharing and scheduling app has been a catalyst for a new paradigm in social media marketing. It allows users to find content or schedule messages to be...
Content & SEO
Articles, lessons, and takeaways on content marketing and SEO.
How to Measure & Track Content Marketing KPIs Without Getting Distracted
Bryan shares his real-life experience in building a successful business and the content marketing KPIs that he uses to stay focused on the metrics that matter. Blanketed by darkness in the eerie solitude of a desolate Oakland Coliseum, Athletics General Manager Billy...
Strategic Content Marketing: A Recipe for Growth
Content marketing without a strategy is a lot like throwing spaghetti at a wall. (Stay with me here.) When you're cooking spaghetti, one way to tell if it's done is--supposedly--to simply fling the noodles at the wall. If the pasta doesn’t stick, it's said to need...
Content Marketing in 2021: The Low-Hanging Fruit Checklist
I’m going to pretend that I found myself running a SaaS company when I woke up this morning. Our goal in 2021 is to grow, hit slightly-ambitious targets, and put the wrecking ball that was 2020 far behind me. My constraints are that I have: A small budget. Maybe 1-2...
The No-BS Guide to Crushing it at Search
Fair warning. This post is probably going to piss some people off. Here's why: SEO can be complicated as hell. There are a billion on-page and off-page factors. The algorithm is constantly changing. And everyone is jockeying for a little leg-up over their competitors....
Let’s Talk About “Growth Hacking”
“Grow or die.” “Growth is all that matters.” “Growth, growth, growth, growth.” Everyone loves growth. I get it. But most people seem confused about how growth actually works. When you’re building a company, it can feel like you’re just one brilliant idea away from...
Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing is tough. Often, companies think that it seems like the easiest strategy for growth. After all, all you have to do is write stuff and post it on your website--right? Of course, that’s an incredible simplification. Much, much more work and thought...
How to Craft Insightful User Personas for Content Marketing
All great content marketing has one thing in common. It speaks to a specific audience. It addresses their needs. It solves their problems. In order to accomplish this, we need to first understand our prospective buyer and the dimensions that make them unique. We need...
7 Fundamental Content Marketing Frameworks to Drive Traffic, Improve SEO, and Build Community
I started working in content marketing nearly (ahem) 10 years ago. Admittedly, I had no clue what the hell I was doing. I had just graduated from college with a degree in journalism and knew I liked to write. I was running a tiny online magazine (mostly for fun,...
Everything You Should Know Before Hiring a Content Marketing Agency
Hiring a content marketing agency can be scary as hell. I know because I’ve been on the other side of the table. I’ve been the one talking to agencies, holding a bag of money, trying to decide where to place my bet. It was nerve racking. Every agency promised me the...
The ROI of SEO: How to Calculate the Value of Organic Search Traffic
Imagine that you're thinking about hiring a marketing agency. Assuming that you don't have infinite money and you're actually looking to make a smart decision, you'll probably want to know a lot about what the agency will offer. In particular, you probably have two...
A Tactical Guide to Aligning Your Content Marketing Strategy With Your Real Business Goals
Too many people simply “do content marketing.” There’s no strategy behind it. It’s not tied into the business in any real sense. It's just an item on the to-do list that they keep doing each and every week, without ever getting much from it. And if that’s what you’re...
We Can’t All Be Storytellers
Many companies invest thousands of dollars in creating incredible content for their website, blog, or social media accounts. They labor over the words and images, adding in detail and testing headlines. But they never see results. It just keeps costing them money....
Agency Journal
Stories from our journey building a multi-million dollar content marketing agency from scratch.
Tackling Mental Health For Distributed Teams
Even the greatest strengths, especially when they get over-used, eventually perform as weaknesses. One thing to love about remote work is the (relatively) no-drama, no-bullshit work environment. I rarely engage with my colleagues about religion, politics, family...
Introducing Top of the Funnel
For a long time, the Optimist team has been looking for ways to share knowledge and help connect those in our network and our expanded universe with opportunities for growth (and money). The idea is nearly as old as our agency itself. Like most teams, we've gotten...
How Our Team Built a $1.5MM Agency in 3 Years with No Managers
Over the last three years, Optimist has grown tremendously. We started as an outgrowth of my personal freelancing work. Within a year of launching, we reached a $500,000 annualized run rate. By the end of year 2, we had doubled in size--building a seven-figure...
The Deal Is in the Details: Reflections On My First Year as a Principal at Optimist
The email came in last St. Patrick’s Day. You wouldn’t know it by looking at me, but I’m very Irish. Approximately 55% according to Ancestry.com. But I digress. All of that to say, it was a particularly auspicious day for multiple reasons. I had put in my time—roughly...
Optimist Year 2: Building a $1 Million Content Marketing Agency
Well, it’s the new year. That means it’s time to think back and reflect on the last 12 months. It’s time to figure out what I learned, what I got right, and how I screwed up (again). But first: It’s time to eat crow. Yes, I failed miserably at keeping our site and our...
Our Agency Sales Process is Broken (And How We’re Fixing It)
Every time I sit down to write one of these, it’s like a wrestling match with myself. How much should I include? Should I try to hide the ugly bits? Obviously, I want things to seem as great as possible. Anyone writing about the progress of their company wants to...
The Framework We Used to Generate $1.5MM in Sales Opportunities in Our First Year
One year ago, we launched Optimist. The vision was pretty straight-forward: A full-service content marketing agency that works with clients on a monthly retainer. Our goal is to grow it to $1.5 million annual run rate in 2018. In our first year, we made a pretty big...
Lessons Learned: Growing an Agency to Half a Million ARR in 1 Year
Wow. It’s been an entire year since we first launched Optimist and set out to build a million-dollar agency. We aren't quite there yet, but I'll be damned if we didn't have a great run in 2017. Back in December 2016, this thing was mostly a pipe dream. We had a bunch...
The Ups and Downs of Growing a Content Marketing Agency (Agency Journal, October 2017)
I almost didn't write this. Looking at our numbers, I wanted to wait until we hit our goals--or at least had a clear trajectory--before I published another article revealing what was happening behind the scenes. On top of that, I never felt like I had the time to...
I Was Having a Really Shitty Day. Here’s the Simple Trick I Used to Turn it Around
Have you ever had one of those days where everything is going wrong? I’m sure you’ve been there. It’s one of those days where the work you completed weeks ago seems to have magically vanished from your computer. Your website crashes. You realize that the incredibly...
How Fear of Failure Drives Bad Management
Have you ever noticed how job listings often ask for candidates that are "entrepreneurial," "driven," and "self motivated"? What they're really saying is that they want to hire someone who will think of the company like it's their own. People who will do whatever it...
What the SaaS Industry Taught Us About Running a Content Marketing Agency
I spend a lot of time on SaaS websites. Between looking at various tools for our own use and checking out sites from companies that we’d like to work with or would like to work with us, it’s safe to say that I’ve seen hundreds, or even thousands, of them. There’s one...
Deliberate Agitation and the Complacency Trap
If there’s one phrase that sends shivers down a startup’s spine, it’s, “that’s how we’ve always done things.” Throughout the years, we’ve been taught that this kind of blind allegiance to specific business practices or processes is a death knell for companies. It’s...
This is Optimist: Our First 3 Months + Our Plan to Reach $1,000,000 in 1 Year (Agency Journal, March 2017)
This post is part of the agency journal--the section of the site where we share a fully transparent look behind the scenes of Optimist as we grow a new kind of agency from scratch. If you have questions, always feel free to leave them in the comments. Optimist has now...