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17 Proven SaaS Marketing Strategies From 11 CMOs & Founders

17 Proven SaaS Marketing Strategies From 11 CMOs & Founders
Over the past year, we interviewed top SaaS founders and marketing executives on the Ahrefs Podcast. We asked them about strategies that helped them scale.
Ahrefs Podcast

From Crypto.com to Airwallex, Paddle, and Surfer, these battle-tested methods have fueled growth in competitive markets with limited resources. In this article, we share their best insights so you can apply them to your own SaaS business. Let’s dive in!

Airwallex speaks candidly about this. Their early mistake? Jumping into growth tactics before solidifying their product marketing foundation. He now strongly advocates for getting these basics right first:

  • Aligning on your true target audience.
  • Crafting messaging that resonates with their specific needs.
  • Distinguishing between what your product does (features) and why people should care (value).

Further reading

Meet Edgar and Paperbell, has experimented with different approaches across her companies. At MeetEdgar, she initially launched without a free trial, later introducing a 7-day trial period with no credit card requirement to reduce friction. With her newer venture, Paperbell, she took an innovative approach—offering “the first client is free” instead of a traditional time-based trial.

Product-led content integrates your solution naturally into educational materials that help users solve real problems. This strategy acquires new customers by demonstrating how your product works in context and retains existing ones by showing them how to extract maximum value, as well.

Since we’re heavily invested in this strategy ourselves, let me give you an example from our blog.

Here’s an article that shows how to get 15 actionable data points on competitor traffic using just three tools. This is not a topic reserved for SEO (our main use case) and the post mentions tools, even one competitor. Still, it’s a great chance to show the value of our product and how it’s different from others.

Example of product-led content

This article is one of our top-performing blog posts, generating an estimated over 11.8k organic visits each month.

Results of product led content

Unlike traditional marketing that interrupts with sales messages, product-led content places your solution within the natural flow of the user’s learning journey. The product becomes part of the solution rather than the subject of a pitch.

Storylane transformed its approach by replacing standard blog posts with interactive demos that let potential customers experience solutions firsthand.

Storylane's how-to guides example.

This shift contributed to a remarkable 10x growth in organic traffic within just six months.

Organic traffic growth to Storylane's site
Organic traffic to Storylane’s site via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.

Let’s hear it from Madhav Bhandari, the CMO behind this success story:

Want to grow your traffic like Storylane but not sure where to start? Check out our full SEO video course for beginners:

Ahrefs' SEO Basics.
Storylane approaches this with a portfolio mindset, treating each marketing channel as an investment with different risk-return profiles. His strategy is pragmatic: start with channels where you already have experience or expertise, then systematically test new channels based on data rather than trends.

Further reading

Paddle, highlights an experimental approach to distribution by using content as distribution for other content. During webinars, for instance, he promotes additional resources that drive participants toward more in-depth materials. This creates a content ecosystem where each piece naturally leads users to discover more of your value.

Further reading

Lemlist. By building active communities on Facebook and Slack, he created spaces where users naturally shared strategies, compared results, and helped troubleshoot issues.

John O’Nolan took a slightly different approach with Ghost. Their Explore Directory showcases top publishers using the platform, driving millions of visits. This community-centered feature provides free exposure to both Ghost and its users — creating a win-win that makes the platform more valuable for everyone involved.

Example of a community.

Further reading

Bannerbear’s growth strategy. By “building in public,” he regularly shares specific metrics, development milestones, and honest reflections about both successes and setbacks.

This ongoing narrative creates a foundation of trust that’s impossible to achieve through polished marketing alone.

this video.

Paperbell. Instead of throwing open the affiliate doors to everyone, she created a focused customer referral program. This ensured recommendations came only from people who actually used and valued the product.

And at MeetEdgar, her earlier venture, she initially avoided affiliate programs completely — she didn’t want to attract promoters who were just in it for a quick commission rather than adding real value.

Growth Tools emphasizes the importance of partnerships in driving high-ticket sales. In his coaching program he teaches all founders the “borrow other people’s audiences” (BOPA) strategy, partnering with influencers and SaaS companies with aligned audiences to offer valuable lead magnets such as free tools, checklists, or webinars.

Learn more about Bryan Harris’ BOPA strategy in this video.

Bannerbear demonstrates this strategy’s effectiveness. Their free tools like the real estate banner generator and certificate generator attract a well-targeted audience looking for specific solutions.

Bannerbear's free tool generating organic traffic.
Organic traffic to Bannerbear's free tool.
Organic traffic to Bannerbear’s page via Ahrefs Site Explorer.

To hear more about his strategy, check out our in-depth interview:

Tip

Use keyword research to find proven ideas for free tools like Bannerbear’s generators. Here’s the process using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer:

  1. Enter a few broad keywords related to your business (e.g. backlinks, keywords, seo, traffic).
  2. Head on to the matching terms report.
  3. Enter words that people could use to find tools, such as “generator, calculator, tool, checker”.
  4. Look at the traffic potential column (TP) to get an estimate of the organic traffic you could get.
FInd ideas for free tools with organic traffic potential.
Paddle by creating multiple channels for customers to share their experiences: dedicated landing pages showcasing specific results and metrics, joint webinars where customers demonstrate their expertise using the platform, and guest posts positioning users as industry authorities.

Further reading

Surfer. His team developed an SEO writing Master Class that does more than just teach people how to use their tool — it provides comprehensive education on creating SEO-optimized content.

Users who complete the course and pass a thorough assessment earn certificates they can showcase professionally.

Surfer's SEO writing certificate.

Not long ago, we applied this strategy at Ahrefs and we’re already seeing people flashing their Ahrefs certificates on social media:

Ahrefs' SEO certificate.
Crypto.com through strategic partnerships with major sports organizations like the NBA, UFC, Formula 1, and FIFA. These high-profile sponsorships, including the renaming of the former Staples Center to Crypto.com Arena, allowed them to go from less than 50% awareness among crypto investors to 80% awareness among the general population.

Crypto.com arena - example of saas sponsorhip.
Source: Wikipedia.

In our interview, Kalifowitz emphasizes that successful sponsorships aren’t just about visibility but about finding the right audience alignment. He follows a systematic process to identify where his target audience spends time and which platforms or events have their attention and trust.

Coffe Meets Bagle, did at his previous company Circles.Life. In Singapore, where vandalism is practically unheard of, his team “vandalized” their own advertisements. This bold move turned heads immediately and reinforced exactly who they were — the rebellious alternative to traditional telecom companies.

Circles.Life guerilla marketing stunt.
Source: apacmarketers.com

The stunt wasn’t just attention-grabbing — it perfectly aligned with their identity as the disruptive challenger taking on the established players in the industry.

Delbert explains the idea behind the campaign and his process of coming up with viral ideas in this interview:

Final thoughts

The main takeaway that I personally got from these interviews is that success comes from truly understanding who your customers are and finding authentic ways to help them.

The SaaS marketing playbook isn’t complicated, but it does require focus. Get your core messaging right, make sure people have a great first experience with your product, and then thoughtfully expand your reach through channels that make sense for your audience.

Keep in mind that none of these approaches are overnight magic. They take consistent effort and you’ll need to adapt them to your unique situation. What works for one SaaS company might need tweaking to work for yours.

This is just a taste of the insights we’ve gathered throughout our year of podcast conversations. There’s so much more depth to each of these strategies that we couldn’t possibly fit here. If you want to hear the full stories and hear from even more experts, check out the Ahrefs Podcast.

Got questions or comments? Let me know on LinkedIn.

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