When Rand Fishkin accidentally stumbled upon the software model in 2007, his rocket ship of success grew from zero to $30 million in revenue and millions of visitors, yet the challenge of selling his product in the early days of SaaS software was anything but easy.

You will learn how entrepreneurs built their path to success and the software products they used to help them get there.

Rand Fishkin is the founder of MOZ and SparkToro, two successful companies in the SEO and digital marketing industry. He has been involved in the SEO industry for over 15 years and is known for his transparent and genuine approach to business.

Rand Fishkin was never good at running an agency, so when he and his partner stumbled on the idea of a software product and put up a Paypal paywall, it took off like a rocket ship. Interestingly, venture capitalists didn't believe in the idea of self-service software, but Fishkin's years of blogging enabled him to provide a discovery model for customers that was successful. By 2014, the company was worth $30 million and had 180 people on the team. Today, Spark Toro offers audience research, but the challenge lies in explaining to customers how to use it as they are not familiar with the problem.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. How do marketers discover an audience without having to resort to illegal and unethical tactics?

2. What techniques can marketers use to gain valuable audience research data?

3. How can businesses use dark traffic and personal referrals to increase brand awareness?

Resources:

https://sparktoro.com

Connect with Mike & Kevin:

Mike’s LinkedIn

Mike’s Website

Kevin’s LinkedIn

Kevin’s Website