GE 304: Ahrefs’ CMO and Product Advisor Tim Soulo Proves That Content Marketing Sells (podcast)

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:45] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [02:15] Tim says if you want to ramp up the search traffic you get from Google, you need Ahrefs.
• [02:50] Ahrefs will help give you valuable SEO insights.
• [05:30] Ahrefs is a subscription service.
• [05:40] The lowest plan is $99/month, then $179/month, $399/month, and finally $999/month.
• [06:05] Ahrefs doesn’t want to become an enterprise business.
• [07:10] The VC game can sometimes feel like a ponzi scheme.
• [09:00] Tim joined Ahrefs four years ago.
• [09:15] He was essentially the only marketer on the team.
• [10:00] Growth at the company has been stable.
• [11:45] Tim doesn’t need to be crafty, he just needs to let people know how awesome Ahrefs is. It’s a simple, but effective tactic.
• [14:35] Ahrefs has a database of “bad” content, not just the good content.
• [15:52] In terms of marketing, Ahrefs does a lot of SEO.
• [16:15] They focus on keywords related to their industry and cover relevant topics.
• [18:40] Ahrefs has a score rubric for content and keywords.
• [19:20] This helps them prioritize the best topics.
• [21:55] Tim cared less about monthly output, than he did about quality.
• [25:05] Tim gets emails from people who read the Ahrefs blog and were convinced to buy into the service.
• [25:30] Whenever people do the trial, they make sure to survey those people.
• [27:50] Their studies work like nothing else when it comes to attracting backlinks.
• [27:55] However, the studies don’t bring in a lot of traffic.
• [29:02] One research study could take up to 1.5 months.
• [31:22] The Ahrefs org chart is flat: they don’t have fixed positions or managers.
• [31:45] Employees are allowed to do whatever excites them (within reason).
• [34:45] Even though they have an article that ranks in the bottom of the top five, they are happy because the content is solid.
• [36:00] Ahrefs produces more backlinks than their rivals.
• [38:25] A tool that has added value to Tim’s life is Notion; it’s an easy way to organize the marketing department all in one place.

Resources from the interview:

• Ahrefs
• Tim’s Ahrefs Page
• Tim on Medium
• Must-have tool:
  • Notion

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