How BuzzSumo grew to $5M ARR with Steve Rayson, Director at BuzzSumo

When it comes to SaaS growth, a lot of content and discourse focuses on hyper-growth tactics with a (false) promise that they'll magically turn you into a unicorn. But unicorns a rare. They are outliers, so I caught up with Steve Rayson, Director at BuzzSumo, to hear about another path you can take, and it's that of a SaaS Donkey.

By putting sustainability and profitability above hyper-growth, BuzzSumo have built a steady SaaS business that is loved by growth and content marketers alike, going from beta launch to $5M ARR over the last three years or so. In this episode, Steve tells us about:

• How BuzzSumo challenged the Unicorn Orthodoxy and became a so called SaaS Donkey
• Some of the key factors that enabled BuzzSumo to go from $0 to $2.5M ARR
• The role of influencer marketing in SaaS growth including how influencers such as Rand Fishkin & Matthew Barby helped spread the word about BuzzSumo
• How BuzzSumo set growth targets and went from $2.5M to $5M in ARR
• The things BuzzSumo might have done differently with the gift of hindsight alongside what they have planned for the future

Stay tuned for the end of the episode where Steve shares his top 5 tools that help him with his work alongside his best piece of advice for SaaS growth leaders.

And let us know what you think by tweeting to us @SaaSGrowthHub

Enjoy the show!

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Links:

BuzzSumo >> buzzsumo.com

Proud To Be A SaaS Donkey >> buzzsumo.com/blog/proud-donkey-buzzsumo-reflections-growing-5m-saas-business

Anders Pink >> anderspink.com

Follow Steve on Twitter >> twitter.com/steverayson

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