Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, I watched a B2B SaaS client burn through €15,000 on Facebook ads and Google campaigns in just two months. Their metrics looked decent on paper—decent click-through rates, reasonable cost-per-click, trial signups trickling in. But here's what the data didn't show: those "direct" conversions were actually coming from somewhere else entirely.
While they were obsessing over ad optimization and audience targeting, the real growth engine was hiding in plain sight. The founder's LinkedIn posts were generating more qualified leads than all their paid campaigns combined. People weren't converting from ads—they were following his content for months, building trust, then typing the URL directly when they were ready to buy.
This discovery completely changed how I think about creating buzz for SaaS products. Most founders are throwing money at the wrong channels while the most powerful buzz-creation tool is sitting right under their noses.
Here's what you'll discover in this playbook:
Why the "build it and they will come" approach kills SaaS buzz before it starts
The counterintuitive strategy that outperformed €15K in paid ads
How to turn your expertise into a buzz-generating content machine
A step-by-step framework for sustainable, authentic SaaS marketing
Why distribution beats product quality every single time
The Reality
What every founder tries first
When SaaS founders talk about "creating buzz," they usually mean the same tired playbook everyone's been pushing for years. Let me guess what you've been told:
The Traditional Buzz-Creation Checklist:
Launch on Product Hunt and pray for features
Throw money at Facebook and Google ads
Create "viral" content hoping it takes off
Network at conferences and hope for word-of-mouth
Build a "beautiful" website and wait for organic traffic
This advice isn't wrong—it's just incomplete. The problem is everyone's doing exactly the same thing, which means you're competing in what I call the "red ocean" of SaaS marketing. You're essentially running a beautiful store in an empty mall.
Here's what the gurus won't tell you: most viral success stories are survivorship bias. For every SaaS that "went viral" on Product Hunt, there are hundreds that launched to crickets. For every company that cracked the Facebook ads code, there are thousands burning cash with nothing to show for it.
The real issue isn't your product, your pricing, or your positioning. It's that you're treating SaaS like an e-commerce product when it's actually a trust-based service. People don't impulse-buy SaaS—they need to trust you enough to integrate your solution into their daily workflow.
And trust? That can't be bought with ads. It has to be built through consistent, valuable interactions over time.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When this particular B2B SaaS client came to me, they were frustrated. Really frustrated. They'd been following all the "best practices" for SaaS marketing, but their acquisition strategy was bleeding money faster than it was generating revenue.
The company was a project management tool targeting small creative agencies—a crowded space where everyone was fighting over the same keywords and audiences. They'd hired a digital marketing agency, set up elaborate funnels, and were running multi-channel campaigns across Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn.
On paper, everything looked fine. Traffic was coming in, people were signing up for trials, but the conversion from trial to paid was abysmal. The lifetime value wasn't covering the acquisition costs, and the founder was starting to panic about runway.
That's when I dug into their analytics and found something fascinating. When I traced their highest-value customers back to their original source, most weren't attributed to any paid campaign. They showed up as "direct" traffic—people who had typed the URL directly into their browser.
At first, this looked like an attribution problem. But when I interviewed some of these customers, a pattern emerged. They all said the same thing: "I've been following [Founder's name] on LinkedIn for months. His posts about agency management really resonated with me."
The founder had been casually sharing insights about running creative agencies—struggles with client communication, project scope creep, team productivity challenges. He wasn't even trying to sell anything. He was just documenting his observations from working with agencies.
But here's the kicker: that "casual" LinkedIn content was generating more qualified leads than €15,000 worth of paid advertising. The conversion rate from LinkedIn followers to paid customers was nearly 10x higher than any paid channel.
We were optimizing the wrong thing entirely.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Once I realized what was happening, I completely restructured their approach to creating buzz. Instead of fighting for attention in crowded ad auctions, we doubled down on what was already working: the founder's authentic expertise.
Step 1: The Content Audit and Insight Mining
First, I had the founder document every client interaction, common question, and recurring problem he encountered. Not for sales materials—for content ideas. We created what I called an "insight database" of real situations and solutions.
The key was specificity. Instead of generic posts about "5 Ways to Improve Team Productivity," he shared stories like: "Yesterday, a client told me they were spending 3 hours a week just figuring out what everyone was working on. Here's the simple system we implemented that cut that to 15 minutes."
Step 2: The Platform Strategy Shift
We moved 80% of the ad budget to content creation and distribution. Instead of paying Facebook for impressions, we invested in:
High-quality video equipment for quick case study videos
A content calendar based on real client situations
Time for the founder to engage authentically with comments and questions
Step 3: The Documentation Framework
Every client success became content. Every common objection became a post. Every "aha" moment from user interviews became educational material. The rule was simple: if it came up more than twice in client conversations, it became content.
Step 4: The Trust-Building Sequence
Instead of driving traffic directly to sign-up pages, we created what I call a "trust funnel." People discovered the founder's content, followed for insights, gradually learned about the product through case studies and behind-the-scenes posts, then converted when they were ready.
The magic happened in the comments. The founder wasn't just broadcasting—he was having real conversations with potential customers, answering questions, and building relationships before anyone even knew he had a product to sell.
Step 5: The Cross-Pollination Strategy
We took successful LinkedIn content and adapted it for other platforms. A LinkedIn post about client communication became a Twitter thread, a YouTube video, and a detailed blog post. Same insights, different formats, reaching different audiences.
But here's what made it work: every piece of content was rooted in real experience. No generic advice, no recycled tips from other "gurus." Just documented reality from actually working with the target audience.
Content Database
Build an insight repository from every client interaction and common question you encounter
Trust Funnel
Replace direct sales funnels with educational content that builds credibility over time
Platform Strategy
Focus 80% effort on one platform where your audience actually engages rather than spreading thin
Documentation System
Turn every client success story and common objection into specific content pieces
The transformation was dramatic, but it didn't happen overnight. Within three months, the cost per acquisition from LinkedIn content was 73% lower than paid ads, and the customers acquired this way had significantly higher lifetime value.
More importantly, the founder had built something sustainable. He wasn't dependent on ad platforms or algorithm changes. His "buzz" came from consistent value delivery to an audience that actually wanted to hear from him.
The business grew from struggling to cover ad costs to achieving profitability within six months. But the real victory was that the founder had become a recognized voice in his industry. When agency owners had project management problems, his name came up in conversations.
That's the difference between paid buzz and earned buzz. Paid buzz stops the moment you stop paying. Earned buzz compounds over time and creates an unfair advantage that competitors can't easily replicate.
The lesson? Stop trying to buy attention. Start earning it through consistent, valuable expertise sharing.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons I learned from this experience that apply to any SaaS looking to create authentic buzz:
Your expertise is your unfair advantage. Everyone has access to the same ad platforms, but only you have your specific insights and experiences.
Direct traffic isn't always "direct." Often, it's the result of long-term trust building that attribution tools can't track.
SaaS is a trust game, not a product game. People need to believe you understand their problems before they'll trust you with their workflows.
Specificity beats generality every time. "How we helped Agency X solve Problem Y" performs better than "5 Tips for Better Project Management."
Distribution channels matter more than content quality. Amazing content in the wrong place gets no results. Good content in the right place creates momentum.
Founder-led content scales differently than hired content. Authenticity can't be outsourced, but it can be systematized.
Buzz isn't viral moments—it's consistent visibility. Show up regularly where your audience already spends time, and buzz builds naturally.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Document every client call and user interview for content ideas
Choose one platform where your target users actually engage, not where you think they should be
Share behind-the-scenes product development stories and user feedback responses
Create educational content around the problem you solve, not just your solution
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores:
Share customer success stories and how they use your products in real situations
Document your product development process and behind-the-scenes operations
Create educational content around your product category or customer lifestyle
Build relationships with customers through direct engagement, not just transactional content