A founder today is not only the ultimate person in charge at the company, but often the face of it. Your personal brand can make the difference between standing out in the crowd and marketplace.
Authority marketing, or founder-led marketing, is all about using your expertise and personality to grow your business. But what do some SaaS founders do so much better than others to become truly visible and influential?
Contents
Research Approach: How We Analyzed The Top SaaS Founders On LinkedIn
To understand what sets the top SaaS CEOs apart in terms of authority marketing, we conducted a comprehensive analysis. For this, we used our proprietary software to analyze more than 3,000 LinkedIn posts by SaaS founders. We use this software for all of our clients to analyze and benchmark their LinkedIn posts.
In our research, we scrutinized specific metrics such as the number of posts per month, type of content (video, image, text, carousel), the content itself (e.g., thought leadership, events, product updates, personal updates), and level of engagement. We then compared this data from the top 5 SaaS founders with 100 “average” SaaS founders from companies with annual revenue between €1 and €50 million.
The focus was on content frequency, type, and impact of posts to see how the top 5 founders make a clear difference in their personal branding and business growth.
The Top 5 SaaS founders: Authority Marketing in Action
The five SaaS founders we analyzed in this study are examples of effectively used authority marketing to grow their businesses. Here is a brief description of each founder and how they use authority marketing:
Guillaume Moubeche – CEO of lempire. Guillaume Moubeche’s (55,000 followers on LinkedIn) lempire, Lemlist’s parent company, grew to a €150 million valuation in just three years, largely due to his innovative marketing approach. Guillaume is an expert in community-building and personal branding on LinkedIn, which he used to make his company big without outside investors. He uses LinkedIn to share inspiring stories about entrepreneurship, team culture and scaling SaaS companies.
Adam Robinson – CEO of RB2B. Adam Robinson (88,000 followers on LinkedIn) is known for his innovative marketing approach and ability to grow quickly with limited resources. As CEO of RB2B and Rententiom.com, he has successfully deployed a founder-led marketing strategy, regularly publishing content on the challenges of running a bootstrapped SaaS business, including honest insights on what works and what doesn’t. By 2024, Retention.com has reached an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $22 million, with rapid growth from $2 million in 2020 to $12 million by the end of 2023. RB2B has also experienced significant growth, with an ARR reaching $2 million within a short time, having crossed the $1 million mark.
Peep Laja – CEO of Wynter. Peep Laja (66,000 followers on LinkedIn) is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Wynter, a platform that helps companies test the right messaging on their ideal customers. Peep is active on LinkedIn, where he shares thought leadership on positioning and market strategies. His content often aims to challenge conventional wisdom, which has earned him a reputation as a sharp thinker within B2B marketing.
Alina Vandenberghe – Co-CEO of Chili Piper. Alina (21,000 followers on LinkedIn) is co-CEO of Chili Piper and is strongly committed to sharing her vision for the future of work and improving customer relationships. She is known for her clear thought leadership on productivity tools and team management. Her posts are often inspiring and focused on solving real problems in sales and marketing.
Rand Fishkin – CEO of SparkToro. Rand Fishkin (159,000 followers on LinkedIn), founder of both Moz and SparkToro, is one of the most recognizable faces in the marketing world. He uses his platform to share knowledge about search engine marketing, data analytics, and building a strong brand without relying on traditional advertising. His direct and often critical style attracts a lot of attention.
These five founders are great examples of how personal branding and thought leadership not only increase their personal influence but also have a significant impact on the growth of their companies.
Comparing Top Five to 100 “Average” SaaS Founders
The analysis of the 100 average SaaS founders (who have annual revenues between €1 and €50 million) revealed some notable differences in strategy and execution compared to the top 5. Whereas the successful founders focus on authority marketing, the study found that the average SaaS CEOs often ignore this approach.
1. Average number of posts per month: 15 versus 2
On average, founders share only two LinkedIn posts per month, while the top 5 SaaS founders put this number at 15. This difference of a whopping 13 posts per month underscores the lack of visibility and engagement among average founders.
2. Posts about thought leadership: 42.4% vs. 8.1%
Our research shows that on average only 8.1% of the LinkedIn posts of the average SaaS founders are focused on thought leadership, as opposed to 42.4% among the top founders.
3. Video content: 24% versus 14%
Another striking difference is the use of video content: on average, 14% of their posts are videos, compared to nearly 25% among top founders. This lack of diversity in content formats limits their ability to build engagement and reach a wider audience.
4. Followers: 78,212 versus 5,063
The number of followers also logically has a big difference 78,212 among the top 5 versus 5,063 among the rest.
5. Reposted content: 4% versus 51%
And finally, the top 5 reposts only 4% versus 51% of the group of 100 founders.
These statistics illustrate not only the gap in strategy, but also the potential for growth that unused authority marketing brings to the average SaaS founder. By engaging in regular, authentic and valuable content, they can strengthen their brand and take their business to new heights.
Key Lessons For SaaS Founders on LinkedIn
The successful approach of the top five SaaS founders offers valuable lessons for other founders looking to grow their businesses. First, consistency is key. Not only do the top founders share content regularly, but they do so with a clear focus on their expertise and value proposition. This not only creates trust with their audience but also positions them as authorities in their field. Other founders can learn from this that building a personal brand takes time and dedication, but the results are worth it.
It is also important to use a variety of content formats, such as video content and thought leadership articles. The top founders show that video content, which makes up 25% of their posts, is a powerful way to increase engagement and appeal to a broader audience. Average founders may consider investing more in video content and other visual elements to increase their reach.
Tips for Applying Authority Marketing
This is the exact process we use for all of our SaaS clients:
- Start with the basics: find out what resonates with your target audience. Research your customers thoroughly to find out their needs, questions, challenges, and frustrations. Based on the research, create a list of questions for the founder to answer.
- Schedule a monthly (online) conversation of up to 45 minutes with the founder and make sure you record it with audio and video. Try to use a relaxed style of questioning to get the founder’s expertise on camera.
- Be authentic and transparent: People connect faster with authentic stories. Share not only your successes but also your challenges and lessons learned. This makes your story more human and relatable.
- Select the best parts of the conversation and use them to create a blog article, LinkedIn posts (video + images + carousels) and repurpose the content as much as possible.
- Distribute the content through LinkedIn, YouTube, your blog, your newsletter, and other channels where your target audience is active.
- Analyze the best content each month and use it as input for the next month.
- Use LinkedIn thought leadership ads to amplify the best content.
This way, you set up a content machine with authority marketing and make a huge impact on your target audience and therefore on your business.
Conclusion
Authority marketing plays a key role in the success of SaaS marketing. By regularly sharing valuable and relevant content, founders not only manage to strengthen their personal brand but also increase the trust of their target audience. This ultimately results in new customers.
The data from our research shows that the differences in strategies between top CEOs and average founders are significant. It is essential for other SaaS founders to recognize the power of a strong personal brand and apply the lessons from the top 5 to grow their business. With the right approach and strategy, this will also make you an authority in your niche or industry.
