Comments on: Friday Q & A: How to Do Content Marketing on a Lean Budget, Where to Hire Remote Workers, and How to Structure Beta Testing Programs

By: Ryan Angilly

Ryan Angilly — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 21:09:47 +0000

I just asked a question on a more recent Q&A about the decision to build a custom blog instead of use WordPress (https://www.groovehq.com/blog/friday-qa-september-11-2015#comment-2250393319), then I realized I should search ‘site:groovehq.com/blog wordpress’ to see if you had already talked about this 🙂

This post doesn’t deal with this question directly, but you make a content that piqued my interest: “when it comes to marketing, it’s the basket where we’ve been putting pretty much all of our eggs.”

As of this post you were probably doing ~$150k/month MRR with 8 employees. A general rule of thumb for SaaS businesses is ~$10k/mo/person. That leaves you with ~$70k/month in extra cash. I assumed the extra cash was being dumped into other marketing channels, but this quote challenges that assumption. I know this can be a bit of a sensitive subject, but can you talk a little bit at least in very loose terms about how you allocate capital?

By: Kalo Yankulov

Kalo Yankulov — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:23:09 +0000

Guys, thanks for sharing everything from the kitchen! It’s always helpful to see how the others are doing it.

P.s. I featured your blog and articles in my latest post: http://wooguru.net/blog/long-form-content-posts/ Feel free to check it out

By: Craig L

Craig L — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 13:59:28 +0000

Great tips here. Thanks for putting this article together. I have just started using tumblr + canva to add images to the posts. There was another interesting post about how adding some images to content marketing could greatly increase the visibility and shareability on the social media.

It is reassuring to see from you that it DOES take a long time to prepare these posts and there is no other way around it. Thanks.

By: Brian_Walker

Brian_Walker — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 03:12:23 +0000

Hi Alex, I just came over to see what was new this week and whadayaknow but you answered my question on beta testing. Thanks! I love the idea of getting people who want to beta test the product to share it to be moved up the list. I’m going to check out your guide to collecting data after i finish typing this. Tomorrow is a big day for us as we launch http://www.vizoop.com !

By: kakoma

kakoma — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 09:26:01 +0000

Hi Alex, awesome post, as always. Thanks a lot.
You mention “ideal user persona” in here a number of times but don’t allude to how you and your team zeroed in on that persona. None of you or Len’s previous posts talk about it either 🙁

By: Madhav Bhandari

Madhav Bhandari — Sat, 27 Jun 2015 18:02:20 +0000

This is definitely the line of the week for me- “not every good worker is a good remote worker (yet)”

I can totally relate to this from my previous startup experience. Remote working requires alot of self-discipline and even the most talented team members with no remote working experience can be unimaginably unproductive (I’ve seen that). I joined a startup called Hubstaff (www.hubstaff.com) a few months back and we’re a 100% remote company. I use our own tool that helps me track my time with proof of work i.e. screenshots, keyboard/mouse activity levels, URL/app tracking etc. which made me a better remote worker from Day 1 at the company. That’s also how we track our time spent on content marketing and it comes out to about 10-20 hours per article so it aligns with your advice.

I’m starting to become a fan of your Friday Q&As Alex, thanks so much and I look forward to more of them. Cheers!

By: Harshal Katre

Harshal Katre — Sat, 27 Jun 2015 05:28:28 +0000

Thanks Alex for answering my question!
For our startup – ProfitBooks.net, I tried to hire people on odesk in the past for small tasks but was little hesitant to go for full time candidates. Will definitely try WeWorkRemotely.

Thanks again for featuring this question. You guys rock!

By: NapoleonCat.com

NapoleonCat.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 17:37:52 +0000

Great answers to good questions. We especially like the one about content marketing as we’re just at the beginning of this road. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂

By: Gaurav Gulati

Gaurav Gulati — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 16:31:08 +0000

Yet another great post, Alex. Would you have any pointers on Beta Testing Program for a B2C web service – How to Finding the right, diversity, Age groups, reach, word of mouth, rewards, Actionable feedback strategy etc?

By: Jarratt Isted

Jarratt Isted — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 15:07:35 +0000

Great answers Alex.

When researching for new content, do you have a list of questions or a process/structure you can share with us?

Thanks!

By: Rachel Krantz

Rachel Krantz — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 15:05:09 +0000

We’re currently using all of the free resources you recommend for content marketing, with the exception of SumoMe — so thanks for the validation 🙂 I am putting an additional plug in for Canva, as it’s a huge step above MSPaint!
The most challenging thing for us to implement is the time spent on research/outlining. The people on our team who blog do so when inspiration strikes, so to speak. They prefer to sit down and rattle off a blog post spitfire-style. I have to admit, we’ve gotten some really good results off of that! But I know long-term it’s not sustainable. What were the biggest differences you saw — along the lines of quality of posts, responses, engagement — when you shifted to a more orderly format of writing?