Brendan Hufford

Director of SEO

Growth Sprints

We Help Take SaaS Companies From $10M to $100M ARR. Using our SaaS Growth Sprint Framework, we help Saas companies increase revenue from Google through short, focused marketing sprints.

Founder

ALL IN (allinhouse.co)

The #1 community for career-focused in house SaaS marketers.

Founder & Community Lead

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Advisor

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Strategic Advisor

Copy.ai

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SparkToro

Interim Head of Marketing

The Blueprint Training

Head of Agency Coaching

Exploring how SaaS companies *actually* get customers

Getting results via my 4-part SaaS growth framework is what I do.

Having led and scaled growth teams at two agencies, most of the clients I worked with didn’t want (or need) 6-12 month marketing engagements. I knew there was a better way, so I created this service.

My best clients could be incredibly successful if only they just had a little help guiding them along the path of making sure they had a strong website and were perfectly positioned to rank in Google.

It’s why so many of them double, or even triple leads and MQLs after working together:

📈  +2,750% MQLs for ETL Software company

📈  Launched content marketing campaign that brought in 100k site visitors, 1,000 new backlinks and  $130,000 in monthly traffic value for Cloud Operations software company

📈  Led strategy for a multi-pronged SEO and content marketing campaign for an established software company resulting in +100% website traffic in only 3 months.

Sam Altman just asked for enough money to buy Japan.
He wants...

$7 trillion (more than Japan's GDP).

The biggest financial ask in human history.

And we don't even know... why?

Here's what's breaking my brain:

Kennedy's moon money? Gotta beat the Soviets.

The Manhattan Project? End the war.

Bank bailouts in '08? Prevent collapse.

$7 trillion. For what enemy? What crisis? What future are we building?

"AGI will change everything."

Cool story, bro. Change it how? For who?

And when Altman gets pressed on it in interviews?

He defends it with the arrogance of a Gringotts goblin.

This is me handing my kid 13 bucks for allowance and him holding out his other hand for 7,000.

Stone-faced. Like it’s normal.

Also a 13X multiple (Google is only 6x).

But we're not united around... anything.

Not a mission. Not a villain. Not even a clear promise.

Apple said "1,000 songs in your pocket."

Google said "organize the world's information."

OpenAI says "give us $7 trillion or get left behind."

Venture capital fanfiction.

At this scale, real marketing HAS to do one thing: unite us.

⚡️

PS - What's the Content IP (named problem) for OpenAI?

I genuinely can't think of it without drifting into Theranos/WeWork/FTX territory.

For those of us bad at math (me), 7 trillions would end world hunger for the next 175 years.

So the problem's gotta be bigger than that?

SaaS Marketing - Content, AEO & SEO | Newsletter: How SaaS companies *actually* get customers

Middle school. Elementary. Preschool. 4 kids. 3 schools. 1 dad slowly losing his mind.

7:42am - Drop off oldest at middle school. He forgot his project. Again.

8:20am - Preschool drop-off. Different school. Different side of town. "Dad, you're going the wrong way."

8:46am - Elementary. Third school. Third parking lot. Third sign-in process. I've written the wrong kid's name twice this week.

9:23am - Finally at my desk. Call in 7 minutes. Would've loved more prep time.

Here's what you see on LinkedIn:

Me at conferences. Speaking on stages. "SaaS marketing" in my bio.

48K followers watching me share frameworks and hot takes.

What you don't see:

My wife, Liz, does the above routine 99.999% of the time.

Liz handling the 12:30pm classroom party I didn't even know existed.

Liz managing three different school calendars while I'm "building my brand."

The 47 text messages she sends daily coordinating our chaos while I worry about clients.

Last week at Adobe Max, someone said: "Must be nice having that flexibility."

I laughed.

Because at that exact moment, Liz was simultaneously:

- At a parent-teacher conference
- Coordinating tomorrow's early dismissal  
- Explaining to our 5-year-old why dad's in LA again

Behind every thought leader is someone actually leading the thoughts at home.

I talk about work-life balance.

While my partner actually creates it.

Perspective is a hell of a drug.

Bad news: I don't have a framework for this.

Just a partner who makes my "flexibility" possible.

Who never gets the credit she deserves.

Who somehow makes three schools, four boys, and one chaotic business look manageable.

While I get the LinkedIn likes for talking about it.

⚡️

PS - Liz doesn't have LinkedIn. Probably because she's too busy actually running things while I'm here talking about running things. If you see her, tell her she's the real MVP. She already knows, but still.

I turned down 3 clients last month. Not because I don't need the revenue (I do).

But because they failed my 3-question test.

(note: your entire marketing team should also know the answers to these - make sure they do)

Here's the framework that saves me (and clients) from checkbox marketing doom every single time:

1. Do you know your ICP?

What did they do at work yesterday?

If you can't picture their actual workday, you're guessing at their problems.

2. Do you know their pain?

Can you tell me what keeps them stuck at work at 5pm when they wish they were with their kids?

The problem they can't quite articulate but know is slowly ruining their work

Last week a founder told me their customers need "better ROI."

That's not a pain. That's a checkbox.

The pain? Their CFO just cut their budget by 40% and they're trying to hit the same targets.

See the difference?

3. Are you willing to own one problem?

This is where 90% bail.

"But we solve 17 different problems!"

Cool. So does everyone else.

Content IP isn't about being everything to everyone. It's about being THE solution to one specific problem.

Sendoso owns digital fatigue.

UserEvidence owns the evidence gap.

One problem. Deeply owned.

Honestly, these aren't just client qualification questions.

They're the difference between content that changes businesses and content that just... exists.

Between building actual authority and playing checkbox marketing games.

So before you hire anyone (including me), ask yourself these 3 questions.

Because if you can't answer them clearly, no amount of content strategy will save you.

⚡️

PS - Marketers: Bookmark this. 

Next time someone asks you to "just create more content," run them through these questions first. 

Watch what happens.

Boomers got pensions.
Gen X got stability.
Millennials got gaslit.
Gen Z went, “lol never again.”

We labeled an entire generation "entitled" without asking the one question that matters.

And that question is: Where did that come from?

I worked my butt off, then asked for a job - or a raise.

Their generation asks for the raise upfront.

And we're shocked.

But here's what the boomers missed:

Gen Z watched their parents get laid off from profitable companies.

Not for screwing up. 

Because they only grew +28% that quarter, missing projections by 2%.

Gen Z saw "shareholder value" become the only value.

Gen Z learned loyalty was a one-way street.

Company demands it. Offers none.

The gold watch became a pink slip.

Job security? Never heard of him.

So when they say "pay me first, then I'll show you what I can do"...

They're not entitled.

They're adapting.

To the world we built.

So do I love it?

No. But i can sure empathize with it and realize whose fault it is.

I get being cynical - thinking working hard guarantees nothing and Excel decides your fate.

Corporate execs burned the social contract and wonder why they won't sign the ashes.

So they're playing by the new rules.

And I gotta be honest...

I respect that.

⚡️

PS - I really hope this helps marketing leaders navigating hiring young talent right now.

They aren't entitled.

It's just my job, your job, OUR job... to make sure we attract and retain them better than anybody else.

The debate about SEO vs AEO is missing the point entirely.

For software buyers, Google search starts are UP from 42% to 79% year-over-year.

Meanwhile, AI tool usage sits at 58%.

You know what that math tells me?

People are using both.

Not either/or. Both.

Yet every week I see another "SEO is dead" post or "AI search will kill Google" prediction.

Here's what's actually happening:

Your buyers aren't choosing sides. They're doubling up.

They ask ChatGPT for recommendations.

Then verify on Google.

They Google for options.

Then ask AI for comparisons.

They find you through SEO.

Then ask AI about your competitors.

I use Ahrefs Brand Radar to measure AI discovery and visibility.

It shows you how your brand (and your competitors) appear in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot… right alongside the Google data you already track.

The smart play isn't picking a lane.

It's owning both highways.

YOU HAVE TO OWN BOTH, PEOPLE.

Because while everyone's debating which one wins, your buyers are already using both to make decisions.

And if you're only optimizing for one?

You're invisible to half your market.

The brands winning tomorrow aren't choosing between SEO or AEO.

They're dominating both.

Simple as that.

⚡️

PS - If you haven’t checked how AI already describes your brand, Brand Radar will probably surprise you.

Felic.io

Co-Founded Felic.io: 

- Designed and Developed various products including: Felic.io, starin.pro, profitleap.com
- Implemented Technical SEO optimizations across multiple React apps.
- Trained a remote team to follow the best JS SEO practices.
- Planned the growth of ai.felic.io to achieve a $4K (MRR).
- Advised and supported numerous clients in attaining their SEO objectives.
- Crafted dynamic Reactive PR campaigns, contributing to brand visibility and engagement.

Co-Founder

Graana.com

Worked as the Growth Manager @ Graana

- Trained a team of 20+ people for SEO and Growth Marketing.
- Delivered lectures to educate the marketing and engineering departments on Growth Marketing.
- Helped with streamlining the content marketing strategy.
- Helped manage a team of 15+ content writers.
- Coordinated with the dev team to find and fix Technical SEO issues at a base level.
- Made strategies that have brought a 400% increase in Organic Traffic and a 33% increase in leads in the past year.
- Helped strike a deal with different media outlets for PR.
- Devised a transparent system to make sure the strategies made are executed and tracked.
- Made the KPIs and deliverables for different teams.
- Constantly reported campaign performance to the upper management.
- Worked in a project based environment to align everyone on the content, seo and the product team.
- Tested strategies that were working to quickly adapt to what works.

Growth Manager (Organic)

Worked as a Senior Analyst (search) @ Graana

Achievements:

- Identified different technical issues on the website.
- Helped identify the ideal audience that would help increase the overall sales.
- Worked with the UX team to develop a UI/UX that would appeal to the audience.
- Helped with migrating a 4000+ pages blog.
- Conducted a competitive analysis to identify the gaps in our current content and performance marketing strategies.
- Analyzed the whole website with a custom crawler that crawled 2 million+ pages, and found issues that
were limiting the company’s growth in the SERP.
- Closely worked with the dev-ops team to ensure the audience saw relevant pages.

Sr. Analyst (Search)

ProPakistani

Worked as the Manager (SEO).

Achievements:

- Took a subsection from 1 million page views to 2.4 million.
- Started another subsection from 0 and took it to 400K+ monthly page views: propakistani.pk/how-to
- Competed with sites like ESPN & Geo Super during PSL and took ranks for some of their most important keywords.
- Helped set up the sections: propakistani.pk/how-to and propakistani.pk/foodnama from scratch.
- Identified keyword opportunities for ever-green content that has gained 14K organic backlinks to date.
- Made a tool using Python that helped manage the prices of over 1000 products.
- Co-ordinated with the dev team to improve the Core Web Vitals.
- Helped in interviewing and hiring new employees in verticals such as: SEO, Content Writing and Data Entry.
- Trained the team to perform different On-Page and Off-Page tasks.

SEO Manager

Worked as an in-house SEO Executive.

Achievements:

- Did On-Page activities of different pages.
- Made a set of guidelines for the writers.
- Interlinked all the relevant pages.
- Identified relevant backlink opportunities.

SEO Executive

Dispatch News Desk Pakistan 

Consulted DND.com.pk on Off-Page and On-Page SEO.

Achievements:

- Trained the writers to write well optimized content.
- Did content gap analysis to find ever green keyword ideas.
- Helped in building branded links.
- Helped implement an off-page campaign.
- Grew the blog by more than 110% in less than a year.

PeoplePerHour

Worked as a freelance SEO Writer on different projects.

Achievements:

- Worked on SEO projects with companies like GDA.
- Learned On Page SEO, Image SEO.
- Helped qualify websites for backlinks.
- Crafted email templates for Outreach.
- Wrote SEO optimized articles for different niches.

SEO Writer - Freelance

7+ years in SEO, 10+ years coding useless programs.

That's what it took to learn that 99% of the apps never take off.

People nowadays have too many options for everything.

You have to intercept them where they're most likely to buy from you.

And there's no better way to do this other than SEO.

But there's a problem.

JavaScript SEO is very tricky.

The JS world offers too many "cutting-edge frameworks" with SSR, SSG, CSR etc.

And to build a good application, you need more control than the no-code tools offer.

The good thing is, I've successfully tackled this problem.

With experience in SEO and software development, my mission now is to help founders create SEO optimized web apps.

Apps that rank... have a great UX..... and are accessible to every one of your customers.

For any queries, feel free dm me or contact me at: 

salman@felic.io

https://felic.io/contact

taplio

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Brendan Hufford's LinkedIn Performance

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