B2B SEO & Web Design For Revenue Not Vanity | DM To Discuss | Host @ Business Growth Show (Top 10 B2B Marketing Podcast, Cognism)

Your website struggling to drive a steady flow of qualified demos/leads?
Tired of losing leads to competitors ranking higher on Google/AI?
Frustrated your current agency isn't delivering results?

WE CAN FIX THAT.

OUR GROWTH STRATEGIES:

→ SEO to get top of Google & LLMs, bringing revenue-focused traffic and leads
→ Start driving pipeline from AI and Google organic as fast as 90 days
→ Web design that builds trust and drives leads and sales

BREAKING B2B - B2B MARKETING & DEMAND GENERATION PODCAST

Grow your b2b/SaaS company without the BS. Weekly top 2.5% podcast with actionable marketing tips to grow your revenue: www.breakingb2b.com

STILL NOT CONVINCED?

→ See our work, client results & starting rates here: www.breakingb2b.com

BOOK A CALL:

💻: www.breakingb2b.com
📧: Connect & DM Me
✉️: sam@samdunning.org

CORE SERVICES:

→ B2B SEO strategy and execution
→ Content marketing
→ Digital marketing for SaaS

WHY BREAKING B2B?

→ We focus on revenue, not vanity metrics
→ Our strategies are data-driven and results-oriented
→ We have a proven track record with B2B and SaaS companies
→ Our podcast (Breaking B2B) gives you free, valuable insights into B2B marketing

About time your website became your best (24/7) salesperson?
Get in touch today, and let's start growing your business.

P.S.
Agencies: We offer white-label SEO to help you deliver results on time and within budget.

Sam Dunning

0-$6.7M ARR under 2yrs. Fully boostrapped. Adam Robinson leaked his full SaaS growth framework in 34mins. Now its yours:

Adam and I don’t do fluff.

You’re about to learn: 

- The secrets to building epic products
- RB2B weird insane strategy for growth 
- Where Adam took inspiration from
- The framework so you can copy it
- How he’s diversifying to hit 10M ARR+ 

SaaS marketers and founders, hit 2026 with a bang.

Watch the 34-minute masterclass: https://lnkd.in/eHdqi3uD

Founder @ Breaking B2B | B2B SEO For Revenue Not Vanity | SaaS & B2B Teams Hire Us To Scale Organic Pipeline From Google & AI Search | DM To Discuss | Host @ Breaking B2B (Top 2.5% B2B Marketing Podcast)

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Breaking B2B podcast just turned 6yrs old...I’ve interviewed 471 marketing leaders & founders. Here’s my 8 biggest takeaways:

1. Customer research before anything.

Before content, ads, or messaging, talk to customers. Interview recently won and churned clients. Ask what they struggled with, what problem cost them money, what competitors they looked at, and what made them choose you. Record the calls. GPT the transcripts for patterns and common replies. Use their exact words in your website, ads, and sales calls so you stop guessing.

2. Organic growth is a must.

Ads keep getting more expensive. SEO and AEO build long-term moats. Go after buyers who are ready now. Create pages for searches like competitor alternatives, pricing, and best software for a niche. Build better pages than what already ranks. These pages drive pipeline quick as 90 days.

3. Show pricing.

Hiding pricing brings poor-fit leads. People want to know cost before a demo. SaaS companies should show clear tiers. Service companies should show ranges. Pricing pages can also answer common questions, video testimonials and speed up sales cycles. You get fewer leads but better buyers.

4. Track the full funnel.

Leads do not equal revenue. Follow deals from first call to closed won. Look at which channels create real sales, not just signups. Double down on what closes and cut what does not (after a fair test).

5. Product-led content wins.

Most content never shows the product. Revenue driving content does. Be useful and show how your product fixes the problem. Use examples, screenshots, and real use cases. Teach, then show the solution. Ahrefs are masters here. Check their blog.

6. Build a media engine. 

At Breaking B2B most of our long form linked posts and breakdowns fuel long form YouTube scripts. We then chop up and distribute on LinkedIn and the newsletter.

7. Founder brand.

Build in public. Share what is working and what is not. Share wins and mistakes. This builds trust fast and attracts buyers who already believe in you. SEO / YouTube / LinkedIn is working as a deadly trio for us at Breaking B2B to drive pre-sold inbounds atm. 

8. Speed beats slow giants. 

Big companies move slow. I’m talking months to approve and publish content at the enterprise level. Small teams move fast. Publish faster. Test faster. Act on customer research. Speed helps you steadily steal market share for underserved segments. Especially in SEO/AEO.

___

This was massively simplified to keep in word count.

Watch my full 16-minute breakdown video: https://lnkd.in/eY6Vsvk6

Fibbler got recommended by AI search just weeks after we started SEO/AEO. Now Adam has prospects mentioning it on demo calls. Here’s how we did it:

SEO doesn’t have to take 12 months.

There's money to be made in 90 days.  

Competitor content is one of many winner for quick AI and organic search impact, sign-ups and demos.

This is one of the first places we start on a program. 

These terms are low difficulty and can rank super fast.

List out the competitors your customers often evaluate, or move over to you from.

Then look at terms like:

[competitor] alternatives
[competitor] reviews
[competitor] pricing
[competitor 1] vs [competitor 2] vs [you]

Right now, listicle based articles rank exceptionally well on google and AI search.

Position your solution as the top choice (backed by customer research), showing your product in action + social proof along with where you're a strong/poor fit. 

Then a fair comparison of other vendors.

Not only can you get fast bottom funnel visibility.

You can control the narrative in LLMs and Google.

And drive pipeline from high intent prospects frustrated with their current vendor or evaluating options.

PS. grab my 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO playbook and video course: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

RB2B nearly hit $7M ARR. We run their SEO/AEO engine at Breaking B2B. Next up $10M ARR. Here's our January battle-plan for Adam Robinson SaaS:

HIGH LEVEL OVERVIEW.

The mission? Drive high intent sign-ups as quick as humanly possible from google organic and AI searches.

This month we've found more competitor-focused pricing page opportunities with healthy search volume. 

For example, “Instantly pricing” generates 3,000+ monthly high-intent searches, showing prospects actively evaluating costs and purchase options. Third-party pricing pages (in addition to Instantly’s own site) are already capturing a meaningful share of this traffic, which signals clear opportunity to compete and drive inbound with a well-optimized pricing page.

And a bunch of other pricing-related pages with consistent search demand, strong buyer intent. Solid for organic acquisition.

We’re crafting a product listicle for “Cognism alternatives.” This keyword attracts solid monthly traffic and has low difficulty, with strong opportunity to rank and capture users who are in the consideration stage and actively comparing software.

NET NEW CONTENT.

pricing articles:
- Instantly pricing (3.1k searches/mo)
- Cognism pricing (1.2k/mo)
- Clearbit pricing (1k/mo)
- Uplead pricing (500/mo)
- Leadinfo pricing (400/mo)

these pages review the software pricing, share user feedback, breakdown of costs and share where RB2B is differentiated and why customers choose them. plus they often rank well within 90 days.

alternative listicle:
- Cognism alternatives (400/mo)

aq quick summary and intro, why listen to us, what is cognism, why look into alternatives (based on what prospects say e.g. on G2), list of 12 alternatives, RB2B at #1 with why customers choose them, show product in action, pricing and feature info, where they are good + poor fit then list of 11 other options below with fair summary + conclusion and FAQs.

listicle and alternative/competitor content on your own site is solid for being cited and recommend in AI search and enables you to control the narrative with dream clients on ChatGPT and google ai overviews.

EARN BACKLINKS (DA50+).

- free b2b lead generation software
- lusha vs zoominfo
- zoominfo vs uplead

EXTERNAL LISTICLE PLACEMENTS.

- best data enrichment tools x 3 
top 3 placements in 3 niche relevant external listicle articles.

solid to ramp AI search visibility and mentions.
plus can get direct inbound.
and the backlink.

___

Wanna see if we can scale demos quick as 90 days for your B2B/SaaS?

Visit the Breaking B2B site to check our results, pricing and grab a call.

Watch my 34-minute SEO/AEO breakdown video for RB2B below 👇

Proposify had good SEO before partnering with Breaking B2B. We crafted a strategy and execution taking demos, AI and organic visibility to the next level 👇 

#1 for "quoting software" in the USA - Top organic position for this money keyword, appearing above competitors in standard results and AI Overview.

#1 for "proposal software" in the USA - Top organic position for another critical solution keyword.

68% more clicks from competitor pages (prospects comparing vendors or looking to switch).

AI search visitors up by 91%
Engaged sessions up by 20%

Longer term conversions are stable, starting to see big spikes in organic demo requests on shorter timelines:

Last 1 weeks demos vs previous period: +115%.
Last 2 weeks demos vs previous period: +72%.

___

Cheers to Kyle Racki and Jennifer Faulkner for the review.

See our results, pricing and book a call: https://lnkd.in/eT_F8zZB

You're being lied to about SEO & AEO
(The myth: SEO traffic is down 25%+)
Juicy research hot off the press.
Per similarweb and graphite 👇 

You've probably seen the headlines claiming organic traffic has dropped anywhere from 25% to 60%.

These numbers are based on flawed research methods, mostly surveys and often small sample sizes of 10-20 websites.

The problem with surveys is that human memory is unreliable, and people who respond to surveys about AI adoption tend to be early adopters who use LLMs more than average.

So the data gets skewed.

___

Here's what the actual numbers show

Graphite partnered with Similarweb to analyze over 40,000 of the largest sites in the US.

Here's what the analysis revealed...

SEO traffic is down only 2.5% year over year, not 25%.

That's an overestimation by 1,000% in a lot of the studies floating around
And this aligns with what Google themselves said in August 2025, that overall organic click volume has been "relatively stable year-over-year".

Visits to search engines actually increased in 2025.

Traffic to search engines went up 6.9% from 2019 to 2020

Decreased slightly in 2022 by about 1.5%

And has been relatively flat since 2023

In fact, traffic increased slightly in 2025 to both Google at plus 0.8% and search engines as a whole at plus 0.4%

Visitors to Google grew by 1.35% comparing Q4 2025 versus Q4 2024

___

Google is still a demand capture beast

Per earlier research from Datos and Sparktoro, Google processes over 14 billion searches every day.

ChatGPT handles about 37.5 million search-like prompts daily

That means Google receives 373 times more searches than ChatGPT

Even if you combined the daily prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini, the total would still be under 2% of the search market
Google maintains a 93.57% market share of search.

___

Dropping the report along with my 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO playbook & video course below 👇

If I joined as CMO for a SaaS with $20k+ ACV I’d triple down on this deadly trio to scale demos this year: 

- SEO/AEO.
- YouTube.
- LinkedIn (founder brand & paid).

I’m yet to see a more powerful trio.

Especially when your offer is $10k+ ACV and involves multiple stakeholders.

Yet many SaaS still sleep on this deadly trio.

1. SEO/AEO.

Craft a program to show top of Google organic and AI search when dream cleints need your solution now, are comparing options, are annoyed with their current vendor or have an expensive problem you solve.

Why bother? Control the narrative with ICPs. Get into you into the consideration set and capture active demand for 5% of your dream clients in-market today.

2. YouTube.

This is not throwing old webinars and hoping for results. 

Crafting searchable videos that share every aspect of your playbook / approach / strategies / product / problems you solve.

Going in with a YouTube first approach.

Solid packaging, hook, story, CTAs and pacing.

Painfully focused on your dream client.

Just like SEO not going for traffic or views at all costs…going for the right type of folks with intent.

Giving away so much your ICP can copy then do it in house OR trusts you so much they buy into your offering.

3. LinkedIn founder brand & paid.

Daily founder or execs posting organically to become a trusted voice for ICPs and your niche.

I tend to play on edutainment with memes, videos and breakdown posts.

Then using ads a mix of helpful, trustworthy and social proof organic posts as thought leader ads to retarget site traffic from all above channels plus serve ads to a tight list of cold ICPs.

These 3 channels working together are cooking demos for us right now at Breaking B2B with many others.

RB2B are on the road to $10M ARR. 6mos ago we fired up their SEO/AEO engine. How did Adam Robinson describe working w/ Breaking B2B? BANANAS. Full breakdown below:

———

90-day non-branded clicks up 43% (4,270 vs 2,980) on 1.36m total impressions … which were only up 8%. 

So, SEO is driving LOTS of clicks

———

Engaged sessions are up from 33k to 62k (+90%) … on total sessions only rising 11%, from 77k to 86k.. 

So, SEO is driving LOTS of engagement.

———

We’re winning on 164 high-value keywords (+270%), whereas we were only winning on 44 when we started. 

So, SEO is driving LOTS of targeted pageviews.

———

Traffic is up 50% from keywords that both rank well AND drive signups: 

- website visitor identification
- website visitor tracking
- identify b2b website visitors
- b2b website visitor tracking
- b2b website visitor tracking software
- leadfeeder alternatives
- clearbit alternatives
- many more

———

And for icing on the cake, organic traffic hitting the signup page is +201% of the past 3mo, and 27-35% of those visitors are signing up for RB2B. 

———

Check our pricing, results or grab a call: https://lnkd.in/e7XuM6au
 
Watch my full RB2B SEO strategy breakdown vid: https://lnkd.in/eiZfaXXq

Breaking B2B was invisible on AI search 120 days ago. Now we’re often top. Stop giving SaaS competitors a free lunch on ChatGPT & Google. Here’s the fix:

QUICK WINS.

Start where you win already (commercial bottom funnel pages typically listicle articles, landing pages, comparison pages, competitor content etc) update these, making them best in class to blow the competition out the water at every angle.

BUILD THE MOAT.

Build a moat like no other on your site. (cover all pages across industries, product, features, pricing, documentation, competitors, use cases etc. each covering all ICPs jobs to be done, Qs etc).

Craft and improve with add unique stats, data, research, social proof and date updates on blog articles.

AEO/SEO CHEATCODE.

The cheat code for LLMs (listicles) build all relevant “best X software/platform/tools” listicle article on your own site.

Then outreach or leverage partners to get your brand featured on well ranking niche relevant  external site listicles in top 3 placements.

This was a huge part of how we got Breaking B2B mentioned regularly in AI searches (and classic google organic rankings for pipeline driving keywords).

LEVERAGE PAST MEDIA.

Leverage past media such as your founders appearances on podcasts, interviews, press and more. Head to - ahrefs > backlinks on media/pages that only point to an execs linkedin profile, ask the author of the page for a brand mention and backlink.

CONTROL THE NARRATIVE.

Ecosystem marketing FTW. Based on where you have resource. Control the narrative where folks search around your niche and compare options.

Redddit, YouTube and beyond.

Right now, SEO/youtube/linkedin is a killer trio working together to drive booked calls for us at Breaking B2B.

SPEED BEATS GIANTS.

Enterprise orgs move slow, they have layers of approvals and a lot of red tape.

This is your advantage as a fast moving mid or startup company.

Publishing and doing above at speed can steal market share over time, especially in undeserved niches.

___

Grab my free 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO video course: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

I’m 35 today.

So here’s a list you didn’t ask for: 

1. Family > all

2. Don’t wait until new year to start something

3. Hard work still goes a long way

4. Putting some pressure on isn’t always bad

5. Take time out to enjoy w/ fam and friends

6. Most emails that say urgent aren’t

7. Don’t need to start emails w/ hope you're well

8. Transparency wins

9. A website is your best or worst salesperson

10. Many companies still underestimate SEO/AEO

11. Bootstrapping a co. is tough but fun

12. Daily habits & activities are a winner for biz

13. Podcasts while driving = free university

14. Build something on the side and get paid 

15. Learn from those who’ve actually done it

16. Learn to sell, then learn to market

17. Fitness is medicine for the mind

18. I’m not for everyone

19. Some will, some won’t, so what, next.

20. Outbound is alive

21. SEO died in 1973. JK it's alive in b2b.

22. Everyone talks a good game on LinkedIn

23. Personal brand is great but not everything

24. Don’t rely on one marketing channel

25. Experimentation FTW in marketing

26. Have marketing channels you own and rent

27. Hire people smarter than you 

28. Don’t be tight 

29. Likes and shares don’t pay bills

30. It ain’t sold until cash hits the bank

31. Stay humble 

32. Lists are dead

33. God is good

34. Cheers 🍺

35. Your B2B/SaaS struggling to drive pipeline from SEO & AI search? I hear Breaking B2B are decent.

I just told a $1M ARR SaaS founder not to invest in SEO yet.

He was ready to spend $20k with us and already trusted us as had been following the Breaking B2B newsletter for years. 

Weirdly on paper their solution looked great for SEO & AI search.

Prospects were searching for their solution.

There is active demand to capture with search.

Quick wins from competitor focused content that could drive demos as fast as 90 days.

This issue?

Up to now they’d grown from outbound sales and proven that model works for their $60k+ ACV.

They’d never done SEO before.

And didn’t have the runway to keep SEO running with us for 6 months plus.

So I recommended they kept ramping the outbound model until they have runway to make SEO a longer term bet with us 

Rather than a couple months and chasing us for results and everyone getting frustrated.

And we’ll likely chat again in a few months when the timing makes sense.

___

join 1,910+ legends enjoying my 90 days to revenue free SEO/AEO video course and playbook: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

AEO “experts”: Chunk up your content
Leader at Google: Don’t do it mate. 

___

From Googles Danny Sullivan last week:

“One of the things I keep seeing over and over in some of the advice and guidance and people are trying to figure out what do we do with the LLMs or whatever, is that turn your content into bite-sized chunks, because LLMs like things that are really bite size, right?
So we don't want you to do that. I was talking to some engineers about that. We don't want you to do that. We really don't. We don't want people to have to be crafting anything for Search specifically. That's never been where we've been at and we still continue to be that way. We really don't want you to think you need to be doing that or produce two versions of your content, one for the LLM and one for the net.”

“…So you've gone through all this effort. You've made all these things that you did specifically for a ranking system, not for a human, being because you were trying to be more successful in the ranking system, not staying focused on the human being. And then the systems improve, probably the way the systems always try to improve, to reward content written for humans. All that stuff that you did to please this LLM system that may or may not have worked, may not carry through for the long term.”

___

I even got sucked into it when AI search first started rolling out. 

Thinking putting content into bitesize sections and over optimising for AI agents to read easily was the play.

Then remembered most of our B2B/SaaS clients are selling complex products with long sales cycles to multiple stakeholders.

Which is why we place huge emphasis on researching dream clients, their struggling moments, jobs to be done, motivations, competitors they evaluate, why they choose you, differentiators in the market place and beyond.

To not just rank and be mentioned & cited in Google organic and AI searches but resonate with target buyers. 

If you don’t resonate you won’t convert.

___

Grab my 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO free playbook & video course: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

Gurus love screaming SEOs dead and AEOs a brand new playbook. It’s not. Here’s 10 steps to drive demos in 90 days (share with your CMO):

1. Nail your MONEY keywords.

Map out every way a dream client could search for your solution when ready to speak to sales now.

At a high level in SaaS that’s:

“best X software/tools/platform”
“X for industry”
“competitor alternatives/pricing/reviews”
“competitor a vs competitor b (vs you)”

And a variety of others.

Ignore the top funnel traffic trap.

Prioritise lower search volume and low difficulty at the bottom of the sales funnel.

This is gonna rank and drive leads fast when done right.

We have ranked competitor fast as 4 days top of Google and AI search. 

2. Build & upgrade your money pages. 

Search your money keywords on Google & LLMs and see what kind of content shows up or gets cited.

Is it a listicle article, landing page, jobs to be done article, or something else.

See if you have pages ranking page 1 but not top for a quick win with a refresh.

3. Blow ‘em out the water. 

Once you’ve researched what top-ranking pages are doing, figure out how to blow them out of the water. 

Leverage customer research, sales call Qs, plenty of social proof and feature ypur product as the painkiller and solution.

LLMs love fresh content and unique research. Keep your commercial, money pages up to date.

4. Most technical SEO is BS.

(Until you get to having 1000s of pages).

Sort any massive technical issues, but don’t obsess over technical SEO. Get your focus keyword in URL, meta data, H1 and sort some internal links. Sort structured data. Not a tonne more needed. 

And you of course want quick loading times.

5. Brand mentions and links at $0 FTW.

Build quality backlinks & brand mentions for $0. 

Get featured in podcasts and articles, and make sure they link back to your website. 

Earn/trade top 3 placements & brand mentions from “Best X software” listicles for your category.

This gives you an insane boost in LLMs and the backlink helps classic organic search.

6. Speed is your advantage.

Quality matters, but speed is a competitive advantage. This is your superpower over the slow moving giants in your niche. 

7. Craft pages to convert. 

Design and UX backed by customer researched copy to resonate with ICPs makes a big difference. 

8. Great SEO is knowing good b2b marketing.

Leverage sales calls, CS calls, and customer research to make your content as relevant as possible to dream clients jobs to be done.

9. Keep improving. 

Publish fast, and revisit your content 3 months later to make improvements. 

10. B2B is an ecosystem.

Keep improving all your marketing efforts: YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit etc. all improvements in brand awareness will lead to more successful SEO. Ecosystem thinking is the b2b winner. 

___

We run this playbook for 35+ SaaS client right now at Breaking B2B.

grab my 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO playbook & free video course: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

I GRILLED Adam Robinson on how he bootstrapped RB2B from 0-$6.7M in 2yrs with 3 FTEs. Here's my 7 biggest takeaways:

1. Use a proven concept and find the gap.

RB2B did not start from a blank page. Retention started as a feature inside another company. Nobody wanted the full product. Everybody wanted the feature. That feature became the company. The same thing happened again. While selling into the Shopify space Adam identified there was no person level website visitor identity for B2B. This was the gap to hit. We did the same  at Breaking B2B after constantly hearing B2B/SaaS marketers and founders get frustrated with vanity metrics and lack of pipeline from SEO.

2. Create for your market.

Adam posted content to reach eCom stores. About 25 percent of his posts were about his SaaS journey. Those posts got 10X better engagement. So the content changed. Only B2B SaaS. The engagement stayed high. The audience was clear. That audience needed a product.

3. Speak to prospects before building.

There were Zoom calls. A big waitlist. A lot of discovery before launch. The idea was simple. B2B needs person level visitor identity. Some people hated it. Some people said it was crazy. Some people said it was transformational.

4. Prove people will pay for it.

V1 of RB2B was super basic. People got a spreadsheet every day with personal emails of B2B visitors. That did not work. Then business emails. Slightly better. People still paid. If people pay for something basic, it's a clear signal to keep pushing forwards.

5. Change the experience, not the data.

The same data was sent in a new way. First, a fake Slack profile showing real people with headshots and LinkedIn URLs as they visit your site. People had never seen anything like it. It was a hit. Same information. New delivery.

6. Start on a no-brainer channel.

LinkedIn was already working for engagement with ICP and growing fast. That leverage made it worth building the product. An okay product plus huge awareness becomes a good business.

7. Say the same thing over and over.

Be known for something. In Adams case, Bootstrapped. Build in public. Radical transparency. Say the same few ideas in many ways. In my case, SaaS SEO and building in public. This is how RB2B got to $6.7M ARR in under two years.

PS. watch our full 34-minute masterclass: https://lnkd.in/eHdqi3uD

#1 on AI and organic search in 4 days for MONEY keywords. SEO/AEO doesn't need to take 12 months to drive pipeline & revenue:

First off, yes some super competitive terms can take 6-12 months.

But there's plenty of ways to drive inbounds 90 days from publishing content for your B2B/SaaS.

It all starts with customer research.

Knowing:

- crisp and expensive problems of your icp
- your icps motivations & jobs to be done
- what they hate most about your sector
- why they choose you over others
- why/when they move over to you
- competitors they evaluate
- your differentiators 

Then crafting an SEO/AEO strategy focused on dream clients ready to speak to sales.

AKA. 

Looking for your specific solution, comparing vendors, looking to move form the incumbent, needing an integration or struggling with a specific problem you solve.

- competitor content
- integration for X pages
- alternatives/pricing/reviews
- best software for [niche] listicles
- how to [job to be done] with your product

I break this down in my 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO playbook & free video course: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

$5.34 = avg B2B Google ads CPC (per dreamdata research). SaaS CAC is up 60% last 5yrs. Outbound response rates are getting lower and lower...so what's the answer for sustainable growth?

THE PROBLEM W/ RELYING ON ADS & OUTBOUND

- Every month your CAC payback period extends
- You're essentially renting traffic instead of owning it
- When your next funding round gets delayed or doesn't happen, paid growth becomes unsustainable
- It’s essentially a ticking time bomb

SHOULD YOUR SAAS CONSIDER SEO/AEO?

- Build assets that generate pipeline and mindshare month after month without the rising ads costs
- Unlike ads, your organic rankings and AI visibility can compound and get stronger over time
- You're not competing in expensive bidding wars with better-funded competitors
- Creates a sustainable foundation that doesn't disappear when budgets get tight
- Your buyers aren't stupid: they place trust in organic results 
- Builds brand and mindshare

TAP INTO THE 5% OF MARKET READY TO BUY

- While 95% of your market isn't ready to purchase, around 5% is actively searching for solutions right now
- These prospects are typing your competitors' names looking for alternatives
- They're searching for industry-specific solutions in your exact niche
- They're comparing vendors and ready to book demos - if they can find you first

GROW BRAND SHARE OF VOICE

- When prospects consistently see you at the top of AI & search results, it helps position you as the category leader
- This brand authority creates a multiplier effect across everything you do
Helps you stay top of mind
- Increases brand recall
- Results in higher conversions across all your other marketing channels
- People are more likely to click your ads when they recognize your brand from organic search
- Sales cycles shorten because prospects already trust you before the first sales call
- Most importantly for founders/mktg & rev leaders - this sustainable organic growth makes raising funding easier when investors see you're not dependent on paid acquisition

BUT DOESN'T SEO TAKE 12 MONTHS MIN?

- With the right strategy, many of our clients at Breaking B2B see qualified leads within 90 days of publishing content
- We've helped clients rank clients top of AI and organic search fast as 30 days for MONEY keywords
- Every month you wait is a month your competitors eat your lunch

PS. grab my 90 days to revenue SEO playbook and video course: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

A SaaS marketing leader asked me how long it takes to get results with SEO. Here’s my exact reply (and I didn't say "it depends): 

___

There's massive bottlenecks to SEO, and they can be on the agency side or the contractor side, and they can also be on the client side.

And the crux of good SEO, at least in my opinion, is working out, starting with a strategy like in your case, what you've told me about the problems you solve, that could be a good in.

Let's work out what a target client actually searches for when they need your solution, rather than messing around with the 95% that aren't in buying mode.

Let's focus on those 5% that are actively searching for a solution like yours, and what are they specifically looking for.

And it might be that there's not tons of volume, but they're low-volume searches, but they're very specific, and they're likely to attract decent leads.

So we want to start there. Now, I don't know how competitive waitlist-based terms would be. I know for a fact anything [redacted their industry type] is hard, but the more specific the better.

So the more we can narrow down to your niche, the better. What can also work well, like if you're trying to rank for [industry + offer] terms, you're looking like six months plus.

And specific listicles around your core niche and offers.

What will rank the fastest is going after competitors. So I don't know, like [competitor] alternatives 

Or [competitor] reviews, pricing or similar.

Like those are the quickest possible. Those can rank. We often see those ranked like top three organic within 30 days of publishing.

And those can drive demos because if you're telling me things like people are moving away from some of these because of the poor customer success, then why don't we create a piece of an article that evaluates the top 10 [competitor] alternatives.

Positions you as number one and doubles down on customer success and then leverages the G2 reviews on [competitor] for their listing.

So that kind of stuff can rank like 30 to 90 days from publishing and can drive demos.

Also gets solid visibility for your brand in AI search.

___

Try my free 90 days to revenue SEO video course & playbook below 👇

1st February 2024, 9PM. I'm heads down at my PC listening to D&B making a list of marketing leaders to cold call the next morning. This was the start of Breaking B2B: 

PC.
List.
Dialler.
Pen and paper.

Ripping 1-200 dials before lunch.

Sweating away with a tonne of rejection.

Getting maybe 1 appt and a couple follow ups and sign-ups for the Breaking B2B newsletter most days.

Leading with the problem we solve for SaaS around competitors outranking on Google/AI search when dream clients are hunting for your solution. Stealing mindshare, traffic and inbounds.

This is how we got our first couple clients.

Meanwhile I was...

Positing daily on LI.
Building partnerships.
Cranking our SEO engine.
Starting to take YouTube seriously.

Steadily getting clients.

Me and a team of trusted contractors.

Cold calling thankfully ended as year 2 started.

We ramped up inbound and demand efforts with LinkedIn ads.

Partnered with some niche industry founders to build their SEO/AEO in public.  

Now nearly all our sales calls mention a mix of:

LinkedIn.
SEO/AI search.
Seeing others share our results.
Watching our YouTube breakdowns.

Big focus this year is repeatable systems.

Going at least 5% above and beyond for every client, every week.

Striving to be at the top of our game for SaaS SEO/AEO.

Meeting more clients in person.

Still being the weirdest guy & memorable brand in our niche.

And helping team members hit their biz and personal goals.

Next rev milestone is $300k MRR (125k to go).

Cheers to all who’ve been involved so far. 

Onwards!

They followed the Breaking B2B newsletter for 3yrs before booking a call.

Prospects buy on their timeline, not ours.

We can only educate, entertain and keep top of mind for when timing is right :)

graphical user interface, text, application

I’ve learnt most things the hard way.

Tried to sell websites, SEO, ads, support to anyone and everyone.

Was tough AF.

Eventually stumbled on SEO for B2B/SaaS

Laser focused on that.

Got easier.

Started my podcast interviewing everyone and anyone.

Entrepreneurs, founders, marketers, sales leaders and more.

Learnt a tonne.

But never drove any business.

Tightened to interview B2B/SaaS marketing leaders and foudners

Solo episodes specifically on SEO/AEO & SaaS marketing.

Started driving inbounds and business.

There’s a lesson there somewhere.

Helping service providers & sales teams generate new business by launching irresistible “𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬” at scale. Join 6k+ others growing their biz with lead gen tips & tactics (link below) ⬇️

𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐁𝟐𝐁 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲?

You've likely heard there's two ways to generate leads:

1️⃣ 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 (LinkedIn outreach, email outreach)
2️⃣ 𝐈𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 (SEO, paid ads, content marketing, referrals)

Outbound, especially LinkedIn and email outreach, is your fastest, most direct path to new business.

✅ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐄 𝐃𝐎:
We help B2B service-based professionals rapidly attract clients through targeted, done-for-you LinkedIn profile upgrades, LinkedIn outreach campaigns, and email outreach strategies leveraging your unique Value Offer.


✅ 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒:

1️⃣ 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐔𝐩𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞:
Your LinkedIn profile isn't just a resume - it's your #1 personal landing page on Google. We'll optimize your LinkedIn profile for maximum visibility, keyword relevance, and lead conversion. When your ideal prospects search for someone offering your expertise, you'll be at the top.

2️⃣ 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
We develop a laser-focused Ideal Client Profile (ICP) to clearly define and target your ideal prospects, ensuring every outreach campaign precisely matches their needs.

3️⃣ 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
We craft an irresistible "slice of your expertise" - a guide, report, masterclass, or video that attracts attention, builds authority, and generates high-quality leads.

4️⃣ 𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐅𝐨𝐫-𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡:
We design, execute, and optimize highly effective LinkedIn outreach and email campaigns to position your Value Offer directly in front of thousands of targeted prospects every month.

*Or if you just want to start with a done-for-you LinkedIn Profile Upgrade, go here:
https://www.referralprogrampros.com/linkedin-profile-upgrade


✅ 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃:

-Born and raised in Stillwater, Minnesota. 
-Snowboarded (and went to college at Gonzaga) in Spokane, Washington.
-Co-founded a travel company in Florence, Italy.
-Became COO of a fintech company in Bellevue, Washington.
-Started Referral Program Pros and living my passion of helping entrepreneurs grow.

I live in Seattle, WA with my wife and two kids - the 3 people who make me the luckiest guy I know.

Thomas Ryan Oakes

"Saw you went to Ohio State!" 

Nobody cares.

I mean it.

Your prospect doesn't care that you noticed their alma mater.

Or that they like golf.

Or that they posted a vacation photo last month.

That's not personalization. That's personalization theater.

And it's costing you replies.
Most folks think personalization means proving you did research.

So they scan a LinkedIn profile for 90 seconds and drop a reference into the message.

"Hey John, Go Buckeyes! Anyway, wanted to reach out about..."

It feels forced.
Because it is.

And worse? 

It has nothing to do with why you're reaching out.

Real personalization isn't about what you noticed. 
It's about what's relevant.

There are only 3 types of personalization that actually move the needle in B2B outreach:

1. Company trigger

Something just changed at their company that creates urgency or opportunity.

Examples:
-They just raised a Series B.
-They posted 6 new job openings in the last 30 days.
-They acquired a competitor.
-They launched a new product line.

This works because it's timely. It matches the moment they're in.

Sample message:

"Saw you just opened 3 new AE roles. Most teams hit a capacity issue right here. One VP I worked with solved it by changing how they structured onboarding. Want the breakdown?"


2. Role-specific friction

You're speaking directly to a problem their role deals with constantly.

Not a generic pain point.

A specific, predictable challenge tied to their job title and company stage.

Examples:
-VPs of Sales at 50-person companies struggle with rep ramp time.
-Marketing leaders at Series A startups wrestle with attribution.
-CTOs at agencies deal with scope creep on every project.

Sample message:
"Most CMOs at your stage tell me attribution is a mess. You're running 6 channels but can't prove which ones are actually working. I put together a 2-minute video on how one team fixed this without ripping out their stack. Want me to send it?"


3. Content engagement

They posted, commented, or shared something recently that signals what's on their mind.

This is gold because they're actively thinking about it right now.

Examples:
-They posted about struggling to hire senior talent.
-They commented on a thread about outbound strategy.
-They shared an article about AI in sales.

Sample message:

"Saw your post on hiring senior AEs. You mentioned the interview process feels broken. One thing that's working for similar teams: instead of selling the role in the first call, they're leading with a working session. Filters for skill and culture fit at the same time. Happy to share how they structure it if useful."

See the difference?

None of these mention hobbies or alma maters.

They mention things that actually matter to the business problem you solve.

The test for real personalization:

If you removed the personalized line, would the rest of the message still make sense?

If yes, it's theater.
If no, it's relevant.

Everything else is noise.

Rooting for you,
Tom

Do outreach you can be proud of. We help B2B service businesses book more qualified calls using a proven Value-Offer Funnel that turns interest into clients. Join 7k+ others in GTM READY (free newsletter below)

"I've been sending 50 DMs a week. Zero clients."

That's what Marcus told me on our call last month.

He's a dad coach.

Helps millennial fathers go from surviving to thriving.

His offer is legit.

A 12-week program with group coaching, one-on-ones, and frameworks that actually work.

$5,800.

And the people who join? They love it.

But his outreach wasn't generating leads.

So we dug in...

Here's what we uncovered:

The problem wasn't the offer. It was the ask.

Marcus was trying to explain his entire program in the first message.

-The transformation.
-The commitment.
-The community.

It was too much.

Nobody books a 12-week coaching program from a cold DM.

But they will join a free workshop.

Here's what we changed:

1. We made the first ask smaller

Instead of pitching the full program, we focused on one thing:

Getting dads into his free monthly workshop.

No cost. No pressure. Just value.

The workshop becomes the filter.

If they show up and stay engaged, they're qualified.


2. We sharpened the targeting

Marcus was using Sales Nav, but his Boolean string was overly complex.

We simplified it:
-Director level and above
-10+ years of experience
-Keywords: "dad" OR "parent"

That took us from 3 million results to 190,000 highly targeted dads.

Way easier to personalize. Way higher reply rate.


3. We personalized around what matters

Marcus was sending decent messages.

But they weren't specific enough.

We shifted to a framework that only works if the message is built for one person:

-Reference something they posted (or a role-specific challenge)
-Connect it to a problem dads are facing right now
-Invite them to the workshop with a clear benefit

Example:

"Saw your post about balancing work and family time. Most dads I work with are stuck in survival mode and want to shift to thriving. I'm hosting a free workshop next week for dads looking to connect deeper with their kids. Would that be helpful?"

Short. Relevant. Human.

The takeaway:

Marcus has a strong offer.

He just needed a clearer path to get people into it.

Cold outreach doesn't start with your $5,800 program.

It starts with something free, valuable, and easy to say yes to.

Once they're in, the offer sells itself.

If you're sitting on a high-ticket offer but outreach isn't converting, ask yourself:

What's the smallest, most valuable thing I can offer first?

That's your wedge.

Everything else flows from there.

Rooting for you,
Tom

"I don't want to use AI to write. It feels inauthentic."

I get it. But here's what you're missing...

The marketing content you have is sitting inside the recorded calls and the blog posts from the past 2-3 years.

And it's doing absolutely nothing for anyone.

That's the reality for most consultants, fractional execs, and service providers I talk to.

You've got the ideas.
You've solved the problems.
You know what works.

But you're not sharing it.

Not because you don't want to.

Because you don't have time to write it all down.

And maybe because using AI to help feels... wrong somehow.

But here's the thing:

If your expertise is locked in your head (or buried in client calls), you're not helping anyone.

Not your future clients.
Not your current ones.
Not even yourself.

So let me reframe this for you...

The goal isn't to be a writer.

The goal is to spread ideas that help people.

And if AI can help you do that faster, that just means you can help more people.

Here's how I'm seeing smart operators use it:

1. Turn your client calls into content

-Record your sales and strategy calls (with permission).
-Upload the transcripts to Claude or ChatGPT.
-Ask it to pull out the key insights, frameworks, or patterns.

Now you've got the raw material for posts, emails, or case studies without starting from scratch.


2. Give AI your writing samples

-Pull together 5 to 10 posts, articles, or emails you've written that sound like you.
-Feed them into the tool.

Now when you give it ideas, it can draft in your voice, not some generic AI tone.

You're still the author. You're just not starting with a blank page.


3. Talk through your ideas, let AI organize them

-You don't need to write. Just talk.
-Record a voice memo about a lesson you learned this week.
Transcribe it.
-Ask AI to structure it into a post or newsletter.

Your ideas. Your voice. Just faster.


I get the hesitation.
Nobody wants to sound like a robot.

But AI doesn't make your content inauthentic.
Bad prompts do.

If you're just asking it to "write a post about leadership," yeah, it's going to sound generic.

But if you're feeding it your actual thinking, your real examples, your specific frameworks?

That's when it becomes a tool, not a replacement.

And honestly the people you're trying to help don't care who typed the words.

They care if the idea lands.
They care if it helps them solve a problem.
They care if it makes them better at what they do.

So if you've been sitting on insights that could help someone close a deal, fix their messaging, or rethink their strategy...

And the only reason you haven't shared them is because writing feels like a chore?

Start using AI.
Not to replace your thinking.
To amplify it.

Because the world doesn't need more polished content.
It needs more useful ideas.

And if you've got those, you owe it to people to get them out there however you can.

Rooting for you,
Tom

Most B2B lead magnets get downloaded and deleted in under 90 seconds.

So use a "Value Offer" instead...

Not a whitepaper.
Not a guide.
Not another "Ultimate Checklist" that sits in a downloads folder forever.

Here's what actually works when you're trying to break through in B2B:

1. The Competitor Stack Audit

-Show prospects exactly where they sit compared to 3-5 competitors.
-Pricing tiers. Feature gaps. Market position.
-Takes 20 minutes to build using publicly available data.
-Gets forwarded to leadership within hours.

Because nobody can resist seeing how they compare.


2. The Mini Case Study (Just For Them)

-Build 60-second versions tailored to each prospect.
-Company like theirs. 
-Challenge that mirrors theirs. 
-Outcome in one sentence.

The personalization makes it impossible to ignore.


3. The Executive Cheat Sheet

Hand them a one-page brief they can actually use in their next meeting.
-"5 Questions Your Board Will Ask About AI Adoption"
-"What Private Equity Looks For in Your Market Right Now"

When they use it - you're top of mind.


4. The Compliance Gap Finder

If your buyer operates in a regulated space, build a simple no-code scorecard.

Walk through the baseline requirements, let them self-assess, and highlight the biggest gaps.

Once they see the gap, the conversation writes itself.


5. The Benchmark Report (Hyper-Niche Edition)

"How 20 Series B SaaS Companies Are Structuring Sales Comp in 2025"
-Pull real data
-Make it narrow enough that your prospect feels like it was built for them
-Watch how fast they share it internally

Here's why these work:

They don't feel like marketing.

They feel like shortcuts.

Your prospect doesn't have to trust you yet.

They just have to find the asset useful.

And usefulness is the fastest path to a first conversation.

After you send it to them, THEN ask permission to walk through it with them on a call where you can share MORE ideas for them.

Want to talk through what this could look like for your business?

Send me a message.

Rooting for you,
Tom

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