Are Growth Hacks Hurting Your SaaS Brand?

Slack and Snowflake prioritize lasting brand value over short-term tactics.

Author

Tyler Morian
March 13, 2025

This week: Marketing fundamentals still matter in the growth-hack era, and it's time to view content as a revenue driver rather than a cost center. And your marketing metrics might be misleading you while product-led growth replaces traditional SaaS playbooks. Giddyup!

Marketing Fundamentals Matter

Are "growth hacks" overshadowing essential brand building for B2B SaaS? A LinkedIn post argues that chasing quick wins leads founders to neglect core marketing, weakening brand foundations and risking long-term failure.

What are these fundamentals? They include building strong brand architecture with clear core values and articulating your value proposition. Lashay Lewis highlights marketing's role in defining "what it is that you do for your target audience" and "who you serve." Liam Moroney emphasizes that brand awareness is critical for building lasting memory associations, not just fleeting recognition.

In a crowded B2B tech market, strong brand fundamentals create a competitive advantage. Aaronhassen notes effective marketing boosts sales by guiding prospects through awareness, affinity, and trust. SaaS leaders like Slack or Snowflake (as TK Kader discusses) prioritized user-centricity and continuous refinement, not just hacks.

BIG IDEA: Sustainable B2B SaaS growth relies on solid marketing fundamentals – brand clarity, audience understanding, and consistent messaging – not just growth hacks.

WHY IT MATTERS: Focusing on brand fundamentals builds lasting equity, improves sales efficiency, and drives sustainable customer acquisition in competitive markets.

Comment insights:

  • Brendan Hufford praised Liam Moroney's proactive use of brand assets for distinctiveness.

  • Jaina Mistry found Moroney's brand awareness framework insightful for influence mapping.

  • Joydeep Dey supported Robert Kaminski's view on positioning as crucial for scaling startups.

Are Your Marketing Metrics Lying to You?

Is your marketing data telling you the truth? According to Dale Harrison, attribution data alone might be misleading. Correlation doesn't equal causation – are your marketing efforts truly driving results, or is something else at play?

The alternative is marketing experiments. Harrison clarifies that attribution is passive observation (what), while experiments actively test hypotheses (why), revealing cause and effect. Liam Moroney emphasizes market insight's crucial role; experiments provide this knowledge, preventing marketers from "flying blind."

In complex B2B cycles, mistaking correlation for causation is easy. Harrison also points to ad fraud, where bot clicks inflate numbers. Experimentation validates strategies, ensuring investments drive real results.

BIG IDEA: Stop blindly trusting attribution data; experiment to uncover real marketing cause and effect.

WHY IT MATTERS: For B2B SaaS, every marketing dollar must deliver. Experimentation moves beyond vanity metrics, optimizing for strategies that genuinely impact your bottom line.

Comment insights:

  • Alex Rector notes branded search ads can boost conversions even with strong organic rankings.

  • Michael Gough cautions that metrics like Share of Search have blind spots in complex categories.

Growth & Leadership Insights

Tired of outdated SaaS growth advice? Adam Robinson argues the VC-centric go-to-market playbook is broken. Crowley champions "RB2B Insiders" who prioritize product-market fit and profitability over just chasing capital. TK Kader echoes this, noting SaaS leaders like Slack grew through iteration and user feedback, not "big bang" launches.

Marketing leadership requires balance: strategic thinking and decisive action. Adam Goyette highlights the danger of getting lost "in the weeds" tactically or over-strategizing without shipping. Aaron Hassen reminds us that maximizing team potential is ongoing learning, even for experienced leaders.

Shift from traditional funnels to product-led growth. Embrace iterative launches and prioritize user feedback. GTM Fund's VP of Marketing, Sophie Buonassisi, explains their growth-team approach improves deal flow by aligning marketing and sales with product value.

BIG IDEA: SaaS growth now demands product-led, iterative strategies over capital-driven models. Marketing leaders must balance strategy with agile execution.

WHY IT MATTERS: Outdated marketing approaches will fail. Product-led growth, user focus, and agile teams are key for sustainable growth in today's SaaS landscape.

Comment insights:

  • Alex Y. points to Procore's vertical focus in construction, showing niche specialization drives growth.

  • Mary Kathryn Johnson emphasizes continuous training for effective leadership in small teams.

  • D. Langston questions when to shift from planning to execution in marketing efforts.

Stop Treating Content as a Cost Center

Feeling like your content strategy is draining resources instead of driving growth? Lashay Lewis argues that many leaders still undervalue content, seeing it as a "cost center." It's time to recognize content's potential impact on your bottom line.

Content, done strategically, extends beyond basic blog posts. Lewis points out content's power as an engine for shorter sales cycles and reduced churn. Think of compelling content as an "always-on salesperson" that nurtures leads. Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers advises optimizing existing email automations for immediate revenue recovery.

For B2B tech and SaaS, shift from vanity metrics to measuring content's contribution to business goals. Alexandra Smith notes "meaningful gifting" can boost post-webinar engagement by 80%. Aligning content with revenue goals transforms it into a revenue-generating asset.

BIG IDEA: Strategically aligned and measured content shifts from marketing expense to a revenue driver.

WHY IT MATTERS: Treating content as a cost is a missed opportunity. Reframing it as a revenue driver allows marketing executives to justify content investments and prove real ROI by focusing on content that impacts sales and retention.

Comment insights:

  • Hannah Shamji notes the undervaluation of "just research" or "just blogs" despite their crucial contributions.

  • Jacob Miller values case studies with strong evidence of success and learning from failure stories.

  • Lashay Lewis reinforces content's revenue impact, calling it "sales and marketing R&D" for experimentation.

🎧 Sound Bites 🎬

Quick insights from videos and podcasts:

Until next week!