Content Marketing Playbook

Investing.io is a newsletter and online community founded by Travis Jamison, an SEO agency owner and e-commerce entrepreneur, to share insights on investing in online businesses, stocks, and crypto. The platform serves as a hub for discussing investment opportunities and strategies in the current economic landscape.

Property Hub grew from The Property Podcast, co-hosted by Rob Dix for a decade, into a multi-7 figure online community and real estate business. The turning point came when hundreds of listeners showed up to their first in-person meet-up, revealing significant demand. Today the podcast reaches 400,000 downloads weekly, and Rob's strategy centers on creating abundant free content while building monetized community offerings.

Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) launched in 2013 as a newsletter for digital nomads interested in cheap flights and travel hacks. The company has grown substantially to over 60 employees and now offers a range of travel-focused products and services beyond its original newsletter format. Founder Brian Kidwell discusses the evolution from solopreneur to CEO and the challenges of scaling operations.

Solo Media Group is a Shopify-focused digital agency founded by Johnathan Solorzano that evolved from doing white-label work for other agencies. The agency has stabilized its revenue and portfolio by niching down entirely to Shopify clients, and has grown its personal and professional profile through social media content marketing focused on providing high-value educational answers rather than chasing vanity metrics.

Buffalo Bottle Craft is a dumpster diving business founded by Dave Sheffield that started as a college hobby. A Vice documentary about the practice gained nearly 1.5M views, creating significant media interest and validating the business model. The founder now uses content creation as both product research and growth engine, asking followers what products they'd make from found materials.

RippedBody is a fitness coaching program and blog created by Andy Morgan targeting committed trainees who have plateaued in their progress. The business has found particular success in the Japanese market and has grown through a disciplined content strategy on Instagram. Andy is now expanding by hiring coaches and maintaining client engagement through bi-weekly email check-ins.

Zen Founder is a podcast hosted by clinical psychologist Sherry Walling that focuses on entrepreneur mental health and wellness. Walling also wrote a book titled "Touching Two Worlds: A Guide To Finding Hope In The Aftermath of Loss" in which she shares her personal journey coping with the loss of her father to cancer and her brother to suicide, offering practical suggestions for others navigating similar grief.

Zero to DeFi is an educational course created by Cathryn Lavery, CEO of Best Self, to teach practical cryptocurrency and DeFi investing. Born from her personal interest in crypto and a desire to share knowledge despite initial hesitation about the stigma, the course represents Lavery's expansion into crypto education alongside her existing planning journal business.

Niche Site Project, founded by Doug Cunnington, operates in the affiliate marketing space, helping entrepreneurs build profitable niche websites. The business model focuses on teaching keyword research, website setup, and content strategies that can generate sustainable income through affiliate commissions. Cunnington emphasizes that niche site building serves as an excellent entry point for learning entrepreneurial skills, even if it eventually pivots into other ventures.

BitLift is a cryptocurrency and blockchain education platform founded by Gerbz. The company hosts a podcast focused on guiding people through decentralized finance (DeFi) and explaining how smart contracts and blockchain technology are replacing traditional financial institutions.

CJ built Mostly Metrics, a newsletter for CFOs launched in December 2020, starting from zero subscribers by obsessively engaging on Twitter around relevant keywords and partnering with B2B companies like Ramp and Brex. The newsletter grew to 35,000 subscribers (7,000 of whom are actual CFOs) in 1.5 years with a 46% open rate and 5-7% click-through rate, attracting sponsorships of $5-10k per post and up to $100k for bundled deals. He also launched a podcast called Run the Numbers with Turpentine Network while maintaining his full-time role as CFO at Parts Tech, planning to transition fully to media within three years.

Sales Confidence is a community and coaching platform for sales leaders and salespeople built by a former LinkedIn executive. The founder leveraged TikTok as a primary growth channel, growing from zero to 6,000 followers in 50 days and directly generating revenue ($3,000 sale) through TikTok visibility that prompted LinkedIn engagement. The founder advocates for video content and TikTok as an underutilized B2B marketing channel with lower customer acquisition costs compared to traditional platforms.

Eric Siu, founder of Single Grain, a SaaS-focused marketing agency, shared his playbook for scaling through content-driven SEO and organic channels. His team operates a survival website that drives 18-20 million visits monthly with a $40-50k monthly budget, generating approximately $3 million annually in affiliate revenue. By leveraging content refreshes, strategic keyword targeting, and building personal brand through podcasts (Marketing School at 80 million downloads, Leveling Up at 6-7 million downloads) and multiple distribution channels, Siu demonstrates how to create lasting competitive advantage through owned media assets.

BeesUp is a business process documentation and automation software launched about 1.5 years ago by Chaus and co-founders Marianne and Hope. Chaus drove 57 demo requests and 66,000 views from a single LinkedIn story post about his agency's operational challenges, demonstrating the power of authentic storytelling for SaaS growth without paid advertising. The story's success proved that emotional connection and relatable problem-solving narratives can be more effective than traditional marketing approaches.

Vinu is a Helsinki-based firmographic data provider launched in 2014 that helps revenue operations teams access company data and integrate it into their workflows. The company grew to $12M ARR with only $4M raised, demonstrating significant capital efficiency by firing low-fit customers and focusing on higher-value enterprise accounts. Their strategy shift from sales-focused to revenue ops-focused, combined with content marketing and thought leadership, has enabled them to maintain strong unit economics with net dollar retention above 100%.

Fulfunnel.io is an early-stage B2B SaaS company founded by Vladimir Blagojevich and Andrey Zinkovich that specializes in account-based marketing on LinkedIn for companies selling five and six-figure deals. The company grew from $250k revenue in its first year to projected $500k ARR by leveraging LinkedIn content creation, engagement-based outreach, and strategic influencer partnerships to generate inbound opportunities without paid advertising. Their framework focuses on targeting complete buying committees, creating relevant content, and using engagement triggers to achieve 40-80% response rates on outreach.

Verbalio is a bootstrapped content creation marketplace founded in 2010 that connects over 1,000 active customers monthly with a network of 3,000 freelance writers to create unique, SEO-optimized content at scale. The company has grown 40-50% annually on a bootstrap budget since Steve Pocross took over in late 2016, achieving $12-14M in annual revenue while maintaining exceptional team retention through a culture-first hiring philosophy.

Gong.io is a revenue intelligence platform that automatically captures and analyzes customer interactions from calls, emails, and meetings to provide actionable insights for sales teams. Founded in 2015 by Amit Bandop, the company grew from 200 customers in early 2018 to approximately 1,500 customers serving over 60,000 sales reps, with expansion revenue driving exceptional net revenue retention of over 150%. After raising a Series D of $200 million at a $2.2 billion valuation, the company is approaching a $45+ million run rate and expects to approach $100 million ARR in the near term.

Freight Waves is the Bloomberg of supply chain and logistics, operating a dual business model with a media brand (40 journalists) generating ~$15M ARR and a SaaS business with 700 enterprise customers at ~$15M ARR. The company inverted the typical SaaS playbook by building media first to create a "negative CAC" where advertising revenue offsets customer acquisition costs, enabling 90% YoY growth while remaining cash neutral with $26M on the balance sheet.

Dan Martell founded SaaS Academy three years ago (around 2021) after building multiple venture-backed exits (Flowtown, Clarity.fm) and becoming deeply involved in angel investing. Starting from his personal YouTube channel where he shares founder advice, he scaled SaaS Academy into one of the largest B2B SaaS coaching businesses in the world, serving close to 3,000 paid founders through group coaching, training, and in-person events. The business model combines free content distribution with premium group coaching programs for founders doing $5M+ ARR.