SaaS Business Podcast

Sujan Patel shares excellent marketing and growth tips for SaaS business owners based on his ten years of Internet marketing experience.

Sujan Patel started his first business selling cars parts while in high school. While the business was not a great success due to a lack of business acumen, he learned SEO in the process. His SEO skills would serve him well in years to come.

Sujan dropped out of college to found Single Grain, a digital marketing agency. Single grain eventually became one of San Francisco’s leading agencies boasting such high-profile clients as Intuit, SalesForce, Random House, Sony Pictures, and Yahoo. In 2014, Sujan sold his holdings in Single Grain and took a job as VP of marketing at the SaaS company When I Work—as a vacation (he does not like to be bored).

Together with Colin Matthews, Sujan has founded ContentMarketer.io, a SaaS product to help marketers automate content promotion efforts.

During the Christmas holidays of 2015, he and Rob Wormley “accidentally” wrote the ebook 100 Days of Growth while brainstorming growth strategies. (He would later write: “It’s been one of the most productive Christmas’s ever!”)

Sujan is also a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and INC. Magazine. He has written on such varied topics as accelerators, mentorships, productivity hacks, online resources, success habits marketing skills, team building, content marketing, and growth strategies.

Please see Disclosure* (below) concerning affiliate links on this page.

Key Segments

• [spp-timestamp time=”00:45″] Please sign up for the SaaS newsletter to get notified when each podcast is released.
• [spp-timestamp time=”01:25″] Ron talks about today’s guest, Sujan Patel.
• [spp-timestamp time=”02:50″] Sujan talks about the first business he started while in high school.
• [spp-timestamp time=”04:05″] What has remained the same with SEO over the years?
• [spp-timestamp time=”04:40″] Sujan dropped out of college to start his company, Single Grain.
• [spp-timestamp time=”05:00″] Single Grain was started three times.
• [spp-timestamp time=”06:15″] Sujan brought on a partner to help with the business side of Single Grain.
• [spp-timestamp time=”10:10″] What problem does the SaaS product When I Work solve?
• [spp-timestamp time=”12:10″] Changing someone’s habits is the hardest sell.
• [spp-timestamp time=”13:00″] Why did Sujan start ContentMarketer.io?
• [spp-timestamp time=”15:20″] How does ContentMarketer.io work?
• [spp-timestamp time=”18:40″] How did Sujan and Rob Wormley write the ebook 100 Days of Growth “by accident”?
• [spp-timestamp time=”24:05″] Sujan contacted everyone mentioned in 100 Days of Growth and generated a lot of buzz.
• [spp-timestamp time=”24:30″] What’s in the book? How is it structured?
• [spp-timestamp time=”26:30″] Email is so easy to use and it’s free!
• [spp-timestamp time=”30:15″] What SEO tools does Sujan recommend?
• [spp-timestamp time=”31:30″] What are the best resources to learn copywriting?
• [spp-timestamp time=”32:40″] How can you use content as a marketing tool?
• [spp-timestamp time=”34:40″] Sujan’s favorite marketing hack is T-shirts customers can wear.
• [spp-timestamp time=”35:50″] Think about how your marketing products/emails will look on mobile.
• [spp-timestamp time=”37:00″] Cold outreach is a lost art. Sujan does one call a day with somebody new.
• [spp-timestamp time=”38:20″] Build relationships before asking for help.
• [spp-timestamp time=”39:10″] Sujan recommends a few resources.

Resources Mentioned

• 100 Days of Growth by Sujan Patel and Rob Wormley – book about growth hacking.
• 35 Best Digital Marketing Slide Decks – a collection of 35 digital marketing slide decks on SujanPatel.com.
• Attach – a SaaS product to share and follow up on business documents.
• AWeber – a SaaS product for email marketing.
• Buzzsumo – analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor.
• ContentMarketer.io – a SaaS product to connect with influencers, increase shares, and boost traffic.
• Copy Hackers – service to help you write copy to boost website and email conversion rates
• Copyblogger – website solutions for content marketers and internet entrepreneurs.
• Content Marketing Institute – content marketing education.
• Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey – book about the daily rituals creative people use to do the work they love
• Facebook Page Plugin – plugin to embed and promote any Facebook Page on your website.
• Hello Bar – an opt-in bar for the top of WordPress websites.
• Inbound – marketing and sales event intended to help deepen knowledge of inbound marketing.
• Instapage – a SaaS product to quickly create landing pages.
• Launch by Jeff Walker – book about building an online business fast.
• Lukewarm emailer – a SaaS product to build a list of contacts from Twitter, reach out via email, and track responses.
• MailChimp – a SaaS product for email marketing.
• SaaSBusinessPodcast.com – this podcast’s website.
• SEMrush – digital marketing data.
• Single Grain – a digital marketing agency founded by Sujan Patel.
• Startup Foundation Slack group – global startup community on Slack.
• SujanPatel.com – Sujan Patel’s personal blog.
• SumoMe – a toolbox for website traffic growth.
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz – book on building and running a startup.
• When I Work – a SaaS product for scheduling employees.

See the Resources page for a consolidated list of resources from all episodes and more.