How hiring a marketing consultant helped Wisnio to scale their SaaS [Case Study]
I am delighted to present Wisnio, its CEO Alo Arro and their Marketing Manager Ott Niggulis. They were my very first client and we have been working together for almost a year now. Now 3+ years later and acquired by Assessio, it gives me great pleasure to share their story.
Company: Wisnio
Industry: Talent analytics & HR tech
Team: 10+ people
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Services Ott provided: SaaS Marketing Blueprint, Workshop, Monthly Consulting
Wisnio as a SaaS offers an invaluable service that every growing company needs - they help companies hire the right people in order to build high-performing teams. Wisnio offers decision tools for leaders to vastly improve the quality of their hiring decisions.
Alo Arro - CEO
Alo is highly motivated, hard working, analytical, and great with people - everything you need to build a successful company.
Wisnio was founded by Tõnis and Alo Arro. Alo himself is highly motivated, hard working, analytical, and great with people - everything you need to build a successful company. Ott Niggulis (Ott N) is a really nice guy who has a natural talent for writing and besides the first name we also share the love for Formula 1. They are both very eager to learn and grow which has made our cooperation a real delight.
Ott Niggulis -
Marketing Manager
Ott Niggulis (Ott N) is a really nice guy who has a natural talent for writing and besides the first name we also share the love for Formula 1.
Why Wisnio needed help in marketing?
Wisnio, formerly known as Teamscope, had developed a great tool, had many prestigious clients worldwide and had built a strong core team. Early in 2021, they had one person responsible for marketing and knew that in order to take the next step they needed to invest more into that area.
"I always knew that marketing was a key part of success, but a year ago we didn't have the resources and had to postpone our marketing department development" said Alo.
At the same time, they had established their blog. Had done a keyword list to use as an input for their content creation and did occasional social media posts on LinkedIn.
"Before working with Ott Jõgi, our marketing efforts were not thought through and a little chaotic. For me personally, I didn't have much experience in promoting content and our marketing efforts were not goal oriented. Also, in an early stage of the start-up I was doing other activities besides marketing. Therefore we didn't have a clear plan and lacked focus" said Ott N.
Why did Wisnio consider hiring a marketing consultant?
In the summer of 2021, Wisnio got additional funding and established a wider target audience. They were ready to ramp up their marketing efforts. In Alo's mind the next stage of growth had to come from marketing and he started to look for an experienced marketer to help them get there.
“I heard about Ott Jõgi through a mutual friend and one of our early investors. A big selling point for me was that he had built a successful marketing department in a similar B2B SaaS enterprise called Weekdone. We were considering other consultants, but chose Ott because he had a clear plan and vision on how exactly Wisnio should grow and develop in marketing.”
The value of having a step by step roadmap in SaaS marketing
Before the workshop, me and the Wisnio team had extensive talks on what their ambitions are and in which areas they need help. Afterwards, I presented them a detailed marketing blueprint which consisted of:
Step by step marketing plan for the next year
Templates and how to guides on how to execute each individual part
Goals and metrics to measure their success
Additional ideas and channels to distribute their content
When Alo and Ott N received the plan they were a bit skeptical. "At first, the blueprint seemed very detailed and thorough, but I soon realized how useful it was for the whole team. I really liked how it had a clear action plan - we knew exactly what to do" said Alo.
Ott N added: "There were familiar and basic things in the blueprint, but the more time has passed I now understand that we needed to start from the basics. We all knew them, but Ott J helped and pushed us to systematically start implementing them".
Alo at Wisnio office with his loyal friend
The blueprint also served another purpose. "It was especially useful in the beginning when I was still learning. I could go back and check a particular guide when I needed it. It’s also great to have that kind of a document within your company as a marketing playbook. When a new person joins, they can quickly get an overview of how and what we do in marketing" said Ott N.
Feedback on the workshop
For Alo as a CEO, the workshop was useful for the whole team to get on one page, get a head start on marketing activities and go through the specifics of their marketing plan. On the other hand, for Ott N as a marketer, it gave him additional confidence and an opportunity to learn new skills in marketing.
Wisnio team - most of them also attended the workshop
"Biggest takeaways for me personally were the different marketing channels that you introduced. Secondly, the shared knowledge gave me the confidence to push more in some areas. For example, the newsletter. We probably still wouldn’t have one if you wouldn’t have emphasized its importance. It really helped that a person outside of our team confirmed the ideas we already had and really pushed us to implement them" said Ott N.
The value of coaching and follow-ups
The idea to have recurring follow-up meetings initially came from Alo who asked me to serve as an interim CMO. Otherwise, there is always a threat that you get everybody excited with a workshop, but the enthusiasm dissolves in a few weeks after the event.
“For me, the biggest value was our follow-up meetings. We knew that we had specific goals for each month and a deadline. Most importantly, I saw how Ott N became more systematic and confident. He was pushing the marketing agenda much more and seemed to enjoy learning new aspects in marketing.”
Personally I have to say that working with Ott Niggulis has been a blast. He is a really good copy writer and that is a rare skill. Also, he is very eager to learn which accelerated his growth as a marketer. My main goal with coaching Ott N was to:
develop his marketing skills
build long lasting habits
increase accountability.
According to him, we seemed to have succeeded: "I am an experienced writer but you helped me to have a better structure and increase readability. Secondly, you pushed me to do the basics well until we had a habit of doing it on autopilot. Finally, only the fact that our meeting was coming up meant that I had to finish all the activities we agreed upon. In a start-up it is very easy to deviate and do other things" said Ott N.
Need help with marketing?
What has changed for Wisnio in marketing?
As a consultant, I was very pleased with the progress the whole team made. Just in the first 6 months, 80% of our ambitious plan was executed:
Ott as a writer developed tremendously. Articles were written in an active voice and they became more clear and action oriented. He also improved his skill to write great Call to Actions to drive more leads.
They established several new marketing channels:
Quickly built a newsletter and from the start it showed promising results.
Ott N revamped his Quora profile and has used the potential of this channel to near its maximum.
One of the biggest improvements came from building their LinkedIn account as a consistent source of web traffic. With a company profile, it is oftentimes hard to get engagement and following. Nevertheless, with consistency the post descriptions improved and with great effort from the team, people started liking/commenting/sharing their posts.
Went through the successful process of getting media coverage, building backlinks and the art of pitching to journalists.
Currently, they are building an additional resource page to drive even more traffic to their lead-generation funnel. They have created free job position templates for early stage SaaS enterprises. It is really useful for all managers alike. You get a ready-made Success profile and actionable insights into interviewing and evaluating candidates.
"Now every action has a purpose. The article has a specific goal. Distribution of the article is systematic. To conclude, every activity in marketing is more thought through and it shows in the results" said Ott N.
Alo and Ott N, what is the single biggest reason you would recommend Ott J to other companies?
Alo: “We hired Ott, because of his experience in SaaS and his result oriented attitude. He will give you a clear action plan and help you follow through.”
Ott N: “Before working with Ott, our marketing efforts were not thought through and a little chaotic. He will help you to establish new marketing channels and show how to systematically use them. “
