The Magnetic Podcast: SEO for B2B SaaS

Key Moments

02:01 – Creating lower funnel content without being too pushy.

03:47 – How to make sure your content strategy keeps up with evolving content preferences.

06:09 – SEO fundamentals for SaaS.

09:00 – Leveraging LinkedIn in B2B and how it ties into SEO rankings.

11:00 – Implementing an effective keyword strategy.

21:41 – The three components of SEO: backlinks, content, and technical SEO.

26:49 – LinkedIn still works, and you’d be crazy not to use it!

36:22 – What is interactive content and why use it?

39:46 – The importance of segmentation and signals.

The Transcript

Steve Schmidt (00:10):

Welcome back to another edition of the Magnetic Podcast. We call this the evening edition. We’ve got the lights low here in the studio, and we’re trying out some new things. While Elad introduces himself, I will straighten my camera out. Elad, welcome to the Magnetic podcast.

Elad Hefetz (00:47):

Thank you. Thanks, Steve, for having me. Really a pleasure. 

Steve Schmidt (00:50):

Yeah, absolutely. Tell the world what you do and why they would want to listen to the next 28 to 32 minutes because otherwise, just like every other podcast, they will tune it out. What value do they get to extract? What magic do they walk away with from you in today’s episode?

Elad Hefetz (01:04):

Yeah, what I care about most is creating a proper buyer journey experience for tech B2B. So, if you are in tech B2B or B2B in general, stay here because I have a lot to say about optimizing the buyer journey.

Steve Schmidt (01:21):

Yeah, well, and that’s a big buzzword. I hate to say that, but everybody’s kind of like, oh, the buyer journey, we got to document it and get it exactly right and know that playbook and get it right. And yes, you do. And yes, it’s very important. I think the biggest thing I’d like to dig into today is on that buyer’s journey. You’re volunteering right away, and you’re for the buyer journey. You’re pro-experience in today’s messy world of content. How do you still get your message across and not be pushy? And I think that’s a big thing we discuss in organic content. So, Elad, let’s make that question number one. How do you and your content let people know what you do without seeming pushy?

Elad Hefetz (02:01):

Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s a great question, actually. I had a discussion earlier today about there’s a lot of saying that people don’t want to speak with sales. And seeing that, that’s a lot of our main business in general. I’m the CEO, and I’m making sales calls every day. And the right thing is that it’s not that people don’t want to speak with sales; people don’t like to be pushed to decide if they’re not ready. So the way I see marketing in general, content in general, and every interaction with potential prospects or clients is you need to understand what they really care about right now. You just need to provide them with this value. So whatever you do, as I see it, as long as you provide ’em with value, you will not sound pushy. But if you just care about yourself and yourself and your product, so it doesn’t really matter what you say, you’ll sound pushy.

Steve Schmidt (03:02):

Yeah. Well, and I think at some point, though, people need to understand what you do. You could tell all the stories about your childhood and what you did to become an entrepreneur, but at the end of the day, you’re getting 300 people who love it going: Man, I love this person. I don’t know what they do, but I just love it, which is kind of the point. But I think today what we found is that content today versus content three years ago, you can’t just post on LinkedIn and expect your DMs to light up. It doesn’t work that way. How has your content journey evolved when you look at how you used to do it when you first started, how you do it today, and the amount of time and thought you put into it? Just let’s go into that process and share it. I think that’s going to be super interesting for our viewers and listeners.

Elad Hefetz (03:47):

Yeah, that’s a lovely question.

Steve Schmidt (03:50):

Good.

Elad Hefetz (03:52):

When I start generating content, I try to understand and map what I care about, what my clients care about, and where those two meet. So once they understand, okay, I want to talk about X, my clients care about, I dunno, y, what are the places where it actually comes together? Then, I started writing the things in my head about those topics. What do we really know about them? Someone else doesn’t know. And sometimes we think that no one will care or want to hear about that. Everyone knows that. But in fact, everyone is doing something very differently every day, and they see it as basic, but other people will see it like, oh my God, I never know that. I never thought about that. And this is the place where I start to think about content creation,

(04:54):

The standard is like a common strategy about creating long-form content and then breaking it down into social posts. And then repurposing and repurposing. And I think at the end of the day, it’s really important just to have a concept, like a strategy, about what you really care about. So, for me specifically, the website experience for B2B buyers is broken. And I see it a lot because they see that if you take B2C marketers, they are doing the marketing and the sales function, right? There is no sales function in B2C; when you go to an e-commerce store and buy a shirt, no one is selling it to you. It’s just a website. So, B2C marketers really care about the end-to-end journey. B2C often seems to just care about leads, and this concept breaks the buyer journey and then the website journey altogether. So it’s really about how we change this mindset and really get people to understand that the buyer journey on the website is a lot more than just capturing leads.

Steve Schmidt (06:09):

Well, for a lot of people listening, they’re thinking content. And so I want to really make sure that we break this up. There are many forms of content. There are very strategic content initiatives backed by large marketing departments and partners. They’re very well coordinated in product-led growth or software products. You are really organized, which is great for fuel and an engine, but if you’re in any sort of competitive space or SaaS, you will want to hang out on search engines. And I want you to walk the listeners through and pretend that they don’t really understand SEO, but they know it would probably work. However, it’s above their head, and they think it costs a bunch of money.

Steve Schmidt (06:54):

Okay, where do we start there?

Elad Hefetz (06:56):

So, I think you need to start to understand what your audience is actually searching for because what you think they’re searching for is not necessarily what they’re searching for. So, when we are talking about SEO or search engine optimization, how do I make the content or the website answer the questions that people are asking on Google or any other search engine? And search engines these days are like we are talking about searching with AI or voice assistants, so it doesn’t even have to be written text. People search on YouTube, and people search on Reddit. 

Steve Schmidt (07:38):

Yeah, YouTube is the number two search engine. Number two. That’s pretty big.

Elad Hefetz (07:43):

Pretty big. Yeah.

Steve Schmidt (07:44):

Now, I want to kind of break this apart. We’re talking about if Steve Schmidt sits here and types how to increase margin by 10% year over year, as a founder, you want to capture me in the moment of the struggle or the pain that I might be having in the exact words that I would be thinking in my head, right? That would be called a keyword strategy. So you might say something totally different that the rest of the world doesn’t quite yet know is a search, for example. Instead of that, it would be a different keyword phrase, but it’s getting me to the same result. And so, how do people take advantage of that in organic content when they’re just posting on LinkedIn?

Elad Hefetz (08:37):

Posting on LinkedIn? It’s a bit more difficult to get–

Steve Schmidt (08:41):

Because it does have SEO, right? There are a lot of times you’ll type something in, and LinkedIn posts will come up, and, of course, newsletters are powered by SEO. So that’s where I say, well, walk me through that because it still can develop a lead from organic search to a post, but it’s not something a lot of people are thinking about.

Elad Hefetz (09:00):

Yeah, I think a lot of people are connecting SEO with blog posts, usually–

Steve Schmidt (09:06):

Long-form.

Elad Hefetz (09:07):

Yeah, long form.

Steve Schmidt (09:08):

So that would be like a LinkedIn newsletter. Then, take that longer-form piece of content, go to your website, and make that your blog. Now, you have two pieces of searchable content online.

Elad Hefetz (09:22):

Yes. Yes. Okay. Now, when you break down the keywords, you really want to understand what you want to capture. Because you mentioned, you just said a very long query that most of the time, people don’t really type.

Steve Schmidt (09:40):

So it’d be a very small search. I could even go to VidIQ right now and look at it, but it’s super small.

Elad Hefetz (09:46):

But you want to really understand the balance between the broader search term, for example, increasing margin versus the long term or long tail term. So you want to be something in between because you want to capture intent. So, I really want to understand when people are searching for something that can provide them with value. 

Steve Schmidt (10:13):

How do you find that out? Walk me back even further. If I’m a founder, this is fun. How do I find out what people are searching for? I mean, is there a piece of software out there? What does that look like?

Elad Hefetz (10:24):

Yeah, so there are a few free options and also paid options. So, just as a free option, you can imagine what people are searching for. Just think, okay, they’re probably searching that, and you stop.

Steve Schmidt (10:36):

Free option number one, your brain, right?

Elad Hefetz (10:39):

Yeah. But then you leverage your brain; just start typing that on Google. And with Google suggestions, you start to understand what people are actually searching for. So, if you search, how do I increase the margin? Then, you’ll get a list of options, other questions that are around that.

Steve Schmidt (10:56):

Then, you scroll down.

Elad Hefetz (11:00):

Yeah, if you scroll down, you also see other related searches like search points.

Steve Schmidt (11:04):

So do I need to then go to my website and just type those words in?

Elad Hefetz (11:09):

So yes. Yes. But more than that, you can actually go to, if you just have a Google Ads account, you don’t even have to run campaigns, but just have an open, live active ad account you can use.

Steve Schmidt (11:24):

You are going to bid for those keywords now, right? Yes.

Elad Hefetz (11:27):

So you don’t even have to bid for the keywords. You can just analyze in Google Ad Planner, which is free to use; you can analyze which keywords are being used to see their volume and who is paying for them. Then, you can understand what keywords you can optimize for. 

Steve Schmidt (11:47):

So, you’re telling me, and this is good. I like this. I could go to it. If we just launched a new software product, I thought, man, LinkedIn automation is definitely a keyword that people are looking at. I want to go onto Google, and I might want to spend some ad money. I’d like to mathematically understand the market size as a founder. I understand what the ad spend is producing. I can’t say revenue because nobody knows that, but how many clicks is it producing? And then I could really start to do the backward math and say, well, if competitor A is getting 200 clicks a month or 200 leads a month that show up at inbound, they’re probably paying this. So if I invest this and just change it, I can reroute those viewers to see me before them if I use the right keyword strategy while they search for it. Correct?

Elad Hefetz (12:39):

Not exactly.

Steve Schmidt (12:41):

You got me. See, that’s where a lot of people will get stuck and go, oh wait, tell me more. I thought that was that simple.

Elad Hefetz (12:47):

Yeah, I wish it was that simple. 

Steve Schmidt (12:49):

Me, too.

Elad Hefetz (12:51):

We really don’t focus on paid campaigns just because there’s a lot more to it. So you’ll find agencies that all they’re doing are paid campaigns because you need to understand the algorithm, bidding, the competitive landscape. And then, even then, you put the ad when you get the impression, but no one is clicking on that, and you want to understand why they aren’t clicking on that. And then it’s also about the creative. So the title, the message, what you’re actually writing under the sponsored section. So, a lot of people are really going to skip the sponsored section and just get to the native organic pages. So what we focus on in SEO is really about what, when people are searching for something, what do they really want to see.

(13:52):

And then once we analyze that, then we understand, okay, so we should write, we have, I dunno, 200 characters to really capture their interest. So, we need to understand what they really want when they are searching for an auto-increase margin for a software company. We can talk about how to reduce expenses and stuff like that. We can talk about how to sell better. We can talk about how to price. So, what are they actually searching for? What do they actually care about when they’re searching for increased margins? So, what we can do is see the current Google results. And what’s nice about Google is that they automatically optimize their search page to what people click and stay on, right? So, if you see what the sales result is talking about, I dunno how to properly structure your pricing page. So Google already did this algorithm test and realized that people clicking on that specific article stays there and read that article versus maybe an article that would talk about, I dunno, how to do a better math in calculating your expenses, right? So this is how you can optimize and really understand what you want to write about and what you want to talk about. What’s the actual intent of people that are searching?

Steve Schmidt (15:21):

Yeah, okay. So if you’re a founder and you’re looking to do this, you’re probably going to say, wait, this is just too much for me. I probably need to hire somebody to do this. So you’re saying you would build the website, experience, and keyword strategy. What am I going to pay you for this as a founder? Because this sounds like more money. Gosh, I’d rather either learn it myself in the after-hours or I got to pay you to go do it.

Elad Hefetz (15:47):

Yeah. The way I see it, there are a lot of areas in marketing in general. When you found a company, and you just want to start your marketing and sales, there are a lot of areas that can be self-taught, and you do it yourself, and those skills will actually serve you well in different areas such as copywriting and even design a bit. So quality is about creativity. So this is great. So, when you start learning how to write proper copy for a website or anything else, it can serve you in many different aspects. It can serve you in emails, sales, LinkedIn, and direct messages – pretty much all around – specifically about SEO and paid campaigns. This information and skill is a bit useless outside of SEO and paid search. So, as a founder, even myself, I wouldn’t do that myself. I would just get one of the employees to do it. It doesn’t make sense for me to do it because it’s not applicable anywhere else besides this area. So, if you ask me, would you prefer to learn, do it yourself, and then forget about it and not use it again? Probably not. So I would pay for that, unlike maybe writing content, which can be a skill that will serve you for a long time for different purposes and stuff like that.

Steve Schmidt (17:21):

Well, there are a lot of things that are interesting. I want to click on that. You just said that a lot of people say, well geez, it’s interesting, Steve, because you run a content agency, yet when you ran a lead agency, you are busy as heck. And now it’s not so busy. I said, gosh, that’s really nice. I said it was because not every founder creates content. Most founders create content and want to do it themselves, or they have their own person. So I said, our TAM is very, very small if we look at ourselves as just a ghostwriting agency. So our is, that’s one of three things we do. Number one, we go straight. Number two, we produce great videos and do great podcasts. Number three, we go outbound with an automated solution, which is our software, which is the thing that makes money. So we’re now in that phase.

(18:06):

So, interesting. I’m going to try and see if we can work a deal out on this podcast because I’d love to have you do a before and after and transform the magnetic website and show everybody what that looks like. And then we could come back and revisit it and actually do a second part to this and say, Hey, this is 90 days later, we implemented the website. Here was the traffic before; here was the intent. We implemented a small dah, dah, dah, dah, completely organic, with no paid ads, and this was the strategy. I think that would be great.

Elad Hefetz (18:39):

Sure, that would be really cool. I think that the struggle with SEO is really needed to generate quality and great content that is also optimized for search. So whenever I speak with my clients, I’m saying this is one thing that you need to do, and you need to do it well for SEO to work. It doesn’t matter how much magic output is in the SEO part. If you do not generate interesting content that people would like to read, I can’t help you. So that’s a big part of that.

Steve Schmidt (19:14):

You don’t do that, right?

Elad Hefetz (19:15):

No, we don’t write the content for our clients. I don’t believe that, especially in B2B, an external agency can just come and write content for a tech B2B specifically for SEO without really investing in being a content agency. This is what they do. They learn the business. They understand the business. You really need to get involved, especially when

Steve Schmidt (19:41):

That’s a multi-year relationship to really get to be a part of the brand.

Elad Hefetz (19:45):

Exactly. And especially when it comes to the technical parts, I have no idea. I know machine learning algorithms, and why would the data scientists pick that word over another? I have no idea. The only thing I can contribute is how to get this specific article much better optimized for Google so that it understands that this is what I want to rank number one.

Steve Schmidt (20:10):

So, in closing on this, and then we’re going to move on. I want to really inform everybody: Are keywords as simple as mentioning them, or do I really need to go even further and invest in AI? Love VidIQ, by the way. I think it’s a great YouTube tool. So I’ve used that to clean up titles and descriptions and really start to organize things. I say, try to really start nailing SEO in a keyword strategy. And it gets really interesting how intricate it gets. For example, oh, I now need to go to the video in the category that’s performing well, break that apart, reword it, and just reshoot that topic. And that’s really how you make an impact on YouTube. Then you get a great thumbnail, you get the first three seconds, you win it, and you break it into chapters. And people in B2B are just going, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about, man, I just learned LinkedIn. What the hell? People are using YouTube now. And I think so. I think it’s about to be the platform for B2B. Talk to me about that.

Elad Hefetz (21:09):

Yeah, totally. I think that what you mentioned for YouTube is also applicable pretty much everywhere else. So it’s when you try, and then you get something right, but not everything. And then you optimize that, and then you experiment with something else, and then you optimize that. And then, every little bit, you optimize. So, when it comes to search engines, you’ll see that what you want to do is a lot more than just the keyword. So, just quickly, let’s break  SEO into three main components. 

Steve Schmidt (21:41):

Let’s do it. Let’s make this a learning moment. We’re going to make this a micro-moment, alright? And the moment happens. 

Elad Hefetz (21:49):

Now, SEO is broken down into three main components.

Steve Schmidt (21:53):

Component one

Elad Hefetz (21:54):

Is backlinks.

Steve Schmidt (21:56):

Right? Component two.

Elad Hefetz (21:58):

Component two is the content on the website

Steve Schmidt (22:01):

Component three?

Elad Hefetz (22:03):

Component three would be the technical SEO.

Steve Schmidt (22:06):

Okay, so we’ll back up to one and let you break each one down now.

Elad Hefetz (22:09):

Okay, so when we are talking about backlinks, think about–

Steve Schmidt (22:13):

Ethical backlinks, right?

Elad Hefetz (22:15):

Yeah, yeah. Only ethical backlinks.

Steve Schmidt (22:17):

Yeah, let’s talk about that for a second. Backlinks are essentially a backlink to a blog that’s not been claimed yet, right?

Elad Hefetz (22:24):

No. So a backlink means every other website on the internet that is not your website that is linking to your website. This is a backlink.

Steve Schmidt (22:33):

Oh, you’re getting people to link to your website to increase the visibility

Elad Hefetz (22:37):

And the only way for Google to really get to your website and to understand, yeah, this is a serious website that people are linking to, which means for Google, this is a website that is worth presenting. So, they are counting backlinks. That’s the number one thing that Google is doing.

Steve Schmidt (22:58):

To show up in this search. And at the top.

Elad Hefetz (23:00):

In general, yes. Not even at the top. In general, if you don’t have backlinks, you will not be presenting in Google. It doesn’t matter what you do. Now, there’s a threshold about how many big backlinks and which type of backlinks. And if you get a link from, let’s say, Forbes or the Guardian, that’s going to be a different type of backlink than if you get a backlink from a lot of personal blogs, which talks about–

Steve Schmidt (23:29):

Sure, what is the impact of that? It’s going to be harder to get Forbes, it’s going to be harder to get TechCrunch.

Elad Hefetz (23:33):

Exactly. And Google will rank that differently. Google will see it as much more important. So that’s the bad thing; it’s a lot more complicated. The way to do it varies between anything from just organically putting out great content that people would like to link to through reaching out to other websites, paying them, and getting them to actually write something for them and getting them to link that to your blog post all the way through really creating a viral thing and a product that people automatically link to, such as Canva doing that when all of their external links are just links to the portfolio of people. So, people who like their Canva profile, and that’s it, right?

Steve Schmidt (24:21):

I get it. Okay. Wow. 

Elad Hefetz (24:22):

That’s for backlinks. That’s a big thing in SEO. I’m going to break down number three because the content is, I think, really where the magic happens because, for technical SEO, which is the basic foundation of what we do when we start SEO, this is everywhere from how you structure your website, the URL, when you use heading H1 versus H2 on your website.

Steve Schmidt (24:53):

Team, nobody knows what that means. You’re breaking it down in such a great way right now. And everybody’s just like everybody in sales, and everybody in founders are like, oh my god, this is the stuff H1 tags and footers.

Elad Hefetz (25:06):

Yeah. So, if you think about how Google views your website, Google is actually looking at your source code and what the code behind the blog post actually looks like. When we’re talking about technical SEO, we are talking about making this code much more relevant and much more understood for Google because Google doesn’t really read how you would read a blog post. It just checks what’s behind it. Yeah, exactly. So when it scans it, when you put a big title versus a small title, so the big title will get more attention from Google. Now, there’s only one main title for your article, which is your article title for your blog post or your page title.

Steve Schmidt (25:52):

Which should be very relevant and searchable.

Elad Hefetz (25:55):

Exactly. And you can only have one of them. So, if you have two, you just confuse Google, so Google doesn’t know what that blog post is about. Is that the first title or the second title? So that’s a big no-no when it comes to technical SEO. But yeah, at the end of the day, it’s really about properly structuring your code. If you work with WordPress or any type of proper CMS, most of that stuff is taken care of, and then their website developer should take care of the rest of the stuff.

Steve Schmidt (26:29):

Okay. Let’s back off SEO for a second. LinkedIn. Is that a valuable platform for you to drive business?

Elad Hefetz (26:36):

A hundred percent.

Steve Schmidt (26:37):

Okay. Talk to me about the strategy. What is it? It’s not accidental. Walk us through the playbook. Where did it start? When did you start to notice it made an impact, what is it like today, and then where are you going with it?

Elad Hefetz (26:49):

Yeah, so I would say LinkedIn as a social platform is very different from other platforms. I can group Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, even though those are also used for B2B. But what I see on LinkedIn is that people are much more into specifically work-related aspects when they come to LinkedIn. So it’s much easier to reach your audience because they can connect with them based on titles and stuff like that. And when you create content for LinkedIn, for example, my network is purely marketers. So marketers around the world, and the way I see it, the way I see LinkedIn is LinkedIn fundamentally is a way to capture people’s attention in really short form posts and then show that I know about this topic, this topic you didn’t even think about and I know all about it. If I can convince people that I know all about websites and how to do proper B2B websites, they will be willing to DM me, work with me, and ask me more about that. They would be willing to click on the video or the blog post that I just posted and then learn more about what I have to say. And then, if they decide that I know what I’m talking about, if I reach out to them or if they reach out to me, it’s a very different conversation. If this is just me calling them and saying, Hey, this is what I do.

Steve Schmidt (28:28):

How many leads a month are you getting from LinkedIn? 

Elad Hefetz (28:31):

Not much from LinkedIn, but I think my total addressable market is not that big. So when I see LinkedIn, for me, it’s really about, I hear people that are reaching out to me for referrals saying that, and I’m asking them, how did you hear about me? And then someone X told me, and I don’t even walk with that X, but then I realized that this other person just read about me on LinkedIn. I live in Israel, a very small marketing community where everyone knows everyone. And then immediately when someone thinks about websites, someone will read my LinkedIn posts, which will point them to me and say, Hey, you should speak with Elad. You always post.

Steve Schmidt (29:25):

Yeah. Yes. It’s that dark social element of eventually ending up to you, and you’re the guy. Right?

Elad Hefetz (29:31):

Exactly. 

Steve Schmidt (29:31):

Well, here’s what I want to present to you before we go any further. This is going to be fun, and you don’t have to make a decision right now. I would love, love, love, love to drop an affiliate video with you and walk through this, chop it up, make an awesome video, and get an affiliate link out there. But I want to show the process of the before and magnetic to push that with content to help drive. And if people go, I’m there. I want to go there, and we can get this deal done today, Elad. I think that would be fantastic.

Elad Hefetz (30:08):

Alright, that’s interesting.

Steve Schmidt (30:10):

Yeah.

Elad Hefetz (30:11):

That’s interesting.

Steve Schmidt (30:13):

Okay. It could be great. I think it would be great. I think there are a lot of people who want to see videos like that who are, Hey, I’m somewhat informed. I’m not sure I need to know where my resources are. I need some valuable takeaway so I can go click, click, click, click. Oh, cool, I can do that. I don’t want to do that. That’s a little too intense for me. I’m definitely going to go with one of these agencies and at least ask ’em some questions. And I think that things like that are exactly what our space needs on YouTube right now because people aren’t quite sure where to go and want to see more. And on LinkedIn, it is not a search engine. It is an algorithm that is feed-driven. And so nobody’s searching for things on LinkedIn, nobody’s typing in SEO unless they’re looking to add SEO CEOs to a cadence and sales navigator. Let’s be honest.

(30:59):

And so that’s where I see the tools are different. You have to balance on LinkedIn, which is very feed-driven. YouTube is our journey. This is where we’re pushing clients and seeing some really big success, such as getting onto LinkedIn, putting a micro clip, and then extending that invite over to YouTube to see the full video. But really, it’s got to be a cliffhanger. So now you’re editing changes. So, how do you give them enough to see the full episode? The second most powerful thing we’re doing is a newsletter every week because, number one, it’s our call to action for all the value we delivered that week. We really have taken people on a journey for a year, and it keeps going with 8,000 readers and more.

(31:44):

And it’s right smack dab to your point in the middle of our ICP. And we’ve had people cite when they come in, and that’s what got them over the edge. Both of those things are free, but doing it well is extremely hard. Oh yeah. By the way, I got to post on LinkedIn. Oh yeah, by the way, I got to do DMs. Oh yeah, by the way, I got to run a company, and you start to go. Well, that sounds fun to me, but to some people, they go, and that sounds like a panic attack. And oh, by the way, what did Elad say about my website? I had no idea I wasn’t doing things right. YouTube channel, I don’t even know my Google login. I mean, that is the state of 50 to 75% of founders out there who have a million dollars in revenue, and they’re not sure what they should be doing, and they’re not sure why they’re not getting the attention in this new economy.

(32:32):

They got flipped on their head, they feel like they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, and they don’t because this isn’t a world of sales loft and ZoomInfo anymore. Sorry, that’s very 2020. If you’re still running that playbook, that is why you’re closing your doors. You’ve got to be using these kinds of techniques where attention just doesn’t happen on LinkedIn. They happen all over the internet. And I’ve just poured not only Elad, this idea, and budget into it. We’re going to create our website, we’re going to use SEO, and we’re going to get a strategist. We actually had two meetings this week with companies. Let’s meet with you. We will implement it because we’ve never launched a product like that before. We’re a services-based company, and so we’ve never been one to qualify a lead in one click. We have to ensure they’re qualified, so you don’t waste your time on a demo of a lower-tiered product. And I think that scares the shit out of me as much as it excites me. I want to make sure that it’s done the right way, that the journey is authentic, and that they sort of fall in love with the product. They don’t need to demo it. They’re just like, this is fucking great, man. I’m going to say bye. Go.

(33:37):

Okay. So, do I sound like an ideal prospect for you?

Elad Hefetz (33:40):

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Steve Schmidt (33:41):

Okay. Look at that, everybody. This wasn’t the intention. I didn’t want to necessarily buy anything. I think when I speak of affiliates, we’ve seen some big success in making some very small amounts of content for Apollo, and with another partner now, we’re bringing on a podcast sponsor. So, it’s going to be really interesting to start to see this kind of explainer video with affiliates. Do they produce what I think they will in this wild west world of B2B where it is? I got a tip. I have a link. I can now start on a tier-one offering. Maybe it’s going to take me four weeks; maybe I got to see 22 more videos. Maybe I got to get into a playlist where, all of a sudden, Elad is just whipping me through my journey. And that’s the stuff that excites me because that’s helped me in my personal life where I was asking questions on Google, and suddenly I was on a YouTube page, and suddenly I’m handing this money to someone I don’t know and is a coach. And they changed my life forever. And I think that’s powerful.

Elad Hefetz (34:38):

Yes, it’s powerful. And this is, also, I know how old you are, Steve, but I’m not that old, but I’m old enough. 

Steve Schmidt (34:48):

I’m 46, man. I’ve got old bones.

Elad Hefetz (34:51):

I definitely know that for the younger folks, anything else will not work. Anything else that is not self-explanatory, understanding, checking out, reading, understanding, and making the decision themselves is not going to work. So yes, if you plan to just pick up the phone and call someone and try to sell to them, they’re probably not even going to pick up the phone.

Steve Schmidt (35:17):

Yeah, this is great. We tried a new thing this week, and I want to get your opinion on it. It was the Score app. Have you heard of that particular SaaS tool?

Elad Hefetz (35:29):

No.

Steve Schmidt (35:30):

What is that? It is essentially, hey, I could put it out there and say, grade your SEO today, right? And you’re going to and be like, oh, I’m curious about that, right? I’m going to answer these ten questions so I can get my score. And then it will tell you, you’re 74%, here’s what we recommend. Then, you can embed a video from YouTube. Hey, you took the survey. Here’s a four-minute bonus video on how I add LinkTree to your LinkedIn and use it as a content sort of tree. And I think that the most interesting part about that was the psychology of that, which is what their CEO believes. I’m trying to think of his name. Daniel. Daniel down in Australia. Anyways, not Daniel Pinkman Daniel. He believes that in this new era, we don’t want to be sold to.

(36:22):

And this idea of going cold versus collecting the data, the signals go out there, and we released it in a LinkedIn post. We had 81 people take the quiz within four hours. Now, on the back end of that, we’ve automated sequences that go out and deliver more content. You scored this, Hey, here’s some additional value. By the way, typically, people who are here need to get here. We do that this way. Is this something you’re experiencing? And now we get to bring these people through more of a nurture versus going out cold to thousands of CEOs who might do it. And I think so far, I mean, we will see, right? But I think it’s something we’re going to invest heavily in.

Elad Hefetz (37:04):

Yeah, I see it as we build a lot. We call them wizard assessment results.

Steve Schmidt (37:10):

Yes.

Elad Hefetz (37:11):

So we build a lot of that, especially in cybersecurity. So it’s either an ROI calculator if you’re selling something that will create a comparison calculator or an ROI calculator.

Steve Schmidt (37:23):

Exactly. They’re lead magnets, right?

Elad Hefetz (37:28):

Yeah. I mean, you can go wherever you want, but at the end of the day, you are getting people to insert their data to understand where they are and what they can get right. Assessments that assess your current situation and let you know what you’re doing well and where you can improve. From that, as you mentioned, I see the signals as super important. It’s not only the signals, as I would say; it’s the segments, the awareness stage, and the signals, and I’ll give you an example. If you check all of your contacts and visit website visitors and LinkedIn followers as a group, that’s a bad way to look at it. But if you segment them, those are CEOs of small to medium-sized companies, and those are not CEOs, but they are other relevant founders who are doing X, Y, and Z.

(38:30):

Then you segment them based on their intent or let’s call it the use case, and they care that you can actually support them. So let’s say you’re offering your services, but you’re also offering ghostwriting and you’re also offering the platform. So if you manage to segment all of them, what they actually care about based on where they visited, where they clicked, yada, yada, yada, and then you measure where they stand in the awareness stage. In the awareness funnel, are they aware of the problem? Are they aware of the potential solutions? Are they aware of your specific product?

(39:07):

And the content you send them, the nurture campaigns, you send them the links to YouTube that you send them. Even if you send automated DMs, if this is specifically for that segment and that’s the awareness stage, this is the only way you can get them to care about and click on that because they are busy. Everyone is busy all of the time. But if you really understand your info from the data you just collected about where they stand, what they care about, and what do you need to do to make them take the next step, this is where you hit gold. This is where you can actually make them make the next step.

Steve Schmidt (39:46):

Yeah. Yeah, I love it, man. It’s the journey that you just walked through, that buyer’s journey of sort of like, what is the experience? Did I get value along the way? Did I build trust? Did I feel that? I feel like I was able to make a decision, but I am still reminded that the decision needs to be made. I feel like that’s the best way to say it. Man, this has been super interesting. I mean, this would be me. I’d be in the car; I’d pull over and take a bunch of notes if I heard this because I think that it’s all super applicable. A couple of things. Number one, you didn’t say the price. What is a good average price for someone who wants to work with you?

Elad Hefetz (40:23):

So, we actually have what we call the seed package. For early-stage startups, mainly. We price it at $30K, which will get you a proper design and a new website. But usually, the way we see it is that the website is just phase one. When you optimize the website, you constantly review it and optimize that. So, for most of our clients, we’re talking between anywhere from $5K to $10K per month to really optimize. Obviously, it’s between the size of companies and how much they can actually produce content on their websites. But this is what we care about.

Steve Schmidt (41:06):

So this is for people who are pretty serious about it, right? 

Elad Hefetz (41:11):

Only people that can really–

Steve Schmidt (41:13):

Pay the bills.

Elad Hefetz (41:14):

And pay the bills and really care about high growth, not for lifestyle.

Steve Schmidt (41:20):

I love it, man. I tell everybody, if you are not investing into being very hyper, I don’t know, everywhere right now with really compelling content on the internet, ten people are going to kick your ass because there are so many people who are getting ready to do this. Some AI solutions are very effective in doing simple things. And especially, I’m just saying that older people in their forties and fifties who mastered LinkedIn don’t see this other stuff coming that can change the game. And I’m sitting there going, hey, I’m 46, but I know every tool out there like a 21-year-old would because I have to stay relevant. I have to understand what’s going on. And I think that right now, there’s a seismic shift, and people need to pay attention to the fact that this is not a predictable revenue world.

(42:09):

This is not a world of parent SDR with an ae. This is to figure out what your objective is, reverse engineer. It might cost you money, it might cost you time, but if you don’t do anything, you’re really screwed. You’re either going to pay someone to do it, or you’ve got to do it yourself. And I think as a founder, which is really the people I’m trying to talk to here on this show, I want to produce more revenue. And I’m sure you get this question: how many leads will this produce? You’re like, I don’t know, let’s get out there, be relevant, and get content out there. And I think what I always tell people is, you’re either going to do it with me, you’re going to do it with somebody else, or you’re not going to do it.

(42:51):

The third choice is terrible. So don’t make that one. Second choice. I’m fine with the first choice. I hope I’ve at least explained this to you in a way that would say I trust that he understands what this can do for the right fit of the company. Whether or not I am that fit is up to me to determine. And I think that that’s the power of content because then they can go check it all out and do it on their own time and come back and say, yeah, we want to go ahead. We saw your content library. We learned a lot. You’ve got a community. You guys are doing this thing. You’re not some company that I think is going to go away overnight. So I think it’s great. I think your offering is obviously rich. It’s premium. I love that we float in that same boat, right? We’re about eight to 10 K on average a month to work with. And we now have a lower-tier offering, but we’ll see how that goes. And so Elad, I’m excited to potentially work with you. I learned a lot from this show, selfishly. Where can people find you on the internet?

Elad Hefetz (43:47):

Obviously, the best way to do this is to use LinkedIn. Hit me up on LinkedIn.If you listened to this, you’ll probably figure out where to search my name, Elad Hefetz, or Airfleet at airfleet.co. This is our website. Also, our company profile is on LinkedIn. We have a lot of good information about B2B marketing that is website-related.

Steve Schmidt (44:22):

You would meet with somebody if somebody who’s listening to this podcast is like, Hey, I’m not sure if I’m going to buy, but I’m very curious. Is it reaching out to you to schedule some time? You’ll walk through that with them.

Elad Hefetz (44:34):

Yeah, for sure. Okay, cool. We even do website audits, initial audits, to determine whether it makes sense to work with our specialists.

Steve Schmidt (44:46):

Thank you everybody. My name is Steve Schmidt. I’m the CEO and Founder of Magnetic. This was an awesome edition of the Magnetic podcast where we dove deep into SEO, talked a lot about keywords, talked about how that’s relevant in your organic content strategy, and took notes. If you need any content tips, just keep listening to this show.

Elad Hefetz (45:39):

Amazing stuff, Steve.