Hello again listeners! Welcome to another episode of the SaaS Leader Interview Series!
This week, we’re talking to Andrew Davies about his first year heading up marketing at Paddle, a $2.4 billion valued company that helps SaaS businesses set up, run, and scale their payment infrastructure.
We discuss the challenges he’s faced and the changes he’s made to grow the marketing department in three distinct areas:
- Product marketing, including customer marketing and the website itself
- Demand gen, which involves managing business development representative (BDR) teams
- Branding, which deals with the brand’s reputation, reach, and engagement with the wider market
Paddle has grown extremely rapidly, riding the pre-and post-covid wave of software and infrastructure investment. This year, it acquired ProfitWell, an analytics and retention tools business, along with its customer base and teams.
Andrew tells us how he’s helped Paddle get to the next level by:
- Merging the marketing departments of the two companies.
- Broadening marketing efforts across distinct channels
- Expanding the tactics of the BDR team to include direct mail and outbound calling
- Improving branding recognition with an expanded PR strategy
“We’ve got smart people in every function across this marketing team, and one of my career goals is to be the dumbest person in the room. And I’m definitely that at Paddle. In my marketing function, I love that we’ve got specialists on HubSpot, we’ve got specialists on our PPC, we’ve got specialists within our BDR managers, we’ve got specialists on show producing.”
By making the most of existing teams, finding out what everyone does, and where they need support, Andrew has been able to quickly expand the scope and potential of Paddle’s marketing department.
Tune in to find out what it’s like to be CMO during the rapid growth stage of a $2.4 billion SaaS company.
In this episode we talk about:
- Marketing leadership
- Managing business and departmental growth
- SaaS marketing and SEO
Timestamps:
00:06 – 03:06: Paddle’s participation in SaaStock and SaaStr this year
03:06 – 07:22: The challenges Andrew has faced since joining Paddle
07:22 – 11:18: Changes Andrew has made to the marketing department
11:18 – 19:30: Where Andrew has doubled down or cut back on existing marketing efforts
22:49 – 25:34: Wrap-up
About Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies is currently Chief Marketing Officer at Paddle. Previously, he was Head of Brand & Digital at Episerver after it acquired Idio, which he co-founded in November 2019. He also supports and invests in early-stage startups, helping them solve issues around proposition development, teams, and B2B/SaaS marketing.
Connect with Andrew Davies on LinkedIn
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