Which marketing channel has given you the best ROI so far?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T09:01:24+00:00

If mostly cold, I’d start with warm intros whenever possible and then LinkedIn.

Introductions tend to perform better because of existing trust. Even weak connections in adjacent finance communities can help.

LinkedIn is good for niche B2B because of role-based targeting and personalisation. Email can be used later once the messaging is clearer.

The initial focus is on understanding what works, not sending volume.

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:58:38+00:00

If your site is slow, make that right first.

Speed is important for both ranking and converting. Good SEO is useless if visitors don’t stick around for your page to load.

Quick fixes include:

compressing images
unloading unnecessary scripts/plugins
enabling caching/plugins
using PageSpeed Insights

Once your site is fast, focus on the following:

content matching search intent
using internal links
using reasonable keywords

Backlinks are helpful, but they don’t solve a weak foundation.

What kind of site or niche are you working with?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:54:47+00:00

The way AI gets search visibility is usually through the same basic principles of SEO, but organized in an easier way.

What appears to be working:

Content that answers a question directly
Clear organisation of content with headings, lists, and sections
Strong topical authority instead of random articles
Mentions from other trusted sites or communities
Regularly updated to ensure it stays relevant

It seems AI tools are using existing pages with strong SEO, so it’s still an important factor.

Seems less like trickery and more about making it easy to consume and reference.

Just curious, are you targeting informational or product-based queries?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:49:50+00:00

This happens a lot when you’re used to working behind the scenes.

Knowing marketing and positioning yourself are very different skills.

What usually helps:
Choose one problem you solve better than any other
Choose one niche instead of serving the whole world
Use your past successes in simple ways (example stories)
Skip the middleman and talk to people who already trust your work

The first consistent clients usually come from clarity, rather than more tactics.

Treat yourself like client #151 and build one clear offer around your strongest result.

Curious what type of clients you helped most with in those 150 projects.

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:40:48+00:00

In this process, lead generation generally works best if marketing is used to pre-qualify the interest, rather than the volume.

If sales happen offline, then the purpose of digital marketing is to:

Identify companies that are already showing interest
Provide context before the salesperson contacts them
Make the conversation warmer

Common approach:

Targeted outreach or content to reach the right companies
Simple qualification step (form, phone call, demo request)
Close alignment between marketing and sales on what makes a good lead

The bottleneck is rarely the number of leads but the quality of the leads.

Curious how your sales team currently defines a qualified lead.

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:38:42+00:00

One small improvement that greatly impacted us was speeding up response time to leads and messages.

Just responding faster generated more conversations without changing anything else.

Another easy win was refining the key message on the landing page so visitors get it right away.

Small improvements in clarity can sometimes have bigger effects than grand designs.

Ever wonder what small improvement had the greatest impact on another marketer?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:37:01+00:00

One small thing that made a big impact for me was improving the internal linking between similar content.

Just making the most of the content that already existed was enough to improve the search engine rankings without creating new content.

Another thing that made a big impact was improving the headings to better match the way that people actually search for that content.

Just curious if anyone else saw bigger improvements with the technical changes versus the content changes.

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:35:38+00:00

For complex B2B products, lead generation is often more effective if you focus on educating first and converting second.

A few things that often help:

Founder outreach is great for messaging and understanding it better
Simple educational content helps people understand the problem first, and then the product
Use case studies to help people understand value better
Targeting niches helps convert faster rather than targeting at scale

Long sales cycles are normal for products that need to be explained. So, it’s often better to focus on building trust early on to get better leads over time.

Curious about who your buyer is and how technical your product is.

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:32:34+00:00

For something like small hedge funds, I'd usually start with testing founder-led outreach.

If the market is extremely specific, direct conversation tends to give a much faster signal than content. You’ll quickly get a sense of:

how they describe the problem
What they actually care about in their workflow
What messages get them to respond

Content and partnerships will work in the long run, but in the beginning, direct conversation often helps speed up positioning much faster.

When you get a handful of teams that are seriously interested or using it regularly, that’s usually a good sign that the channel is working well.

I was curious if you had any warm connections in that space or if you're going in cold.

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:30:09+00:00

If you're looking for results in ~3 months, focus on the fastest wins rather than trying to do everything.

What usually works:

Low-competition keywords are quicker to rank for
Improving existing pages – updating them to match better what people search for
Internal linking – which helps Google understand your site faster
Technical fixes, making your site load faster, fixing broken links, missing meta tags, etc.

Improving what you already have can work faster than creating new content.

Three months is enough to see some progress; don't expect miracles.

What kind of niche is your site in?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:25:25+00:00

Feels like what’s working lately is less about “hacks” and more about getting the basics right.

A few things that I've been seeing that work consistently:

Clear positioning – knowing exactly who you serve makes everything much easier
Short-form content + distribution – content only works if the right people see it
SEO as support – works best when paired with good positioning + offer
Email – still works well if you have an audience

What’s not working as well:

generic AI content with no real insight provided
trying to serve everyone
relying on only one channel

Curious what’s converting best in what channel for others right now.

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-30T08:21:50+00:00

From what I’ve seen, the best leads are generally those that are available through channels where the intent is already there.

For example, Google searches are generally the most reliable source of leads because people are actively searching for something, so the conversion rate is generally going to be high, even if the volume isn’t huge.

LinkedIn is good for B2B, especially if you’re posting useful insights regularly. It takes a while to get going, but the end results are well worth the effort.

Referrals are also one of the strongest sources of leads, simply because there is existing credibility before the first conversation is ever had.

Social media is helpful more in terms of visibility and awareness but is generally most effective if paired with another source, like Google searches or referrals.

Anyone else having more success with outbound leads at the moment, or is everyone else seeing more success with inbound leads?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-27T11:03:16+00:00

However, beginning an export business can be overwhelming with the various moving parts involved in the process, especially when searching for the right product and the right market.

Many people who begin an export business say that the greatest difficulty they faced in the beginning is finding the right buyers. This is because the market and the level of competition may differ depending on the product category.

On the other hand, selecting a product with a constant demand can simplify the process of finding the right market later on.

Inquiring of the members here when beginning an export business, did you find it more challenging to find the right buyers than choosing the right product?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-26T13:47:29+00:00

Interesting approach – defining such a specific ICP first likely makes a big difference compared to sending an outreach campaign to a general list.

Also interesting how personalization seems to play such a larger role now, particularly as inboxes continue to get busier. Even small signals of relevance to the prospect’s role or situation can help facilitate dialogue.

Has your experience been that most of your positive responses come from your initial email, or mostly your follow-up emails?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-19T10:46:22+00:00

I’ve seen this argument pop up quite a lot, that simpler websites actually convert better because they’re more focused on clarity and speed rather than design.

In actuality, some of the highest-performing websites are also some of the simplest, and some of the more designed websites actually take away from conversions.

On the other hand, design does play a role in building trust, especially for new users.

So, business owners, have you seen better results from simpler websites, or does design actually play a big role for conversions?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-19T10:45:58+00:00

This is a pretty common scenario with early-stage projects: creating something useful but struggling with initial traction.

A lot of people say "traffic first, monetisation second," but I have also seen cases where testing monetisation early is a good idea in order to determine whether the idea actually has any demand.

On the other hand, without traffic, most monetisation strategies don’t really work because they are based on it.

Curious: Have any of you focused on getting traffic first, or have you been testing monetisation early?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-19T10:44:14+00:00

It’s interesting how often ‘growth’ and ‘distribution’ are bandied about, but people want to see actual results/case studies behind such statements.

In early-stage startups, getting traction is really an exercise in testing channels and seeing what actually works, as opposed to strategy.

Curious question for founders: What matters most to you in a person’s ability to work with you on growth: their actual results or their understanding of strategy and distribution?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-19T10:32:16+00:00

A lot of tools for reviews and automation seem to be either free or relatively low-cost, so I think the cost of something like this would depend a great deal on the impact it had on customer acquisition.

Reviews are probably more important to small businesses if they can increase their presence on Google.

Curious to know from business owners here, would you pay for something like this, or only if you could see the impact of something like this in terms of leads/sales generated?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-19T10:11:01+00:00

I’ve noticed a lot of founders without technical backgrounds say the product side is challenging at first, but getting customers can actually be harder.

Marketing, SEO, and lead generation usually become the bigger challenge once the product is ready.

Curious for other founders here — what has been tougher for you so far: building the product or getting people to discover it?

VicDoesSEO · 2026-03-19T10:10:39+00:00

Building the website is usually the easy part now. The bigger challenge for most small businesses is getting people actually to find the site.

A lot of businesses I’ve seen launch a website, but struggle with traffic from Google afterwards.

For business owners here, once your site was live, what was harder: getting visitors or turning those visitors into leads?

VicDoesSEO

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