Case Study: Specialized B2B Software

So many companies have a great product, but struggle to sell it.

They feel that if only the right people knew it existed, it would sell like hotcakes.

The problem is finding and attracting those people consistently...

These products are so great because incredibly smart people made them to solve a specific problem. But those same people often have trouble finding their ideal customer online and convincing them to actually buy the product.

So, more often than not in our experience, companies with REALLY high-end, niche B2B software usually rely almost entirely on word of mouth and referrals to get users.

And that's exactly why this specific client came to us.

They had built specialized design software for a niche engineering field, and the people who used it loved it.

But almost all of their growth came from word of mouth and referrals from their engineering firm. And they didn't have a ton of users.

They knew that more buyers were out there...they just didn't know how to attract and convert them.

That's where we came in.

We built them an inbound pipeline that not only attracted their specific target user, but sold them (on autopilot).

Over the course of about 18 months, we took them from almost no organic traffic and a trial funnel that didn't convert to a steady stream of paying customers and over 1,400 organic visitors a month (all specialized to their exact niche).

Now, they rank #1-3 for most of the top SEO keywords in their space.

Here's how we did it.

The Diagnosis

When we came on board, two problems stood out immediately:

1. Barely anyone was finding the product.

2. And the few who did almost never became customers.

Nobody Was Finding the Product

The product solved a big pain point for their target market, but this company was nowhere to be found when buyers went looking.

They weren't ranking #1 in Google for the top keywords in their category (i.e. "best x software"), and in some cases, they weren't even in the top 3.

For a software this specific, that's a massive missed opportunity. When someone searches for software to solve the exact problem you solve, they are about as ready to buy as a buyer ever gets. We've often seen cold traffic from organic convert at upwards of 25%!

On top of that, the site as a whole was only getting around 100 visitors from SEO per month.

There was no content on the site answering the key "bottom of funnel" questions their buyers were asking.

And that meant they were basically invisible in almost every stage of their users' journey.

Their Free Trials Didn't Convert Into Customers

The other big problem came after someone signed up for a free trial.

There was a trial email sequence in place, but it was only three emails long, and it almost NEVER converted someone into a paying customer.

The sequence did what most companies do by default. It explained the general value of the product, invited people to keep trying it, and asked them to upgrade.

The issue was...it never got people to the moment when they actually felt the value for their specific situation.

For this product, that moment was generating their first design.

Once a user did that, they understood exactly why the software was worth paying for.

But most users never got there, either because they didn't know how, or because nobody had shown them why it was worth the effort.

What We Did

1. Built an SEO Engine From Scratch

We started with keyword research to find the exact terms engineers and project managers search when they're looking for this kind of software.

From there, we built content and optimized the site to rank for the core product category. We were able to get them into the top 2 on Google in just a few months.

(Note: this is often the case with niche software. It might not take long to get big results.)

Then we went after the questions engineers ask earlier in their decision-making process, before they're searching for software directly.

As we started ranking for those keywords, we started getting more and more traffic from their target users.

And the results started compounding.

Organic traffic climbed from around 100 sessions a month to over 1,400 (with over 17 of their top keywords ranking in the top 3).

The product went from nearly invisible to dominating its category rankings, and the blog content started driving consistent free trial signups.

2. Rebuilt the Conversion Funnel

Getting people to find you is only half the job. Every business, whether it sells software or services, needs a system that turns interested leads into paying customers.

For most companies, that's a funnel paired with an email or follow-up sequence. And when that funnel is weak, you are literally leaking money.

Your target users come to your site, but never turn into customers.

For this client, the main funnel was their free trial sequence.

And it had never converted someone into a paying customer before.

When a sequence has a 0% conversion rate most months, it almost always means people aren't seeing the value in the software before the free trial expires.

So, we rebuilt the entire funnel around helping these hot leads understand the value and ACTUALLY USE the software as quickly as possible.

First, we worked with the client to figure out who was actually coming through the door.

That research revealed that there were three distinct buyers signing up:

1. Sales reps
2. Engineering managers
3. Project managers

Each one wanted the product for a different reason. So, we rebuilt the free trial sequence to speak to each of these customer archetypes (and their unique pain points and goals) instead of giving them all a generic pitch.

Then we rebuilt the entire sequence to achieve one goal...

Get these leads to have an "aha" moment.

All good sequences (especially for software) should help a lead see the "new life" your solution can give them.

Once they see that, they'll be sold.

So for this specific software, that "aha" moment was getting a user to create their first design.

Our research uncovered that two primary things stopped people from reaching that point:

1. Some didn't know how to use the software, so we added simple tutorial videos and onboarding that walked them through it.
2. Some didn't see why using the software was worth their time, so we created videos and emails geared towards showing how the software solves their specific problems.

We focused on making the new sequence help people get over the main friction points to using the app, and then we extended it from 3 to 11 emails.

This helped us stay top of mind for leads during the trial period and continue offering them more and more value.

After incorporating these elements into the new email sequence, we added one final secret ingredient...

Urgency.

After chatting it over with our client, we decided to give a limited-time 50% discount off the first 2 months to anyone who signed up before their trial ended,

And that incentive was enough to help us increase conversion rates on free trials from 0% to 8.33%.

The Results

• Organic traffic grew more than 1,300%, from around 100 sessions a month to over 1,400
• 17 top 3 rankings for their most important keywords
• From this SEO traffic, we've increased average monthly free trial signups from 0 to 40
• The product went from invisible to dominating its category rankings, in both Google and LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity
• The free trial sequence went from converting no one to converting 8.33% of free trials into paying customers

This company went from relying on word of mouth to having a predictable (and continuously growing) inbound pipeline.

Getting to 40 trials per month was a huge step for them since each sale is a BIG win.

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