With internet accessibility has grown exponentially in the last few years, most companies seem to be online, as most of their customers are online as well. Content marketing and digital marketing have never enjoyed a more profitable time than now, thanks to everyone being glued on the internet. But with so many different kinds of media, and different brands looking for customer attention, how can one stay on top? Having a strong online presence is paramount to success in today’s digital world, and any one or anything that helps with that automatically becomes invaluable. That is why, today we are going to take a look at the growth of SEMrush, a content marketing and SaaS platform that helps companies manage their online visibility.
SEMrush is a tool that helps marketers improve their online presence, and in the process boost their conversion rates and sales. While the company began as a supplementary SEO toolkit, it now utilizes many different tools, has expanded considerably since its early days. SEMrush helps brands and companies better their Social Media Marketing and improve their revenue generation. The field is so immensely powerful that the company now makes between $50 million and $100 million a year.
The Founder
Oleg Shchegolev, who is the CEO and co-founder of SEMrush, began working with SEO when he was a third-year college student pursuing a degree in Information Security. As the field hadn’t quite blown up at the time, SEO was relatively easy to master, and so Oleg ended up exploring multiple facets of SEO and quickly picked up information related to it. Oleg, and his friend Dmitriy Melnikov, who is the other half of SEMrush started experimenting with different SEO settings leading to the creation and release of SEOquake in 2006. SEOquake turned into one of the most sought-after SEO toolbars with over 4-5 million users, much to the surprise of the duo. This success inspired them to turn their passion for SEO into something larger, and that is how SEMrush was founded.
Founding SEMrush
The duo started working on their platform during the financial crisis of 2008, leading to a rocky start filled with trials and tribulations. But what served as a saving grace for SEMrush was the fact that SEOquake was still generating revenue, and that, as a whole, IT start-ups don’t need a lot of capital upfront.
While beginning work on SEMrush, Oleg did not have much of a plan in mind and wasn’t sure how to build the right product or gain market share. The entire process was highly iterative, intuitive and experimental. Having no specific idea in mind, allowed Oleg to play around with different settings, modify and change his ideas and put together the perfect product. The only thing he was sure he wanted was to be satisfied with what the company created, and that was the main criteria based on which the team designed their initial products. Slowly, yet surely, the ideas started falling in place and Oleg gained an idea of what he wanted SEMrush to be, and how he wanted it to look.
After they had created their product, they needed to now, market it. The company started with no promotions, instead opting to distribute SEMrush among friends. Having worked in the IT field, the duo had a lot of contacts within the field, and that helped them get the software around. They stuck to a freemium model, distributed coupon codes, and gave users the chance to test their product out.
SEMrush : The Success
After being founded in 2008, the company expanded in 2015 adding keyword analysis tools to their arsenal and releasing over 100 updates. This way, the company turned from being just an SEO management tool to a content marketing tool that helped businesses stay relevant and visible. The company has also revolutionised the way brainstorming works in major companies by doing away with the concept of deadlines. Instead, they employ people who are enthusiastic and passionate about what they do and then give them the creative freedom to explore.
As a means of generating leads, the company has invested in educating the SEO community by hosting webinars, organizing chats on Twitter and nurturing blogging. SEMrush also makes use of agile marketing to create an incredibly self-sufficient and engaged marketing team. All these efforts have definitely paid off, because, in 2017, PCMagazine listed SEMrush as one of the best SEO tools of the year. Since then, the company has grown at a rate of 80% a year, and currently has several offices around the world, including Philadelphia, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Russia and has clients from over 100 countries.
The time Oleg decided to launch SEMrush was probably one of the toughest periods to launch a start-up, and yet the IT professional kept battling against the tide, and now ten years later, the company employs over 500 people and boasts of more than 2 million users. With Oleg planning to add more features, enhance existing tools, better traffic analytics, expand to newer emerging markets and strengthen his brand, it goes without saying that 2020 will be a big year for one of the world’s leading digital marketing software.
Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.