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How Omnisend Broke $50M ARR Focusing On Content & SEO

A five-person in-house SEO team, authority building, and how Omnisend adapts to AI Overviews

Rytis Lauris · Omnisend

Published September 6, 2024
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What you’ll learn

Rytis Lauris explains how Omnisend built organic traffic in a highly competitive email-marketing market. He covers SEO team operations, authority building, AI Overviews, and cross-team collaboration.

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Key moments

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Omnisend and the competitive market

“how are they getting customers more efficiently than their VC backed competitors and that's what I wanted him to teach and that's exactly what he's teaching today I'm not going to spoil the beans let's just give a warm Round of Applause to the CEO of omen Rus Loris Rus come on [Applause] up thanks for being here man I got it right right 5 million 5 yes and what will you finish this year out you think yes we'll see we'll see this year is a little bit more challenging but it's”
Watch at 00:00

Why organic acquisition matters

“click not for sign up not for paying customer but just for one single click goes up to 60 bucks yeah so okay on high seasons on low Seasons around 40 30 bucks for one single click so really really tough competition and uh yeah so definitely investing in organic is what helped us grow okay so key principles key principles uh what our team applies our content in SEO team applies initially we focus on outcomes not”
Watch at 03:50

Building search authority

“domain Authority is high sometimes it takes you just couple of days to get ranked in top 10 position with a some keywords of course if the highest competition keywords still takes times but but it it really really becomes easier so domain Authority it's very important thing um so the single tax itic that worked for us or the main tactic by far that worked for us is really really building a big pool of referring domains and referring backlinks yes so you see now we have”
Watch at 08:11

Adapting to AI Overviews

“engine in Google nowadays if people are Googling this AI overviews is the top result that is being shown and here you can see you know omnisend is not already in the first position yeah we are listed there in the in the list down below a little bit but like you know bra hopspot other players are listed as a top player so we really have to overcome this one and how to do that this is this is a trick question this is a trick question and um uh you know and initially what”
Watch at 12:28

Demonstrating expertise and trust

“personal life he's talking to his CNBC so Google Sees okay that Bernard is a truly like respectful person and he writes good piece of content afterwards so it's important so that's another thing which was not uh was as necessary in the past but actually became very important recently um and backlinks still matter backlinks still matter so if you if you want to to come High into high positions with your own content you write good”
Watch at 16:51

Omnisend SEO growth context

“SaaSOpen, September 2024 How Omnisend Broke $50M ARR Focusing On Content & SEO Rytis Lauris Co-Founder & CEO, Omnisend”
Read slide 1

SEO team principles

“Key Principles Focus on outcomes not outputs Effective planning based on OKRs Efficient processes: SEO is math”
Read slide 9

Investing in SEO foundations

“SEO is Not So Free/Organic Dedicated in-house SEO team focuses on keyword research, backlink building and search results monitoring Network of good quality copywriters (in-house + agency) Network of backlink partners”
Read slide 13

Cross-team execution

“SEO team identifies targets for Affiliates team Affiliates team comes back to SEO team to help execute Teamwork is cost-effective and increases aligned outcomes Cross team collaboration”
Read slide 20

Backlinks and competitive rankings

“Backlinks are still a very important part of our SEO strategy Top positions for very competitive keywords (email marketing tools or SMS marketing) require a good backlinks profile Link building is a routine process (organic and earned) Backlinks Still Matter”
Read slide 22

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About the speaker
Rytis Lauris

Rytis Lauris

CEO and Co-Founder · Omnisend

LinkedInTwitter
Company revenue
$50M

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Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.

26 passages

Omnisend SEO growth context

  1. Slide 1Open deck
    Slide text

    SaaSOpen, September 2024 How Omnisend Broke $50M ARR Focusing On Content & SEO Rytis Lauris Co-Founder & CEO, Omnisend

  2. Slide 2Open deck

    Revenue accelerated through 2023

    The annual recurring revenue bars rise year after year from 2015 to 2023, with the steepest growth in the later years.

    Slide text

    Omnisend Revenue Growth

  3. Slide 3Open deck

    Organic traffic reached 180K

    The traffic chart starts near zero in 2018 and climbs to a headline level of 180K, with growth accelerating in the later period.

    Slide text

    Organic Traffic Growth From 0 in 2018 to 180K

  4. Slide 4Open deck

    Market, team, and SEO practice

    The agenda covers competition and team principles, early investments in content and links, and current changes in search.

    Slide text

    Over the Next 20 Minutes I’m going to show you MARKET & TEAM Competition Key principles Omnisend’s SEO team FIRST 3 YEARS SEO is not so free/organic One tactic to increase authority Link building tips TODAY AI Overviews and algorithm updates Cross team collaboration Backlinks still matter

  5. Slide 5Open deck

    Market and team

    This section covers competition, differentiation, and the structure of Omnisend’s SEO team.

    Slide text

    Market and the Team Key principles Omnisend’s SEO team MARKET DIFFERENTIATION A LOOK INSIDE Competition

  6. Slide 6Open deck

    Compete against established brands

    The slide describes marketing automation as a competitive category with well-known brands and large marketing budgets.

    Slide text

    Competition Omnisend operates in a highly competitive industry Competitors are well-known brands with large marketing budgets

  7. Slide 7Open deck

    Difficult keywords carry high value

    The keyword dashboard supports the headline claim that difficulty reaches 97 and top-keyword PPC value reaches $60.

    Slide text

    Top Keyword Difficulty is as high as 97 PPC value of the top keywords is high as $60 Competition

  8. Slide 8Open deck

    Traffic grew from zero to 180K

    The chart tracks a long rise in organic traffic from 2018 to a headline level of 180K, alongside increasing traffic value.

    Slide text

    From 0 to 180k Organic traffic growth since 2018

SEO team principles

  1. Slide 9Open deck

    Optimize for outcomes

    The comparison distinguishes producing articles as an output from increasing organic traffic as an outcome; the slide also stresses OKR-based planning and efficient processes.

    Slide text

    Key Principles Focus on outcomes not outputs Effective planning based on OKRs Efficient processes: SEO is math

  2. Slide 10Open deck

    A focused in-house SEO team

    The team chart shows an internal SEO function connected to content, web growth, PR, affiliates, partnerships, PPC, and growth marketing, supported by external content and backlink partners.

    Slide text

    We have in-house people only,no external SEO agencies Team of 5 is highly efficient A pool of partners help us with content and backlinks Omnisend’s SEO Team

  3. Slide 11Open deck

    The first three years

    This section looks back at the resources invested, the authority-building tactic, and link-building practices.

    Slide text

    SEO is not so free/organic One tactic to increase authority First 3 Years RESOURCES TACTIC BACKLINKS Link building tips

  4. Slide 12Open deck

    Organic traffic grew to 40K

    The slide headline describes organic traffic reaching 40K from 2019 to 2021. Its embedded chart spans 2015 through 2023 and reaches a much higher scale, so the plotted period and scale do not match the headline.

    Slide text

    Organic Traffic From 0 to 40k (Year 2019 - 2021)

Investing in SEO foundations

  1. Slide 13Open deck

    SEO requires dedicated resources

    The slide describes an in-house team focused on keyword research, backlinks, and monitoring, supported by copywriters and backlink partners.

    Slide text

    SEO is Not So Free/Organic Dedicated in-house SEO team focuses on keyword research, backlink building and search results monitoring Network of good quality copywriters (in-house + agency) Network of backlink partners

  2. Slide 14Open deck

    Link building increased authority

    The slide connects three years of link building with improved search metrics and a stronger backlink profile.

    Slide text

    One Tactic to Increase Authority Omnisend’s website had no big Authority Score in 2019 SEO team’s main focus was working on backlinks 3 years of link building helped to increase main SEO metrics

  3. Slide 15Open deck

    Earn links through relationships and research

    The tips recommend manual guest-post outreach, working with smaller agencies and site owners, and creating research, reports, and ebooks that attract links.

    Slide text

    Link Building Tips Manual outreach suggesting guest posts for other websites Cooperating with small agencies, freelancers or webmasters that have a pool of websites interested in accepting good quality content Writing our own content that attracts organic links (various research, reports, and ebooks)

  4. Slide 16Open deck

    Current SEO priorities

    This section turns to AI overviews, cross-team collaboration, and the continued role of backlinks.

    Slide text

    AI Overviews and algorithm updates Cross team collaboration Backlinks still matter Today LANDSCAPE TEAM BACKLINKS

  5. Slide 17Open deck

    Search is changing

    A generative search response to an email-marketing query illustrates how people may get answers and recommendations directly in search.

    Slide text

    Search is changing

  6. Slide 18Open deck

    AI overviews appear in search

    The search screenshot places an AI-generated summary above organic results for a software query, changing how results are presented.

    Slide text

    AI Overviews showing up for everyone

  7. Slide 19Open deck

    AI overviews draw from top results

    The slide states that AI Overviews match one or more top-ten organic pages 99.5% of the time, based on an analysis of 36,000 keywords.

    Slide text

    *Finding is based on seoClarity’s analysis of 36,000 keywords Google AI Overviews now match one or more of the webpages from the top 10 Google organic search results 99.5% of the time*

Cross-team execution

  1. Slide 20Open deck

    SEO and affiliates can work together

    The process has SEO identify affiliate targets, affiliates execute, and the teams collaborate to support aligned outcomes.

    Slide text

    SEO team identifies targets for Affiliates team Affiliates team comes back to SEO team to help execute Teamwork is cost-effective and increases aligned outcomes Cross team collaboration

  2. Slide 21Open deck

    Experience and expertise support trust

    A collage of author, video, and article examples illustrates ways to show experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

    Slide text

    EEAT Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

Backlinks and competitive rankings

  1. Slide 22Open deck

    Backlinks remain part of SEO

    The chart shows referring domains rising over time, supporting the recommendation to treat earned link building as an ongoing process.

    Slide text

    Backlinks are still a very important part of our SEO strategy Top positions for very competitive keywords (email marketing tools or SMS marketing) require a good backlinks profile Link building is a routine process (organic and earned) Backlinks Still Matter

  2. Slide 23Open deck

    Four priorities for 2025

    The list calls for adapting to AI, measuring SEO performance, improving collaboration across teams, and increasing brand awareness.

    Slide text

    Priorities for 2025 Adapting to the impact of AI on SEO Being able to measure the performance of SEO efforts Improving SEO collaboration across teams and departments Increasing brand awareness

  3. Slide 24Open deck

    Recap the SEO strategy

    The recap connects market competition, outcome-focused principles, resource investment, authority building, AI changes, cross-team work, and backlinks.

    Slide text

    Over the Last 20 Minutes I showed you: MARKET & TEAM Competition Key principles Omnisend’s SEO team FIRST 3 YEARS SEO is not so free/organic One tactic to increase authority Link building tips TODAY AI Overviews and algorithm updates Cross team collaboration Backlinks still matter

  4. Slide 25Open deck

    Thank you to the SEO team

    The slide recognizes the SEO team and its roles across leadership and specialist work.

    Slide text

    key Thank you Team! SEO Team Lead Donatas Senior SEO Specialist Milda Senior SEO Specialist Paulius SEO Specialist Kamilė SEO Specialist Rokas

  5. Slide 26Open deck

    Thank you

    The speaker closes with a thank-you and contact details shown on the slide.

    Slide text

    SaaSOpen, September 2024 Thank you! [redacted email] Rytis Lauris Co-Founder & CEO, Omnisend