Vagaro

Building a dynamic content machine

Vagaro is a SaaS business management platform helping entrepreneurs in beauty, fitness and wellness with booking, fintech, marketing, rent and payroll solutions.

In less than a year, I transformed Vagaro’s content program from a couple of employees and vastly outdated, inconsistent content to a team of a dozen professionals running fresh, new, high-performing channels. Included in that flurry of activity, we:

• Split one blog into two - B2B and B2C - with more focused messaging and calls to action for very different audiences.

• Integrated SEO into the blog editorial and production workflows. Combined with improvements in page load time, internal and external linking, and many technical improvements, organic search grew immediately, dramatically and consistently.

• Optimized several sales pages for key search terms like “best salon software” so they moved up several spots in Google search results to the top or near the top of the first page of search results. Needless to say, organic traffic to those pages grew significantly as a result.

• Created new B2C social media accounts to speak to the unique needs of consumers. With calls to action that are quite different from the B2B accounts, we helped drive growth in app downloads and bookings - which has a direct impact on revenue.

• Built an influencer program with notable figures in Beauty, Fitness and Wellness. This involved pitching influencers, negotiating rates, creating contracts, reviewing and approving content, and amplifying their posts. This kind of third-party validation is a critical part of expanding the brand’s reach and establishing credibility with key audiences.

• Launched a new podcast, On Point, which doubled in downloads every month. Recently we booked a guest whose last appearance was on The Joe Rogan Experience - only the most popular podcast on Spotify. It was a validation of how far we’d come in only 6 months.

• Built a Brand Guidelines Book to help a largely new Marketing team and the occasional vendor we hire, so that everything from Vagaro’s visual identity to its tone & voice can be consistent and on brand.

Customer voices to the front

Sometimes the best way to promote a product or service is to show a happy customer. We did that regularly at Vagaro, as proof of the software’s ability to launch and build a successful business. Particularly in new markets like the United Kingdom, customer success stories offered valuable social proof. Often we began with a long-form video at the center of a lead generation landing page and used snippets from that for social media teasers.