How CTOs Buy (100 Surveyed)

To Marketers,

Okerosi here with Product Weekly.

In this newsletter, I share proven insights I have gathered this week across; product marketing, B2B ad creatives & SaaS growth playbooks from the top 5% minds in the space.

In this week’s roundup:

- LinkedIn social selling

- Newsletter report ‘25

- 3 Product-led strategies

"I start by Googling the type of tool, and look at both the organic results as well as the paid ads. For example, I might search of "load testing tools" or "best load testing tools". I would also look for results from Gartner, Reddit, or other sites that might be comparing tools. Once I started getting a list of some of the names of tools, I would start searching for "tool X versus tool Y" or searches like that. Then, I would start to go to the actual vendor sites. But sites, like Reddit where people discuss tools can sometimes be very helpful (or maybe a site like Stack Overflow if it is a tech tool)."

4. Price isn't everything (but it's close).
While cost is always a consideration, companies prioritize value, flexibility, and long-term ROI over the cheapest option. They want;

• Transparent pricing
• Rate hike caps
• Flexible terms
• Clear value alignment

"Negotiation always happens, but we care more about reliability and support than cutting costs."
"We never accept the first price. There’s always room for negotiation."

The seniority split CTOs and CIOs:
• Care about long-term strategy
• Focus on risk and scale
• Love their RFPs

"Vendor brand reputation is very important. Well-known brands that are widely used usually appeal to us. However, we will engage with a new vendor if they have a solid product."

Ensure you actively engage with their content and guide them toward the next step, whether its a meeting, lead magnet download or trial signup. Continuously track their responses to refine your approach and align efforts with sales or marketing teams for a seamless handoff when theyre ready.

Here's the breakdown of a campaign we recently ran:
 
Campaign Data:
8 podcasts in the SaaS/HR space
32 episodes featuring a host-read ad
6 week duration
Audience demographic: founders, entrepreneurs, HR professionals
Audience location demo: USA, Europe, UK

Spend:
$15,500 (includes campaign management)

Goal:
Awareness & Leads

Brand CLTV (estimated)
Avg Revenue Per User per month ~ $500
Retention Rate ~ 90%
Avg. Customer Lifespan (years) ~ 4
Est. CLTV ~ $21,600

Results (estimated):
# Listens: 21,888
Est. CVR: 4% (listeners who visited website)
Est. web visits: 876
Est. signup CVR: 1.0%
Est. web conversions: 8

Est. Revenue generated ~ $172,800
Profit ~ $150,912
ROAS ~ 8X

Combine FOMO & Exclusivity to ad readers to action.

Lessons from launching on Product Hunt

1. Product Hunt’s editorial team changed the rules – getting featured is now three times harder than it was a year ago.

2. An hour before launch, check if your post says Featured on [date] instead of Posted on [date]. If not, you’re out. But sometimes, reaching out to Product Hunt support and asking to reschedule works – about 50/50 depending on who you get in support.

3. Your community and outreach should be warmed up at least a month in advance. One of the best tricks? Get people to follow your teaser page on Product Hunt beforehand – they convert well into upvotes.

4. Paid upvotes? Test before trusting. Some services can deliver up to 500 “surviving” votes, but Product Hunt has a weird filtering system that cuts votes every hour. Some work, some don’t.

“In 2024, we observed a significant shift as advertisers sought to diversify their marketing spend away from platforms like Meta, Google, and other programmatic channels. Rising costs, coupled with limited measurement capabilities and a lack of optimization, have driven advertisers to explore alternative, higher-value avenues.

Simultaneously, high-value consumers have increasingly curated their own news and content consumption, signaling a broader shift in engagement patterns.

This startup turned $15,000 into $1M in 72 hours just by giving away pizza!

Sounds insane?
But that’s exactly what Antimetal did.

They weren’t selling sneakers or coffee.
They were selling AWS cost optimization, possibly the most boring SaaS niche imaginable. Yet, they pulled off one of the smartest viral marketing moves in tech.

Here’s how they did it:

1/ They identified a pain point no one was solving well.
Reddit & Hacker News were flooded with complaints about sky-high AWS bills. Antimetal had the perfect solution—but no one was listening.

2/ They went all in with unconventional marketing.
With just $15,000, Antimetal’s founder Matthew Parkhurst ditched ads and cold emails. Instead, he got 1,000+ pizzas, each branded with Antimetal’s name.

3/ They sent them straight to CEOs, VCs, and tech influencers.
People might ignore emails, but no one ignores free pizza.

The impact?
→ 1.5M organic views on X
→ 75 of 1,000 prospects became customers
→ $1M in revenue generated in 3 days

They booked so many demos, it literally broke cal.com.

What stands out the most here is understanding human behavior:
→ Even in tech, marketing is still about people.
→ No one wants to listen to another generic sales pitch.
→ Rather create a moment people can’t ignore.

The best marketing move is the one your competitors would never think to try AND that snaps people out of their automatic ignorance.

I closed 5 $60k ACV deals in December and 4 in January. That’s +$540k ARR in 60 days. Every deal was a 2 or 3 call close with a sales cycle < 30 days………

Linkedin works, it just takes time. Once you’re seeing people come inbound, mention you on posts, invite you to podcasts, have conversations with you in DMs,………