Clay's Social Media PR Playbook

Weekly: Product Letter

The facts behind HubSpot’s SEO Traffic Tanking

Over the last two weeks, HubSpot has been in the limelight regarding organic SEO traffic tanking.

It began with Ryan Law; Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs, when he shared a screenshot of HubSpot’s current organic traffic.

From X to LinkedIn, many marketing experts have swayed on the reasons, but Keiran Fragan; SVP of HubSpot, and Peep Laja’s takes make lots of sense to me.

““

Traditional SEO is dying, but not how you think. Here's what actually works in 2025.We just witnessed HubSpot's traffic tank from 7.5 million to 2 million. Many are panicking, but here's the truth: mediocre top-of-funnel content was always dead weight.

5 tactics driving revenue now:

1. The "Who" matters more than ever

When everyone's saying the same thing, the messenger becomes the differentiator. In crowded markets, founder brand cuts through the noise.

• Founders need to be visible and vocal
• Build domain expertise publicly
• Turn sales calls and customer interviews into content

2. ICP-first content (not keyword-first)

Stop looking at keywords first. Start with deep customer research.

• Run ICP surveys with Wynter for voice of the ICP data
• Mine sales call transcripts for pain points
• Layer in product solutions
• Only then optimize for search

3. Product-led SEO is the next frontier. Turn your product features into discoverable, searchable experiences.

• Build template libraries
• Create interactive tools
• Example: Zapier's integration directory - simple idea, massive SEO impact
• Focus on high-intent, solution-aware searches

4. Original research is your moat

In a world where AI can write anything, proprietary data wins.

• Package your product usage data
• Produce survey-based industry reports (data easy to get with Wynter)
• Create annual state-of-industry reports
• Visualize trends no one else sees

5. Surround Sound Strategy

Own every conversation about your category. Here's the playbook:

• List your top 5 product category keywords
• Create comparison pages for each
• Partner with "frenemies" for cross-promotion
• Get listed on review sites
• Build relationships with non-competing rankers
• Launch your own "best of" lists

““ — Peep Laja’ s LinkedIn Post

SaaS: Proven Playbook

Clay’s Social Media PR Success on LinkedIn

As I have said, I am constantly monitoring B2B SaaS companies that embrace unconventional means to build brand awareness, i.e., demand creation.

Over the past two weeks, Clay has taken over LinkedIn with their latest funding.

It used to be that when a company raised funds, they ran their public relations (PR) through news websites and media channels like Techcrunch and more.

Fast forward, the rise of social media PR is on the rise. And Clay’s recent play is a great example to emulate. The GTM development platform partnered with several creators to write about them on their $40m funding at a $1.25B valuation.

Examples: Jen Allen-Knuth, Obaid Durrani the Influencer Marketing lead at Clay, agency partners like Sonke Venjacob, and more.

Note: With the rise of B2B Influencer Marketing, tapping into social media PR in partnership with creators is a great move for brand awareness. Additionally, you can promote the most performing post to amplify the demand creation.

Founder Story Lessons

Interviews should focus on assessing candidates' ability to deliver job outputs through specific tests and questions, rather than evaluating cultural fit or personal similarities.

As Remote.com scaled from 50 to 2000 employees, they prioritized hiring intense, driven individuals who are self-motivated and somewhat obsessed with their work, crucial for success in a remote environment.

Scaled With Social Ads

Hockeystack’s LinkedIn Ads Playbook

Emit Atil, the CRO shared a post on LinkedIn detailing the playbook. Here are the five main pillars of how they spend their ad budget as from the blog post.

• Product Value: 16% of budget

• Thought Leadership: 10% of budget

• Social Proof: 14% of budget

• ABM: 17% of budget

• Content: 10% of budget

• Retargeting: 27% of budget

• Tests: 6%

The 4 biggest mistakes that the team learned over time and made changes for positive.

1/ Not using Lead Gen Form in retargeting campaigns

2/ Too much retargeting without enough brand awareness

3/ Heavily increasing budget without other GTM changes

4/ Too narrow of Account Lists

Proven Growth Examples

Scaling Onbo by Stilt Inc to $2.5m in 6 months with billboards

That is all for this week.

Which section stood out for you today?

-Okerosi