What I love most about the Buffer transparent pricing report 2016
One thing stands out to me above everything else in Buffer’s amazing transparent pricing post from this year — the marketing spend. Or rather the lack of it.
Buffer is a company that is renowned for it’s transparency. If you didn’t already know, they publish their revenue, expenditure, salaries and code. Everything. Not a line redacted or missing.
They take transparency not just to the next level, but to the finish line. There is no more transparency than this.
And it works for them.
Buffer has grown in the last year. Baremetrics shows their monthly recurring revenue growing by 56% in the last 365 days. They are at over $8m per year. Staff have grown too. From 25 employees last year to over 70 as I write.
Buffer is doing something right. That’s for sure.
The surprising part?
So it seems surprising when you look at the line marked “Advertising and Marketing” in their report published today. In total they spent $6,650 a month. Just over 1% of their total revenue.
How is it possible that a company can grow by 56% to over $8m per year revenue on an advertising and marketing budget of 1.14%?
I think the answer lies in another line on the report — Team Member Salaries. This accounts for over 68% of everything they spend.
Buffer doesn’t throw money at advertising and marketing in the traditional sense. Instead they rely on their team members to produce content that attracts customers from search engines and social media shares. Buffer’s blog is full of useful, actionable content that their customers will read and share.
Buffer’s investment in its people is remarkable and their company culture shows just how committed they are to looking after the people that have shaped the growth of the company.
This is marketing in 2016.
Creating content, being transparent, giving away value (did I mention that Buffer’s most popular plan is the free plan?) — all of these things are how you grow and thrive in 2016 and beyond.
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