While presenting the 2025-2026 renewal deck to a client, a staggering number came up:
Leads, in our Q2 contract, were costing 40% more compared to what they did in 2024Q4.
Why, you ask?
Here’s the backstory…
In the 2024Q3-Q4 strategy, the client chose to run the full scope of our Inbound-Led Outbound strategy.
This means we generated huge traffic and awareness through nearly 100 blog posts in 4 major US states.
Each piece of content was crafted to clearly address a specific persona and a problem.
The Persona vs Problem approach works because:
It resonates with people’s cognitive biases
They see a problem that resonates with them; they read the blog post that they already agree with, and is empathetic to that problem. This keeps them reading further.
It offers a solution
There’s a secret to these blog posts: they are written using the PAS framework (Problem, Agitation, Solution). This way, people read about:
- the problem they have
- further consequences of that problem
- there is a solution
It gives a path down the funnel
Halfway through the post, we introduce the client’s solution, stating the outcomes of solving that specific problem.
With that, people click to either download a high-intent asset or request a demo. Both immediately feed the CRM for SDRs to act upon.
Using this exact system, last year we got 19% of the leads initiated from blog posts.
Why is this relevant, you ask?
Campaigns running blog posts pay – when done right – $0.05 per click.
With over 45% of people reading past half of our blogs (Yes! We track it!), it costs $0.11 to get a person aware of our client’s solution.
This significantly reduces the cost of acquiring leads.
Revenue-Aligned Content
The example above, aligned Top of Funnel to Bottom of Funnel quite nicely because:
- those were not educational blogs
- it got people who had the problem to read
- it made it easy for people who were part of a buying group to take action
- company and people identification tools were used to measure the awareness about the problems and the client, feeding the number of sessions into the CRM, further triggering SDR action after a threshold
The content you’re reading right now is also revenue-aligned.
How?
It shows the results we’ve had with clients and prepares subscribers – who are already warm to our message – to download our Inbound-Led Outbound Readiness Checklist.
In my GTM Tracks, people who downloaded my I-LO Strategy Guide will receive this email in their nurture sequence.
I unpack this and other strategies in the EdTech GTM Strategies PDF:
Before you launch another campaign…
This guide breaks down 9 real-world go-to-market strategies being used by EdTech companies in 2025. Whether you’re targeting K-12, Higher Ed, or B2B, it offers examples and structure to help align your marketing with how institutions actually buy.
Hi, I’m Rod 👋
I share marketing and sales strategies for EdTech leaders.
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DM me to start a conversation.