• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube
• RSS Feed

Apple •Spotify• Pocket Casts •Youtube •Overcast •RSS

What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Simon Heaton, Director of Growth Marketing at Buffer.

Summary: Simon helps us explore Buffer’s martech journey, highlighting their shift from traditional tools to a product-led approach driven by data and server-side analytics. We unpack their use of Customer.io for automation and hold out testing, Redash for data insights, and their agile sprint model that fosters continuous innovation. Discover how Buffer’s small team thrives with efficient, data-driven strategies.

Jump to a Section

• Buffer’s Marketing Tech Stack and Why it Doesn’t Include a CRM
• The Power of a Visual and Intuitive Automation Flow Interface
• Experimentation and Holdout Testing at Buffer
• Why Buffer Chooses Open-Source Redash Over Proprietary BI Tools
• The Shift to Server-Side Tracking at Buffer
• Buffer’s Lean and Decentralized Data Approach
• Running Successful Agile Sprint Models for Marketing Teams

About Simon

• Simon started his career in the agency world at Banfield in Ottawa, Canada
• He later moved over to Shopify where he would spend nearly 7 years, first as a content Marketing Manager and later as the Senior Growth Lead, Acquisition
• Simon’s also worn a part-time teaching hat for over 5 years, he was an Instructor with Telfer School of Management at UofO as well as a Professor at Algonquin College
• He’s a startup mentor for founders that are part of the Singapore-based equity fund at Antler
• Today Simon is Director of Growth Marketing at Buffer, the world-renowned social media management platform

Buffer’s Marketing Tech Stack and Why it Doesn’t Include a CRM

Buffer’s marketing strategy is unique. They don’t use a traditional CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce. Simon explains that Buffer is a product-led company without a dedicated sales team. This means they don’t need typical CRM functionalities like lead routing and scoring. Instead, Buffer relies heavily on data and product analytics to drive their marketing efforts.

The core of Buffer’s operations is their data warehouse, with Segment acting as their Customer Data Platform (CDP). This setup allows Buffer to integrate various tools and centralize crucial information. Mixpanel, their product analytics tool, is pivotal in this system. It gathers both product usage and marketing data, providing a comprehensive view of user interactions.

Simon highlights the importance of server-side tracking and integrating data from diverse sources such as AdWords, Customer.io, and Pendo. This integration helps Buffer understand the user lifecycle and measure the impact of marketing efforts beyond basic website metrics.

Tools like Customer.io are also essential for Buffer. It manages most user communications, making it a critical component of their stack. The combination of Mixpanel, Customer.io, and other integrated tools ensures that Buffer can seamlessly track and analyze user behavior.

Key takeaway: Not all B2B companies need a CRM or a sales team. A product-led approach, using robust data and product analytics tools, can effectively drive your marketing efforts and provide comprehensive insights into user behavior.

Back to the top ⬆️

The Power of a Visual and Intuitive Automation Flow Interface

Simon loves working in a smaller team like Buffer, where he can get hands-on with their tools daily. He highlights how Buffer uses Customer.io for their marketing automation, a tool he’s familiar with from his previous experience at Shopify.

Buffer relies on Customer.io to manage email marketing, push notifications for mobile apps, and various communication programs. Simon appreciates how the tool handles both marketing and transactional communications, offering a unified view of user interactions. This integration ensures consistency in messages, whether they’re marketing emails or product notifications.

Simon praises Customer.io’s user-friendly interface, especially the journey mapping functionality and the WYSIWYG editor, which make it accessible for non-technical team members. Despite its ease of use, the platform also boasts deep technical capabilities, allowing for extensive customization through HTML and API integrations. This flexibility has been crucial for Buffer’s needs.

The integration with Segment, Buffer’s Customer Data Platform (CDP), is particularly valuable. Simon emphasizes that having all data in Segment and seamlessly integrating it with Customer.io enables precise data handling. This setup ensures accurate and timely data flow, essential for personalized and effective marketing automation workflows.

Key takeaway: Even as a small team, you can effectively manage complex marketing automation needs by choosing user-friendly tools like Customer.io that offer both simplicity and deep customization. This approach allows your non-technical team members to contribute meaningfully while ensuring your technical needs are met, enhancing overall efficiency and personalization in your communications.

Back to the top ⬆️

Experimentation and Holdout Testing at Buffer

Experimentation is a cornerstone of Buffer’s approach, and Simon is particularly enthusiastic about the capabilities provided by Customer.io. He explains that the platform’s holdout testing functionality is essential for validating new programs and comparing campaign performance. Unlike some tools, Customer.io counts a delivery for the holdout group, simplifying the tracking process over time.

The integration with Segment and Mixpanel is a game-changer for Buffer. This setup allows them to surface Customer.io data in Mixpanel, creating unique reports and dashboards to support their experiments. Tracking differences in behavior between groups becomes straightforward, thanks to the detailed delivery events logged for both test and holdout groups. This level of detail ensures that Buffer can effectively measure the impact of their campaigns.

Simon also highlights the ease of A/B testing within Customer.io. Whether at the message level or within workflows, the platform’s randomization logic allows for extensive testing. Buffer can run tests on content, sequencing, and other variables, ensuring they continually optimize their marketing efforts. The ability to branch workflows and test different variants simultaneously is particularly valuable, enabling ongoing experimentation.

Key takeaway: Leverage holdout testing and detailed event tracking within your marketing automation tools to gain deeper insights into your campaign effectiveness. This approach allows you to validate new programs, compare performance, and optimize your strategies based on precise, data-driven insights.

Back to the top ⬆️

Testing Journeys and Templating Language with QA Draft Mode

Simon praises Customer.io’s QA draft mode, a feature he finds invaluable for Buffer’s marketing automation. This functionality allows the team to build complex workflows, trigger off specific data points, and test the entire process in a production environment without actually sending emails. It’s a unique capability that Simon has not found in other tools, making it a standout feature of Customer.io.

Simon highlights how QA draft mode lets them see real users qualifying for different branches of the workflow while emails remain in draft. This means they can verify that users are correctly segmented and the emails look as intended, all without prematurely sending any messages. This testing phase is crucial for catching errors that might not be evident during initial previews.

Buffer has used this feature for several initiatives, such as new onboarding iterations and product notifications. Given the high frequency and volume of these emails, ensuring everything works perfectly before going live is essential. Simon appreciates that once the testing phase is complete, it only takes a click to start sending the validated emails to users.

This capability saves time and reduces the risk of errors in live campaigns. It allows Buffer to maintain high standards in their communication, ensuring that users receive accurate and relevant information. The QA draft mode is an integral part of their workflow, contributing significantly to their overall marketing success.

Key takeaway: Customer.io’s QA draft mode enables Buffer to test complex workflows in a production environment without sending emails prematurely. This feature ensures accuracy and efficiency in their marketing campaigns, highlighting the importance of robust testing capabilities in marketing automation tools.

Back to the top ⬆️

Why Buffer Chooses Open-Source Redash Over Proprietary BI Tools

Buffer’s affinity for open-source tools is evident, and Redash is a prime example of their commitment to transparency. Simon notes that Buffer’s business and code are open-source, reflecting their philosophy of supporting similar ventures. Redash, an open-source business intelligence (BI) tool, has proven invaluable for Buffer, especially when dealing with complex queries that span multiple databases.

Simon explains that while Mixpanel is their primary BI tool, Redash is particularly useful for more intricate tasks. Buffer, like many tech companies with a decade-long history, has various data warehouses and databases. Redash enables Simon and the data team to write custom queries and visualize results, essential for tasks requiring data from multiple sources. This functionality is crucial for their operations, allowing them to combine and analyze data efficiently.

Redash also supports exploratory data analysis, making it a versatile tool for Buffer’s growth analysis efforts. Data scientists at Buffer use Redash to run queries and model data, helping them uncover insights and trends. This exploratory work is integral to Buffer’s data-driven decision-making process, enabling the team to test hypotheses and refine strategies based on their findings.

Although Redash serves as a secondary resource to Mixpanel, its role is significant. The tool’s ability to handle complex, cross-database queries makes it an essential part of Buffer’s data toolkit. Simon’s endorsement of Redash underscores its importance in supporting Buffer’s analytical needs, particularly for advanced data manipulation and visualization tasks.

Key takeaway: Redash enhances Buffer’s data capabilities by enabling complex, cross-database queries and supporting exploratory data analysis. This open-source tool complements Mixpanel, providing a robust solution for detailed data visualization and analysis.

Back to the top ⬆️

The Shift to Server-Side Tracking at Buffer

Buffer’s decision to shift from Google Analytics to server-side tracking was driven by the need for more granular and accurate data. Simon explains that while Google Analytics has been a staple in the analytics space, its limitations became apparent as Buffer’s data needs grew more complex. The primary issues were sampling errors and restricted reporting options, which hindered comprehensive data analysis.

Google Analytics, though easy to implement and widely used, couldn’t provide the raw, detailed data Buffer required for strategic decision-making. The inability to easily connect marketing data to product data was a significant drawback. Simon points out that while conversion goals and events can be set up in Google Analytics, they often act as proxies rather than direct reflections of product analytics.

By moving to server-side tracking, Buffer solved these issues. Tools like Mixpanel and Redash allowed Buffer to stitch together marketing, web, and product data seamlessly. This integration enabled the team to track user behavior across the entire funnel, from acquisition to retention. Server-side tracking also eliminated sampling errors, providing precise and reliable data for analysis.

Simon emphasizes the collaborative nature of Buffer’s product and marketing teams, which was crucial for this transition. Data reports directly to Simon, ensuring that marketing data is treated with the same importance as product data. This close collaboration enabled the successful implementation of server-side tracking through Segment, capturing detailed onsite events and enabling custom modeling for user sessions and attribution.

The result is a powerful data infrastructure that supports Buffer’s growth and experimentation. Custom reports and dashboards built in Mixpanel and Redash provide insights that drive data-informed decisions. Simon encourages other teams to consider this shift, highlighting the boundless insights and data accuracy server-side tracking offers.

Key takeaway: Transition to server-side tracking to overcome the limitations of traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics. This shift enables you to seamlessly integrate marketing and product data, eliminate sampling errors, and gain precise, actionable insights for strategic decision-making.

Back to the top ⬆️

Buffer’s Lean and Decentralized Data Approach

Simon explains Buffer’s unique approach to data management, highlighting their lean and decentralized methodology. Unlike larger companies with extensive data teams, Buffer operates with a much smaller team, by design. This strategic decision aligns with their goal of remaining a sustainable-sized company that doesn’t need to scale continuously in terms of both growth and personnel.

Buffer’s data philosophy revolves around decentralization. This means that each team, whether it’s product managers or content marketers, is equipped with the data insights relevant to their area. By embedding data expertise within individual teams, Buffer fosters a sense of ownership and enables more impactful work. This approach contrasts with the traditional model where data teams act as a service line, handling data issues independently.

Simon notes that the data team at Buffer has evolved over the years, adapting to changes in team size and structure. Currently, engineering managers within each product pod are responsible for the data engineering components for their respective products. This shift places the onus on engineering teams to ensure data pipelines are built and instrumented correctly. It empowers teams to maintain a close relationship with their data, enhancing the accuracy and relevance of their insights.

To support this decentralized model, Buffer has a centralized team that handles horizontal use cases. This team, which works closely with Simon, includes data scientists and analysts who focus on modeling and deep growth analysis. Additionally, a senior infrastructure team manages broader data engineering requirements, ensuring the quality and accuracy of pipelines and databases across the company.

Key takeaway: Buffer’s decentralized data approach empowers individual teams with relevant insights, fostering ownership and impactful work. By embedding data expertise within product pods and maintaining a lean, centralized support structure, Buffer ensures data accuracy and strategic alignment without the need for a large data team.

Back to the top ⬆️

Encouraging Data Engineering Skills at Buffer

Buffer thrives on a culture of growth and versatility, which is evident in their approach to data engineering. Simon highlights how Buffer encourages engineering managers and senior engineers to expand into the realm of data engineering. This crossover not only enhances their skills but also benefits the company by creating a more integrated and efficient workflow.

Simon shares that in a smaller organization like Buffer, team members often wear multiple hats. This startup-like atmosphere fosters a hands-on approach where everyone, including Simon, is deeply involved in various aspects of the company. Encouraging engineers to take on data engineering responsibilities aligns with Buffer’s culture of continuous personal and professional growth.

One of the key advantages of this approach is the seamless integration of data and product management. When engineers understand both the technical and data aspects, it ensures that changes to the product, such as modifying the registration flow, are executed without disrupting the data pipelines. This holistic perspective is crucial for maintaining data integrity and efficiency.

Buffer’s strategy not only enhances individual skills but also future-proofs their team. By developing a workforce that is adept in both engineering and data, Buffer ensures that they are well-equipped to handle evolving technological challenges. This approach underscores their commitment to improvement and innovation.

Key takeaway: Buffer’s emphasis on cross-training engineers in data engineering fosters personal growth and enhances workflow efficiency. This integrated approach ensures seamless product and data management, reflecting Buffer’s commitment to continuous improvement and adaptability.

Back to the top ⬆️

Running Successful Agile Sprint Models for Marketing Teams

Simon is a big proponent of process and documentation, believing that staying organized and keeping workflows crisp can significantly enhance focus and clarity. He emphasizes that when teams are clear on their procedures, they can execute tasks more effectively and with fewer distractions. Simon’s appreciation for the agile approach has grown over time, especially after his experiences at Shopify and Buffer.

At Buffer, alignment with other teams is critical. Being a product-led growth company without a sales or account management team, marketing must align closely with product teams. This alignment ensures that roadmaps and go-to-market strategies are cohesive. Buffer’s marketing team operates on two-week sprints with quarterly planning, allowing flexibility to pivot and adjust based on new information.

Simon believes that clarity and focus are essential for successful agile workflows. Marketing teams often face numerous distractions, from minor website issues to urgent marketing tasks. Establishing clear goals and targets for each cycle helps the team prioritize and stay on track. For instance, while fixing a broken signup button is urgent, updating copy on a commercial page might not be as pressing.

The structured nature of two-week sprints also helps teams reach milestones and maintain momentum. Whether it’s shipping an experiment or making progress on a long-term project, these defined periods encourage consistent progress. Simon notes that rituals, such as grooming meetings and weekly alignments, are crucial for maintaining this structure. These meetings include marketers, engineers, UX designers, and data scientists, fostering collaboration and ensuring everyone is aligned.

Team buy-in is another critical factor. Simon mentions that some team members may resist using agile tools like Jira or sticking to two-week cycles. However, for the process to work, the entire team must adopt and believe in it. Agile isn’t just about shorter planning cycles; it’s about being truly flexible and willing to pivot based on new insights. This mindset allows Buffer to avoid sunk cost fallacies and focus on what’s most impactful.

Simon’s team follows a “test and learn” approach, continually iterating on their work. They might have a hypothesis for a new program to drive leads, but early tests might disprove it. Instead of stubbornly pushing forward, they use the new information to pivot and adjust their strategy. This willingness to adapt is key to the success of their agile marketing structure.

Key takeaway: Implement a “test and learn” approach within your agile marketing framework to enhance adaptability. By regularly iterating and being open to pivoting based on new insights, you can avoid sunk cost fallacies and ensure your strategies remain effective and responsive to real-time data.

Back to the top ⬆️

Why a Shopify Growth Lead Chose a Bootstrap Startup

Simon has experienced a significant shift in his career, moving from the enterprise giant Shopify to the bootstrap startup Buffer. He shares insights into why he made this transition and what he loves about his current setup at Buffer.

Simon reflects on his time at Shopify, where he witnessed the company scale from around 900 employees to over 14,000. This period was marked by hyper-growth, offering Simon opportunities to work in various departments and tackle diverse challenges. Despite the rewarding experience, after seven years, Simon felt the need to seek new challenges and solve problems in a different context.

Buffer presented a unique opportunity for Simon. Known for its employee-first culture and pioneering remote work long before the pandemic, Buffer had always been on Simon’s radar. Joining Buffer during a time of transition, when the marketing team was undergoing a reboot, appealed to Simon. The opportunity to work with an established brand with product-market fit, but still maintain a smaller team dynamic, was particularly enticing.

Simon appreciated the chance to apply his growth and marketing skills in a bootstrap environment, a stark contrast to the VC-backed world of Shopify. This change allowed him to grow professionally, working within new constraints and leveraging his experience in a more resource-constrained setting. The challenge of achieving impactful growth without the vast resources of a large enterprise was a compelling problem for Simon to solve.

Two and a half years into his journey at Buffer, Simon is thrilled with his decision. He enjoys being closer to the work, collaborating with a dedicated team, and contributing to a mission-driven organization. The size of the team and the culture at Buffer have provided Simon with a fulfilling and dynamic work environment, allowing him to grow as a marketer and leader.

Key takeaway: Transitioning from a large enterprise to a startup offers unique growth opportunities and challenges. Embracing new environments and constraints can lead to professional growth and fulfilling work experiences, as evidenced by Simon’s journey from Shopify to Buffer.

Back to the top ⬆️

Stop Chasing Titles Start Solving Interesting Problems

Simon underscores the importance of working for an organization whose product and values align with your personal convictions. He believes that spending significant time at work means it’s crucial to find a place that resonates with you. This alignment not only fosters happiness but also enhances productivity and satisfaction.

He advises against chasing titles or brand names, emphasizing instead the value of pursuing interesting problems. Simon finds fulfillment in tackling challenging issues that stimulate intellectual growth and provide a sense of accomplishment. Working on tough problems can transform a mundane job into a passionate endeavor, making a significant difference in one’s career satisfaction.

The team environment also plays a pivotal role in job satisfaction. Simon highlights the stark contrast between high-trust and low-trust teams, noting that a supportive and collaborative team environment can greatly enhance the work experience. He values high-performing teams where trust and collaboration are paramount, as they contribute to a more positive and productive work atmosphere.

Balancing work and personal life is an ongoing journey for Simon. He acknowledges the challenges of being deeply invested in one’s professional space but stresses the importance of making space for personal activities. For Simon, achieving balance involves knowing when to turn off work and engage in personal pursuits. He appreciates Buffer’s people-first culture, which supports employees in maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Simon shares a practical tip for those struggling with balance: make time for personal activities and create routines that help transition from work to personal life. For instance, he ends his workday with a gym session, which helps him switch off his work brain and activate his personal brain, ensuring a clear distinction between work and personal time.

Key takeaway: Finding alignment with an organization’s values, pursuing interesting problems, fostering a high-trust team environment, and establishing routines for work-life balance are essential for career satisfaction and personal happiness. Making intentional time for personal activities can significantly enhance overall well-being.

Back to the top ⬆️

Episode Recap

Buffer’s martech journey showcases how a small, innovative team can achieve big success. Instead of using a traditional CRM, Buffer took a product-led approach, driven by data and analytics. This helped them understand user behavior better and streamline their operations, showing that a CRM isn’t always needed for B2B success.

A key part of their strategy is Customer.io, an automation tool that is both simple and customizable. This allows everyone on the team to handle complex marketing tasks easily. Buffer’s focus on data-driven decisions is clear in their use of holdout testing and detailed event tracking, ensuring their campaigns run smoothly and accurately with Customer.io’s QA draft mode.

They chose Redash over proprietary BI tools for its ability to handle complex queries and provide a thorough view of their data. Buffer also switched to server-side tracking, which seamlessly integrates marketing and product data, reducing errors and offering actionable insights.

Buffer empowers their teams by embedding data experts within product pods and encouraging cross-training in data engineering. This approach boosts efficiency and personal growth without needing a large data team.

Their agile sprint model promotes a “test and learn” mindset, allowing for regular updates and quick responses to new insights. This keeps their strategies effective and adaptable. Buffer’s story is a lesson in how a small, innovative team can thrive in a competitive market, offering valuable insights for any marketing team aiming for success.

Listen to the full episode ⬇️ or Back to the top ⬆️

Follow Simon👇

• LinkedIn
• Buffer

✌️

—
Intro music by Wowa via Unminus
Cover art created with Midjourney (check out how)

Apple •Spotify• Pocket Casts •Youtube •Overcast •RSS

Related tags

See all episodes

Future-proofing the humans behind the tech

Apple •Pocket Casts•Google •Overcast •Spotify •Breaker •Castro •RSS

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube
• RSS Feed