Meet Jayson DeMers, a seasoned entrepreneur who knows what it really takes to grow lean and smart in the B2B SaaS world. After nearly a decade running a remote marketing agency, Jayson faced a frustrating blind spot: there was no easy way to track how his team actually spent time on email, the heartbeat of daily operations. So, he did what any resourceful founder does: he built the tool himself. EmailAnalytics started as a side project to solve his own pain point and turned into a full-fledged SaaS business that helps managers boost productivity, track workload, and speed up customer response times, all without changing how teams work. By relying on SEO, smart content marketing, and strategic pivots like tiered pricing, Jayson scaled EmailAnalytics organically, all while running a tight ship with no external funding. His story is proof that solving a clear problem, listening to your users, and capturing real value can take you far one email at a time.
EmailAnalytics was born from solving your own pain point. How did scratching your own itch shape the product in ways pure market research couldn’t?
I was my own customer! I built it as someone who felt the pain, so I knew what I wanted and needed in a solution. I was my ideal target audience. So, in a way, I was also my own market research.
You bootstrapped EmailAnalytics and OutreachBloom without outside funding. What has bootstrapping taught you about sustainable growth that you think many VC-backed founders overlook?
I did get outside funding for EmailAnalytics, but not until a few years in of bootstrapping. OutreachBloom is still fully bootstrapped. I also founded and sold AudienceBloom completely bootstrapped, so I’m no stranger to bootstrapping!
That said, sustainable growth requires sustained persistence, effort, and cost-cutting to work. When there’s a lot of money in the bank account, it’s easy to get a bit too relaxed and stop looking for ways to be efficient with costs.
You hit a wall with your original pricing model. What was the tipping point that made you realize it was time to pivot, and how did customers react to the new tiers?
When growth stalled, we pivoted. Then, we pivoted again. And again! And that’s okay, it takes time and testing to find the right model that fully unlocks growth and potential.
Currently, our pricing tiers enable various access to AI-related features. Customers appreciate the simplicity of our pricing model, and there hasn’t been any pushback. Part of that is I honor customers’ pricing that have been with us before price changes. So they get to benefit from the same pricing they’ve always had, in exchange for their continued loyalty.
Your content marketing and SEO strategy were crucial in scaling EmailAnalytics. What’s one underrated SEO tactic that gave you outsized results?
Re-write your blog content to be AI-first! The reality is that your blog isn’t read by humans anymore. It’s read by search engine bots and LLMs like ChatGPT. And the goal isn’t to get it ranking in the top 3 in Google anymore; it’s to get it cited by LLMs. So, you need to re-write your blog content to be optimized for LLMs, not humans. This tactic has resulted in a huge increase in traffic from LLMs, which converts much better than Google organic.
Many founders get overwhelmed by building ‘community.’ You’ve grown without a traditional community platform. What has worked for you instead?
Rather than grow a community, I just participate in already-established ones. Reddit has been a go-to for me and my team; we spend a lot of time in relevant subreddits and interacting with people. We try to be helpful and add value. It results in leads, traffic, meetings, and sales. Plus, it makes us feel good to be helping people out when we can!
Running remote teams, cold outreach campaigns, SaaS products, you wear a lot of hats. What’s your personal system for staying productive and focused?
I don’t know if I really have a system, but I use my inbox as a sort of “to-do” list. Anything unread means there’s a task I have to do. I also use Google sheets to keep things organized, Asana to keep tasks organized, and Slack to keep our internal comms organized. Aside from those tools, it’s really just a matter of sitting down, turning on some music, and getting to work. And being consistent about it.
For founders who want to launch a SaaS side project but feel stuck on how to market it, what’s your best advice for landing those first organic customers?
Cold email outreach works really well for us, but you have to know what you’re doing. And Reddit is a phenomenal place to find and interact with your target audience. Just don’t go there and spam; be helpful and people will find you. Those are the two channels I’d absolutely recommend any SaaS owner use for getting their SaaS off the ground.
Thank you, we greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Follow Jayson DeMers on Twitter.
