Offer: 2 weeks instead of 1 free with Semrush

Thanks for the $1 cent!

See, assuming your time is worth about $50/hour, you reading our subject line for 1 second was worth about $1 cent.

And as Naval Ravikant said: "People don’t pay with money. They pay with hours of their life."

Any successful business builder needs to be mindful where they put their resources, be it time, energy or money (all kind of the same thing). So today, we talk about things that are worth your resources.

• How to price-tag your time

• The 100%-worth-every-dime tech stack

• Salesforce’s investment that cut CPA 10x

Get smart with your resources. 👇️ 

What your time’s worth

What Naval said applies to whatever you’re after.

If it’s money you want, you’ll work on your business and read the Growth Bulletin. If it’s relationships, you’ll spend time with people. Etc.

We often want it all, but quickly realize that isn’t possible. To help you make your choices, it helps to have an idea what your time is worth.

It will help you answer questions like: 

• Should I clean my flat or hire someone else to? 

• Should I spend 10 hours building SOPs for this new tool? 

• Should I spend Saturday evening working on my side hustle or go out with my friends? 

👉️ Click here to calculate it.

Tech that’s not bloat

Every year, businesses waste $84 billion on tech bloat (Freshworks). 

That’s a billion with a b.

Get resource-efficient with our 100%-worth-every-dime tech stack.

#1: A perfect fit PM tool

The more you grow, the more you realize how much you suck at project management.

Lots of organizations start on Trello because it’s got a great free plan. And Trello is genuinely a good PM tool if you like working on kanban boards.

But a project management tool can’t help you if you won’t use it. Doesn’t matter if it’s free.

Rather than shopping by cost, find a project management system that operates how you’ve been tracking tasks already.

• Like to-do lists? Get Todoist.

• Need to match up everyone’s different processes and preferences? Try Clickup.

• Spreadsheet person? Smartsheet is your pick.

• Obsessed with automations? Go for Monday.com.

Take advantage of free trials until you find the one that gets your whole team on board. 

#2: A CRM you’ll actually use

Moving to a customer relationship management (CRM) platform means you’re stepping out of your bootstrapped startup phase and growing into a more mature company. Aww, you’re getting so big!

Your CRM is the central hub that handles everything to do with customers — marketing, sales, support, everything.

Getting into your first CRM isn’t that bad. But transitioning from one CRM to another totally sucks hard. So, shop with scalability in mind.

Some good options to consider:

• The best for marketing capabilities and analytics: Hubspot

• Awesome for companies that prioritize support and service: Zendesk

• Super scalable and modular for growing brands: Zoho

Pro tip: most salespeople for these companies are highly motivated to get you using all the available features, so they’ll train you and your team for free. Take advantage of that and ask for a lot of hands-on guidance.

#3: A way to make data-informed decisions

Google Analytics is another example where the free option ends up costing you more in time, mistakes, and anger management therapy.

Sure, it has a ton of detail. But if you’ve ever rage quit after 30 minutes of trying to answer a simple question, even after you’ve completed the training program…well, you’re not alone.

These tools are much more specific, and way easier to use:

• For SEO insights: Semrush, obviously. Did we mention that Growth Bulletin readers get to extend the free trial? (Grab yours here.)

• For user behavior metrics: You can’t beat Hotjar.

• For simplified analytics: Kissmetrics makes it so easy to understand your website data.

• For crazy actionable marketing data: Use Woopra to nail your attribution and make informed decisions.

Fair warning: any of these tools could be a huge waste of money

Look, if you believe you can buy a best-in-class tool, send your team some login credentials, and see a return on that investment, you are going to waste your money.

It’s not the software that saves cash. It’s you and your team actually using it to do something productive.

And to do that, you need to invest more than just money. 

Take the time to offer training, update your standard operating procedures, and then pester your employees every time they do things the old way instead of using the new tool. It’s called change management, and it’s a thing.

Because any tool you don’t use regularly is just a hole you’re throwing money into. And nobody wants that, right?

Salesforce’s long-term play that cut CPA 10x

In 2018, only 4% of CIOs in the Fortune 1000 had Salesforce on their radar.

They were spending on average $50,000 to just reach one C-level customer (hard-to-measure paid ads, events and articles).

So, they launched a highly-targeted podcast for their ICP: IT Visionaries, in partnership with media agency Mission. No small endeavour.

The plan: Invite prospects and thought leaders on as guests, creating a community of IT professionals.

The result: the became a top podcast in the tech industry and cut CPA 10x.

Why it was so effective

1. They invested a lot upfront to create an excellent podcast — C-level guests loved the experience AND the content.

2. Podcasts kind of have to be value-first, which earns you trust, approval, and eventually low-cost customers. Much like doing SEO.

3. Podcasts are miraculously immune to ad fatigue. In fact, most listeners approve of podcast ads because they see them as supporting a show they like (per Marketingweek)

So, is a podcast worth the investment in 2025?

👷 It’s harder today than when Salesforce did it.

⏰ Long-time podcaster David Nebinski says it takes around 10 hours to produce each episode. Of course, you could skip the learning curve and use a production company if you want to spend money instead of time.

💰 Podcastle estimates start-up costs for a professional podcast land anywhere between $900 and $5000. Hobbyists and side gig podcasters can get scrappier.

It’s a serious investment that takes commitment (and patience). 

At least you can skip over some common pitfalls — don’t:

1️⃣ Rely solely on podcasts; make it part of a wider content strategy

2️⃣ Abandon the podcast early on due to murky metrics

3️⃣ Build a chit-chatting show rather than a funnel

Subscribe to the fact that podcasts aren’t content; they’re a distribution tool. That should help you stay on track.

Pro tip: Can’t create a podcast? Be the guest, instead. Spend your time on outreach instead of production.

Written by Amy Hawthorne and edited by Catherine Solbrig.