Inbound content

Who ran it

• HubSpot · Naming inbound, then selling it by phone · 2006 to 2014

  Inbound content Primary

  The blog, free tools, and search brought in over 40,000 new leads a month. Inbound sources generated about 93% of new customers in the second quarter of 2014. Website Grader, an early free tool, was built to bring in traffic, links, and leads.

• HubSpot · Free CRM and the first freemium products · 2014 to 2018

  Inbound content Primary

  Inbound sources still produced over 90% of new customers in 2016, with an average of over 100,000 new leads a month.

• HubSpot · Beyond search: owned media and answer engines · 2022 to now

  Inbound content Supporting

  The CEO said in 2025 that blog traffic is 10% of leads and that SEO is no longer working as well, after a shift that began in 2022. Leads now come from 10 YouTube channels, acquired newsletters, social, and presence in AI answer engines.

• Cursor · Build for ourselves, launch in public · 2022 to 2023

  Inbound content Tried, then dropped

  A co-founder built a following by posting about AI and used it, with a demo and a waitlist, to bring in the first users. The team then stepped away from it and, in the CEO's words, lived like monks through 2023.

• Salesforce · Many clouds, Dreamforce, Trailblazers and acquisitions · 2009 to 2024

  Inbound content Supporting

  Content marketing and social channels such as LinkedIn and YouTube joined search engine marketing and advertising in the marketing mix.

• Atlassian · Free cloud editions and the server sunset · 2019 to 2022

  Inbound content Supporting

  The co-CEOs name a "top-notch SEO and performance marketing machine" as part of the go-to-market engine.

• Figma · Platform seats, IPO and AI credits · 2024 to now

  Inbound content Supporting

  Marketing supports self-serve with livestreams, YouTube, social, in-product and email content, using organic and paid channels. The filings do not show it as the main demand source.

• Datadog · Inside sales, enterprise team, and multi-product expansion · 2016 to 2019

  Inbound content Supporting

  Marketing reached the dev and ops community through content, email, events, digital advertising, social media, and community programs. The S-1 lists it as one tactic among many, not the main demand source.

• Snowflake · Land and expand, the IPO, and the Data Cloud · 2019 to 2021

  Inbound content Supporting

  Marketing combined inbound demand creation with direct marketing aimed at business and technology leaders.

• Okta · Platform, land and expand, and the IPO · 2014 to 2017

  Inbound content Supporting

  Okta publishes a Businesses @ Work report analysing software usage trends from the daily interactions between users and applications on its own platform.

• Shopify · Payments, paid search and the IPO · 2013 to 2015

  Inbound content Supporting

  The Shopify Blog passed five million page views a year, and about 20,000 new businesses entered the Build A Business competition, selling a combined $100 million during it.

• Shopify · Shopify Plus, Unite and merchant solutions take over · 2016 to 2019

  Inbound content Supporting

  Content marketing ran across Shopify blogs, podcasts, Shopify Studios video, eBooks and free tools.

• Gong · Conversation intelligence, design partners, data content · 2015 to 2018

  Inbound content Primary

  From 2016 Gong published findings from the sales conversations it analysed, written by former salespeople, such as a 2017 study of over 519,000 call recordings. Its chief evangelist credits that content, with the product and events, for making Gong known.

• Gong · Naming revenue intelligence, selling to the CRO · 2019 to 2022

  Inbound content Supporting

  Data-driven research posts continued, with LinkedIn picked as the main social channel because sales audiences tagged and argued there more than on Twitter or Facebook. One of the best performing pieces found that reps who swear on calls have an 8% higher win rate.

• Canva · Free editor, search pages and word of mouth · 2013 to 2015

  Inbound content Primary

  The team mapped hundreds of search terms related to Canva to landing pages built around the job the visitor wanted done, each with an easy entry point into the editor. Returns showed within three months, and the co-founder says it is still a massive source of traffic.

• Canva · Canva for Work and 100 languages · 2015 to 2019

  Inbound content Primary

  Internationalisation became the other key growth driver: eight languages in one year, then 100 the next, opening markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and India. Local currencies, pricing and templates followed in 2019, and Canva says the work includes local SEO pages, not just a translated interface.

• Canva · Enterprise rebuilt, pro tools and AI distribution · 2024 to now

  Inbound content Supporting

  The search landing pages remain a massive source of traffic, local SEO pages are part of each market launch, and the Canva AI assistant added 16 languages beyond English in 2025.

• Cloudflare · Giveaway launches, Birthday Week and the blog · 2014 to 2017

  Inbound content Supporting

  The blog is the launch channel for every Birthday Week item. Filings name it as a way to build brand with developers and as a channel for material investor information.