☀️19/30 | Market Development @ RollPros

I’ve built my career in sales and business development by doing the work most people avoid: prospecting, building relationships from scratch, and staying consistent long after the first “no.”

Over the past decade, I’ve worked across manufacturing, healthcare, motorsports, and other B2B environments where trust, follow-through, and real conversations matter more than slick decks. I’ve built pipeline, grown accounts, supported dealer and partner networks, and learned how to navigate complex buying groups without losing momentum.

I believe a “no” is rarely the end of a conversation. More often, it’s an opportunity to add value, understand timing, and leave the door open for the right moment. That mindset has helped me stay disciplined with outreach, resilient in the field, and focused on long-term relationships rather than quick wins.

I’m at my best in roles where I can own my territory or accounts, show up face to face, and be accountable for results. I enjoy working with business owners and operators, asking good questions, and connecting solutions to outcomes that actually move the needle.

Right now, I’m open to sales, business development, account management, and field-based roles with teams that value integrity, effort, and relationship-driven growth.

If you’re building something meaningful and believe sales is still a people business, I’m always open to a conversation.

🌀 Kyle vanArtsen

Great memories watching Ralph Sheheen  call SX races back in the day

Kyle vanArtsen 

Business Development & Sales Leader | New Logo Growth | Corporate Branding

Motorsport/Fighting Reporter of Sports Business Journal

FOX Sports is bringing back the old SPEED brand with a new racing-focused video podcast that will appear on the FS1 TV channel with Kevin Harvick and Will Buxton.

Head of Content Marketing @Smartlead.ai | Driving Organic Growth and Revenue through Strategic Growth & Content Marketing

Most SaaS marketing fails for a simple reason: it stops working the moment you stop feeding it.

Campaigns spike. Channels decay.
Teams chase tools, trends, and traffic - then wonder why nothing compounds.

I don’t run campaigns.
I design organic growth systems that get stronger with time.

Systems where:
- Content builds demand before buyers search
- SEO compounds instead of resetting every quarter
- AI surfaces amplify authority instead of replacing thinking
- Visibility becomes an asset, not a dependency

This is how modern SaaS wins:
Not louder marketing.
Not more output.
But infrastructure-level growth.

That’s the work we do at EmploraX.

We help B2B SaaS teams replace fragmented execution with systems that:
- Shape market perception
- Control how they’re discovered - by humans and machines
- Keep driving growth long after execution slows

If your marketing needs constant effort to survive, you don’t have a growth engine, you have a liability.

I build what compounds. Everything else is noise.

If you’re building a SaaS company and want demand you don’t have to keep restarting, we’ll probably get along.

📩 Open to conversations.

Alka Gupta

“I replaced a $500k marketing team with AI.”
“I replaced my SEO agency with ChatGPT.”
“I fired my content team.”

You’ve probably seen posts like this all over LinkedIn.

and you know the funny part?

Most people posting this didn’t replace a team.
Coz they never had one. 😐 

And many of those “AI-only companies” won’t exist in a few years.

Here’s the problem no one talks about.

AI gives everyone access to the same intelligence.

same prompts.
same strategy frameworks.
same “best practices.”
same positioning advice.

Which means the more people rely only on AI…
the more everything starts looking identical.

same content, same messaging, same thinking...

and when everything looks the same, the only thing that matters is PRESENCE.

The brands that win aren’t the ones replacing teams with AI.

They’re the ones showing up everywhere their buyer already spends time.

Search.
Communities.
LinkedIn.
YouTube.
AI answers.
Partner ecosystems.

Because when people see you everywhere, trust compounds,
and trust still beats automation.

AI is a powerful tool.
But it’s not a strategy.

Founder, EmploraX | Helping SaaS teams build content growth engines

Visibility isn’t a channel...

it’s infrastructure… but most teams don’t treat it that way.

channels come and go.
algorithms shift.
distribution resets overnight and suddenly what worked last quarter just… doesn’t.

but infrastructure compounds quietly in the background.

When content, SEO, AI discovery - all of it - is designed like a system, not a campaign… it doesn’t just spike, it stays. 

it keeps working even when you’re not pushing.

what I see too often is this faucet mindset.
turn visibility on when pipeline dips.
turn it off when budgets get tight.
and then wonder why nothing compounds.

that’s not visibility actually...that’s just renting attention.

if the moment you slow down… everything disappears..

you didn’t build an asset...you built access.

The 3-System Stack I build for most SaaS companies 👇 

Most companies try to scale organic growth with one tactic.

“We’ll focus on SEO.”
“We’ll build a community.”
“We’ll create more content.”

but the problem is simple.
-one system doesn’t compound fast enough.

You need three systems working together.

System 1: The Flywheel (Distribution architecture)

Goal: Make it economically valuable for others to amplify you.

Components:
 • Partner certification programs
 • Co-marketing partnerships
 • Revenue / lead-share models
 • Integration marketplaces

Metric to watch: Distribution multiplier
(how many others are creating content about you)

Example:
A Martech company activated 12 agency partners.
Those partners produced 60+ pieces of content per quarter, creating 10x more distribution than the internal team alone.

System 2: The Foundation (SEO compound layer)

Goal: Make every piece of content increase the value of everything already published.

Components:
 • Topic cluster architecture (not random blogs)
 • Strong internal linking
 • High-intent search topics
 • Domain authority building

Metric to watch: Traffic growth from older content

Example:
A SaaS published 40 strategic articles in six months. Traffic kept growing even after publishing slowed because the system compounded.


System 3: The Engine (UGC knowledge layer)

Goal: Let users create SEO-ranking content you don’t have to write.

Components:
• Community Q&A/ AMA sessions
• Webinars / YouTube videos
• User-generated how-to guides
• Customer templates and playbooks
• Public knowledge bases

Metric to watch: % of traffic coming from user-generated content

Example:
An EdTech SaaS built a community with 200+ Q&A threads.
they are seeing 40% increase in organic traffic came from UGC, without expanding the content team.

How the systems reinforce each other :

Partners create awareness → (Flywheel)
Awareness drives search demand → (Foundation)
Search leads users to community knowledge → (Engine)
Community members become future partners → (Flywheel again)

That’s where compounding begins.

Typical timeline be -
Month 1-2 → infrastructure
Month 3-4 → traction
Month 5-6 → compounding signals
Month 7-12 → acceleration

Most companies quit around Month 2-3 because “it’s not working yet.”

But that’s the point.

You’re building systems, not campaigns.
...and systems take time before they start working for you.

so keep building without stopping. 
Cheers :)

Every marketer knows this feeling.
but here’s the habit that nobody tells you about team productivity.

Your team is not slow.
Mayb they are just waiting for you..

And every hour you don't show up to unblock them,
is an hour of output you will never get back.

Here's what actually happens when you do this consistently:
- your SEO person knows what's launching so they know what to push.
- your designer has full context so briefs take 5 minutes not 50.
- your growth marketer knows the positioning so every campaign is aligned.

Most growth fails because teams execute poorly..
not because the strategy is wrong.

Fix alignment first.

good input = good output

Sat in 2.5 hours on the office hours webinar today hosted by Smartlead.

And I have to admit - what a power-packed session it was. 🔥 
Absolutely loved it.

The topic was how SaaS founders are scaling GTM with AI in an increasingly crowded market.

Some of the strongest founders shared what’s actually worked for them in their SaaS entrepreneur journey.
Adam Robinson Bethany Stachenfeld Max Mitcham Mohamed Chahin Ilija Stojkovski Alina Vandenberghe 🌶️ Jesse Ouellette Vaibhav Namburi

I went in expecting conversations around AI workflows, tools, and automation stacks.

But interestingly… that wasn’t the biggest takeaway.

The conversation kept circling back to something much simpler.

BRAND.

The brand you build through presence.

A few things that really stood out to me:

1. Social has quietly become the new discovery layer

A lot of SaaS discovery today doesn’t start with Google anymore.
It starts with LinkedIn posts, Twitter threads, YouTube videos, and founder content.
People often follow the founder, the thinking, the ideas…
…and only later discover the product.

2. Distribution matters more than content

One thing several founders emphasized:
Great content alone isn’t enough anymore.
The real leverage comes from distribution.
Founders who are winning are consistently showing up across multiple surfaces: social, communities, newsletters, webinars, podcasts, partnerships..

Not just one channel.
Many.

3. Inbound pipelines are engineered

Another insight that I say out loud in almost all linkedin posts:

A lot of companies think inbound is something that “happens”.
But the founders in the discussion made it clear - inbound is designed.

Through consistent content, founder narratives, education, and strategic distribution.

4. A new discovery layer is emerging: LLMs

Said this 100s of times too...

Buyers are increasingly asking tools like GPT, Claude, and Perplexity questions like:
"What are the best tools for X?"
Which means showing up in AI-generated answers might quietly become as important as showing up in search results.

Biggest takeaway from the session:

In a crowded SaaS market, the companies that consistently show up… win.
through ideas.
through content.
through distribution.

My "this works" moment in marketing came from a Google search result...

Not a course...not a mentor, but a ranking.

I didn't start in marketing. 

I came from science - writing research content, scientific journals and papers, books...

My first marketing role was Content Marketing Manager at a small company.

We targeted a few keywords, nothing fancy. 
Educational content that solved real problems...the pages ranked... 

This was pre-Covid, when ranking actually meant something.

Traffic came...leads came...revenue came.

Zero ad spend.

That changed everything for me.

Content wasn't branding...it was distribution

Writing well isn't enough, where it shows up and who sees it - that's what matters.

SEO changes. Algorithms change. AI is changing search right now.

But this hasn't changed: if your content reaches the right people at the right time, it works. every single time

If it doesn't, nothing else matters.

and that belief still drives how I build growth systems today.

Most B2B marketing teams are trying to convert the 5% of buyers who are ready today.

Paid ads.
Outbound.
Retargeting.
 - all focused on the same small slice of the market.

but the reality is…
about 95% of your buyers aren’t ready yet.

they’re learning.
researching.
figuring out the problem.

and this is where most companies lose.
because they invest heavily in demand capture…

- but almost nothing in demand creation.

The companies that win build a simple loop:

first → build presence everywhere your buyers learn
then → watch for intent signals
then → capture demand when it appears
then → use outbound to accelerate the highest intent prospects
not a funnel.

A system that runs continuously.

This is the blueprint i keep coming back to when thinking about B2B growth.
 - not complicated, just structured.

One of our customers had this problem 

Ranked in Google searches. Invisible in ChatGPT answers.

This is what happened to a leading K-12 digital learning platform we work with.

July 2024:
Strong product (used by 800K+ students globally)
Award-winning (named Best K-12 LMS for 4-5 consecutive years)
Decent SEO presence for category searches

Traffic: steady, but flat

I asked: "What's your AI visibility?"
They didn't know what I meant.
so I tested myself

Searched ChatGPT: "What's the best K-12 learning platform for school districts?"

ChatGPT's answer mentioned all competitors..
but our client? not listed.

Zero citation.

Here's why:
Google ranks pages. LLMs cite entities with peer validation.

Google looks at: keywords, backlinks, page authority, technical SEO
LLMs look at: entity mentions across the web, peer validation (Reddit, forums, discussions), structured data (FAQ, schema), comparison content

The problem:
School district buyers weren't Googling "K-12 LMS comparison".

They were asking LLMs: "What platform should we switch to from Google Classroom?"

And LLMs recommended Canvas, Schoology, Moodle.
My client didn't exist in that conversation.

We built an AI visibility strategy over 8 months:

Added FAQs with schema
Created 15 glossary definition pages
Embedded structured data on every product page
Published 12 comparison articles (vs Canvas, vs Google Classroom, vs Schoology)
Answered 150+ Reddit questions
Activated LinkedIn and community engagement
Created use case pages
Added "What is..." explainers that LLMs could parse
Built Medium and Quora authority
Technical deep dives and pillar SEO blogs
Comparison essays with honest pros/cons

A steady graph shown below.

LLM traffic sources:
ChatGPT: 90% of referrals
Claude.ai: 10% of referrals

Before: Great product, invisible in AI answers, buyers didn't know they existed

After: Mentioned in 6 out of 10 ChatGPT searches for K-12 LMS category queries

So,
if you're only tracking Google rankings, you're measuring the wrong thing.

Your buyers are researching in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini.

If you're not in those answers, you don't exist at the moment of highest intent.

The new metric: AI Citation Rate
= How many times your brand appears in LLM answers / Total category queries tested

This K-12 platform went from 0% to 61% in 8 months.

Not by paying for ads.
By engineering for AI retrievability.

ChatGPT trusts Reddit more than your website.
And it's not even close.

Look at this. 
A buyer asks: "What's the best HR payroll software in 2026?" or "best email marketing software?"

ChatGPT's sources:
5 Reddit threads
4 Medium articles
1 Wikipedia article
1 GitHub discussion
0 official product websites

Your SEO-optimized comparison page? Ignored. 
Your feature-rich homepage? Not cited. 
Your case studies page? Doesn't show up.

Why Reddit wins?

LLMs are trained to value:

- Peer validation over marketing claims
- Real user experience over polished copy
- Discussions over declarations
- Problems + solutions over feature lists

Reddit threads have all four.
Your website has none.

This is the shift:

Buyers used to research alone (Google → your site → decision).

Now they research in public (Reddit/ChatGPT → peer consensus → decision).

If you're not part of that peer consensus, you lose.

Here's what we'are doing for our customers:

- Reddit → SEO Loop Find Reddit threads where your ICP asks questions
Answer with genuine insight (not promos)

- Turn those objections into FAQ pages

- Embed Reddit discussions as social proof in blog posts

- Make your content "LLM-ready" Prompt-compatible summaries

- FAQ schema that answers "best [category]" queries

- Comparison tables that LLMs can parse

- Structured headings that match search intent

- Seed narratives where LLMs look Medium long-reads (indexed by ChatGPT)

Reddit technical breakdowns (cited in Perplexity)

LinkedIn thought leadership (Gemini trusts it)

The old playbook: Rank in Google, capture traffic.
The new playbook: Get cited by LLMs, win the narrative.

Your website is no longer the source of truth.
Peer consensus is.

most SaaS teams try to scale with content and ads.

the real leverage sits in community and ecosystem.

when partners win, you win.

when users create, you scale.

when integrations promote, demand compounds.

distribution shouldn’t depend on your team alone.

Most SaaS founders are confused about the wrong thing.
“should we focus on social… or seo… or ai visibility?”

that’s like asking… should we build trust or capture demand?

you need both.

but you need to understand what each one is actually doing.

➡️ social is your authority layer.
 it shapes belief before someone ever searches.
 it builds familiarity… sentiment… founder leverage.

➡️ LLM SEO / AI visibility is your capture layer.
 it shows up when buyers are already asking.
 it converts existing intent into pipeline.

one builds market memory... and the other harvests it.

the mistake i see all the time…

teams go hard on AI SEO without building social authority first.

...and then wonder why they’re not being cited.

or they post daily on linkedin… but never structure content into citation-worthy ecosystems.

social feeds AI <> AI validates social

thats how it works ....and together they compound

if you do it separately… they stall.

and if you’re treating these as two different strategies… you’re already behind.

This is one system.

build authority.
engineer visibility.
capture demand.

in that order.

taplio

The Battle

🌀 Kyle vanArtsen

Alka Gupta

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taplio

The Battle

🌀 Kyle vanArtsen

Alka Gupta

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}🌀 Kyle vanArtsen's LinkedIn Performance

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