How JasperAI’s Marketing Generated 50K+ SaaS Customers

AI writing is one of the biggest SaaS trends of the 2020s, and no company is riding the wave with such tubular finesse as Jasper.ai.

From January 2021 to January 2022, Jasper grew from getting their first customer to proudly supporting 50,000+ active writers and agencies.

Jasper’s marketing is so effective that their brand name has become synonymous with AI writing, even though they’ve rebranded twice in the past year.

The first rebrand changed their name from Conversion.ai to Jarvis.ai. After Disney threatened a lawsuit for the use of a trademarked name (Jarvis is Ironman’s AI assistant), the team quickly adopted their current name.

Despite the rebrands, Jasper remains synonymous with the concept of AI writing. Some competitors even base entire marketing campaigns on this popularity.

So, how has Jasper achieved such notoriety? Before we can get into that, it’s important to meet a couple members of their prolific team.

The Minds Behind Jasper’s Marketing

I apologize to everyone I’m leaving out, but when I think of Jasper’s marketing two names spring to mind: CEO Dave Rogenmoser and CMO Austin Distel. They are everywhere, from the blog to social media to live events and AMAs. 

As a Jasper affiliate I’ve been in touch with Austin via email several times, and Dave has commented on more than one of my posts in their Facebook group. 

They’re also both heavily invested in using and understanding AI copywriting. Austin regularly runs live tutorials featuring special guests such as social media maestro Molly Mahoney, and Dave’s blog post “AI recipe” is the most popular in the community library with 82K+ downloads.

Now that you know who’s behind it, join me on this journey of reverse-engineering their marketing strategy. Let’s uncover the secrets of Jasper’s success.

Secret #1: How to Grow an Engaged Community to 50K+ On Facebook

One factor that will continue to buoy Jasper’s digital presence is their passionate (and growing) community. Some detractors refer to #JasperNation as “cult-like”.

While that is an obvious exaggeration, according to one of CEO Dave Rogenmoser’s posts in their Facebook group, at least two Jasper users have gotten tattoos of the company logo.

How has Jasper managed to cultivate such a loyal community? Here are some of the methods they employ.

Rewarding the Community and Early Supporters

Many people who jumped on the Jasper train early enough saw their businesses change for the better. Whether they are gifting swag or allowing co-promotion in the 50K+ Facebook group, Jasper supports those who provide exemplary service to them and their community.

Elizabeth Marrick is an early supporter of Jasper and an exceptionally engaged community member.

The more users engage with both the software and the community, the more they stand to benefit from working with Jasper.

Exemplary Onboarding and Continued Training

I’m an affiliate for a lot of SaaS companies, and I’ve never seen anyone do a more effective job of onboarding and training their users.

Jasper’s educational process has two core components and many additional resources and training videos. 

The core components are:

1. The Jasper Bootcamp: The bootcamp contains twenty videos, most of which are less than five minutes long. It provides meaningful help but is short enough to not trip up beginners, and covers what AI writing is and how to use Jasper’s features and dashboard.
2. The Jasper Certification: This is an online exam, and takes a significant step up in difficulty from the bootcamp. Fortunately, there are many other resources on their website and YouTube channel to bridge the gap.

This simple yet effective educational system gives new users attainable goals which get them using the platform efficiently enough to help grow their businesses.

Business growth is a massive factor in Jasper’s stickiness and the devotion its users feel to the product. After all, if you found a tool that helped you make 2x the money or more, would you give up your subscription? Most Jasper users wouldn’t, either.

Here are just a few of the ways Jasper engages their community that other SaaS companies can easily emulate:

• Running contests for swag, AI writing credits, or other prizes
• Hiring from within the community
• Forging partnerships with advanced and engaged users
• Allowing co-promotion of relevant products and services
• Asking for (and acting upon) community input
• Providing ongoing training to ensure customer success

Secret #2: How to Attract 60K+ Monthly Visitors With SEO and SEM

According to SimilarWeb, more than 80% of Jasper’s search traffic comes from organic sources. According to Ahrefs, they receive more than 52,000 visits from organic search each month.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Jasper.ai actually gets significantly more than 52K monthly visits from organic search.

But let’s assume both tools are right. That would mean Jasper’s getting around 66K visits per month just from organic and paid search.

Far-Reaching Search Ads

According to Ahrefs Jasper is targeting 200+ keywords in 50+ different countries with Google search ads. They’re also running ads on Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and possibly other places I didn’t check.

At first, the ad shown above confused me. It capitalizes the first letter of every word, and it reads more like a list of individual ideas rather than a copywriting formula.

I compared the ad to the meta description displaying for Jasper’s organic search result (shown below), and it started to make sense to me.

The organic meta description is written very close to an AIDA formula, known as one of the most popular and effective ways to write copy.

Here’s the breakdown of the formula:

Attention: Jasper (Formerly Jarvis) – #1 AI Writing Assistant

Interest: Create content 5x faster with artificial intelligence.

Desire: Jasper is the highest quality AI copywriting tool with over 3000 5-star reviews.

Action: Sign up for Jasper

Here’s the template the meta description follows:

Attention: [Product name] – [short, appealing product description]

Interest: [What you can do with the product] + [inherent benefit]

Desire: [Product name] is [product accolades] [proof of product quality]

Action: Sign up for [product name]

Because ads display above organic search results, and because Jasper’s competitors bid on most of the same keywords (including brand keywords), I think the ad shown above is mostly about taking space away from competitors. 

Powerful Search Engine Optimization

Jasper’s website exhibits strong structure, optimized to deliver an exemplary experience to both people and search engines. Here’s a high-level overview of the site structure. It may be missing a few things (Jasper.ai has hundreds of pages) but it still provides a solid idea of the structure.

Here’s a breakdown of some of Jasper’s most valuable keywords:

TOFU (top of funnel):

• Short bio example
• Fun bio examples
• Personal bio examples

MOFU (middle of funnel):

• Surfer SEO
• AI blog writer
• AI rewriter

BOFU (bottom of funnel):

• Jasper free trial
• Jarvis
• Jarvis software

Their content strategy is focused on the right topics, giving them excellent coverage of both brand and non-brand keywords.

And let’s not forget the 180K+ backlinks Jasper.ai has accrued (according to Ahrefs). Many of those links are sending large amounts of buyer traffic to the company’s landing pages.

Here are some of Jasper’s top backlinks by traffic:

This demonstrates the value of the affiliate army, which we’ll dive into later. While Jasper focuses on promoting their offer directly, many of their affiliates take different paths to the same objective, such as promoting Jasper as an alternative to other popular tools.

Here are some key takeaways from Jasper’s paid and organic search strategies:

• Target brand and non-brand paid keywords that competitors bid on to take up your share of real estate
• Target paid keywords that are most likely to convert (ex “ai copywriting software”)
• Target organic brand keywords with main pages and product documentation
• Target organic keywords your ideal customers will use with high-quality blog articles
• Recruit your dream 100+ influencers and partners for help creating content and building links

Want some help creating content that ranks and turns visitors into customers? Contact me about my content marketing services.

Secret #3: How to Retarget Visitors With Ads and Convert Them With Robot-Written Copy

Jasper (the AI assistant) writes great ads, and Jasper (the company) knows how to run them for maximum impact. They leverage ads on popular platforms like Google and Facebook to bring both cold traffic and warm, retargeted traffic into their sales funnel.

Most of Jasper’s ads drive prospects to a single landing page: their free trial. 

Compelling Facebook Ads

Jasper uses Facebook ads to target cold traffic and re-target warm traffic. Many of their ads are short and simple, such as this one:

This ad uses its entire structure (rather than just the main copy) to follow an AIDA formula. The main copy on top is to gain Attention, the headline and description beneath create interest and desire, and the button provides the call to action. 

Here’s the breakdown:

Attention: Write blog posts 10x faster using AI, without sacrificing quality.

Interest: Put AI to work for your content marketing

Desire: Automated copywriting for high-converting ads, sales pages, social media and more.

Action: Learn More

Here’s the template this ad follows:

Attention: [What the software does] 10x faster using [technology], without [common problem].

Interest: Put [technology] to work for your [What the software is used for]

Desire: Automated [function of software] for [item #1], [item #2], [item #3] and more.

Action: Learn More

They also leverage other powerful advertising strategies, such as using video testimonials from influencers and other customers.

Here’s a look at what all these ads are driving traffic to:

That’s just the above-the-fold content – the landing page is long, detailed, and animated to convince people who don’t immediately sign up that this trial is something they want and need.

Here are a few strategies other SaaS marketers can borrow from Jasper’s advertising arsenal:

• Test a variety of compelling copy and creatives
• Target cold traffic via layered interests and lookalike audiences
• Retarget warm traffic using the Facebook pixel with short, simple ads
• Run all social ads to one/few landing pages to make A/B testing the lander easier
• Use the entire ad to fulfill a copywriting formula when implementing short copy

Want some help writing simple social ads that generate clicks and conversions? Contact me any time about my copywriting services.

Secret #4: How to Cultivate Authority and Access Active Customers With Strategic Partnerships

While SEO and ads are key for getting their offer in front of the right audience consistently, brand partnerships helped Jasper gain rapid authority in their niche.

As you can see above, many significant companies trust Jasper to help them write content. But their most significant partnership is likely their integration with Surfer SEO.

Surfer SEO is a content research and optimization tool trusted by top SEOs and Fortune 500 companies. By establishing a direct integration with Surfer (and a lucrative partnership), Jasper immediately became the logical AI writing tool for companies already using Surfer.

Here are some ways other SaaS companies can emulate Jasper’s successful partnerships:

• Create and research a dream 100+ list of related but non-competitive companies
• Focus on those with existing communities whose products are the most complementary
• Create a direct integration and cross-promote it to both audiences

Secret #5: How to Attract Waves of Fresh Leads With Affiliate and Influencer Marketing

Affiliate marketing and influencer marketing are two of the best ways to build authority and drive fresh leads into your sales funnel. Jasper’s use of affiliates and influencers plays into their overall content strategy, greatly enhancing their reach and engagement.

The #JasperNation Affiliate Army

At the time of writing this, I ran an all-in-title search for both “Jasper ai review” and “Jarvis ai review” (because the name recently changed).

In case you’re unfamiliar with all-in-title, this type of Google search will only return results that have the requested keyword in the meta title.

This implies that close to 3K affiliates have published Jasper reviews, and close to 300 of them have updated their title tag from “Jarvis” to “Jasper”.

Of course we must take these numbers with certain considerations. Some affiliates have multiple blogs, and others likely set up multiple web 2.0 reviews or PBNs (private blog networks) to point backlinks at their primary review.

Even so, it seems clear that Jasper is well represented by its affiliate army in the blogging space, as well as on many platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

That didn’t happen by accident. Jasper started their affiliate program by recruiting relevant influencers and their most engaged early customers. 

Not only did this kickstart their affiliate program, it created many super-affiliates who would go on to promote Jasper’s partner program free of charge by sharing their success stories.

It also created a snowball effect as more and more people jumped on the AI copywriting trend. 

Niche-Relevant Influencers

If affiliates are the marketing armies that back SaaS companies, then influencers are the officers or heroes that guide the troops.

One such hero is Molly Mahoney. Molly is huge in the organic marketing space, specializing in live video and automation.

Here are some outreach tips for SaaS companies when recruiting influencers and affiliates:

• Create and contact dream 100+ lists for influencers and affiliates
• Have an offer stack prepared that explains exactly how you can turn their communities and traffic into paying customers
• Create an affiliate community and provide training on everything from the program’s rules to strategies for success
• Target influencers and affiliates who have established digital assets such as blogs, YouTube channels, and engaged social media followings
• Create content partnerships with influencers that will engage their audiences

Secret #6: How to Nurture Leads For 30+ Days With Effective Email Marketing

You might be thinking that there’s a big difference between generating a free trial and generating a SaaS customer. That’s true, but in addition to their high-value trial and excellent onboarding, Jasper follows up with leads for 30 days or longer. 

Here’s a look at the first email Jasper sends to new leads that haven’t signed up for a trial yet:

This can be powerful for driving sales, and it’s a big selling point when it comes to recruiting affiliates and influencers. All they have to do is generate a click, and then Jasper takes over with retargeting via ads and email.

Here’s how other SaaS marketers can implement this simple strategy:

• Create a followup sequence for leads that is long enough to provide a robust education on your product and its benefits
• After purchase move them to a shorter customer introductory sequence before adding them to your broadcast segment
• Keep customers updated on big changes and great opportunities via email
• Add a retention/reactivation sequence for buyers who cancel their premium plan but don’t unsubscribe from mailing

Want a hand creating email sequences and broadcasts that beat industry standard open and click through rates by up to 7%? Feel free to contact me to discuss your strategy.

Secret #7: How to Create a Value Ladder Your Best Customers Will Love to Climb

While Jasper’s main offer is access to their AI copywriting software, they also offer a program for bloggers called the Jasper Mastermind.

The Jasper Mastermind was created in partnership with million-dollar blogger Adam Enfroy. This demonstrates one of the many ways that partnering with influencers can help move customers up a company’s value ladder. 

This program allows Jasper to create more value in their community while generating additional revenue from their most engaged customers. It also helps in creating more high quality reviews, testimonials, and success stories.

Here’s how any SaaS company can implement a value ladder to increase their bottom line:

• Figure out what your best customers need to help them get the results your main product promises
• Figure out what your best customers need after they’ve achieved the results your main product promises
• Create products or services that deliver on those needs and aspirations and make them exclusively available to your customers

How More SaaS Companies Can Implement Similar Strategies

Let’s quickly review Jasper’s marketing strategies, and consider some examples of how more SaaS companies can implement them.

• Build a fiercely devoted community by rewarding early supporters and significant contributors
• Create a sticky product by investing heavily in customer onboarding and elevation
• Adopt best practices for SEO and create consistent, keyword-driven content that will please both people and robots
• Advertise everywhere your ideal customers spend time and retarget visitors to drive traffic to a high-value trial
• Create brand partnerships that will be mutually beneficial on multiple levels via integration and/or complementary functions
• Partner with influencers with niche-relevant audiences who can drive waves of fresh traffic that will convert into customers and affiliates
• Recruit an army of experienced affiliate marketers to help spread the word and provide them with excellent tracking, training, and assets
• Retarget and nurture leads for 30+ days as long as they remain engaged
• Create additional offers so your power users can ascend your value ladder

Any handful of the elements listed above could create an effective SaaS marketing strategy. By implementing all of them, Jasper AI became the AI writing software everyone thinks of first.

Want some help implementing this type of copywriting and content strategy for your business? Feel free to contact me today.