Beyond paid social: Paragon uncovers new top performing channel to reach engineering and product professionals
Reach over 5 million tech professionals
Get your brand in front of developers, product managers, marketers, designers, and executives.
About Paragon
Building software integrations used to require complex development work and significant engineering resources. But with Paragon, that’s no longer the case. Paragon helps engineering teams build integrations in days, not months. Their platform provides over 100 pre-built connectors, the ability to create custom integrations, and an intuitive interface, making it easy for companies to connect their products with popular tools like Salesforce, Slack, and HubSpot.
Paragon’s challenge: Scaling beyond traditional digital ad channels
Paragon’s target audience is highly technical and notoriously difficult to reach: developers, product managers, and startup founders. While platforms like LinkedIn and Google Ads were working, Forrest, Paragon’s Growth Marketing Manager, knew they were still missing a huge opportunity to connect with more of their audience—particularly those not active on social media. That’s when they turned to TLDR. With over 5 million subscribers, TLDR provided a scalable opportunity to connect with this elusive audience.
Date published: September 3, 2024
Read time: Less than 5 minutes
🎯 Results
Over 2.35m impressions with tech professionals and 14k clicks
TLDR is one of their top performing channels in generating new pipeline
TLDR AI, WebDev, Product Management, and Founders
📢 Newsletters Sponsored
Reach a new audience of developers, product managers and founders that aren’t active on social media
High quality leads
⭐ Goals
“When it comes to advertising in newsletters, TLDR is a top performer. Your team was also great to work with and always quick to respond.”
Driving awareness and quality leads
Paragon’s campaign goals with TLDR were to boost brand awareness and generate new leads, specifically in the form of demo requests. The results? TLDR has become one of Paragon’s top drivers of pipeline growth, giving them the confidence to continue sponsoring TLDR on a monthly basis.
But beyond the numbers, Forrest noticed something important: the quality of leads from TLDR was strong. Many were from mid-sized companies, which are a great fit for Paragon. They also received some enterprise leads, which wasn’t their primary target but was still a nice bonus.
Learning from experience: Tips on finding the right newsletters to advertise with
After years of testing out newsletter advertising, Forrest offered a few pieces of valuable advice for other marketers considering it as their next channel:
1) Content relevance matters just as much as audience alignment
“Review the newsletter’s content and make sure your content or product aligns with their audience. Tailor your content to align with the newsletter’s tone of voice for maximum impact”
2) Evaluate existing sponsors
“Check who else is advertising in the newsletter. It’s a good sign if you see competitors or companies with similar target audiences—this suggests the newsletter reaches the right crowd.”
3) Start small, scale up
“When exploring new channels, begin with a small test to evaluate the audience and performance. Once you confirm it’s a good fit, you can strategically expand your efforts within that audience.”
Paragon
ad examples
“When it comes to advertising in newsletters, TLDR is a top performer. Your team was also great to work with and always quick to respond.”
Paragon ad examples
“TLDR allows us to connect with engineers who aren’t on social media…Our CTO reads TLDR but doesn’t scroll LinkedIn. ”
– Forrest Herlick, Growth Marketing Manager, Paragon
“TLDR allows us to connect with engineers who aren’t on social media…Our CTO reads TLDR but doesn’t scroll LinkedIn. ”
- Forrest Herlick, Growth Marketing Manager at Paragon
