Building the growth engine for a property SaaS start up

Overview

In 2021, I was hired as the Head of Marketing & Content to establish the marketing function at Oasis Living. The business, which had primarily operated as a small short-lets solution, was transitioning into long-term lettings and developing technology to streamline the process. Under the guidance of Sam Ghosh, the founder, the team expanded to include marketing and product functions, and we began tackling the challenges ahead.

Before my arrival, Oasis Living had done little to no marketing, relying on other letting brands to advertise listings. Their website was outdated and in desperate need of a redesign. There were significant opportunities in content optimisation, SEO, and paid campaigns that could drastically improve business performance.

Key Results

• 100x increase in site traffic
• 20x increase in users
• 10x revenue growth

The opportunity

This role felt like founding a company from scratch, presenting a wealth of marketing opportunities. Collaborating with the leadership team, I worked to align our strategy with marketing and product goals. The primary focus was to create a straightforward, effective plan to drive brand awareness, fill the funnel, and start generating revenue.

Key Priorities

• Website: The existing site had poor UX, limited scalability, and required developers for even minor changes. Fixing this was a top priority.
• CRM/Email Marketing: Completely absent, so setting up a robust system and automations was essential.
• Content Marketing: Virtually non-existent and in dire need of development.
• Product: While an MVP existed, significant improvements were required.

By addressing these areas, I aimed to extend brand awareness and kick-start a learning and iteration process, which would ultimately lead to optimised growth tactics across the funnel.

Defining our users

To ensure our marketing efforts resonated, I needed to understand who our users were. Oasis Living targeted the private rental sector as a B2B company. Through research, I identified our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP):

• Male, aged 40–70 years old.
• Owns 5–20 properties in London, let through an agent or self-managed.
• Likely has a full-time job as a banker, investor, or is retired.

I hypothesised that this demographic would benefit the most from our solutions. With a clear ICP, I conducted user research to uncover their pain points and identify how Oasis Living could solve them.

UX research

I interviewed over 30 landlords via Zoom (due to COVID-19). Using The Mom Test as a guide and leveraging my UX expertise, I discovered the following key challenges faced by landlords:

• High agency fees significantly reducing profit margins.
• Lack of access to platforms like Rightmove or Zoopla.
• Difficulty managing compliance and property maintenance.
• Voids causing lost income.

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Defining our positioning

With a strong understanding of our users and their challenges, we crafted our market positioning and messaging. Oasis Living was positioned as a cost-effective, automated, and AI-supported solution for landlords. Our messaging focused on key benefits:

• Increase Your Yields
• Smoother Operations
• Improve Communication
• Reach More Tenants

With MVP solutions ready, we were prepared to attract early adopters and test the waters.

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Building a new website

The existing website was a significant barrier, with poor UX/UI, usability, and scalability. Collaborating with a designer, we completely overhauled the brand and site with the following objectives in mind:

• Build Trust: The design had to appear professional and credible.
• Ease of Use: Simple navigation tailored to our users' needs.
• SEO Optimisation: Content aligned with best practices.
• Scalability: Components were designed to support future expansion.

I rebuilt the brand, including a new logo, and used Webflow to create a scalable, SEO-friendly website in about a month. The new site incorporated a CMS for blogs and tag management, which became the backbone of our content and SEO strategy.

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SEO optimisation

Using a well-researched keyword strategy, I targeted the following seed keywords:

• Online letting agents London
• List property online
• Property Management London
• Property management system

Our blog supported this strategy by producing content around long-tail keywords and informational searches, such as:

• Section 21 for landlords
• Buy-to-let mortgages
• Right to rent

This approach helped establish authority within the UK's letting ecosystem, aligning with Google's EEATT algorithm (specifically the "A" for "Authority").

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Building the CRM

To nurture leads, I implemented ActiveCampaign as our CRM. While not my first choice today, it served its purpose at the time. I built automations, email designs, and user segmentation systems to manage and engage leads effectively.

Automation Philosophy

Good marketing automation should be modular. Instead of creating complex, sprawling workflows, I focused on simple, focused automations (2–5 nodes) to ensure scalability and maintainability. This approach kept processes efficient and user-friendly.

Building The Product

As part of the leadership team, I contributed to developing Oasis Living's product. The ActiveCampaign CRM acted as a basic MVP, gradually refined to fit the needs of landlords. We prioritised usability, ensuring the product catered to both internal and external users, such as:

• Sales Executives: Low-tech users focused on fast, effective solutions.
• Admin Staff: Virtual assistants managing diverse daily tasks.

User feedback informed the evolution of our product, shaping a solution tailored to the lettings and property management space.

Conclusion

My time at Oasis Living was transformative. From mastering Webflow and UX research to learning front-end coding, I discovered a passion for problem-solving and design. Sam Ghosh, the founder, inspired me to "stay hungry, stay foolish," fostering an environment of continuous learning and development.

Working alongside experts in a fast-paced environment was invaluable. Although I’ve since moved on to Hybr, I remain in touch with the Oasis Living team and occasionally collaborate on other projects. The experience was a 10/10—a career-defining chapter that I’ll always cherish.