Dropbox buys Formswift for $95M | Vol 115

Welcome to Volume 115

Happy Holidays 🎉.

We hope you enjoy your time off with friends and family.

Take some time to unwind and plan for the next year too. 2022 was full of twists and turns, but 2023 is an opportunity to be better.

Here’s what’s to come:

• Dropbox acquired Formswift for $95M
• Google adds another “E” to E-A-T
• And more…

Let’s dive in.

🎧 Listen to the latest episode of Create Like the Greats while you work to hear Ross Simmonds break down Adobe’s $500 billion success. 👀

SAAS ACQUISITION 

Dropbox buys Formswift for $95M

US $78 billion.

That’s how much the cloud storage industry is worth.

For many years, cloud giants have fought each other to gain more market share, and some have been more successful than others.

Google Drive and Dropbox are at the top of the cloud storage ladder.

Over the years, both companies have expanded to provide a suite of apps for businesses: Google Workspace and Dropbox Business.

To gain more market share, Dropbox has made numerous acquisitions, including:

• Boxcryptor – to make the software more secure for users
• HelloSign – to improve its signing and file-sharing capabilities

Recently, Dropbox bought FormSwift for $95M.

This acquisition aims to help its users succeed in a virtual-first world.

While this seems like a worthy cause, it’s clear that Dropbox is working hard to position itself as the go-to tool for remote and hybrid teams.

Many remote and hybrid teams already rely on Google Suite. However, if Google doesn’t scale up its offerings, it just might lose some of its users to Dropbox.

FormSwift is a cloud-based file-sharing platform that has helped create over 10 million documents for contractors and small business owners.

Combining its template library with Dropbox’s document signing and collaboration features will make the product more valuable for its users.

SEO UPDATE 

Google Adds another “E” to E-A-T  

Google is becoming more intentional about creating meaningful experiences for its users. You can tell by the kind of updates the company rolls out.

In August this year, Google rolled out the Helpful Content Update to deliver more valuable search results to users.

The goal was to get more content teams to focus on creating “people first content” so they could rank higher on the search engine results page.

Right now, Google made another major update to its 4-year-old medic update by adding another“E” to “E-A-T.”

This medic update rewarded content that showed expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). However, the tides are about to turn.

Adding another E means Google now expects marketers to show they have first-hand experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness on the topics they create.

What does this mean?

It means Google doesn’t want expertise or authority alone to determine the quality of a piece. They rather want those with first-hand, personal experience on the topic.

That’s because people trust and resonate with those who have experienced their pain points better than those who haven’t.

The best way to ride out this update successfully is to go beyond subject matter expertise. Incorporate personal, relevant stories in your content strategy to help readers see themselves in your story and see the solution in action.

You should also include discussion forums such as industry subreddits in your SEO strategy. Answer questions in a helpful way and include personal stories that will resonate with them and help them make better decisions.

You can take some time to read through the comprehensive search quality evaluation guidelines to see how this impacts your SEO strategy in 2023.

Want to sponsor our next issue? Reply directly to this email, and we’ll share how you can reach more SaaS founders and marketers today.

B2B NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

🚀 Google is launching bilingual search results and in-video search for its largest market

🤐 Salesforce announced that it won’t give a revenue forecast for 2023.

BRAIN FOOD OF THE WEEK: 

What qualities do you look out for when hiring new employees in the new year?

Skills? Experience? A glowing recommendation from a former boss? Passion?

While these are super important, one overlooked quality can make or break your company’s long-term success. That’s a growth mindset.

Ross defines a growth mindset as the difference between an employee who always views everything as an obstacle and one who views everything as an opportunity.

Growth-driven individuals see challenges as an opportunity to grow themselves and the company. You want a fellow with the latter mindset on your team.  Sure, they may not have the right skill set, but they have the right attitude. And anyone can become anything with the right attitude in place.

So while looking out for skill and expertise, be sure to look out for someone with a growth mindset and take a chance on them.

Meanwhile, we are hiring.

👇🏽 Check out available positions below 👇🏽

HIRING BRILLIANT B2B MARKETERS:

• VP of Client Services
• Director Of Strategy
• Content Marketing Strategist
• Content Marketing Specialist

TWITTER THREAD OF THE WEEK:

The most interesting applications of psychology in marketing by Ross Simmonds

NICE FINDS YOU SHOULD BINGE:

Report: The future of AI in content marketing

Template: Google’s Content Quality and Helpfulness Questions

How to Do a SWOT Analysis (3 Examples & Free Template)

Benchmark your SaaS business against metrics that matter

WHAT WE’RE WIRED INTO THIS WEEK 🎧:

All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey

This charcuterie board of insights is brought to you by me, Jessica Tee O. ✌🏾!