The Digital Marketing Podcast

Episode: The Raven Tools Story – Jon Henshaw Interview

Hosts: Ciaran Rogers, Daniel Rowles
Guest: Jon Henshaw (Co-founder of Raven Tools; Director of Digital Marketing at TapClicks)
Date: October 9, 2017

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the origin, evolution, and pivotal business lessons behind Raven Tools—a beloved all-in-one SEO and reporting platform. Jon Henshaw, co-founder of Raven Tools and now Director of Digital Marketing at TapClicks (new owner of Raven), shares the journey of building Raven Tools from agency pain point to global SaaS contender, recounting critical moments, hard decisions, and marketing gambits along the way. The conversation covers product innovation, customer empathy, branding, crisis management, industry challenges, and the future direction under TapClicks.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Genesis of Raven Tools: Solving Real Agency Pain

• Agency Origins & Early Innovation
  • Raven Tools was born from Jon’s agency need to automate painful SEO analysis and link-building reporting.
  • The very first tool, “SEO Analyzer,” predated HubSpot’s Website Grader and was offered free for link-building and brand attention—users loved the badges and scores.
  • “We were an agency and we were creating what is now called linkbait before I think the term was ever even used.” (Jon, 02:23)
• Challenges of Freemium & Scaling Costs
  • Gave tools away for free; AWS bills grew unsustainable.
  • Realization: “The idea of getting an SEO to pay you for something was actually quite difficult back then.” (Jon, 05:28)

2. Finding Product/Market Fit: Listening to Users

• First Launch Flop & Customer Feedback
  • “We built it and we launched it and everybody hated it.” (Jon, 08:15)
  • Early users (mostly agencies) pointed out gaps (e.g., multi-user, reporting features), but worked with Jon’s team for 6-9 months to iterate.
  • “What saved us was that the right agencies ... said, ‘It’s close, but you need to do this.’” (Jon, 08:51)
• Key Product Evolution
  • Raven became an all-in-one toolkit for SEO, link management, analytics, and client reporting, leveraging feedback tirelessly.

3. The Pubcon Gamble: Making a Brand Splash

• Bold Marketing Bet
  • Invested nearly all company funds to headline sponsor Pubcon Las Vegas (2009/2010), aiming to create the perception of a market leader.
  • “We wanted everybody to believe that we had made it, that they’re gonna see our logo everywhere ... And it worked.” (Jon, 12:25)
• Growth Aftermath
  • Led to 10% monthly growth for three years but attracted fierce new competition.
• Transition to Pure SaaS
  • Agency work ceased to avoid conflicts of interest—staying ethical with client data.

4. The Perils of Success: Staying Customer-Focused

• A Drift from Customer Empathy
  • After early success, the team grew inward, stopped actively soliciting customer feedback, and product innovation suffered.
  • Jon’s Reflection: “We just quit talking directly to our customers ... because we felt confident about what we were doing.” (Jon, 16:50)
• Host’s Observation:
  • “The very success you had was because you listened and you made changes.” (Ciaran, 17:16)

5. Crisis Point: Google’s API Ultimatum (Sticky Point)

• Losing Core Features Overnight
  • Google threatened to revoke API (especially Analytics) access unless Raven eliminated any feature involving scraped data (rank tracking & competitor data via Authority Labs and SEMrush).
  • “We lost half of our customers within two to three months. ... That was brutal.” (Jon, 22:11)
• Resilience & Reinvention
  • The “site auditor” grew from Jon’s skunkworks project to the platform’s best-loved tool, helping Raven recover and thrive.
  • “It became our most popular tool ever and brought more customers ... than we’d ever had.” (Jon, 23:32)
• Radical Transparency with Customers
  • Jon’s heartfelt customer comms upheld brand trust, even as features were cut:
    • “The fact that you’ve been honest and shared with me exactly what was happening ... kept me in the loop completely.” (Ciaran, 24:06)

6. Branding & The Raven Story

• Why “Raven”?
  • Inspired by the “dark arts” perception of SEO, Poe’s raven, O’Reilly’s animal branding, and ravens’ intelligence.
  • “Ravens and crows are also considered the smartest birds ... so I liked the idea that this was really intelligent software associated with the dark arts of SEO.” (Jon, 27:22)
• Iconic Merchandise & Customer-Centric Swag
  • First to make trade show T-shirts genuinely desirable—simple, high-quality, beautiful.
  • “Make a T-shirt that people want to wear!” (Jon, 30:01)

7. Acquired by TapClicks: The Future of Raven Tools

• Resource Boost & Renewed Product Vision
  • TapClicks brings resources to accelerate development, UX redesign, and competitive enhancements.
  • “The nice thing about TapClicks ... is they have a lot of resources, resources that we didn’t have.” (Jon, 34:23)
• Strategic Market Position
  • Raven targets SMB agencies and marketers; TapClicks serves larger enterprises needing 170+ integrations and deep reporting features.
• Unified Data & Flexible Reporting
  • TapClicks allows agencies to report across all ad channels (Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.) in one view or tailor outputs (HTML, PDF, PowerPoint) to client needs.
  • “It’s like Raven Reports, but on steroids.” (Jon, 38:56)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Early Feature Adoption:
  “It was all about the rank tracking. I mean, like everybody knew us as a rank tracking provider.” (Jon, 20:33)
• On the Impact of Google’s API Policy:
  “We lost half of our customers within two to three months. ... That was brutal.” (Jon, 22:11)
• On Honest Customer Communication:
  “The fact that you’ve been honest and shared with me exactly what was happening ... kept me in the loop completely.” (Ciaran, 24:06)
• On Branding Insight:
  “If it looks cool and they want to wear it, they’re gonna wear it. And that’s just free advertising for me.” (Jon, 31:31)
• Business Lesson:
  “The thing is never the thing. It’s the customers and their relationship with the thing.” (Ciaran, 18:09)
• On Not Getting Complacent:
  “I just got full of myself, you know ... but the way you say it is more true in a sense. It certainly wasn’t conscious.” (Jon, 16:21)
• On Resilience:
  “You have to be an eternal optimist. And you can’t be a quitter. ... There was no way we’re going to quit.” (Jon, 22:16)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Origins of Raven Tools & Early Days: 02:23 – 07:47
• Product/Market Fit & Working with Early Agencies: 08:15 – 10:00
• Pubcon Sponsorship & Rapid Growth: 11:01 – 14:02
• Transition to Full SaaS, Stopping Agency Work: 14:02 – 15:55
• Lessons on Customer Focus & Empathy: 15:55 – 18:18
• Google API Crisis & Product Reinvention: 19:02 – 23:32
• Customer Comms & the Site Auditor Tool: 23:43 – 26:23
• Branding, Naming, and Iconic Swag: 26:34 – 32:17
• TapClicks Acquisition and Product Roadmap: 34:23 – 39:27
• Advanced Reporting & Custom Outputs: 39:27 – 40:39

Conclusion

Jon Henshaw’s candid storytelling makes this a must-listen for SaaS founders, marketers, and agency leaders. Raven Tools’ journey—from bootstrapped tool to platform, through booms, busts, and reinvention—offers hard-won lessons on innovation, humility, and the vital importance of customer feedback. The TapClicks acquisition positions Raven for continued evolution in the digital marketing landscape.