Waalaxy (formerly prospectIn) is a LinkedIn prospecting tool that has distinguished itself with a sales-free growth model based on content marketing. In just four years, without raising funds, the company reached an annual recurring revenue of 10 million euros, counting over 150,000 users including 10,000 paying customers. With 2,000 reviews and a 4.5 rating on Trustpilot, Waalaxy has attracted a wide audience thanks to effective service and a well-established acquisition strategy. Today, the company, consisting of 50 employees, is however experiencing a plateau, mainly due to difficulties in internationalization.
Waalaxy has made a "growth" tool accessible to everyone and easy to use, facilitating adoption by their users who are both Growth professionals and more "traditional" salespeople. Compared to its main competitor Lemlist, Waalaxy offers a much simpler and faster onboarding process.
Waalaxy Team Composition
- 16 marketing and growth
- 12 tech
- 7 product
- 7 customer success
- 3 admin/finance
- 3 recruitment
- 2 AI
Content-Centered Acquisition
From the start, Waalaxy focused on a content strategy for customer acquisition. This choice proved successful, as 90% of their acquisition comes from this strategy, based on branding and word-of-mouth. When the company launched its first product, ProspectIn, it focused on two main channels:
- SEO: The SEO strategy relies on a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement. User feedback via support is considered to generate relevant blog content, optimized for search engines. This content can then be easily broken down into "Tutorial" YouTube videos and newsletters.
- LinkedIn: Waalaxy's CEO, Toinon Georget, was one of the first to adopt an influencer approach on LinkedIn, creating content regularly. This active presence enhanced the company's visibility.
Waalaxy SEO Study
Visibility and Global Traffic
Monthly traffic: Waalaxy generates an average of 150,000 monthly visits, including 75,000 in France, according to Semrush.
Branding impact: When typing "Waalaxy" in a search engine, results show their website, their pages on recruitment sites, their YouTube channel, and other digital assets. This demonstrates the significant impact of their online branding.
Keyword Positioning
"LinkedIn" query: Waalaxy ranks 6th for the "LinkedIn" query, which generates high traffic (15,000 monthly visits). However, this keyword likely converts little traffic, as it's far from what people want to see when searching for LinkedIn.
Business Keywords: Waalaxy is mainly positioned on informative queries, with few keywords directly related to LinkedIn prospecting. However, they achieve interesting results on certain business keywords:
- Prospecting (5th position): This keyword potentially brings them more qualified leads.
- Automated prospecting tool
- LinkedIn prospecting (1st position)
- LinkedIn prospecting tool: Their homepage ranks for this keyword thanks to advanced optimization of title, meta description, and backlinks.
Two-Pronged Content Strategy
Waalaxy has structured its content strategy around two main axes:
- High-quality content on channels with strong cumulative effect: These channels, such as YouTube, podcasts, and newsletters, struggle to attract new users initially. However, those who discover the company through these media often become loyal users. These formats benefit from a long lifespan, allowing for maintaining long-term relationships with the audience.
- Content factory for high-virality channels: Here, the goal is to acquire new users through short, impactful formats, like snackable content on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok. Short storytelling formats, like "shorts," work particularly well on these platforms. These channels are mainly dedicated to acquiring new customers, who are then retained via cumulative effect content to convert them into clients.
Waalaxy's Future: Diversification and LinkedIn Video Content
Waalaxy's CEO anticipates a rise in video format on LinkedIn between 2024 and 2025, with great opportunities to seize. But beyond acquisition strategies, the company also wants to diversify its product. Currently, the tool relies exclusively on LinkedIn's API, which represents a major risk for Waalaxy's long-term stability. A simple LinkedIn update could compromise the company's future.
To mitigate this risk, Waalaxy plans to develop a complete suite of SaaS tools, as well as invest in companies in the creator economy sector. This diversification would allow them to reduce their dependence on LinkedIn and secure their future growth.
Conclusion
Waalaxy embodies an atypical success in the LinkedIn prospecting tools universe. By focusing on content and self-serve, the company has established itself in its market. Today, facing new challenges, particularly internationalization and diversification, Waalaxy continues to innovate while maintaining a strong connection with its community.
