Compose.ly Gets More Juice, with Less Squeeze

”What does it take to diversify demand gen while staying true to your brand's values of expertise and authenticity? For one marketer, the answer lay in trusting a content distribution partner.”

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At first, Nicole MacLean had doubts. “How do I go to my boss and say, ‘I want thousands of dollars for something called The Juice’?”

You might have your own reservations. ‘The Juice’ is an unusual name for a B2B content distribution platform—especially when the stakes are high and someone’s budget is on the line. 

But as MacLean, the Head of Marketing and Sales at Compose.ly, would soon discover, there was more to The Juice than an amusing brand name.

Why this is the story we’re telling

As of the time of writing, Compose.ly has been a customer for one and a half years, and the partnership is going stronger than ever. Their content has been seen on the platform more than 100,000 times and The Juice helped them influence more than $300,000 in pipeline and revenue. 

Before The Juice, before Compose.ly, MacLean knew Jonathan Gandolf as a distant figure in her professional world—someone she’d admired from the sidelines at an earlier job.

Years later, Gandolf pitched the concept —then called Fathom—as a “Spotify for content.” MacLean thought it sounded promising, but she had her doubts. Without a built-in audience, how would it truly succeed?

“At the time, I was like, this sounds really cool, but I think the biggest hurdle is going to be getting the audience,” she said. “ It just wasn’t a fit then, but I was always a fan from the sidelines.”

Eventually, MacLean landed at Compose.ly, a services and software business steeped in content creation. At this point, she had been “out of the marketing sphere for a minute,” so she had to find her footing with that audience again. So, MacLean thought back to Gandolf’s idea:

 “Jonathan was one of the first people I had coffee with. I asked, ‘What are you hearing? Where are we at?’ It felt like there was always a partnership opportunity, but we didn’t know what it would be.”

A year into her role at Compose.ly, that opportunity took shape. 

2023 had been a tough year for demand generation – marketers became more savvy and skeptical as the industry’s mood shifted with the tough economy. So when MacLean decided to diversify their marketing channels past PPC and organic SEO, she returned to The Juice. 

The Juice made perfect sense. Compose.ly was a content writing company producing a lot of content aimed at marketers; The Juice offered a distribution channel built for it.

Now, The Juice and Compose.ly were partners—collaborators with a shared vision of modern, audience-driven marketing.

Putting The Juice to the test

MacLean didn’t have to overhaul her entire process when she started working with The Juice—she just folded it into her existing routines. 

When Compose.ly’s marketing team worked on any new piece of content, whether it was a webinar series, podcast, or a blog post–they’d think about activation on their core distribution channels like social and their email list. They just needed to add one more pillar - The Juice.

That meant every time their team planned a new webinar, podcast, or blog post, The Juice became part of the discussion. MacLean would wonder: “Can we talk to Clayton about ads or a specific callout for this piece?”

Now, those considerations are a standard part of how Compose.ly launches new content. MacLean said: “we ask, ‘what are we doing with this piece, or this series, or this asset with The Juice?’”

On the reporting side, Compose.ly integrated The Juice’s engagement data right into their CRM on HubSpot. As a result, they got a deeper look at which companies showed interest in their content. “With the launch of their new Effectiveness analytics, we can see which individuals might be a good fit,” she said.

Their top-of-funnel performance has been fantastic, with 6,200+ intent signals and 225,000+ emails sent out to The Juice’s audience with Compose.ly’s content featured within it.

But as we know, content metrics aren’t the whole story. MacLean, like many other marketers, wasn’t judged on interactions or engagements—her team cared about the bottom line. “At the end of the day, we care about meetings and revenue,” she said.

So, from the start, they put The Juice to the test. As Gandolf told me, “We were challenged to ‘prove it’ and show a positive ROI.”

That focus paid off. “We closed our first customer in August,” MacLean shared.

The Juice’s role in Compose.ly’s marketing mix was clear. The platform fits neatly into place, helping MacLean’s team find and nurture relevant and qualified leads.

Compose.ly directly sourced $50,000 in new revenue from publishing content on The Juice, and in just three months, they generated 150+ contact-level leads since the launch of the Effectiveness analytics. Entering year two, their partnership feels like it’s only warming up to its full potential.

Understanding the audience

MacLean’s first year of working with The Juice was a matter of testing and adjusting their approach.

You can’t treat The Juice like just another SEO channel—at least that’s what MacLean learned the hard way. With organic search, you play the long game: produce a wide variety of content, wait as it climbs the rankings, and trust that targeted keywords will eventually pay off. 

But, as MacLean put it: “The Juice does work differently.”

Unlike the slow burn of SEO, The Juice offers a shot at immediate engagement with a ready-made targeted audience. Succeeding on the platform is less about proving breadth of expertise to an algorithm and more about delivering niche content that genuinely resonates on day one. MacLean explained:

“For organic SEO, we have to wait and see if we rank. But on The Juice, it’s the opposite. You get a blip unless it’s trending or takes off. But you do get an immediate jump and an uptick in intent signals the day a piece gets released.”

And that adjustment in expected time-frames matched the transformation in their overall approach. Before, organic SEO meant grinding out keyword-focused pieces with little concern for specialized expertise. That approach no longer fits the moment.

“There’s a shift in organic content right now,” MacLean said. “It’s not SEO first.” 

Compose.ly tried the SEO first playbook before. In fact, MacLean distinctly remembered the moment it no longer felt right:

“My content creator and I were like, ‘why are we doing these pieces?’ We did, like, 20 pieces on every long-form version of social media, and I was just like, ‘we don’t do social media’.”

Instead of proving that Compose.ly was sufficiently “well rounded” to Google’s algorithm, MacLean wanted to focus on creating thought leadership pieces that would grab their audience’s attention. And The Juice’s community wants timely, in-depth, and relevant insights. 

In MacLean’s view, success on The Juice comes from thoughtful curation, not sheer volume—focusing on what truly matters to your audience right now. Now, she found herself focusing on rewrites, optimization, and more thoughtful pieces that spoke directly to readers—without throwing keywords out the window entirely.

“The Juice offers an interesting topic ideation source,” MacLean pointed out. 

The Juice’s data could guide her monthly decisions, helping her choose topics that actually mattered. “By looking at intent signals, we can say, ‘Okay, we need topics for this month. What’s resonating the most with our target market? Do we have a piece on that already? If not, maybe that’s what we should be talking about.’”

This approach wasn’t just a theoretical shift; it felt personal. MacLean wasn’t simply following a new industry playbook—she was leveraging The Juice’s insights to reshape how Compose.ly created and updated its content. It was a way to move beyond bulk publishing and instead to produce material that resonated right here, right now.

Getting the most out of community distribution

Committing to The Juice isn’t about writing a check and walking away. 

In fact, MacLean’s experience with The Juice wasn’t just about distribution—it was about figuring out what formats actually moved the needle. She learned quickly that straightforward blogs could fall flat compared to more immersive content.

“I know webinars do well,” she said.

This wasn’t a guess. The Juice’s one-button sign-up feature turned viewers into leads more fluidly. Instead of begging for engagement, it came naturally, woven into the platform’s structure and functionality.

“They say toolkits and guides—anything more helpful—perform better than just a blog post,” MacLean said. And when “AI” or “reporting” popped up in a content title or description, even better.

For MacLean, it was about aiming at the sweet spot where The Juice’s audience found real value. Every piece and feature added up to a strategy that wasn’t just about hitting publish—it was about giving people something they actually wanted on a consistent basis.

You don’t have to start from scratch, though. “We already had 400 articles on our blog when we launched, and there’s no way anyone’s going to sift through them all,” MacLean said. “There’s probably gold hidden in there.” 

Your initial launch is a chance to audit what you’ve got, improve the pieces that still matter, and let The Juice’s distribution features give them fresh life. Just remember, as MacLean pointed out: 

“Make sure it’s actually good content—I’m sure all our blogs from 2020 aren’t where we’d want them to be now.”

The bottom line? The Juice can push your content forward, but it can’t turn it into gold. Pick your best pieces, improve them as needed, and distribute to the platform’s community of marketers and salespeople hungry for expertise.

“Professional best friends”

Here’s the secret to a great partnership: making both sides feel like truly trusted allies. MacLean had a phrase for that type of relationship: “professional best friends.”

When McLean had to take over the sales function at Compose.ly, she felt inspired by the way they’d been working with The Juice, human connection above trying to sell at all costs. 

“That’s the secret. We are salespeople, but it’s more...it’s like how people talk about Jonathan and Kate and Clayton,” MacLean shared. 

For MacLean, their cultural alignment wasn’t just about swapping compliments—it was proof of  shared core values.  Compose.ly, just like The Juice, could stand as proof that warmth, authenticity, and adaptability could coexist in one brand—a brand that treated its audience not just like clients, but like friends.

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