2025 ambitions

Life threw me a beautiful curveball in 2024.

In May, my wife and I welcomed twins, expanding our family from three to five overnight. We proudly joined the "three under three" club. You can spot us muttering to ourselves in a state of dishevelment in aisle five.

While I was adjusting to this new chapter at home, Buffer experienced remarkable growth. After a flat 2023 and two years of decline, we crossed $20M in revenue.

A true breakout year!

You might wonder what drove this growth. It wasn't any single factor, but rather several key elements coming together:

1. A focused strategy: We committed to expanding down-market and embracing freemium

2. Revitalized marketing: We rebooted our acquisition flywheel and doubled down on content/SEO

3. Cultural transformation: We increased our pace, output, and customer focus

4. Market opportunities: We capitalized on emerging social networks

For a deeper dive into our operating principles and strategy, check out this shareholders letter from late 2023.

And you can see all of our metrics at https://buffer.com/metrics.

While I was on parental leave during two major launches (Threads and Bluesky integrations), I watched proudly as our team knocked it out of the park.

But interestingly, our most impactful launch wasn't a flashy new feature, but the reinstatement of an existing one: Instagram Personal Profiles.

A good reminder, going into 2025, you don’t always have to chase shiny new things.

Here are my other ambitions for the year:

A homepage transformation

We're giving our marketing site a much-needed refresh. While there's no universal rule for how often to update a website, we knew it was time. Our design and copy had grown stale. We've already revamped several key pages, including pricing, and now we're tackling our homepage: the cornerstone of our marketing presence and a product marketer's most valuable asset.

Here’s the old hero:

In hindsight, the copy feels generic and bland. It reads like it was written by committee. I can’t quite remember but it probably was.

Here’s an unfinished sneak peek (don’t tell anyone!) of a new design, courtesy of our amazing designer Kate. I’ll share the hero copy and the thinking behind it in my next newsletter.

Channel mastery

The bar for content is only going to get higher in 2025. To stand out, you have to master one or two channels and go deep. It’s about quality, not quantity.

Think The Browser Company and its YouTube channel, Figma and its community, or Grammarly and its lifecycle emails.

Historically Buffer has had an incredible blog and Twitter presence. While our blog remains industry-leading, we're exploring new territories. Bluesky, where we were early movers, shows particular promise – especially with our new senior social media manager on board.

A memorable launch moment

While our standard launch playbook serves us well for regular product announcements, I'm aiming higher this year. I want to create a launch moment that genuinely moves the needle on industry conversation and word-of-mouth.

Creating a community of ambassadors

Inspired by my experience as a Dropbox Paper advocate in 2018, I'm exploring creating a Buffer ambassador program. The vision: offer early access, team interactions, and exclusive perks to passionate users who can provide valuable feedback and support our launches.

What are your goals for this year? Hit reply and let me know.

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