“For me, the key is flexibility and freedom.”
Join us for a chat with Emelie Linheden, VP of Marketing at Younium, where we dig into how a fully-remote, SaaS team keeps things real, creates content that actually matters, and stays ahead in the subscription game. Emelie’s sharing some real stories, smart pivots, and how their culture of partnership and impact is making a difference.
Maria Stanciuc: Could you share your journey leading up to your role as VP of Marketing at Younium?
Emelie Linheden: I started at Younium 4 years ago as the first marketing employee. My background is in SaaS and software for 8 years now, and I have worked in the B2B space for 15 years in different sales- and marketing-related roles.
Half of my career has been in more hands-on sales roles, but since I studied marketing at university, I’ve always felt that I wanted to try a full-time marketing job at some point, and as I’ve always worked with more complex businesses and IT-related services and products, the move to SaaS felt natural.
My first role in SaaS was more of a CS role, but that foundation is great now in marketing because I understand the real aspects behind customer relationships and the SaaS terminology and metrics in practice.
Maria Stanciuc: Do you have a mentor? If yes, how did this help with your professional growth?
Emelie Linheden: I have had a mentor for more than 10 years, but he is not in marketing. He is currently the Group CIO of Ericsson, one of Sweden’s biggest/global companies. With him, I get the bigger picture even though our work is very different from each other. He is, of course, very experienced and sees leadership and management from another angle.
Maria: What made you choose to continue your career with Younium?
Emelie: My gut feeling said that Younium was the right next step, and after almost 4 years in the company, I still feel that I’m lucky to be here. But the reasons for choosing Younium.
One, my manager (our CEO and founder) – I immediately felt that this was someone I could trust and who would let me do my thing.
Second, the current state of the company – when I came in, we had a product and a few customers, but now it was about to scale, especially in marketing activities. I felt it was the exact right time for me to go into the company, as I’m a real doer and like it when it goes fast. I’m hard to please and very goal-oriented, for good and for bad, I guess. I have worked in bigger and more hierarchical organizations, but I don’t fit there. I’m too “impatient” for that.
Maria: How have you seen the SaaS industry and its marketing strategies evolve since you began at Younium?
Emelie: When I joined Younium, my plan revolved around building a demand marketing team that reports on revenue. Back then, Europe was in the early stages of building this type of marketing structure, and a lot was still built around lead gen teams.
As we initiated this setup, it became a great learning path in terms of building activities across different channels, and as we grew, maintaining a tight collaboration between sales and marketing was key.
Now, it has evolved to include a demand team, product team, and recently, a stand-alone RevOps team that will further strengthen the bond between sales and marketing. I can confidently state that one of the most significant developments is that Younium has become a known brand. This has facilitated easier partnerships, ranging from working with VC to collaborating with finance experts within the SaaS industry.
Additionally, a crucial milestone was the opening of our US office in 2022, marking an important phase in our development. Since the power of Social Media (especially LinkedIn) has increased even more and we established the Younium employee advocacy club to ensure a wide range of our brand exposure through our people.
Maria: What worked best in terms of marketing?
Emelie: When you are an “underdog” with most likely less marketing budget than the giants, you need to really take advantage of the organic possibilities. Another hot thing seems to be Podcasts, we are participating in at least 10 podcasts every year, and enjoyed our Tekpon podcast episode during 2023 a lot.
A channel that we always see working is events, people like people, and it feels great to connect with customers, partners, and prospects in real life a few times per year. And we always do it with our own style.
Effective strategies
“We go out and physically meet with our prospective customers at meet-ups and events!”
Maria: How do you balance digital and traditional marketing channels effectively?
Emelie: In Younium, we position our teams as subscription experts rather than sales or marketing specialists. Our primary objective is to assist prospects in finding the best solutions for managing their B2B customer subscription lifecycle.
This approach is carefully balanced across both digital and traditional marketing spaces. As we were smaller and were competing against bigger brands that do a more general form of subscription management, it was good for us to meet people and show our knowledge in real life, as our emails weren’t always opened by our prospects because they had never heard about us.
But since we have a more established brand now, our digital performance has greatly increased because of our traditional channels.
Maria: How do you foster innovation and creativity within your marketing team?
Emelie: We have quarterly planning within marketing, but we always leave a space of 20-25% for on-the-go activities or new ideas. We also have competitions sometimes, where my team presents one or two new ideas each, and then sales can vote on which activity they want us to execute. I just created a high-level marketing activity plan yearly.
Our CFO trusts me, and he doesn’t go into details of the exact activities to be carried out. When I need advice on bigger projects and investments, such as analyst relations or a new website, I always discuss it with our CEO, who is my manager, as he is quite good at marketing. But everything is carried out in quarterly plans with room for also quicker new things, making sure we are agile enough.
Maria: How does the marketing department at Younium collaborates with other departments?
Emelie: Sales and marketing have common goals for bigger investments e.g sponsorships at events. We have monthly meetings and we also invite sales to give input and wishes before our next marketing quarterly activity planning.
And of course, we work together on an account-based level for our bigger prospects. With the product team, we have activity planning based on their roadmap for the coming quarter, and with bigger releases, we have project planning. We keep track of our KPI’s through some of the more traditional methods, such as High intent leads and First touch marketing to deals created and deals/revenue closed.
But we also measure some in “the dark” for instance number of earned social mentions on LinkedIn.
On overcoming challenges
“Pandemic times, leadership & trends”
Maria: How did you do content creation during challenging times like the pandemic?
Emelie: I joined Younium one month into the pandemic, and my first strategic move was acquiring a video tool to help us create customer videos. With in-person interactions limited, we used photos creatively, adding movement and quotes to bring them to life.
Our broader strategy is built around knowledge sharing, and video is central to that. We’ve built a large video library on YouTube with webinars covering everything from SaaS metrics to emerging market trends, a resource that many SaaS experts rely on. Video is also used extensively by our sales team for personalised outreach, helping prospects feel that we are genuinely interested and willing to make the extra effort to connect.
Maria: What is your leadership style, and how has it influenced Younium and the team dynamics?
Emelie: We are a fully remote team with several nationalities across multiple countries. It can be challenging not seeing each other often, but we’ve worked this way from day one. Our onboarding program ensures new employees get up to speed quickly, and I focus a lot on feedback during the first six months.
I’m still hands-on in some initiatives and regularly involve different team members so we collaborate in practice, not just in meetings. Most of the team has now worked with me for 2–3 years, so they are very self-driven and independent.
Maria: Trends you are excited about, and you plan to integrate them into Younium?
Emelie: I recently participated in a course about Generative AI capabilities. The opportunities with AI for marketing are huge. But I’m also a strong believer in personal branding both online and offline. People buy from people, not from a logo. And all kinds of account-based and personalized marketing activities will be even more important.
Maria: Can you detail your content approach?
Emelie: Educational and genuinely useful content remains key in SaaS marketing, especially as AI becomes more integrated. True authenticity requires strong research and meaningful input from inside the company, which is why we involve experts and product teams directly in our content.
We also share this content with customers, for example, through webinars led by our CS team showcasing new insights and Younium’s capabilities.
I see Younium as a partner in helping both businesses and people grow, and as we continue to mature as a brand, we will keep developing this area further.
Growth & advice
“Life lessons, work & life balance and professional growth”
Maria: What advice would you offer young professionals that aspire to succeed in SaaS marketing?
Emelie: Learn the sales pitch, and your ICPs pain points and understand the product value and industry terminology. In B2C you work with more “easy to understand products and services” but to be good in B2B and more complex marketing you need to have a deeper knowledge of the business itself to be able to market it in the right channels to the right audience.
Maria: Moving beyond your professional life as a VP of Marketing at Younium, what interests or hobbies do you enjoy?
Emelie: I love traveling and I do it often, both on holiday and workdays. I go around 2-3 times per yer on workay with friends, meaning I take my computer somewhere in the sun for 2-3 weeks and mix work and holiday. I’m also an active member of Ladies Circle, which is a social networking organization for women aged up to 45. Here I go with my ladies on events, trips, and parties in both Sweden and abroad.
And it has nothing to do with career, it is just a fun community where you meet a lot of new “best friends”.
Maria: How do you maintain a good work-life balance?
Emelie: For me the key is flexibility and freedom. As we operate in both Europe and the US I can decide my schedule basically how I want it. I never book a meeting that lasts for more than 45 minutes. If I’m tired one day I sleep a bit longer and work from home instead of going to the office. Time management is one of my strongest skills and I’m good at planning when e.g going on business trips.
Or now for instance… I’m on a plane from Cape Verde answering the questions for this interview offline.
Maria: Can you share a life lesson or experience that has influenced your professional or personal growth?
Emelie: Early in my career, I didn’t understand the difference between Emelie as a private person and Emelie as a professional and a leader which made me take everything that happened very personally. I also worked too many hours as I loved my job but in the end, no one thanked me for that, of course.
Today I have a better balance between what is work and what is spare time and I try to “spread the risks” so to say.
