Case study / ToNote
Buyers were searching. The answers were written in legal jargon.
ToNote (and its e-signature product ToSign) is Nigeria's first remote notarization platform. When I joined, there was no SEO foundation, no intentional thought leadership, and no cohesive go-to-market approach. I built the multi-channel growth engine, SEO, LinkedIn thought leadership, content, newsletter, email lifecycle, and PPC, from the ground up.
01 The baseline
Search demand existed. It was just underserved
ToNote was the first of its kind in the market. Updated regulation validated the company's operations and the very existence of its product. The demand was already out there: people were actively searching for the legal processes behind the product, affidavits, name changes, declarations. But the results they found were dense legal jargon, written for lawyers, not the everyday citizen.
02 The strategic tradeoff
Legal procedures, explained simply
Nigerians were searching for online notarization. The content ranking on the first page of Google was buried in legal jargon and far too long.
We had to be different.
- Content without the legal fluff.
- Content that targets ToFU, MoFU and BoFU intent all at once, because we had a lean team and limited time to prove organic SEO works.
03 The execution
One lean team, every stage of the search
We had a lean team and limited time to prove organic SEO works. That ruled out a slow awareness-only programme. We covered top, middle and bottom of funnel intent from the start.
- 29 how-to guides on the processes people actually search for: change of name, marriage, single status, identity theft, residence, sponsorship, sworn declaration of age, death, BVN amendment.
- Law explainers that made the new possibility legible: the Evidence Act 2023, the Notary Public Act 2023, and a year-in-review of digital legal processes in Nigeria.
- Customer case studies: DriveMe.ng cut operational costs 43% with ToSign, plus Consonance Investments and BFA&Co Legal.
- The Digital Transformation eBook as lead magnet, distributed through Mailchimp, with onboarding and re-engagement email flows built from customer research.
- The company LinkedIn page and the founder posting in public, so someone who found ToNote on Google could see an active company before signing up.
- Video with external partners: animated product explainer, drama shorts, game-show format law explainers.
- Google Ads run end to end at 3.3x ROAS, campaign reviews with leadership on GA4 and attribution data, project management in Asana.
04 The attribution
How SEO and LinkedIn thought leadership grew MRR
The 56% month-over-month MRR growth came from running the two engines together. The demand was already searching; plain-language content captured it the moment people googled, and LinkedIn thought leadership converted that first discovery into trust, a person finding ToNote on Google could immediately see an active company page and a founder speaking publicly about the laws behind the product.
The commercial result: 56% month-over-month MRR growth, 135% brand awareness growth, and a 3.3x return on Google Ads, with the content library continuing to compound after each campaign ended.
ToNote / Proof
Published artifacts
- The Evidence Act 2023: A Step Forward in Digitization for Nigerians
- The Notary Public Act 2023: Everything You Need to Know
- How ToSign Propelled DriveMe.ng to Cut Operational Costs by 43%
- Digital Transformation eBook (lead magnet)
- How-to guide library: 29 affidavit and declaration guides
- What is ToNote? (Animated product explainer)