Head of Digital Marketing in SaaS

The team lead.

My main role: since December 2016 I have led the marketing team at Swat.io. From a position where I do not just recommend strategy but own it, with a budget, a team and numbers someone wants to see at the end of the month.

Florian Hieß, Head of Digital Marketing at Swat.io — Photo: David Johansson

The role

Leading marketing,
not just advising.

Swat.io is a Vienna-based SaaS social media tool and an independent company today. The product helps social media teams organise their work more simply and efficiently, and I own the marketing for it. For Walls.io, the social wall from the shared origin, I was responsible only in the first year.

The difference from consulting is the difference between a recommendation and a consequence. Anyone leading a team has to justify a decision and then live with it when it does not work out. That is exactly what makes the perspective useful for consulting mandates and talks: I speak about things whose consequences I carry myself.

What the team owns

Brand awareness: visibility in a market where products are technically very similar
Lead generation: predictable inflow instead of lucky hits
Customer journey: guiding prospects and customers from first touch to renewal
Inbound marketing and marketing automation: content and workflows that keep running without constant pushing
Performance marketing: paid channels with a clear cost ceiling per deal
Content marketing: content that answers a query instead of serving a keyword
Social media marketing: our own channels, in a market where the product itself is social media
Product marketing: positioning, launches and translating features into benefit

How I lead

I joined as employee number fourteen; today we are around fifty. The team I lead has grown to seven people in that time. Small enough that there is no layer between me and the work. I see what is working, and I see what is blocking someone.

My three principles are plain. First: context before instruction. Someone who understands what a task feeds into makes better decisions than someone working through a list. Second: mistakes get discussed, not covered up; a campaign that did not work is the cheapest source of learning there is. Third: people grow on tasks that are a size too big. My job is to set the frame so that turns out well.

For my own development I completed a leadership training programme at TAM Akademie in 2024 and 2025.

Frequently asked

About leading.

What is your main role?

Head of Digital Marketing at Swat.io in Vienna, since December 2016. That is my full-time role. The agency Digital Wings is a second business I run together with my wife Romana.

What does Swat.io do?

Swat.io is a SaaS social media tool: editorial planning, approval workflows, community management and reporting in one place. The company is independent today.

How large is your team?

Currently seven people, built up over the years. The company itself has around fifty employees. When I started in 2016 there were thirteen before me.

How does SaaS marketing differ from agency work?

The time horizon. In SaaS marketing what counts is not the campaign but what still holds after twelve months: recurring revenue, churn, cost per acquisition. You optimise a system, not a single measure.

Do you advise other companies on marketing leadership?

Yes, through mentoring and advisory board work. I am a mentor at GrowthMentor and in the Marketing Club Österreich Rookies programme, and a member of the advisory board at Amazing E-Commerce.

Do you speak about leadership at conferences?

Yes, alongside the technical topics. It gets most honest where it is about building teams in small marketing departments. Little budget and no specialist for every discipline.

How do you combine a full-time role and an agency?

Through clear separation. Swat.io is the main role with team and budget responsibility. Digital Wings I run together with Romana, who leads the day-to-day business there. Anything that is not realistically doable time-wise, I turn down.

What exactly is your team responsible for?

Brand awareness, lead generation, the customer journey from first touch through to renewal, inbound marketing and marketing automation, performance marketing, content marketing, social media marketing and product marketing.

How do you lead a team of this size?

By three principles: context before instruction, mistakes get discussed rather than papered over, and people grow on tasks that are a size too big. With a team of seven, there is no layer between me and the work.

Do you keep developing as a manager?

Yes. In 2024 and 2025 I completed a leadership training at TAM Akademie. Leadership is not a talent you acquire once and then keep.

Back to overview

Ready for marketing without detours?

Tell me what it is about: your project, your event or your team. You will get an honest assessment, even when I am not the right choice.

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