How Tenon scaled marketing automation & cut costs with Beefree SDK in just 5 weeks

Samantha Hoffmann

March 25, 2025

5 min read

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How a fast-growing startup saved six figures, accelerated deployment, and enhanced user experience

In the fast-paced world of marketing automation, time and resources are everything. For Tenon, an all-in-one marketing platform, the challenge was clear:

Build a powerful content editor
Maintain focus on core growth initiatives
Avoid high development costs and long timelines.

The solution? Beefree SDK.

By integrating Beefree SDK, Tenon launched a fully customized editor in just five weeks—saving six figures while ensuring seamless scalability.

The challenge: build vs. buy

As a fast-growing company, Tenon needed to expand its marketing automation platform with a feature-rich content editor. But building one in-house presented major hurdles:

💰 High Costs – Over $100,000 in development expenses

⏳ Long Timelines – Estimated 6–9 months to build

👨‍💻 Resource-Heavy – Would require a full development team

“The effort to build an editor in-house would just be immense. We would have needed an entire team dedicated full-time throughout the year to build a content editor that fits our needs.” — Ben Ivers, Chief Product Officer, Tenon

For a lean 30-person startup, this wasn’t a viable option.

The solution: integrating Beefree SDK – fast, flexible, and cost-effective

Rather than spending months on custom development, Tenon turned to Beefree SDK. The results? A fully branded, seamlessly integrated content editor in just five weeks.

Option	Development Time	Cost Estimate	Team Required
Build in-house	6–9 months	$100K+	Full dev team
Beefree SDK	5 weeks	Fraction of the cost	1 person

From selection to deployment in just 5 weeks

The decision to use Beefree SDK was easy. Strong endorsements from industry leaders, including Cheetah Digital, helped solidify their choice, and once Tenon got started, the implementation was even faster than expected:

✅ Week 1: Core SDK components configured
✅ Week 5: Fully customized editor deployed

“Even in our specialized environment, Beefree was easy to implement.” — Brad B., UI Developer, Tenon

And that was just the beginning. With Beefree’s continuous updates and robust feature set, Tenon maintained and enhanced its editor with little effort.

One-person maintenance & effortless upgrades

One of the biggest advantages of using Beefree SDK? The ability to replace an entire development team with just one person managing configurations and new features.

“Beefree constantly makes improvements to the editor, and we have one person who manages the SDK configuration and new features. That’s all it takes. It’s like having an extra development team.” — Ben Ivers, CPO, Tenon

With new features like click-to-enable reusable content and various APIs, Tenon’s lean team can continuously improve their platform without being bogged down by lengthy development cycles.

A game-changer: Reusable content for faster workflows

For Tenon’s users, one of the most impactful features was Hosted Saved Rows, which allows marketers to:

Save & reuse branded content (headers, footers, CTAs)
Ensure brand consistency across multiple campaigns
Eliminate repetitive design work

“Hosted Saved Rows saved us a two-month block on our development roadmap. We turned it on, reassigned the developer, and kept moving.” — Ben Ivers, CPO, Tenon

For one of Tenon’s customers with over 4,000 templates, this feature was transformative—saving hundreds of hours in manual work.

AI & APIs: unlocking even more flexibility

Beyond ease of use, Beefree SDK offers unmatched flexibility. With built-in AI-powered copy and image generation, as well as the ability to integrate custom LLMs, Tenon can tailor experiences to fit customer needs perfectly.

“The fact that you can connect different customer instances to a different LLM is huge. Many of our customers already have their own LLMs, and Beefree lets us personalize the app to fit their needs perfectly.” — Ben Ivers, CPO, Tenon

Beyond AI, Tenon also benefits from powerful APIs, such as:

✅ Integrated access to 1,700+ professionally designed email and landing page templates
✅ Autogenerated thumbnail images from HTML for a smoother user experience

Scaling faster with a trusted partner

Beyond the technology, what truly sets Beefree apart is its commitment to partnership. With real-time collaboration, including a dedicated Slack channel, Tenon gets the support that feels like an extension of its own team.

“The level of service we get is unparalleled. Beefree is one of the most responsive companies I’ve ever worked with.” — Ben Ivers, CPO, Tenon

That trust extends beyond support—it accelerates growth. Simply mentioning Beefree as part of their tech stack helps Tenon close deals faster by reassuring potential customers of the platform’s reliability.