Let’s zoom out for a second

A lot of people want to talk about content creation and how to improve today.

Although I give a lot of tactical advice, I want us to step back for a second this week.

Let’s think about your brand's legacy and how content plays a role in telling your brand.

Most companies struggle to create long-term brand authority because they are focused on quick tricks or short-term profits.

Here are 5 pillars to build your brand with content.

1.  Storytelling

Ad spend means nothing without storytelling.

For a long time, DTC brands were essentially printing money with Facebook ads.With iOS 14.5 gone are those easy days of FB ads.

What will make you stand out - story.

People reference Donald Miller’s book, How to Build a Storybrand but never implement storytelling.

Don't focus on one video telling a story.

Think about how every email, word, video, and marketing tell your story collectively.

Once you have your story, every piece of content derives from that main storyline.

2. Content is your salesperson

In B2B SaaS, marketing brings in leads to the sales team.

For DTC, you don't have a sales team.

Your website and the content on the site do the selling for you.

Like storytelling, think about how to use content not just in ads but also on your site as a salesperson.

Think about how you would sell your product to a person.

Content allows you to sell that story at scale instead of repeating that message to every customer.

3. Customer experience is cohesive

OOH to TikTok to Email needs to have a cohesive experience.

Organic teams aren't talking with growth or email, so the content and ideas are everywhere.

Your content needs to work with one another to build a seamless brand experience.

If your content is not cohesive, you need to have a quarterly meeting to ensure all teams are on the same page with messaging and content.

4. Messaging Focus 

B2B SaaS plans quarterly initiatives to focus on messaging and marketing.

Major brands also focus on messaging quarterly mostly because they are producing a ton of TV ads and can’t be as agile as smaller brands.

A lot of DTC brands are agile, but that hurts them in the long run because their messaging is not consistent.Think in campaigns.

Focus your messaging across channels.

5. Make decisions based on brand

I have lots of conversations with people who want content but don't want to spend more than $100.

Creative is not a line item.

It tells the brand's story.

People need to think about what will build the brand vs. keeping ad spend up.

Brand decisions involve big-picture thinking.

You need to balance what is going to help grow the business today while also building a brand that will sell tomorrow.

Founders - empower your team to think about the brand.

Before you make a decision about budget, think about how this decision affects your brand a year from now and even 5 years from now.