Why Every Brand Needs To Be A Content Machine in 2022 with Eric Dyck: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today, we'll be breaking down why every brand needs to be a content machine. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Eric Dick in the EO Fire Studios. Eric is a co-founder of DTC Newsletter and Podcast. He connects his subscribers to the exact performance marketing tactics that fuel profitable sales for the world's fastest growing brands. And today, we talk about how you shouldn't be afraid of hiring entrepreneurial people and that growing brands need to have a holistic mindset to build their content and oh so much more.

0:37And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Eric and our sponsors. Fire Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business. Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software.

1:15Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Eric, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with? What's up, Fire Nation? I'll just jump right in and say that you probably shouldn't be afraid to hire entrepreneurial people. In my space, the digital marketing world, there's been, it can be a challenge when you're kind of operating in businesses where the money that's being made is fairly transparent in a lot of cases. And so there's this worry that if you hire someone very entrepreneurial, they're likely to take the training and go, you know, you'll and you'll eventually either lose that asset, you know, your employee with all that training that went into them, because they're most likely going to go off and do their own thing.

2:12And what I would say, I'm kind of living proof of why probably organizations need to be able to offer an entrepreneurial sort of path in order to be able to hire really good entrepreneurs, which is sort of exactly how I got started in this media game. Well, if you can't tell Fire Nation, Eric is a fellow podcaster. He has that silky smooth voice, that amazing audio quality. So strap in and get ready to learn why every brand needs to be a content machine in 2022 and beyond, of course. So let's talk about the DTC newsletter. What is it? And tell us the inspiration behind it. The DTC newsletter is sort of the culmination of the past 15 years of my sort of digital performance marketing career.

3:05And basically, you know, to go way back to the beginning to like 2008, when everyone thought sort of digital marketing, affiliate marketing, meant building SEO sites and, you know, accruing value over time. I kind of jumped in with an organization that was focused on performance marketing. So really kind of going out there and paying money, media buying in order to force the issue, essentially, instead of sort of waiting for the Google gods to send you the SEO dollars. And so I kind of came from up from the space where we knew we had to spend a dollar to make a dollar and that we really had to be very strategic about how we place those budgets.

3:45And I remember back in those days being connected with some of the big agencies in the space and knowing that their model was a lot more like sort of spray and pray, you know, cost plus model. And I thought back in the day, like, what if performance marketers sort of took over the world? And fast forward, you know, as through several other iterations and interesting things that kind of happened in the career, I got an opportunity to join some friends of mine who'd started an agency that was called Pilot House that was based on the same principles of performance marketing, of being able to be ruthlessly efficient in how you went to the market, went direct to consumer, essentially.

4:20This agency, I jumped on as basically a director of content with the idea that we were going to start creating content and with the idea that I was going to be able to spin it out into my own sort of entrepreneurial venture. Because I had known these guys for years and I had done a similar thing with a company called ISAC Training previously. And that's actually where I got to see you for the first time in San Diego one year, which was awesome. Yeah. I joined on this newsletter when it was on this podcast on this agency when we were 20 employees. We have now since grown to over 130 employees over the pandemic.

4:53This was basically the start of the pandemic. And and it's been an absolutely wild ride. So once I started at this agency, I was like, I'm going to start making content. Every brand needs to be a content machine. So I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and just start creating content. I just jumped on on a microphone with the founders and we started talking about what it was like building this performance agency. And we just sort of grew from there. I just started having DTC founders on the podcast as well, hearing their stories. And I said to myself, there's so much information that goes into these interviews.

5:26There's so much value that kind of goes by. And a lot of people listen to them. But if you were to sort of write out the knowledge bombs, as we call them, that were actually unearthed in each podcast and went to a little bit more detail, maybe got a little more background on them, a little example or something, that you actually had like an incredible basis for content for a newsletter. So that is essentially how D2C Newsletter was born. We basically started this newsletter called D2C based on the podcast, based on some other content that we created, started sending it once a week, and then started running ads for it on Facebook and Instagram in order to drive the right people.

5:59And what really we found was like starting a newsletter called Direct to Consumer at the beginning of the pandemic was really sort of a fortuitous timing, just because at that time, every company in the world realized they had to put more focus into their direct-to-consumer business, just with retail being a little bit more sketched out by the way the world was kind of trending. Every brand needed to accelerate their direct-to-consumer plans. And so here we show up with content directly aimed at the tactical advice, not just like what's happening in the space, not just who's investing in who or what's happening big picture, but literally like what you can do about it on a week to week basis on the platforms like Facebook ads, Google, TikTok, you know, email marketing, CRO, all of these axes that Pilot House actually happens to work across.

6:48We sort of work with them and generate sort of tactical, insightful content now twice a week and soon to be three days a week in the new year for our now 50 ,000 plus readers and listeners. It's been a wild ride. Wow, that is quite a ride. And during that ride, there's always been this battle, paid versus organic. Like what kinds of content are most important for growing brands? Like should you be paying for ads? you be paying for content or should everything just be this nice, organic, healthy come from within? What are your thoughts on that? Kind of break down this battle that's ongoing and kind of the side that you're on.

7:30I think of it as a very holistic system, less of a battle. But really, it's an interesting thing to bring up because, you know, before iOS 14.5, I'm sure some of your listeners are most of your listeners are aware of some of the big changes that have happened around privacy, around Facebook ads, pixel sort of being degraded. Facebook's ability to sort of target your user and be able to deliver them reliably, to be able to understand whether they've bought before or what stage they're at in the purchase cycle has sort of been degraded wildly over the last six months. And with the writing on the wall, you know, some of this stuff is going to continue.

8:09It's going to get harder and harder for some of these technology platforms, maybe until the metaverse, to really have a lot of high quality customer data. And so previously, like when I kind of started in this in this high performance space, ecommerce space, specifically around 2017, you know, Facebook ads was a bit of a, you know, you could push a button. And if you had, you know, you could be drop shipping, you could have, you know, very little, you know, product moat in terms of the quality of your product. early in those days, e-commerce was such a novelty, you know, and before then even, that you could get away with, you know, putting an ad up on Facebook and making a profit and kind of building a business that way.

8:47But sort of over these most recent years, it's still, the barriers to entry are still very low to build these kinds of businesses, like, you know, in terms of the last 50 years. But it is not getting any easier, I think, from this point forward. And so having a very holistic mindset to how you build your content out is super important. You definitely need to have what I would say is an organic base. And what you ultimately really need is to have your list. This is a tale as old as time here. You really just need to be able to build your list. And I think some of the most interesting things that I see happening are the content that happens organically on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

9:28that where the ultimate goal is to essentially bring people into a list eventually where they become an owned audience. But specifically, they're there on a platform like TikTok, you're just seeing absolutely astronomical scale sometimes when you hit a correct niche, there's no other platform that gives you that much organic lift when you hit the note just right. So it's really a system where you're testing things organically, trying to build them into your list where they become your owned audience and also sort of using ads in order to retarget people and continually bring people into your environment.

10:08And then the net benefits come when you're able to leverage the content that is working organically already into your ads and just have a leg up to know that you're putting paid budget behind something that already has the audience's interest. Tale as old as time, Fire Nation. And one thing that I will say is a tale as old as time is, you know, the really idea and concepts of owning your own sandbox. I mean, that's one thing that I know that a lot of people who were around back in 2012 when I got into the game that are still around, they own their own sandbox. They're still doing a lot of organic stuff.

10:43But of course, you know, they've integrated some really meaningful and helpful pay stuff along the way. Now we're going to be talking about some pretty cool concepts all around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. I know firsthand it's easy to get hung up on all the things that need to happen in order to bring an idea to markets like a great website without knowing how to code. How are you supposed to build a beautiful platform that attracts people to your brand? Well, at Wix.com, you can build a business ready site in minutes with the help of an AI site builder. All you have to do is answer a few questions and Wix does the rest.

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14:21Eric, there's a big push right now, especially from big companies, of acquiring content. I mean, you're even seeing it in the podcasting game. I mean, Rogan gets acquired. I mean, I actually, back in May, joined the HubSpot Podcast Network. And now there's over 15 podcasts that have joined the podcast network and big ones. We're talking like Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kuchar, some huge podcasts have joined this. And they're essentially acquiring our content in a sense. And it's really interesting to see what's happening in all these different spaces, all these different niches. So should brands build their own content or like a HubSpot who's like, whoa, we're really behind the podcasting game.

15:05We dropped the ball on this specific area. We need to get out there and acquire all of these different podcasts to kind of play catch up. Should they acquire it? What should they be doing? It's a great question. And of course, it always depends on what scale of business you're in and what specific area, what niche your product falls into. I think we're in an interesting position right now in the newsletter where we see all these other players consolidating. We see the hustle being purchased and we know that we're swimming in these waters as well. And so we're looking at potential acquisitions for how we can grow our distribution.

15:40If you're in a position to make acquisitions, I think it's a really attractive prospect. I was recently having a talk with one of my mentors named Josh Elezeche, who's a friend of mine as well. And he runs Snow Teeth Whitening. And I just did a podcast with him on the D2C podcast where he sort of said if he was starting this, it's close to$100 million teeth whitening brand at this point. If he were starting it from the beginning, he would be basically going to finding all the top blogs, all the top forums, every top Facebook group, every meme page. He'd be trying to create a huge portfolio of all the people sort of that could be within his potential audience, really kind of using that jobs to be done theory.

16:22So if you're if you want your teeth whitening, you're probably interested in health and beauty. You're probably in this space. He'd be looking for acquisitions in order to acquire audiences and bring them into the fold ahead of time on deals where potentially you're buying things outright rebranding. Maybe you're just making a deal to say, hey, your audience has a perfect affinity for my product. Let me buy 51 percent of your business. And and then I'll monetize twice, monetize it twice as well for you as well, you know, for the favor. So when you're in a position to really make those power moves, I think the acquisition channel becomes super, super attractive.

16:56But when you're starting out, I think it's just so important. And this is something I see across the D2C podcast all the time is how important it is to build in public. And, John, I know you take this to heart incredibly with your live ticker on the site, which I think is incredibly admirable. and I think there are a lot of brands out there who really kind of wear that on their sleeve and recognize that the entrepreneurial journey, again, preaching to the choir here, the entrepreneurial journey, in my view, is a bit of a heroic journey in the modern world. And so I think there's a real opportunity for entrepreneurs to go even more mainstream with what it's like to build a business and the trials and tribulations, what your team is like, what your vibe is like.

17:39I just see a lot of brands out there putting that kind of stuff out there in a way that is really gonna create what I call that distribution channel, where you really own an audience's affinity, where you don't constantly have to discount or acquire them again and again, where because of the content, because they know you, because they like you, you don't have to pay too much to acquire them again and again. A lot of things to take away from this Fire Nation, but what I would actually like from you, Eric, is some examples of brands who created or acquired amazing content to grow their business.

18:12And again, I kind of gave an example of HubSpot playing catch up with the podcasting space. Now there's over 15 business podcasts that are all giving props to HubSpot at the beginning of every single one of their shows, not to mention the podcast sponsorships that they have. And now all the shows within are like co-promoting each other, et cetera, et cetera. So that was kind of one example that I've experienced here in 2021 and beyond. So I'd love to hear from you what you're seeing in this venue. The ones you mentioned about acquisitions, those are probably the best examples that I have there currently.

18:43I know it's something I'm advising to a lot of the people that come on my podcast. We chat about how much success they're seeing advertising on podcasts. And whenever there's an opportunity for these brands to be talking to a wider audience, I'm always advising them to be like, you should be really looking at what you can acquire in this space. Most of my examples are about brands kind of creating really amazing content. Speaking of building in public, a brand that I talk about probably a lot these days is a brand out of Montreal called Midday Squares. And they are just these three charismatic siblings out of Montreal who just are building this world-beating snack bar, chocolate bar kind of hybrid brand.

19:21And they just wear it on their sleeves. They seem to record almost every day different things kind of happening in their company. The most recent thing I saw was a highly produced sort of 10 minute docudrama on how Reese's Peanut Butter Cup sued them for their color being a little bit too close. Maybe not sued. I think it was maybe just a cease and desist. But they made a little documentary about redesigning it and going through the lawyers. And I just I found myself engrossed by it. And before I know it, I had I had some more midday squares in my fridge. I think I think they're a great example.

19:50I think one of my other favorites is a company called Little Spoon, which is a meal prep service for for toddlers, essentially for younger kids, just to make sure kids are getting healthy food that they love. And they created a they created a whole content brand called Is This Normal? And it's just for it's for parents who, you know, that's the question you've as a young parent, you find yourself sort of asking all the time. And they sort of captured that sort of whole jobs to be done. okay, this is who our audience is. And, uh, and we're able to create content that people kind of come back and engage with, uh, you know, as just another opportunity to, to potentially sell the product in the longterm.

20:28That is pretty fascinating. Is this normal? I feel like that is a question that a parent has to ask themselves literally a million times a day. Like, is, is it normal for my kid to literally stick his entire finger all the way up his nose? Like, I just need to know, is that normal? If I find out that it's normal, then I'm cool with it, but I just need to know, is this normal? It's usually normal. Kids are pretty abnormal, but, uh, but I think, I think that's the way that works. The other one that I'd bring up that I just, I haven't released this podcast yet. It's with a founder that we found through, through, uh, he's got a great story found through Twitter called muddy bites.

21:02Are you familiar with muddy bites? Never heard of the company that just makes the bottom of the ice cream cone. It was a thought he had in university where he was eating a Cornetto and just said, why doesn't anyone just make the bottom of the ice cream cone. It's just like the muffin top. Why don't they just make them? No one wants the bottom of the muffin. We all want the muffin top. Yeah. The muffin top and the bottom of the cone. But he's a really great example of some, they actually took some investment and part of their investment partnership was with the bread. I don't know if this, is this an explicit podcast or is this a, um, I would prefer if you didn't have to beep.

21:33Yeah. Then FJ, we'll call them FJ, very famous meme account. Um, which, uh, yeah. F Jerry. Yeah. We know Jerry. Yeah. We'll call them F Jerry. But, uh, but basically, yeah. So they, they took money in this arrangement and then since have like gone on to like master to the meme game where they're using memes to create this audience affinity. Um, and they're using these, these meme accounts that they've made these incredible partnerships with. Um, and it just works in this case because it's such a fun product. And, and, you know, when people are having fun with those memes, it's all fits in that category so well.

22:03So it's a really seamless sort of content product integration. Loving all of this. And Eric, you drop in a ton of value bombs. us, bring us home. What's the one thing you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from everything that we've talked about here today, then give us the way that we can connect with you, the call to action that you have for us, and then we'll say goodbye. I would just say that we're involved right now in this grand process of the democratization of commerce, where that ability to create meaningful businesses and work in meaningful businesses is such a great opportunity for people.

22:38While in the world, there may be even there are less opportunities in other spaces. So I feel like this entrepreneurial journey, especially around the world of digital commerce is just such a, it's a very exciting place to be. And I think, you know, our mission at D2C Newsletter is to accelerate the democratization of commerce, as I say, and that's what we do with all of our educational content, whether it's the newsletter or the podcast or the courses that we create. And I'd really just urge people who are interested in a free twice a week sort of connection to the front lines of performance marketing of the world's most exciting, fastest growing brands and agencies, they should go to d2cnewsletter.co slash fire and subscribe for free.

23:17That is a free subscription, Fire Nation. And you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with ED and JLD today. So keep up that heat. Head over to eofire.com and type Eric, that's Eric with a C in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up. And one more time, Eric, give us that URL. d2cnewsletter.co slash fire. Eric, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Cheers. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Eric and Fire Nation.

23:53What can 3 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle that you have been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs, and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business.

24:29Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Again, request life changing tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Are you ready for the ultimate all in one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow ups, manage clients and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.