Standing Out by Creating Content Customers Want with Dave Gerhardt

"The only way to stand out is to build a brand." B2B marketers often focus most of their energy on sales funnels, lead generation, and analytics. But how do you stand out in the noisy marketplace? A few weeks ago, Jay Acunzo told a story on the podcast about how Drift made the bold move of un-gating all of their content. I couldn't wait to hear this story first hand from Drift's Director of Marketing Dave Gerhart on this week's episode of the On Brand podcast.  About Dave Gerhardt Dave Gerhardt is the director of marketing at Drift, a Boston-based startup that helps sales and customer success teams connect with their customers. Dave has spent the first seven years of his career working at SaaS marketing companies, including HubSpot and Constant Contact, and he was recently named one of Boston's 50 on Fire for 2017. He's also the co-host of Seeking Wisdom, a podcast about health, wealth, life, and learning. Episode Highlights Why would a brand un-gate all of their content?? Content marketing is powerful — especially in the B2B space — because you can drive leads and measure everything. Dave Gerhardt was initially taken aback when his boss, Drift CEO David Cancel, suggested they un-gate everything. Standing out. "So many products today are free. They want customers to dive in, try things out, and ultimately use it (and pay for it) more." Drift embraced this approach and extended it to their content, making it accessible and, in the end, more helpful as well. "The only way to stand out is to build a brand." How do you create stand out content? "My approach is simple. I create content that I would like. There's no sexy playbook." How do you establish a strong, consistent brand voice? Every brand wants a voice but it seems like we only have two gears — bland or irreverent. Dave sat down with CEO David Cancel and developed thirteen core values that guide all of their efforts. "Internally, we call this being 'Drifty.' We know we're about being authentic and human. When we come out with something new we make sure there's real people on it. Real people are Drifty." What brand has made Dave smile recently? “I'm gonna go with two — Slack and Mailchimp." Both excel at creating little moments of delight throughout their online brand experience. To learn more, go to the Drift blog and follow Dave on Twitter. As We Wrap … Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community … Recently Drew McLellan gave us several shouts on Twitter for the episode of the podcast he recorded with us last year. Drew also has a great podcast called Build a Better Agency. Thanks for being a guest and listening! Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Remember – On Brand is brought to you by my new book — Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. Order now at Amazon and check out GetScrappyBook.com for special offers and extras. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices