Hey!

Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.

We had a little hiatus last week, but I am pleased to report, we are so back.

Today, I’m walking you through 7 of the most important lessons I’ve picked up over the years of producing content. Internalize these, and you’ll unlock a predictable flow of leads.

Shall we?

🔎 DEEP DIVE

Everything (important) I’ve learned about founder-led content

Inside secrets from publishing 50,000+ posts, generating millions of impressions, and 7-figures of revenue for SaaS founders

I realized something while outlining this piece. I’ve been doing this whole ‘social content’ thing for a minute. Almost 7 years.

That’s 67 years in content years (like dog years but for content marketers).

In that time, I’ve published over 50,000 pieces of content—tweets, LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, newsletters, etc. Those have driven millions and millions of impressions, and more importantly—7-figures of revenue for the clients I’ve worked with (and myself, this year).

So, if I could go back and give advice to a founder whose doing it all over again, what would I recommend? How would I fast track this, so you can get here in 1 year instead of 7?

Keep reading. I got you.

Founder content is a cheat code.

I don’t think founders grasp this until their in it.

To the outsider, content looks like a distraction. A pet project.

But once you're on the inside, you see the light. Leads materialize damn near out of thin air. Your business becomes supply-constrained instead of demand-constrained (welcome to my life over the past 1.5 years). You can get in any room you want to in your niche.

Before becoming a founder, posting content online landed me a dream role as Head of Social at Triple Whale, right out of college. Now, as a founder, I have a steady stream of waitlist sign ups for the agency.

And no, you don’t need to be ‘famous.’ You just need to own your corner of the internet.

Do you think people stop me in the street because I’m a ‘SaaS content expert?’ Lmao.

A winning founder brand doesn’t happen on accident.

You watched the Olympics, right?

A gold medalist doesn’t just stumble their way onto the podium. They put in reps and reps and reps and reps—over years and years and years and years.

Fortunately, creating LinkedIn content isn’t quite as complex as competing in the 100m sprint.

But, it still takes work. Lots of it.

I saw my fastest improvement in marketing skills during COVID, when I had nothing else to do other than lift weights and binge watch Gary Vee videos.

Adam Robinson—the poster child for B2B founder content—reports spending over 25hrs per week on his LinkedIn content. Is it any surprise that he’s scaled RB2B to $1M ARR in 16 weeks, of the back of content. I think not.

When I look at our top clients at Compound (don’t worry, not turning this into a plug), they have one trait in common. Enjoyment.

They enjoy creating content. They’d probably do it without us—though they do it faster and better with us. There’s no ‘convincing’ needed.

If you can’t commit to creating content 30 minutes per day, you don’t deserve to have a ‘founder brand’ that brings in leads.

Writing is the foundation for founder content.

Before you try to get on video, before you try to create pretty graphics, learn how to write.

And not in the sterile, bland ‘B2B’ style that you might find in a white paper. Write like a human. Conversationally.

You don’t need to use a bunch of LinkedIn hook templates and organize every post like someone with a bright-colored background in their profile picture.

Just write how you talk. That’s your writing voice.

Then adapt that voice to formats and styles that perform on social. How do the best creators manufacture curiosity in their hooks? How do they make their content tastefully polarizing? How do they weave examples and data into the body copy?

Writing translates to every other medium. If you can write a great post, you can script a great video. if you can write a scroll-stopping headline, you can film a scroll-stopping hook.

See how this works?

If you want a deep dive into the craft of writing well, I’d recommend listening to David Perrell’s ‘How I Write’ podcast. So good. Start with the episode on storytelling featuring Shaan Puri.

That said, expand to other mediums, too.

Once you can write well, you make your written content more compelling by adding visuals.

I’d recommend getting on video. The bar is so low for video in B2B marketing. If you have an ounce of personality and a good video editor, simple talking-head videos will work magic.

Videos accelerate trust-building. It’s like hiring an extra, cracked-out SDR who works 24/7 and never gets burnt out.

Damn near every one of my prospects cites my YouTube videos. But I couldn’t script decent YouTube videos if I didn’t understand copywriting.

It’s funny though, because everyone talks about how video is the future as if writing is dying.

How do you script a good video? Strong writing.

If nothing else, obsess over your ‘ideas’ and your ‘hooks.’

A crap post can usually be traced back to two causes. One, a bad idea. Two, a bad hook. In that order.

The idea is the core topic of the post.

The hook is the way the idea is packaged. In writing, the hook is the first 1-3 sentences. In video, the first 1-3 seconds.

When you're planning the idea of your post, it’s helpful to think about ‘shares.’

What would need to be true for someone in my target audience to share this piece of content with a coworker?

A share is the highest form of engagement a content piece can get. If the idea of your content is so strong, that your reader has to forward the post link to a colleague, you win.

But, the idea has to be packaged well. If the reader doesn’t click ‘see more’ on LinkedIn, or click into your email, you’ve lost—no matter how strong the post is.

The best YouTubers obsess over the ‘packaging’ of their videos—the titles and the thumbnails. I once heard Ali Abdaal, a creator with over 5.7M subscribers, say that he doesn’t film a video before he has the title and thumbnail figured out.

You need to treat your content the same way. Rewrite the hook 3 times before posting. Write 7 subject line variations before sending. You get it.

For a deeper dive into some specific hook-writing tactics, check out this live copy editing session I did.

The ideal platform mix for B2B founders.

If I was starting content from scratch in 2024, I would build on these platforms:

• Use LinkedIn as your main ‘top of funnel’ social channel.

• Use YouTube as a way to both build awareness and nurture leads.

• Use email as a way to move your audience down the funnel, closer to buying.

This is what I’m running now. If I look at our lead form, most of them cite LinkedIn as the way they ‘found’ Compound. And like I said earlier, most of our prospects will then watch a few YouTube videos before our call. Works like a charm.

Twitter, or X, isn’t worth it right now if you're starting from scratch. The platform has a special place in my heart, and I still use it. But I would not start from zero if I had to in 2024.

By the way, if you need help with LinkedIn, hit me up or check out this video.

Study content creators and consumer founders—not boring SaaS executives.

SaaS execs tend to post sterile stuff. More boring than watching paint dry.

That’s starting to changing—see Adam Robinson dropping a diss track on LinkedIn—but still, industry ‘thought leaders’ aren’t always the most compelling creators.

The B2B world also seems to be a few years behind consumer at any given time. So, I like to keep an eye on what DTC brands are up to in their marketing.

For example—founder-led content isn’t ‘new.’ Nick Bare leaned into it heavy to get his supplement company, BPN, off the ground. Represent, a British fashion brand, is fueled in large part by co-founder George Heaton’s social content.

Memes are another consumer content tactic that have made their way over to B2B software. Companies like Hubspot are great at using trending templates to inject personality into their content.

I’m not saying every SaaS CEO needs to vlog. I’m not saying your enterprise software company should recreate Duolingo’s TikTok strategy—or even be on TikTok in the first place.

I am saying to look outside of your B2B SaaS echo chamber when ideating content concepts.

Final thoughts

My hope is that this piece helps expedite some the the learning process for you. That said, the best way to learn content strategy is by posting content.

Get the reps in. Do the boring work of re-writing your hook for the 7th time before publishing.

Experience is a better teacher than a newsletter ever will be. My best learnings have come from creating content for Compound clients or building the marketing strategy for my new SaaS, [redacted] (coming soon).

But, this piece should get you moving in the right direction. That’s all I’ve got.

🗃 FILE CABINET

Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.

• The best LinkedIn content strategy for early-stage SaaS by Tommy Clark 🎥

• Day 4 - Building SaaS Startup from Zero to One by Liam Dunne 🎥

• The MKT1 guide to positioning by Emily Kramer 📝

Check these out.

BEFORE YOU GO…

As always, appreciate you allowing me into you inbox every week.

Question for you. What’s one B2B company you think is crushing with social and content lately? Always looking for examples to study and share in the newsletter. Reply and LMK.

Talk soon,

Tommy Clark

PS: I just released a template pack, with 50+ of the prompts we use with B2B CEOs at Compound.

PPS: If you want Compound to run a founder-led content motion for you… save a spot on our waitlist here. We’re at capacity through September, but looking to partner with some SaaS startups in October.