With social media marketing losing momentum due to decreased organic reach and increased competition from paid ads, brands are seeking new strategies to effectively reach their target market. Influencer marketing is also getting saturated because some influencers are already launching their products.

One of the social media marketing strategies that brands are currently leveraging is the founder-led marketing or growth. This involves a founder creating content to promote their brand. The strategy is effective because the founder is the one who best understands the brand compared to traditional influencers. Besides, they don't have to pay influencers to market their products. In this article, we will guide you on marketing your brand as a creator and connecting meaningfully with your audience. 

What is Founder-Led Marketing?

Founder-led marketing involves the company’s founder or CEO creating content to position themselves as a thought leader while marketing their products or services. This can involve several strategies such as:

• The founder creates and posts content on LinkedIn, X, or Facebook platforms.
• Writing blogs or having them written by a ghost writer, extracted from the founder’s interview,
• Hosting a podcast.
• Guest posting in a relevant industry publication.
• The founder appears in a podcast in their niche.
• The founder creates and posts videos on YouTube.
• The founder creates videos to market their products, such as product tutorials and demos.

It's noteworthy that founder-led marketing differs from creating the founder’s brand. Instead, it aims to harness the founder's credibility and knowledge of the company to act as its voice and get the message out there concerning the brand. That means they create the company’s brands, not the founder’s brand.

Why Founder-Led Marketing is Effective 

With proper implementation, creator-led marketing can be effective. It can help drive traffic, conversations, and leads. Here are some reasons why founder-based marketing is effective:

Great Content Strategy

Storytelling is an effective marketing strategy because it makes people follow along. Founders can appear on podcasts to share their stories about building their businesses, which makes people emotionally invested in the industry rather than just being aware of its products. They can also leverage user-generated content in content strategy.

A Good Understanding of the Market

In most cases, the founder has spoken to customers and prospects many times. Therefore, they understand what the customers are interested in, their products, and more. Founders understand how their product addresses the market's pain points, where the product is going, and the features that will get people talking.

Customer Feedback

In founder-based marketing, it's not just about the founder discussing their products, but also involves them listening. By doing that, they can gain some invaluable feedback, understand the features that get people talking, and the ones that need improvement. That means founder-based marketing can help users to:

• Understand the most effective messaging to improve their ads.
• Rewrite their product development by leveraging the audience’s questions and feedback.
• Use the audience’s feedback to create content in the future.

All these are valuable insights, as the founder's work often involves understanding the customer’s needs and improving the product.

Cost-Effective

The only cost of this marketing strategy is the founder’s time. However, the returns can be significant with an effective content marketing strategy. Compare that to the cost of influencer marketing, which can rise to thousands of dollars.

Credibility

When customers see the founder promoting their products or services, it can help build trust and credibility. Customers tend to trust companies that they know have a creator behind them.

Personal connections

In the competitive online world, customers crave a personal connection with the brand they buy from. This level of connection enables brands to build brand recognition and trust. It's what turns strangers into first-time buyers and eventually into returning customers. When you become the face of your brand, you can increase the level of trust as they feel a direct connection to the brand. 

Authenticity

Consumers now have more choices than in the past. They can seek an alternative if a brand doesn't speak to them. With authenticity, you can prove to your customers that you understand them and their input. When a founder promotes their brand, it can create a sense of authenticity. The founders can share their personal stories and even show what they stand for, which can resonate with the target audience.

Faster Decision Making

A founder doesn't have to consult anyone before making a decision. This ensures a faster and more agile campaign. For instance, if customer feedback suggests that the product needs smaller packaging, the founder can implement the decision immediately. 

Controlling the Message

When the founder is the creator, it becomes possible to control your messaging. You will become the face and personality of the brand, and you will have a better understanding of the business or brand. This can also help reduce cases of social media crises that can spoil your brand image.

Challenges of Being a Founder-creator 

Despite many benefits, becoming a creator as a founder also has its challenges. These include:

Lack of time. You will need to make time for content creation and ensure you remain consistent.

 Lack of expertise. When watching a video, listening to a podcast, or reading a blog post, it's easy to assume the whole process is easy. It's only when you take the camera and start writing that blogpost that you realize how hard it can be. As a creator, you may lack the expertise to create the necessary content. 

When a Founder-Creator is Suitable For Your Brand

If you are wondering if founder-led marketing can be a good strategy for your brand, here are a few things to consider:

Personal Brand

If a founder already has a personal brand, they will benefit more from the founder-led marketing. This is because they already have a ready audience they can promote to. However, even if you're just starting with personal branding, you can get started, and soon you'll have a large audience. 

Commitment to the Products

For a founder to be effective in promoting their products, they need to be passionate and knowledgeable about them. This level of enthusiasm can shine in their marketing message.

Communication Skills

As a founder, you need good communication skills to spread the word about your products and your vision for them. To communicate effectively as a digital marketer, you need to have skills such as:

• Ability to listen effectively
• Being brief
• Customer service
• Pivoting ability
• Clarity 
• Good grammar
• Importance of the “why”

Examples of Founder-Led Marketing

Here are examples of founders and CEOs engaged in founder-led marketing:

Elon Musk

If you think founder-led marketing is only for small-time CEOs with busy schedules, then you're wrong. The wealthiest man in the world (as of the time of writing this) is a strong fan of founder-led marketing. Musk is directly involved in marketing his products. For instance, he uses his product X to promote his other products, specifically Tesla products. 

Cassey Ho

Cassey Ho proves that founder-centred storytelling can be compelling. With over 19 million followers on different social media platforms, she is the founder of POPFLEX and Blogilates. She uses conversations with her audience to create products, which she captures in videos titled "Design with Me."

Cassety polls her followers and incorporates their feedback into her designs. If she finds that her designs don't resonate with her audience, she starts afresh while making adjustments as necessary. According to her, the audience changed her game because they love understanding the product journey, and continuous feedback is the hallmark of her brand.

Neil Patel

Neil Patel has positioned himself as a thought leader in the world of digital marketing using his content creation and blog posts to market products he has founded or co-founded, such as UberSuggest and Crazy Egg.  

Through his neilpatel.com website, he shares digital marketing and SEO strategies that have established him as a thought leader. Neil also shares various resources, such as e-books, courses, and webinars. Therefore, Neil has leveraged his expertise and personal brands to promote his companies.

Chris Walker

Another good example of a founder who markets his products is Chris Walker of Refine Labs, a B2B research and development lab that offers revenue analytics, growth strategies, and high-growth company experimentation. He uses videos, blogs, podcasts, and social media channels to promote dark social and demand generation.

A Step-By-Step Guide On Becoming A Founder Creator

If you are wondering how to become a founder-creator, here are the steps you must follow:

Choose a Content Format

Before you begin creating content as a creator, you need to determine how your audience consumes its content. While creating a video is among the most popular forms of content nowadays, platforms like LinkedIn also feature textual content that is more popular. Therefore, consider a content marketing strategy that incorporates videos as well.

If you create a video, you can use tools to repurpose the video into blog posts that you can share on LinkedIn and other text-based platforms. This shouldn't be hard in an era when we have many AI social media tools to help you do that.

Video content also enables you to connect with your audience at a deeper and more personal level, helping build trust. On the other hand, blog posts, email lists, and newsletters have their place. Therefore, we leverage the strengths of each and repurpose the content with the help of AI tools to save time. 

Build a Community for Your Content

An effective founder-led strategy leverages a community to position you as a thought leader in your industry. Therefore, if you are only creating content with the hope that it will get noticed, this may not work well. When building an audience, remember that they aren't there to listen to your sales pitch. You need to add value to them, show them your world, and let them feel your personality, giving them a glimpse of behind-the-scenes moments.

To make your stories relatable, add authenticity, build trust, and use personal stories. Ensure that you show your personality first and encourage your audience to interact with you on your favorite social media platform. This will pay off in the long run. 

Pay attention to the trending topics in your space and consider joining social media conversations. Stay updated on industry trends, which will help keep your content timely and relevant. When you create trending content early, it will stay in your audience's minds and position you as a trusted thought leader. 

To be effective in founder-led marketing, you must be a thought leader in your industry. When you showcase your expertise, you can build credibility, get more customers, and take your business to the next level. 

Here are ideas on becoming a thought leader: 

Specialize

To position yourself as an expert in your industry, you need to specialize in one area. This should be an area where you have in-depth knowledge about products, services, and other areas of concern. Once you specialize in these areas, you can share important insights and position yourself as a thought leader in the industry.

Stay Updated

We have a constantly changing target market, and you need to stay updated on the latest technologies, best practices, and trends. You can do that by reading relevant industry news articles and blogs, as well as attending conferences and webinars to expand your knowledge. Then, you can provide relevant advice and show your dedication to the industry. 

Share Your Knowledge

No matter how knowledgeable you become about your field, nobody will know if you don't demonstrate your level of expertise. That's why you need to regularly share valuable content in the form of blog articles, e-books, white papers or videos. Use this medium to share your best practices, tips, and insights, making you a trusted source of information. 

Have a Strong Online Presence

In addition to content publication, you must create a strong presence on platforms like Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. Use them to share your insights and thoughts with your audience. Participate in relevant industry discussions and join communities in your niche to increase your brand’s visibility and expand your professional network.

Give Presentations

Another great way to showcase your expertise and be considered an industry thought leader is through webinars, conference presentations, and other similar platforms. Be well-prepared to offer presentations that add value to your audience. This will enable you to increase your credibility.

Industry Collaboration

To take your credibility to the next level and position yourself as a thought leader, you can collaborate with other experts in your industry on creating webinars or other joint projects. You can also appear on each other’s podcasts to expand and increase your reach.

Keep Learning

Becoming a thought leader isn't a one-time event. It takes a lot of learning to keep developing yourself. Ensure that you take relevant courses, continue to develop yourself, and obtain the necessary certifications to deepen your knowledge. As you continue establishing yourself as a professional, you can stay relevant and provide value to others. 

Start Creating Content

As a founder-led marketer, you must position yourself as a brand by sharing unique values, experiences, and insights on social media platforms to showcase your vision and expertise. The type of content you create should fit in one of these categories:

Authority Content

The content classified as authority content is what you will be using to educate your content and position yourself as an authority in the niche. This should make up most of your content to succeed as a founder-creator. Some of the content you can share in this category are:

• Quick wins. Suggest to your followers an action they can take to achieve a win in less than 20 minutes.
• Pain points. If your audience faces a pain point and you have an idea of how they can solve it, share the solution with them.
• Step-by-step guide. You can give your audience a step-by-step guide to achieving a particular outcome. 
• FAQ. Respond to some questions you commonly get from your audience.
• Myths vs. facts. You can also bust some common myths while sharing some truths.

A good idea would be to have 65% of your content as authority.

Personal Content

As a founder-led creator, you can share your unique experiences and stories. This will help you showcase your personal goals and values and create trust and alignment with your followers. Some personal content ideas include:

• Your success journey. You can share a story of what it was like before and what it's like now, and where you are.
• Lessons from a school of hard knocks. There are some lessons you may have learnt the hard way that you can share with your audience. 
• Overcoming challenges. If you faced a challenge but were able to overcome it, you can share with your audience the lessons you learnt.
• Failure lessons. Is there something you tried and failed? What lessons did you learn? Share these details with your audience.
• Reflections on a milestone. If there is a milestone you achieved in your business or personal life, you can share this with your audience and what it took you to get there.

We recommend that personal content make up 25% of your posts.

Sales content

Even as you create content to position yourself as a thought leader, you should not forget to remind your audience about your brand. Before you start making sales content, you need to establish yourself as an authority in your niche through authoritative and personal content and, therefore, build the trust of your audience. We can divide the sales content into two categories. These are:

Proof Content

This should look like a summary of your landing page with features such as:

• Defining the ICP and desired outcome. You should help your audience understand what you're offering and how it can benefit them.
• Social proof. Your audience will trust your product if you show them tangible results. You can do that by including customer testimonials. You can even quote the customers to back the testimonials. Ensure you use 5 to 10 testimonials.
• Benefits and features. You can outline your processes, benefits, and deliverables in actionable and practical steps. Focus more on outcomes rather than the way you do it.
• CTA. Tell your audience how they can take action in one or two ways. 

Success Content

The success content should be a case study showing a successful customer journey. This should include:

• Before. You can introduce your client and their pain points before they encounter you. 
• Bridge. Illustrate the solution you offered the client and how you addressed their pain points.
• After. You should show the success rate after and how you eradicated their pain points.
• Testimonials. This should capture what clients say about how their story changed after working with you. They should share the result they got and even the ROI in terms of happiness, skill, time, and money. The more specific you are, the better.
• CTA. You should allow the leader to understand the next step they should take when working with you, and to become the next successful story.

Conclusion

Right now, founder-led marketing is a trend gaining prominence on platforms such as LinkedIn and X. The strategy involves the company's founder actively engaging in the brand’s marketing efforts. By blending personal, authority, and sales posts while tapping into your insights as a founder, you can build trust for your brand, enhance your relationships, and generate regular leads using your profile.

It also offers other benefits, such as a personal connection with your audience, authenticity, credibility, and the ability to make decisions quickly. Remember that as a founder-creator, you don't have to build overnight. You can start small and keep creating content consistently. By reading our detailed guide, you can easily get started as a founder-creator.