Episode 53: On Content Marketing with Brad Smith, Founder and CEO of Codeless

In this week’s episode of Subscriptions: Scaled, we speak with Brad Smith, founder and CEO of Codeless. 

In the episode, we learn everything from the latest copywriting trends to effective content marketing frameworks.

Keep reading to discover more about the episode and how subscriptions services at Codeless work.

Codeless

Codeless is a content marketing agency combining strategy, SEO, writing, design, and video. The company produces hundreds of long-form articles monthly for some of the biggest SaaS, service, and affiliate brands on a subscription-based model.

Brad started Codeless around eight years ago. He describes the brand as one that focuses on the intersection of content and SEO for high-growth software companies.

He began his journey in content and marketing when he first worked in-house for a few different organizations. Brad worked for a couple of small software companies before joining a travel brand. This was when social media marketing was all very new and cutting-edge.

In those days, Brad was doing a lot of SEO because he realized that it was one of the best ways to drive sales. He was also doing consulting with a media group that helped transition newspaper journalists to blogging.  

Brad started Codeless to expand beyond himself as it's very challenging and stressful doing everything yourself the whole time. Plus, it’s hard always being the person on-call for everything.

He realized the hard way when starting his own business that he needed more help with the company — it would be much easier if he brought people on.

As well as SaaS, Codeless plays in other areas too, teaming up with several affiliate publishing-type media businesses. Codeless also works with other service and product-based companies.

As Codeless is so specific in what they do, their services tend to work well for companies trying to grow a lot in a competitive market. Perhaps their competitors are typically pretty savvy, and the products they're trying to sell are more complex than usual.

For these companies, customers aren’t usually impulse-buying, so the writing doesn’t usually have to go into too much depth. As such, they don’t need the most expensive writers or subject matter experts.

Content Writing Practices

Throughout the episode, Brad discusses the importance of producing excellent content and shares best writing practices. For example, Brad talks about an old copywriting framework called the agitate solution, and how he’s against the trends of exaggerating content and opinions for higher engagement.

When using the agitate solution framework, the writer doesn’t want to jump straight into the solution. This is because, in many cases, the reader hasn’t realized they have this particular problem in their life. As such, they don’t care what the solution is.

The writer should bring awareness to this problem in someone’s life. With a VPN, for example, the issue in someone’s life is different depending on where they’re based.

This is where it can get a little tricky. The writer has to get specific about who they’re creating the content for and why. 

But, for example, if you’re selling a VPN in the United States, your messaging will be different than if you’re selling a VPN in Europe.

If you were an expat living in China, for example, you might be interested in getting access to Netflix in the US. Or you may want to escape censorship and be able to browse whatever you like on the internet.

In the United States, it’s less about government censorship and more about the threat of hacking, for example.

When creating content, it’s important to consider who you’re writing for and how you can solve their problem with a solution. From there, you can get as specific as possible. Using the agitate solution framework, you’re tugging on people’s emotional heartstrings to get them to sit up and take a look at your solution.

Social Media Marketing

Brad also talks about the social media channels Codeless finds most effective. These include Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, depending on the business and its goals.

For example, if the business is in e-commerce for weddings, Pinterest would be an excellent option. Likewise, some indie businesses, like small e-commerce shops, do particularly well on Instagram because the channel allows them to really create a brand.

Brad suggests developing or combining ideas for even more reach, such as meeting other business owners in a similar category to run a contest together, for instance. He urges people to think outside the box for more unique marketing ideas and campaigns that stand out. Instagram, for example, doesn’t just have to be about running adverts. 

Brad explains that for consumer work, Codeless is also doing a lot more video. He talks about how video can help people visualize the product and how it can help them. 

They also use the designers to illustrate content to make it more interactive, regardless of what channel they use.

Affinity Marketing

We also learn about affinity marketing and how it works well for brands offering subscription services.

In short, affinity marketing is a type of direct marketing in which a business creates a partnership with another organization to deliver goods or services in exchange for access to a new market.

Brands may be wondering how to reach other businesses that might be able to sell their products and services, such as a channel partner. A brand, for example, might want to sell a physical product in a new location.

However, they might not want to deal with shipping in another country, or similar. A company could find partners in the country they wish to sell in and have them deal with shipping products. That partner could buy from the brand wholesale. 

This is just one example of affinity marketing, and there are plenty of other ways for companies to grow their business in this manner.

Or, you could run a big promotion with another company to get your name and brand out across to more people who are your target audience. There are many possibilities for affinity marketing.

Listen to Brad’s expert insights and tips for yourself by tuning into the latest episode of Subscriptions: Scaled here.

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