Welcome to Your Content Should Sell, a newsletter that only gives you practicals about how to create content for your brand.

I am headed back to Austin for the week for the first time since moving to Seattle from Austin.

I hope you have some great holiday plans with friends and family outside of Black Friday.

This month's newsletter is sponsored by the Foxwell Founder's group, the best DTC community for growth and media buying, but more on that later.

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A month ago, I played pickleball with Caleb Ulffers, CEO of Haven Athletic.

He mentioned launching his backpack on Kickstarter in a few weeks, and we chatted about his vision for the company.

Haven has been a force in the CrossFit world, starting with its organized duffel bag.

I left that Pickleball hangout wanting to help Caleb and his team.

A few weeks later... two weeks before launch, Caleb needed help because they were behind on timelines to launch the Kickstarter.

So I joined a rocketship two weeks ago to help get this project across the line.

I would never advise you to do what we did in 2 weeks, but due to certain timelines in 2023 for Haven, we needed to get everything done for a November 15th launch.

I want to walk through this whole campaign because if you are launching a new product or SKU (not even on Kickstarter), you need to prepare your content and get the right content to crush your launch.We got our goal of $10,000 in just 2 hours which is INSANE since the bag is $200+.

Haven has built a great community and Caleb is one of the best operators I have met in the DTC space, so I won't take all the credit or act like the content is the sole reason for the success.

In fact, a great product is the reason for great sales; the content just shows off the genius of the product.

Before diving into the newsletter, check out the video and Kickstarter page to get a feel for the content we created.

1. Work Backwards

Before starting to create the content and a campaign, start with the finished product so you can figure out what content needs to be made.

What does the final sales page look like?

What photos are must-haves?

Do you need GIFs and videos?

Can we shoot this in one location or will you need photos and videos in multiple locations?

Even if you aren't doing Kickstarter, you should do this same exercise for the new product page that you are creating for the new SKU or product line.

My advice, get more than you think.

Caleb and his team had a detailed launch plan down to the hour, so even though we didn't have much time left, it was easy to make a content plan.

2. Plan the story

Especially on Kickstarter, you need a storyline.

Why should people back this project?

People are basically paying you to get a product 6 months later.

You need a story to get people motivated and excited about a product.

We took inspiration from Western Rise and Ugmonk, who have succeeded on Kickstarter and honestly do a great job launching products.

For Haven, we focused on CrossFit athletes who tend to have a ton of gear and need it organized in a bag.

If you watch the video, we try to show a basic story of athletes coming into the gym, preparing to work out, and then working out.

If you are a CrossFit athlete and see this, you freak out because there is nothing on the market for you.

Beyond that, we focused on telling the story of Haven and why it started a few years ago.

Because we only had two weeks, we really only had like a few days to think about the story and script, which I wouldn't recommend, but because the Haven team was very prepared, we had a lot of the copy and writing done.

For you, when you come out with a new product, have you thought about the story?

What are you going to tell consumers?

Why should people get excited about this new product? Have you developed a solution to a problem that the consumers have?

I think brands need to build massive momentum when launching a new line or product.

It shouldn't be a soft launch. In fact, treat it like a big Kickstarter - the outcome of content will probably be way better.

The best resource for ad buying and growth

Creating ads and content is very hard, but I have found the best resource for my team has been from the conversations in the Foxwell Founder's membership.

Every day, people take a ton of time to do presentations, share insights from accounts, and answer any questions.

When I entered the community, I had access to hundreds of hours of training and immediately got my money's worth within a few hours of joining.

This community consists of 400+ top minds in DTC with channels for media buying, CRO, Google ads, creative and more.

Use code MATTSCODE for 10% off anything - the membership, the courses, whatever! And enjoy.

3. Production

We took a very run-and-gun approach because we would be creating the content and sending it to someone on the Haven team who would spin up graphics and other things for the Kickstarter page.

Although we didn't plan each shot perfectly the way we would have if we had 12 weeks, we had a shot list that had specific needs.

This shot list came from the plan back in part 1 and guided us everytime we were shooting.

We did different shoot styles on each shoot day.

So Friday we did all of the photos on a white backdrop.

Saturday we did all of the lifestyle photos and videos with the athletes.

It was a lot to cram in, and because we were limited on time, it forced us to get enough shots in one location versus doing a big shoot in many different locations.

The boundaries created simplicity and made the video concise and clear versus complex and easy to misunderstand.

Luckily, when I started my video career four years ago as a freelancer, I was shooting many events in Austin, all run-and-gun shooting.

So coming into the lifestyle shoot, even though we had a loose shot list, I just adapted around the athletes.

Shooting without a complete plan is hard to do if you aren't used to it, so make sure you give your creative partner time to create the content for your product launch.

The last part of the production was the voice-over.

We worked with a voice actor, which was a new part of the production I hadn't done before.

We went with a voice actor because for us to shoot Caleb and get a full script correct would take 3 or 4 hours, and with not a lot of time, those are critical 4 hours that Caleb could be working on other things.

When working with the voice actor, I found it helpful to get on a call and coach him through how I wanted each line to be said.

4. Editing to Launch

Editing is not a glamorous process but the most important part.

On a video like this, you will not get it right at first.

You need to quickly get a rough draft and sent out for feedback.

Feedback is the lifeblood of great art and content.

Caleb and the team were able to make suggestions and help fill in gaps that ultimately made the video 100x better.

Both parties need to be humble to one another to be able to have a healthy dialogue.

Even though the launch date was Tuesday, we needed the content ready days before the launch because we had to submit everything to Kickstarter and get the rest of the page set up.

Having everything ready days before launch allows you to have some buffer time for worst-case scenarios and peace of mind before launch.

5. Launched

I was up early in the morning refreshing the page every second waiting for another person to buy the bag.

Within 2 hours, the project was fully funded over $10,000!

Because we planned for a month-long campaign, we have a lot of content ready to go to market this bag over the 30 days until the end of the Kickstarter.

Yes, focus on the launch, you want that to be epic, but you also need to market the product to buyers who aren't ready on the launch day.

More educational content will be coming out over the following weeks to help people decide on backing Kickstarter.

Most people won't see your launch day content, so keep pushing the launch weeks later and get people up to date with your new product line or SKU.

You must have content planned for that period after the launch to make the campaign successful.

It is nice to breathe after a project like this, but I know you are also working hard during the holiday season, and I really appreciate you reading today's newsletter.I want to share our work so you can take our strategies and win for your brands!Again, thank you to the Foxwell Founder group for sponsoring my newsletter.

Keep creating!

Matthew Gattozzi

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