5 Secrets to BarkBox’s Content Marketing: A chat with Stacie Grissom, Bark’s Head of Content
Here’s a short summary of my chat with Stacie from the prehype podcast. Check out the episode here!
Like all great entrepreneurial stories, Stacie Grissom’s path to becoming Head of Content at BarkBox started in a Sam’s Club parking lot (where she took her first interview with me over seven years ago).
Okay, maybe not all stories start there. Regardless, since 2012, Stacie has helped build BarkBox’s content from the ground up.
In our Walk and Talk, Stacie took me back to 2012 where BarkBox’s content started and discussed how the strategy has adjusted throughout the years to suit both platform shifts and societal trends, and how it continues to change today.
Here are a few things I took away from our conversation.
Again, you can check out the episode here!
BarkBox found its early footing on Facebook through being personable & funny.
Early on, BarkBox’s content strategy was simple: use Facebook in the same way a person would. Stacie said that BarkBox would just post things that they’d find interesting, as if BarkBox was a person, like pictures of dogs, and telling stories about other people’s dogs. “We were one of the first companies to start using Facebook that way. And because of being at the right place at the right time, we were able to grow really quickly.”
An early learning: Dogs are silly and always will be — so the content should be, too.
When she first started posting blog content on BarkPost, Stacie explained that a lot of the content in the dog space was frankly pretty boring. “So much of the content out there was, ‘Here’s how to trim your dog’s toenails.’ But then there’s like, a pug who pees doing a handstand. And I was like, ‘That’s awesome.’” So her team started posting sillier stuff. “The type of content that, when you stumble upon it, fascinates you, and you stick around and want more of that. It was just new and different at the time.”
What’s more, Stacie said that few brands in the pet space were being silly, which is where BarkBox found success. “It’s scary to make a fool of yourself. A lot of the stuff we’ve posted has always been ridiculous — and we could be laughed at for posting — but I think we’ve always valued having a sense of humor, and that’s part of the reason we love dogs so much.”
The Facebook algorithm change (among other factors) catalyzed new ways to think about BarkBox’s content.
During the rise of Buzzfeed and Upworthy, BarkPost was also seeing a lot of success. With a team of 15 writers and 70 freelancers, BarkPost was churning up to 180 articles a week. Stacie also made a point to hire funny writers, and still does. “If you have something to say, it needs to be interesting, and it’s always more interesting if it’s funny,” she said.
And then Facebook changed its algorithm.
“Content is always the victim of the changes on the platforms,” Stacie said. She went on to say that change in taste, platforms, and even laws forced BarkBox to adapt to the new mediums and styles of the zeitgeist.
Now, BarkBox relies on 1:1 relationships more than ever.
Now that going viral is more expensive and difficult than ever, Stacie said that BarkBox is looking at the products themselves, and how they can create stories between dogs and owners. “Our products are actually just as much content as they are toys that solve problems for dogs. They create stories for people to take pictures with their dog. They create full moments.”
Another way that BarkBox is tapping into relationships? Being real with owners. One anecdote that Stacie shared perfectly illustrates this: recently, when a customer’s dog passed away, BarkBox sent the owner a handwritten card — and the owner posted it to one of the largest dog-focused Facebook groups. Stacie explained that the plan wasn’t to make a condolence letter go viral; it was just to be authentic and caring, regardless of the results.
Stacie also chatted about how it’s more personal moments like these that are helping create real relationships with customers and their dogs, without feeling fake or braggy. “All of it is a lot of hard work, but it levels up to intimate moments you can have with this four-legged ridiculous family member.”
The BarkBox content secret sauce? Adapting, trying, failing, and moving forward.
As one of the first employees of BarkBox, Stacie has learned that it’s all about trying stuff out, seeing what sticks, and moving forward. “Whenever a new medium comes out, we adopt it, we apply it to dogs, and if it doesn’t work we abandon it and move along. We got our share of credit for content. But we also just picked the right platform at the right time. It was as much about showing up with something interesting to say at a time when people hadn’t discovered it yet.”
So there you have it — a brief history of Bark’s content journey, explained by the person who championed it. Get the full story of Stacie’s content pioneering on the podcast, right here.
