Born on social media, Beardbrand started in 2012 as a blog and YouTube channel. The goal? To encourage and inspire "beardsmen," gathering them into a community.

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Eric Bandholz, one of the founders, shared beard growth and grooming tips. Bandholz knew someday Beardband would develop an audience of loyal followers and customers. 👏

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"Many people would doubt the potential of the company and call it a niche market with no room for growth (no pun intended). They would ask, 'what happens when this beard fad ends?' The simple answer to this question is; 'the shaving fad is ending now, and Beardbrand will be leading the charge,'" wrote Bandholz on the company's website.

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Over the last decade, the team has grown the business into a multi-million dollar DTC powerhouse. 👊

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Behind every great brand is a highly thought-out social and content marketing plan to drive SEO performance. Borrow these ideas and apply them to your DTC brand too. 👇

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🧐 Content marketing

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Content and SEO together are a form of inbound marketing. They seek to attract customers and forge trusting relationships with them. One of the very best ways to do this is with content that "helps."

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👍 Helpful content creates reciprocity

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Sure, funny and entertaining content will attract its fair share of fans… but when a company's content helps a potential customer solve a problem or reach a goal, the company has earned a place in the customer's mind and wallet.

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The idea? Reciprocity. When someone gives you something of value *like helpful content* you feel obligated to give them something of value in return. People are simply inclined to return a favor or pay back a debt.

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For a DTC brand, this reciprocation is often a purchase. 🤑

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🔎 Customers search for answers

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When looking to buy a product, you want to have all your concerns crossed off. People likely to convert will go looking for answers, so make sure you have them available!

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If someone wants to grow a nice beard or make their beard look better, Breadbrand is there to help.

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The company consistently shows up on the first page of Google search engine results pages (SERPs) for loads of keyword phrases directly related to the products it sells. Frequently these search queries are questions that need to be answered.

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✨ Steal these tips:

• Content and SEO work together to attract customers. Don't underestimate the value of your brand's blog.
• Helpful content creates a sense of reciprocity that could drive sales. Do your best to ensure your brand's content is useful!
• Customers search with questions or concerns, your content should provide the answer.

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🥇 Social status

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If you’re looking for Breadbrand on socials, you’re going to find them (with no shortage of followers)! They currently have 7.2M likes on TikTok and 215K+ followers on Instagram.

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Now you may be thinking, beardcare is a pretty small category, right? Wrong. Beardbrand has 1.8M+ YouTube followers tuned in for all the tips and tricks they can get!

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Beardbrand's YouTube content is a key part of its SEO performance. Here are some factors to consider: 👇

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🖥 YouTube search

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Don’t underestimate the power of YouTube.

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YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google and attracts more than 1.7 billion unique monthly visitors, making it the second most visited site in the world.

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Once again, Breardbrand's useful content appears on the first page of the YouTube search engine for many important keyword phrases.

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👀 YouTube is where the target audience is at

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Breadbrand's products are aimed at the fellows. How does this pertain to YouTube?

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YouTube has one of the highest percentages of male users among popular social media platforms. This means their SEO strategy on the platform is incredibly important!

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According to data from YouTube and the Pew Research Center, about 54% of active YouTube users are guys, and, in the U.S., more than 82% of adult men say they use the platform.

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🎥 YouTube videos appear on Google SERPs too

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Did you know that YouTube videos also appear on Google SERPs? Beardbrand's YouTube content helps it rank even when people aren’t searching on YouTube!

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Admittedly, although this is one step removed from the company's Shopify store, it helps the company win the race to owning Google screen real estate! Their videos push competitors further down the results page and occupy top-of-mind awareness.

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Don’t feel left out if you’re a Bing user. We discovered that what works for Google SERPs and YouTube holds true on Bing too.

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✨ Steal these tips:

• Google is not the only search engine and optimizing for YouTube search helps Beardbrand win with its core audience. Your DTC brand can optimize on social search too.
• YouTube content appears on SERPs. Beardbrand's useful videos appear right next to their blog posts in response to Google and Bing queries. Why not hog SERP real estate for your brand too? 🤷‍♂️

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🛠 Technical SEO

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It’s all fun and games to have killer content, but if you don’t have your technical SEO in order, you might be missing a piece of the pie. Luckily for Beardbrand, they’ve got the whole pie to themselves. 🥧

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Page speed is a strong signal for various search engines and most definitely for Google. Beardbrands site? Fast as lightning on desktop.

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The site was slightly slower on mobile but still very fast. Plus, it passes Google mobile-friendly site test.

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Finally, Beardbrand takes care of the basics/fundamentals of on-page SEO shown here with Woorank, an SEO browser extension tool.

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✨ Steal these tips:

• Sweat the small stuff. Whether it’s a title tag or a good description, build your brand's SEO success on a firm foundation.

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Your SEO plan should consist of more than just backlinks and keywords. Make sure your content helps searchers and is optimized to help you rank across multiple platforms. Having a fully built SEO plan is a surefire way to win. 💪