Should a B2B company start a niche media brand instead of just buying ads?

Most people think the way to make money from a media brand is selling advertisements. I think the answer is selling your own products and services.

"most people think the way to make money from media, a media brand, is selling advertisements. And I'm saying no, the answer is, sell your own products and services."

What does that look like?

Say you're in commercial roofing. You have software for commercial roofers, or you're a commercial roofing consultant. Start a media company about commercial roofing. You become the center of attention in that world, and they hire you for consulting or buy your software. Same in insurance: build a Morning Brew for insurance, then cross-sell your consulting, your CRM, your leads.

I'm doing this myself. My company makes software for local media, and I teach people how to run local media. Before launch, 80 people were already on the waitlist, because I talk about it on my podcast. That's in a tiny niche.

This idea is getting known in the hyper-niche creator and lead-gen world. Outside it, almost nobody understands that they should have a media brand.

How big does the niche need to be?

Smaller than you'd think, and bigger is even better. My channel is for people who run local newsletters, maybe 500 to 1,000 people. A friend in restaurants has maybe 100,000 to 500,000 restaurant owners who'd care about what he does. That's a way bigger B2B opportunity.

You don't need millions. You need about a thousand true fans who think you're a smart operator and want to learn from you, and probably fewer than that.

What's the weekly routine?

Here's what I suggested to an operator in another industry:

1. One long-form video a week. Brain-dump what you know on YouTube.
2. Turn it into a newsletter. The video and the newsletter together take under three hours a week, less with a VA.
3. Cut it up for Twitter and LinkedIn. One tweet a day, and comment on five other people's tweets a day.
4. Run Meta ads to the newsletter. That's the growth engine for the list. YouTube is the other big one.

Skip chasing short clips. Clips reach a broad audience. You don't want or need a broad audience. You want a hyper-specific one that watches your long videos.

Should the brand be my name?

Give it a real brand name and be the face of it. If you're starting a channel about importing unusual Japanese cars, it shouldn't be your name. It should be a media brand about importing cars, with you on camera, on YouTube, shorts and a newsletter. Put Twitter and LinkedIn under your own name, and the newsletter and YouTube channel under the brand. A brand with your voice in it is easier to sell later, because someone else can step in. More on that in picking a name.

Can I build an agency on top of it?

Yes, and the niche makes it easier. A generalist Meta ads agency gets crazy when you're doing six gyms, three nail salons and twelve other kinds of businesses. Someone on one of those calls told me agencies he knew had capped out on heavy systems and thin margins from roughly $500 a month retainers.

Instead, build the media company first. Say pest control: a podcast and newsletter make you the expert pest control voice. Then build a Meta ads agency only for pest control companies on top of that audience. The media brand brings the trust and the leads, and doing one industry keeps delivery simple.

The local version of this is in using a local media brand to win customers.