![\"Click](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/53\/bcbe2652-03f9-49fe-b517-acedc47b6f27.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMeet the Master<\/h2>\n
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Copy20of20Headshot20Template201-Mar-25-2025-02-08-31-8389-PM.png\")
<\/p>\n
Alex Lieberman<\/h4>\nCo-founder and executive chairman, Morning Brew; co-founder of Storyarb <\/em><\/h4>\n\n- Claim to fame<\/strong>: Launching a newsletter now worth $75M \u2014 from his college dorm room<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Lesson 1: When launching a biz, embrace the ol’ hub-and-spoke model.<\/strong><\/h3>\nLieberman had no clue he was following what he now calls the hub-and-spoke model while getting Morning Brew off the ground at University of Michigan.<\/p>\n
But he most certainly was: He and his co-founder, Austin Rief, would visit business classes and clubs across campus and ask professors if they could speak to students. They’d launch into a quick 30-second pitch about Morning Brew, collect emails, and voil\u00e0 \u2014 a cumbersome, on-the-ground list-building strategy was born.<\/p>\n
So why’s it called hub and spoke? For Lieberman, the spokes are your ideal customers; the hubs are channels that give you access to lots of spokes at once. In his case, the spokes were business students, and the hubs were classrooms.<\/p>\n
When they ran out of Michigan classrooms to bombard, they launched an ambassador program with 250 college students nationwide to collect emails at other schools.<\/p>\n
“That was how we grew our first 50,000 subscribers. And then finally we\u2018re like, \u2019Okay, this ambassador program worked\u2026 Now how do we turn everyone into an ambassador?<\/strong>\u2018 That\u2019s why we created Morning Brew’s referral program, and as of today, roughly 450,000 subscribers have gotten at least one referral using their email address.”<\/p>\nLieberman credits this hub-and-spoke approach for their early success. His advice: Start with the smallest, most localized hub, then expand one step outward while staying focused on the right channels for your audience.<\/p>\n
Your business might not find its target consumer in college classrooms, but the point stands \u2014 Find unique, off-the-Instagram-path channels to grow your audience one spoke at a time.<\/p>\n
Lesson 2: Go extremely specific when crafting your voice.<\/strong><\/h3>\nWhen Lieberman realized Morning Brew needed a consistent voice, he didn’t mess around with vague guidelines.<\/p>\n
He literally picked an actual human being. \u201cHe’s a family friend of mine. His name’s Aaron Stoppelmann. He’s 32 years old, lives in Connecticut, and reverse commutes to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Morning Brew team documented Aaron’s go-to cocktail, his TED Talk-watching habits, and why people enjoyed talking business with him: “He\u2018s deeply passionate about it and he knows a lot, but he doesn\u2019t come off as a know-it-all or stuck up<\/strong>.”<\/p>\nAfter creating a hyper-specific voice based on Stoppelmann, Lieberman created a three-person content assembly line that included a completely made-up role called \u201cvoice editor.\u201d<\/p>\n
This position went to Grant, a business school student from Michigan’s improv troupe whose comedy background was perfect for injecting personality into dry business content.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s how we would have a cohesive voice, even if four writers had written the story,\u201d Lieberman explains.<\/p>\n
Don’t settle for generic brand voice guidelines that collect digital dust. Create an actual persona with ridiculous specificity \u2014 down to their drink order \u2014 and consider splitting your editorial process to include a dedicated \u201cvoice\u201d role.<\/p>\n
Your content might be written by a committee, but it should sound like it came from one impossibly consistent, slightly caffeinated friend.<\/p>\n
Lesson 3: Three channels will win in 2025.<\/strong><\/h3>\nLieberman’s betting on \u201cthe trifecta of channels\u201d for B2B brands in 2025: long-form blog content, executive social content, and a weekly email newsletter.<\/p>\n
When asked if these are the marketing mediums all B2B leaders should lean into next year, Lieberman doesn’t hesitate: \u201cI think this is the trifecta of channels that serves the purposes you need in terms of building top of funnel, nurturing your top of funnel, and converting your audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
He notes you could try YouTube, but most B2B brands \u201cwould just waste a lot of resources on it\u201d without the right multimedia competencies.<\/p>\n
The beauty of this three-channel approach is its simplicity and effectiveness. Long-form content \u2014 built from first-party data or expert interviews \u2014 drives traffic and captures emails. The newsletter then nurtures those relationships. Finally, executive social content leverages personalities to strengthen brand perception. (Or reveals your CTO can’t spell \u201cinnovation.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Focus your content efforts on these three high-impact channels before chasing shiny objects. They provide the perfect blend of rented and owned audiences \u2014 without requiring six months of planning meetings that could have been emails.<\/p>\n
Oh, and one bonus tip I got from Lieberman? When creating content for these channels, Lieberman says business owners should avoid stressing too much about demand gen.<\/p>\n
“I think [over-indexing on demand generation] has largely taken the soul out of content<\/strong>,\u201c he told me, adding that it’s sad because \u201dthere\u2018s such great content that can be created in the world of B2B \u2014 and I think you see glimmers of that, and it\u2019s done by people who are willing to not<\/em> have to track every last thing and actually create really good stuff for their audience.”<\/p>\nLINGERING QUESTIONS<\/h3>\n
THIS WEEK\u2019S QUESTION<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the most memorable advertisement (commercial, print ad, OOH, anything!) you can remember seeing, and why do you think it has stuck with you?<\/strong>\u2014Erin Quinn, Principal Marketing Strategist, The Original Pickle Shot<\/p>\n
- \n
- Claim to fame<\/strong>: Launching a newsletter now worth $75M \u2014 from his college dorm room<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Lesson 1: When launching a biz, embrace the ol’ hub-and-spoke model.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Lieberman had no clue he was following what he now calls the hub-and-spoke model while getting Morning Brew off the ground at University of Michigan.<\/p>\n
But he most certainly was: He and his co-founder, Austin Rief, would visit business classes and clubs across campus and ask professors if they could speak to students. They’d launch into a quick 30-second pitch about Morning Brew, collect emails, and voil\u00e0 \u2014 a cumbersome, on-the-ground list-building strategy was born.<\/p>\n
So why’s it called hub and spoke? For Lieberman, the spokes are your ideal customers; the hubs are channels that give you access to lots of spokes at once. In his case, the spokes were business students, and the hubs were classrooms.<\/p>\n
When they ran out of Michigan classrooms to bombard, they launched an ambassador program with 250 college students nationwide to collect emails at other schools.<\/p>\n
“That was how we grew our first 50,000 subscribers. And then finally we\u2018re like, \u2019Okay, this ambassador program worked\u2026 Now how do we turn everyone into an ambassador?<\/strong>\u2018 That\u2019s why we created Morning Brew’s referral program, and as of today, roughly 450,000 subscribers have gotten at least one referral using their email address.”<\/p>\n
Lieberman credits this hub-and-spoke approach for their early success. His advice: Start with the smallest, most localized hub, then expand one step outward while staying focused on the right channels for your audience.<\/p>\n
Your business might not find its target consumer in college classrooms, but the point stands \u2014 Find unique, off-the-Instagram-path channels to grow your audience one spoke at a time.<\/p>\n
Lesson 2: Go extremely specific when crafting your voice.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
When Lieberman realized Morning Brew needed a consistent voice, he didn’t mess around with vague guidelines.<\/p>\n
He literally picked an actual human being. \u201cHe’s a family friend of mine. His name’s Aaron Stoppelmann. He’s 32 years old, lives in Connecticut, and reverse commutes to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Morning Brew team documented Aaron’s go-to cocktail, his TED Talk-watching habits, and why people enjoyed talking business with him: “He\u2018s deeply passionate about it and he knows a lot, but he doesn\u2019t come off as a know-it-all or stuck up<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n
After creating a hyper-specific voice based on Stoppelmann, Lieberman created a three-person content assembly line that included a completely made-up role called \u201cvoice editor.\u201d<\/p>\n
This position went to Grant, a business school student from Michigan’s improv troupe whose comedy background was perfect for injecting personality into dry business content.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s how we would have a cohesive voice, even if four writers had written the story,\u201d Lieberman explains.<\/p>\n
Don’t settle for generic brand voice guidelines that collect digital dust. Create an actual persona with ridiculous specificity \u2014 down to their drink order \u2014 and consider splitting your editorial process to include a dedicated \u201cvoice\u201d role.<\/p>\n
Your content might be written by a committee, but it should sound like it came from one impossibly consistent, slightly caffeinated friend.<\/p>\n
Lesson 3: Three channels will win in 2025.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Lieberman’s betting on \u201cthe trifecta of channels\u201d for B2B brands in 2025: long-form blog content, executive social content, and a weekly email newsletter.<\/p>\n
When asked if these are the marketing mediums all B2B leaders should lean into next year, Lieberman doesn’t hesitate: \u201cI think this is the trifecta of channels that serves the purposes you need in terms of building top of funnel, nurturing your top of funnel, and converting your audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
He notes you could try YouTube, but most B2B brands \u201cwould just waste a lot of resources on it\u201d without the right multimedia competencies.<\/p>\n
The beauty of this three-channel approach is its simplicity and effectiveness. Long-form content \u2014 built from first-party data or expert interviews \u2014 drives traffic and captures emails. The newsletter then nurtures those relationships. Finally, executive social content leverages personalities to strengthen brand perception. (Or reveals your CTO can’t spell \u201cinnovation.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Focus your content efforts on these three high-impact channels before chasing shiny objects. They provide the perfect blend of rented and owned audiences \u2014 without requiring six months of planning meetings that could have been emails.<\/p>\n
Oh, and one bonus tip I got from Lieberman? When creating content for these channels, Lieberman says business owners should avoid stressing too much about demand gen.<\/p>\n
“I think [over-indexing on demand generation] has largely taken the soul out of content<\/strong>,\u201c he told me, adding that it’s sad because \u201dthere\u2018s such great content that can be created in the world of B2B \u2014 and I think you see glimmers of that, and it\u2019s done by people who are willing to not<\/em> have to track every last thing and actually create really good stuff for their audience.”<\/p>\n
LINGERING QUESTIONS<\/h3>\n
THIS WEEK\u2019S QUESTION<\/strong><\/p>\n
What\u2019s the most memorable advertisement (commercial, print ad, OOH, anything!) you can remember seeing, and why do you think it has stuck with you?<\/strong>\u2014Erin Quinn, Principal Marketing Strategist, The Original Pickle Shot<\/p>\n
![\"Click](\"http:\/\/nurseagence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/e1f0958d-1b15-418e-b4db-45ee531f71af.png\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/track.hubspot.com\/__ptq.gif?a=53&k=14&r=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fmorning-brew-on-channels-and-voice&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fblog.hubspot.com%252Fmarketing&bvt=rss\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"