I partnered directly with the founder of Marlo Health, a dog wellness startup named after her own golden retriever (cutest client ever!), to build their social media presence from literally nothing. Her original ask was simple: help edit content for TikTok, repurposed for Instagram and YouTube Shorts. What it turned into was a full content strategy, from content pillars and KPIs to on-set consulting on how actually to shoot better footage and, of course, video editing and repurposing of all their material.

Let's be real: starting from zero is HARD. Starting from less than zero is harder.

When we started, Marlo Health had one post up, ever: 965 views and no follow-through. TikTok sat under 20 followers. Instagram and YouTube Shorts were both at 0. The founder had tried to make this work before and felt completely lost.

She needed to prove something first: that dog owners would actually engage with this brand's world before she went further with the product. That meant building an audience from scratch, fast, with a team that had zero capacity to film constantly.

Our first ever viral video 👇

Phase 1 - Hype it up. A full month of daily posting: ASMR-style content of Marlo (the dog, not the app 😅) eating, trend videos, and early educational content. The goal wasn't polish, it was proving people would stop and watch. We got out first 100 followers and good numbers in terms of reach and engagement, so goal accomplished!

Phase 2 - Follow the data. The numbers told a clear story. Trend content pulled comments but no saves, no real engagement. It was diluting the brand instead of building it. So we cut posting from daily to 3x/week and got a lot more selective, quality over noise. We started to introduce more behind-the-scenes and founder-led content to give the brand that personal touch it needed.

Phase 3 - Repurpose everything. With no team capacity to shoot constantly, a huge part of the strategy became stretching every piece of footage further. One shoot, multiple videos. Old dog footage, new life.

Phase 4 - Shift toward conversion. We're now building UGC-style content around the brand's dog wellness quiz and the product itself, designed to feed the email funnel and actually convert viewers into customers, not just followers. And that means more dogs, more customers and a clear path between content and buyers.

Full content strategy: pillars, cadence, KPIs

Concept development and visual direction for every video

Editing and platform-specific formatting (TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts)

On-camera coaching for the founder's team: angles, setups, what actually films well

Ongoing strategy calls with the founder (marketing background) to review numbers and pivot together. She writes scripts, I lead concept and execution

Repurposing system to turn single shoots into multiple videos

Development of brand video templates and style

Before: <20 followers, best post: 965 views

Now: 449 followers, top video: 191.8K views

Before: 0 followers

Now: 81 followers

Before: 0 subscribers

Now: 62 subscribers, posts hitting up to 3.5K views

📈 Multiple videos crossed into viral territory, including hits at 191.8K and 41.8K views on TikTok alone.

What actually worked: the ASMR content of Marlo (the dog) became a repeat winner across TikTok and Shorts. And the brand's first founder-facing video, explaining the product and the story behind it, performed across all three platforms at once, becoming an early signal that people cared about the "why," not just the dog content.

The instinct with a new brand is always to post more. We did and it capped out fast. The real unlock was posting less, but with a sharper filter: does this build the brand, or just get comments? Cutting volume and doubling down on brand-fit content outperformed the trend-chasing phase, even though it felt riskier going in.

But Marlo doesn't have a community now waiting to buy a product, it has a visual identity and a bank of videos that keep on creating more and more content without feeling repetitive.

If your brand needs to go from zero to a real, engaged audience without a content team burning through a production budget, this is exactly the kind of work I do. Strategy, concept, filming guidance, editing, and the repurposing system that keeps content flowing without constant new shoots.