Inspirational case study: Six powerful PR and content lessons from The Goulet Pen Company

One of the keys to success when it comes to PR, content and digital communications is the strategic integration of the many and varied elements involved.

In other words, connecting the dots in a purposeful way so it all makes sense, not just for your brand and your business, but also your clients, customers and stakeholders (along with those who influence them).

A pretty tall order? Absolutely, if you don’t do the groundwork and get the foundations right.

But if you have an open mind, you put in the effort and you’re willing to have a crack, then anything’s possible and most likely you’re going to really put distance between your brand and your competitors.

At the end of the day, PR success is often underpinned by clarity and confidence: how focused are you as a business, and how confident you are in executing on a day to day basis.

Never for one moment think this is beyond you, the business owner. I truly believe that.

With this in mind, allow me to introduce you to The Goulet Pen Company, a business I’ve been following for ages, and one which does everything right when it comes to PR, content and digital communications.

Let’s go!

CASE STUDY: The Goulet Pen Co.

Roughly 10 years ago, I stumbled upon The Goulet Pen Company (‘Goulet Pens’), a small but growing online retailer based near Richmond, Virginia.

As the name would suggest, Goulet Pens sells … pens! Not just any pens mind you, but “thousands of fountain pens, inks, paper, and accessories to get you writing”.

To put it mildly, I was blown away at how good Brian and Rachel Goulet - the founders of the business - were at content creation and social media, especially given they had no formal training aside from some personal experience, having grown up with Facebook in college at a time when the network was just for students.

[N.B. I first wrote about Goulet Pens in 2014 and again two years later after I interviewed Brian Goulet]

Indeed, I wrote at then time:

Goulet Pens: quick background

The Goulet Pen Company originally began as a hobby in 2007 when co-founder Brian Goulet’s lifelong interest in woodworking led him to purchase a small lathe and try pen-turning “on a whim”. Brian made his pens on nights and weekends until late 2008 when he decided to devote his career to pen-turning.

In late 2009, Brian and his wife and partner in the business, Rachel Goulet, decided to “expand from writing instruments to enhancing the overall writing experience”.

Today, the Goulet Pen Company sells via its website a broad range of fountain pens and writing instruments, bottled ink, writing paper and accessories (e.g. blotters, pen cases, replacement nibs etc).

According to Forbes, in 2019 Goulet Pens had revenue of $13.8 million with a staff size of 31.

At time of writing this article, Goulet’s online following looked like this:

• INSTAGRAM - 135,000 followers

• TWITTER/X - 34,000 followers

• FACEBOOK - 56,000 followers

• TIKTOK - 6471 followers, 140.8K likes

• PINTEREST - 44,000 followers, 1.3M monthly views

• YOUTUBE - 215,000 subscribers, 2165 videos, 67M video views

BLOG + YOUTUBE + EMAIL LIST = PR POWER

The collective of social media accounts along with the well-established Goulet Blog, a mountain of free resources and a regular email newsletter adds up to a powerhouse mini-media empire, a sustainable platform from which the company can tell its story, share its knowledge and ideas, and build its legion of fans and advocates.

While it’s great to have solid followings on the likes of Instagram and Pinterest, the real power behind Goulet’s content success is the company’s owned media channels - its blog, email list (newsletter) and YouTube channel (the YouTube videos are also published on the Goulet blog).

All three channels have substantial readers/viewers/followers, ensuring Goulet Pens can communicate directly with its growing audience at any given time.

NOTE: I love some of the comments that accompany the YouTube video above:

• “The fact that you're an official retailer for Pilot, and yet you do this kind of videos shows that business considerations aside, you're part of this community for real. This is cool.”

• “Pen retailer offers up video that helps reduce your need to buy pens... That is pure class, and demonstrates how much respect and appreciation for your customers you have.”

• “Thank you, Brian! I can always count on you guys for wonderful tips.”

Relentless education

The depth of content Goulet Pens creates would put many large organisations to shame; indeed if you’re a smaller business and you use time and resourcing (or lack thereof) as an excuse for not publishing original content, you might like to drop Brian Goulet a line to ask him how he does it, because as you can see, if you check out his company’s website and blog, they really do produce a lot of useful information!

It’s a well-oiled machine these days, but Brian and Rachel took many years to work up to this level!

Now, many brands and individuals create educational content, but very few leave ‘nothing on the table’ in terms of sharing their ideas, knowledge and expertise. In other words, they do the bare minimum in terms of creating content for their business.

Fewer still are what I would call relentless in educating the marketplace, going all-out, not just in the amount of content they publish, but also the depth of quality they produce.

Goulet Pens sits in this latter category. I urge you to check out their output for content inspiration more than anything (and if you’re a closet fountain pen enthusiast, this will really blow you away!).

Goulet Q&A video series

Brian used to produce a weekly YouTube show (288 episodes!) called Goulet Q&A where he answered viewers’ questions on all things pens, paper and ink - as well as his company’s operations generally.

These episodes were usually over an hour long and Brian left no stone unturned in answering questions sourced from across the company’s various social channels and email list.

Here’s the Q&A video playlist - the show has since morphed into a more polished vodcast/podcast called The Goulet Pencast - check it out here.

The Goulet Blog is comprehensive and incredibly informative and inspiring in equal measure.

Informative, as in educational for long-time pen enthusiasts as well as newbies (EXAMPLE)

Inspiring, as in helping readers get excited about handwriting and art (EXAMPLE)

Plus the blog houses literally hundreds of detailed reviews of inks and pens and other associated products (EXAMPLE)

With so much written and video content produced over an extended period of time, it’s important to categorise everything so people can easily find what’s of interest to them - needless to say, Goulet does this well!

This relentless education and sharing of knowledge – along with the constant communication Brian (especially) has with the writing community globally – not only increases Goulet’s reach and reputation, but also deepens the level of connection the brand has with its customers and suppliers.

Let’s not forget earned media!

I’ve always been a big believer that earned media coverage is often a valuable by-product of having a strong profile and reputation in the marketplace, which in turn is often fuelled by the content you create on your owned media channels, as well as the presence you build on social media.

Of course, you can always hire someone to pitch your story and ideas to the media directly, or you can learn how to do it yourself (that’s right, you don’t necessarily need a publicist or PR agency to do it for you) - that’s outbound earned media.

However, the bookend to direct pitching is having a strong and credible online presence coupled with people talking about you positively in the marketplace - this helps produce inbound earned media opportunities, and they can be very powerful for a business.

Back to Goulet Pens …

It therefore comes as no surprise that Brian Goulet and his company attract media interest for all the right reasons.

I love this New York Times piece in which Brian is described as being “like a rock star in the world of pens.” A well-earned title!

CHECK OUT GOULET’S MEDIA COVERAGE HERE

Setting a benchmark for your efforts

There are millions of small and growing companies around the world who have a blog, an email list, a YouTube channel, plus a presence on a raft of social media channels.

Most aren’t having much success with creating content that cuts through and resonates with an audience - their efforts are simply too bland and by-the-numbers, probably because it’s not that important to them in the overall scheme of things.

That said, some businesses are really doing well with some of their channels. Hats off to them, because this can often be hard to achieve and sustain.

Fewer still are completely nailing it across the board. Goulet Pens sits in this latter category - it’s ‘rare air’ because it takes ongoing investment of time, effort and money; it requires a sense of purpose, a high degree of clarity and conviction on behalf of the owners and leaders, not to mention a willingness to get out there and genuinely connect with one’s audience, people in your community and the industry in which you operate.

With this in mind …

Here are 6 lessons from Goulet Pens (when it comes to PR, content and digital communications)

1. Develop a purpose and a philosophy

2. Adopt a growth mindset

3. Execute with passion and heart

4. Experiment with new channels

5. Be in it for the long haul

6. Have a go!

Let’s unpack these one by one …

#1 Develop a purpose and a philosophy

Companies that are guided by a purpose greater than the products and services they sell are often more self-aware than those that aren’t - and self-awareness is critical when it comes to creating content, as your efforts need to align with how you run your company and what your overarching goals are.

For example, Goulet Pens’ mission is …

“To provide fountain pen enthusiasts with the most personal online shopping experience through comprehensive education, exemplary service, and products we believe in.”

The content Goulet produces definitely aligns with this mission!

When it comes to philosophy, to me that’s very much how you show up publicly as a leader and a representative of your business. Content creation and social media participation obviously comes into play here.

If you adopt a philosophy that building connection with your audience and relationships with key influencers and stakeholders is critical to sustained business success, then your PR efforts will (should!) naturally follow suit.

#2 Adopt a growth mindset

A growth mindset in this instance is a willingness to embrace challenges and do whatever it takes to get the job done. Creating content is not just an add-on at Goulet Pens - it represents a core part of who they are, and they’re incredibly consistent at it.

It takes a certain kind of individual to give away your knowledge and ideas freely - relentlessly, again and again for years - without the expectation of getting anything in return.

Brian, Rachel and the team at The Goulet Pen Company have done this for many years now, and continue to do so.

#3 Execute with passion and heart

This one goes without saying.

With so many companies publishing useless and irrelevant content - increasingly, much of it produced by ChatGPT - when you see a brand like Goulet Pens create with enthusiasm and a sense of zeal, you really notice it.

At the end of the day, we’re talking about humans connecting with humans via multiple channels, formats and modalities. Passion can’t be faked: believe in what you’re doing when it comes to the content you produce, and go all in - don’t hold back!

The same goes when it comes to connecting and engaging with people in your audience and community: don’t ‘outsource’ this, get involved!

#4 Experiment with new channels & concepts

The media and marketing landscape continues to change at warp speed. If we’re standing still, we’re going backwards!

Add into the mix that if you’re creating content consistently over a period of time, it’s more than likely you’re going to get stale; audiences too can get a bit jaded as well.

That’s why it’s important to experiment with new channels, as Goulet Pens has done with TikTok. They also added a podcast into the media mix as well, on top of all the other channels they were operating.

Also, I like how Brian made the big decision to ditch his highly popular Q&A video series (it’s still available on YouTube) in favour of a new show called The Goulet Pencast - check it out here.

#5 Be in it for the long haul

When Brian and Rachel started their business in 2009, social media was the only avenue they had to get word out about their brand, so they focused their efforts on niche forums and blogs that were in the fountain pen world, and networked and connected through there.

They started spending more time creating content. As they learned about the products they were selling, the Goulets would put out a video about them; this led to engagement with customers, which in turn gave them input into which products they should be carrying, and thus began a cycle that continued with success for many years.

Today, Goulet Pens is a multi-million dollar mini-media empire that happens to sell fountain pens, paper, ink and accessories. The business is sustainable, because their PR, content and digital communications efforts have been strong and consistent for nearly 15 years. No let-up!

#6 Have a go!

It’s easy to over-think things in this game.

Best to gain some clarity and then build confidence by getting out there online and having a go, producing content that strikes a chord with your intended audience and helps facilitate engagement and connection with people who matter most to the success of your business.

Brian, Rachel and the Goulet team are testament to this can-do attitude!

I hope you got some ideas and inspiration from this article - please feel free to hit ‘reply’ and let me know what you think about Goulet Pens and how they go about their business!

Oh, before I sign off, let me reiterate that everything I’ve outlined above is public relations - The Goulet Pen Company is a PR powerhouse, fuelled by owned media, social media and earned media, along with the right philosophy and mindset to make it happen,

Done well, content-led communications can change the trajectory of your business!

Onwards!

Trevor

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TREVOR YOUNG | PR WARRIOR

I help business owners become clear and confident in how they leverage PR, content and digital communications to build their brand and grow revenue.

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