The four P’s of content
Product, price, place, and promotion aren’t enough anymore. Buyers need possibilities to get interested, promises to consider you, proof to decide, and partnership to stay loyal and tell their friends.
About
Dan Clark
I’m Dan Clark. For twenty years I’ve helped companies say what they do so the right buyer hears it.
I started as an illustrator and writer: information graphics, the illustrations for How the Mac Works, and co-authoring LiveMotion for Dummies. That grew into creative direction. For ten years at Interplay, my agency, I wrote and directed films for 82 brands.
How I work
Most of the industries I’ve written for were new to me on day one: banking, compliance software, medical devices, bike components. That turns out to be an advantage. I ask the questions your buyer would ask, and I keep asking until I can answer them in your buyer’s words.
Then I set the message and the voice, and hold every piece to it.
How I lead
I’m a player-coach. I’ve done the work I ask others to do: interviewing executives and customers, writing web pages and long-form content, building sales tools, and writing and directing films. So when I guide a writer, producer, or designer, I’m not handing down notes from the sidelines. I can show them what’s missing, because I’ve had to fix the same problems in my own work.
I’ve managed direct reports, directed freelance writers, and run producers, crews, and vendors on schedule and on budget. I set the standard, give people room to do their best work, and step in when a piece needs it.
How I use AI
I use AI every day, the way I’d use a sharp research assistant and a tireless first-draft writer. It reads the background material, pulls out what matters, drafts options, and checks my work for gaps and errors. That makes me faster and more accurate.
What it doesn’t do is decide what to say. I set the message, the voice, and the quality bar, and nothing goes out that I wouldn’t put my name on.
I also build with it. On my own time, I’ve used AI to make working products:
- Bathroom Builder, a renovation cost estimator with a drag-and-drop floor plan and local pricing. I wrote the positioning, brand, site, and every word in the app.
- Fuel Method, a nutrition app with an AI coach that follows rules I built from leading research in nutrition, exercise, and health.
- Production Studio, a workspace I built in Claude to build out a library of 79 short videos and 18 games.
Building them taught me where AI is strong, where it falls short, and how to get great work out of it instead of generic filler. That’s what I bring to a team: good judgment about when to use it, and a standard that keeps the work sounding like you.
What I believe about content
These ideas come from white papers I wrote at Interplay on how buyers find, read, and act on content. They still hold up, and they still shape my work.
Skimmers, readers, and examiners
People read in layers. Executives skim the headlines, directors read the subheads, and managers read every word, so write each layer for the person who’ll actually read it.
From clueless to convinced
Buyers move from clueless to aware to understanding to believing. Each step needs different content, and the old channels still matter alongside the new ones.
Today I use AI to draft for every stage and every reader faster, then hold each piece to the same standards.
I live in Truckee, California, where I also run a design-build construction company.