Tracey Wallace Explains Her No-Content-Without-Distribution System at Klaviyo

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Jul 1, 2025

Tracey Wallace, Director of Content Strategy at Klaviyo, is a master of building scalable content engines for fast-growing SaaS companies. In this conversation, she reveals her unique approach to content marketing that prioritizes distribution before content creation. Tracey shares insights on coordinating multiple teams, utilizing data and customer stories, and maintaining quality through legal checks. She also discusses the challenges of transitioning strategies from startups to large enterprises and the importance of effective content governance.

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INSIGHT

Distribution First Content Creation

Content creation now starts with distribution plans at Klaviyo, unlike startups where content creation leads distribution.
Without a promotion plan, content is wasted because nobody visits the site organically.

ADVICE

Say No Without Distribution Plan

Always require a distribution plan before approving content creation requests.
Say no to content ideas without a clear promotional and distribution strategy.

ANECDOTE

Klaviyo's Content Evolution Journey

Klaviyo evolved from a startup content approach to a squad-based, distribution-focused model post-IPO.
Initially, they controlled distribution themselves, but realized this approach wasn't scalable.

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Tracey Wallace, Director of Content Strategy at Klaviyo, explains why her team starts with distribution first. Every piece gets a channel-specific promotion plan before a single word hits the doc. She shows how to manage requests from many squads with a simple Slack intake, keep quarterly roadmaps tight, and protect quality through legal checks and global regions. If you want a clear look at how big teams build content that stays useful and never doubles work, check out this episode.

👤 About Our Guest: Tracey Wallace

Tracey Wallace builds content engines for fast-growing SaaS teams. At Klaviyo, she joined before the IPO and now steers a global strategy that serves eight regions and multiple go-to-market squads. About 70 % of each piece uses Klaviyo data, and 80 % spotlights a customer story. This mix turns content into powerful fuel for demand, retention, and teamwork. Tracey makes for great listening as she's open about challenging topics. In the past she has spoken about managing lay-offs and the myth of "one-off thought leadership."

📻 About This Season of the Animalz Podcast: Enterprise Content Marketing

This season on the Animalz Podcast, we’re pulling back the corporate curtain to show you how the largest, most complex B2B SaaS teams actually get content out the door. Our mission: demystify these hidden machines and reveal what it really takes to run content at scale.

Hear from content leaders of some of the biggest names in SaaS sharing the systems they've built, the battles they've fought, and the lessons they've learned along the way.

⏳ Timestamps

00:00 – Why big teams need a new content playbook
05:50 – Moving from creation first to distribution first
06:10 – No one visits your site unless you send them
09:05 – Content as the hub for every channel and squad
13:02 – Saying no to ideas without a distribution plan
13:41 – The distribution test: how will you promote this
16:56 – Rule: no plan, no content
20:22 – Bi-weekly syncs stop duplicate work
25:31 – Skipping a formal intake keeps discipline
27:10 – Handling legal, procurement, and global rollouts

🌐 Mentioned Links & Resources

Klaviyo (throughout): Email & SMS marketing platform where Tracey leads content strategy, operating in eight regions.
Contentment (newsletter) (03:32): Tracey’s Workweek-hosted newsletter for content marketers, sharing operational insights.
Workweek (03:34): Media company that hosts Tracey’s newsletter and supports B2B creators.
Substack app (02:41): Tracey’s preferred “lean-back” reading platform, illustrating content consumption habits.
Help Center & Academy teams (20:31): Klaviyo’s documentation and education teams, collaborating closely on bi-weekly alignment.

Follow Tracey Wallace for more practical content strategy insights by subscribing to her newsletter Contentment. Explore Klaviyo’s approach to content at their blog.

💡 Enjoyed this conversation? Subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, or head over to Animalz Podcast. You can also follow us on X or LinkedIn.