Introduction
If you are anything like me, you have probably felt the overwhelming pressure of constantly needing to post on social media. It feels like a treadmill that never stops, right? You post a clever tweet, upload a pretty picture to Instagram, or share a GIF on Facebook, hoping for engagement, but often you are just met with silence. That is because simply “posting” is not a strategy. It is just noise. To truly grow a business in today’s digital landscape, you need an intentional plan that cuts through the clutter. This is exactly why I dove deep into Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy.
In this review, I’m going to walk you through my experience with this comprehensive workshop. As the Director of Content at DigitalMarketer, Garrett Holmes has cracked the code on how to 3X a social media presence in under eight months. But this isn’t just about vanity metrics; it is about building a real brand. Whether you are a solopreneur wearing five different hats or a marketing manager looking to justify your budget, this course promises to help you create a social media strategy that fits your specific goals, your bandwidth, and your brand. By the end of this workshop, Garrett claims you can have a fully customized strategy driving traffic, awareness, and engagement in a matter of hours—not weeks. Let’s see if he delivers on that promise.
Course Description
p>The Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy course is structured as an immersive, live-style workshop designed to get you out of theory and into execution immediately. Unlike typical courses that leave you with a notebook full of ideas but no plan, this session is about building assets. The teaching style is hands-on and direct. Garrett acts as your guide, walking you through the exact frameworks he uses at DigitalMarketer. The course is built around the philosophy that social media must be high-impact but manageable for your specific resources.Key highlights include a deep dive into the “Social Media Mindmap” and the “Brand-Building Social Media Strategy Audit.” You are not just watching videos; you are filling in the blanks of proven templates. The structure ensures that by the time you finish the final module, you have a working social media calendar, a list of content pillars, and a clear understanding of where your audience hangs out online. It focuses heavily on repurposing content to save time, making it ideal for anyone who feels burnt out by the content creation hamster wheel.
What really sets this apart is the focus on “Big Box” strategies. Garrett breaks down what major retailers and large competitors are doing to succeed and shows you how to apply those same principles to a smaller scale. It is about working smarter, not harder. The course is distilled into actionable steps that remove the “ideation stress” that plagues so many marketers. If you are looking for a fluff-free zone where every minute spent translates to a tangible deliverable for your business, this is the right environment.
Ideal Student
- Small Business Owners: If you are running a business and trying to handle social media on the side, this course is designed for you. It respects your limited bandwidth and shows you how to maximize results without hiring a full-time team.
- Social Media Managers: If you are managing accounts for clients but struggling to show ROI or define a clear strategy, this workshop gives you the professional framework and templates to impress your clients and organize your workflow.
- Content Creators & Freelancers: For those trying to build a personal brand, Garrett’s strategies on repurposing and platform selection will help you grow your audience faster by focusing your energy where it counts.
- Marketing Teams: If you are part of a larger team but need to standardize your social media approach, the audit and calendar tools provided here are perfect for aligning your team’s efforts and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
- Entrepreneurs with “Ideation Stress”: If you stare at a blank screen wondering what to post today, this course is specifically built to eliminate that stress by giving you a system that generates ideas for you.
Learning Outcomes
- Custom Strategy Creation: You will learn how to build a fully customized social media strategy that aligns with your specific business goals, available bandwidth, and brand identity.
- Platform Identification: Discover exactly which platforms are the most popular “hang outs” for your specific audience, ensuring you stop wasting time on channels that don’t convert.
- Competitor Intelligence: Master the art of analyzing “Big Box” competitors to see what they are doing to increase reach, and learn how to adapt those high-level tactics for your own business.
- Content Repurposing Mastery: Learn DigitalMarketer’s best practices for taking existing content and optimizing it for social feeds, saving you hours of creation time every week.
- Calendar Implementation: Walk away with a completed social media strategy calendar modeled after DigitalMarketer’s internal processes, ready to deploy immediately.
Course Modules
This course is meticulously structured to take you from zero to hero in your social media planning. It doesn’t just dump information on you; it guides you through a process of building your actual strategy assets. Below, we will break down each module to show you exactly what you will learn and how it applies to the Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy framework.
Module 1: The Core Philosophy of Brand-Building on Social
The first module sets the stage by fundamentally changing how you view social media. Garrett argues that most businesses fail because they treat social media as a megaphone rather than a telephone. In this section, you will explore the difference between simply posting content and building a brand. The focus is on intentionality. You will learn why the “spray and pray” method—posting everywhere and hoping something sticks—is doomed to fail in today’s competitive landscape. Instead, Garrett introduces the concept of high-impact strategies that focus on depth over breadth. You will also begin to assess your current “bandwidth.” This is a crucial part of the Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy philosophy; if you don’t have a realistic view of how much time you can dedicate to social media, your strategy will fail before it begins. By the end of this module, you will shift your mindset from “more content” to “smarter content.”
Module 2: Identifying Your Audience’s Digital Hangouts
Not all social platforms are created equal, and your audience is not hanging out on all of them. Module 2 is dedicated to research and selection. You will learn how to use data (and common sense) to determine where your ideal customer spends their time. This isn’t about guessing; it is about finding the “hang outs” where your audience is most receptive to engagement. Garrett covers the specific demographics and user behaviors of major platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). You will discover which platforms require high-frequency posting and which ones favor high-quality, long-form content. The goal here is to “get more bang for your social media buck.” By narrowing your focus to the platforms that actually matter, you conserve your energy for the channels that drive real results. This module helps you eliminate the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) that drives marketers to burnout.
Module 3: Conducting a Comprehensive Social Media Audit
Before you can build your future, you must understand your present. In Module 3, you utilize the “Brand-Building Social Media Strategy Audit” tool provided in the course. This is a deep dive into your current performance. You will look at what has worked in the past, what has flopped, and why. Garrett teaches you how to identify patterns in your data that you might have missed. Perhaps your audience loves video tutorials but ignores text updates. Maybe your engagement spikes on Tuesdays but crashes on Fridays. This module guides you through a systematic review of your assets. You will also audit your competitors. The “Big Box” strategy starts here. By analyzing what your highest-earning competitors are doing, you can spot gaps in their strategy that you can exploit, or successes that you can model. The audit is the foundation upon which your new strategy is built.
Module 4: Building Your Social Media Mindmap
One of the most powerful tools in the Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy arsenal is the Social Media Mindmap. Module 4 is dedicated to filling this out. A mindmap is a visual representation of how your content flows. It connects your core business goals to specific content pillars, which then generate specific post ideas. This module is about creating a system for ideation so you never run out of things to say. You will define your brand’s voice and tone guidelines, ensuring consistency across all posts. Garrett demonstrates how to use the mindmap to visualize the customer journey—from awareness to consideration to conversion—through social media touchpoints. This visual approach is incredibly helpful for visual learners and ensures that every piece of content you create serves a specific purpose in your broader marketing funnel.
Module 5: Developing the Weekly Strategy Calendar
A strategy is useless without a schedule. Module 5 pulls back the curtain on DigitalMarketer’s internal weekly social strategy calendar. You will see exactly how a top-tier marketing team plans its week. This module teaches you how to take your Mindmap and translate it into a daily and weekly schedule. You will learn how to batch content creation to save time and how to schedule posts for optimal engagement. The calendar is not just a list of times to post; it is a strategic document that balances promotional content with value-add content. Garrett emphasizes the importance of consistency. By having a pre-set calendar, you remove the daily decision fatigue of “what should I post today?” You simply look at the calendar and execute. This module turns the overwhelming task of daily posting into a manageable, check-the-box routine.
Module 6: The Art of High-Impact Content Creation
Now that you have the calendar, you need the content. Module 6 focuses on the “how” of creation. However, this isn’t a tutorial on how to use Photoshop or edit video. It is a strategic guide on *what* makes content high-impact. You will learn the psychological triggers that make people stop scrolling. Garrett covers the importance of hooks—the first three seconds of a video or the first line of a caption. You will explore different content formats that perform well on the platforms you selected in Module 2. The key lesson here is quality over quantity. You don’t need to post ten times a day if the two posts you make are incredible. This module provides frameworks for structuring your posts to drive action, whether that action is a like, a comment, a share, or a click through to your website.
Module 7: Strategies for Content Repurposing & Optimization
This is perhaps the most valuable module for anyone with limited time. Garrett calls this the KEY to eliminating “ideation stress.” Module 7 teaches you how to take one piece of content and spin it into a dozen different assets for different platforms. Did you write a great blog post? Learn how to turn it into five tweets, an Instagram carousel, a LinkedIn article, and a TikTok script. You will learn how to leverage the resources you already have. This module maximizes your ROI on content creation. You stop reinventing the wheel every day and start building an efficient content engine. The Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy approach is all about efficiency, and repurposing is the engine that drives that efficiency. You will also learn how to optimize old content that performed well, giving it new life.
Module 8: Competitor Analysis & “Big Box” Tactics
Small businesses often feel they can’t compete with the marketing budgets of large corporations. Module 8 proves that wrong. Here, you learn to take a page out of the “Big Box” Social Media book. Garrett breaks down the sophisticated strategies used by major retailers and huge brands to increase their social reach. You will learn how to identify the tactics they are using to dominate the conversation. More importantly, you will learn how to apply those same tactics on a smaller scale. This might involve running a specific type of campaign, using a certain hashtag strategy, or engaging with the community in a specific way. This module levels the playing field, giving you access to the same strategic playbook as the industry giants, just adapted for your bandwidth and budget.
Module 9: Executing the Launch: From Strategy to Campaign
Planning is one thing; doing is another. Module 9 is the “Launch” phase of the workshop. This is where you take your calendar, your mindmap, and your repurposed content and push them live. Garrett provides fill-in-the-blank templates for crafting your first winning social media campaign following this new strategy. This module is designed to get you immediate results. You will learn how to prime your audience for the campaign, how to build hype, and how to execute the launch day. It covers the logistics of posting, monitoring, and engaging in real-time. The goal is to move from theory to practice instantly. You are not just learning how to build a strategy for “someday”; you are building it to launch right now. This module provides the momentum needed to turn your planning into tangible traffic and awareness.
Module 10: Measuring Success & Scaling Your Presence
The final module ensures that your strategy continues to work for you long into the future. You will learn how to measure the success of your new strategy using metrics that actually matter. Forget vanity metrics like “likes” if they don’t lead to business results. Garrett focuses on metrics that drive growth: engagement rate, click-through rate, and conversion. You will establish a baseline for your performance and set benchmarks for the future. Finally, you will learn how to scale. Once you have mastered this strategy with your current bandwidth, how do you grow? Do you hire? Do you use automation tools? This module prepares you for the next phase of your brand’s growth. It reinforces the 3X growth methodology that Garrett used at DigitalMarketer, showing you the roadmap for scaling your social presence systematically.
Real-World Applications and Success Stories
The principles taught in Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy are not just theory; they are battle-tested in the real world. The most immediate application is the ability to stop spinning your wheels. Imagine waking up on a Monday morning and knowing exactly what you need to post for the entire week because you have a calendar and a backlog of repurposed content ready to go. This course turns that into reality. For small business owners, this means reclaiming 10 hours a week that was previously spent stressing over content creation. For agencies, it means having a standardized, high-value deliverable to present to clients.
In terms of success stories, we need look no further than DigitalMarketer itself. Under Garrett’s guidance using this exact framework, DigitalMarketer was able to 3X its social presence in less than eight months. They didn’t do it by posting more; they did it by posting smarter, auditing their efforts, and focusing on the platforms where their audience was most engaged. Students of this workshop have reported similar breakthroughs, moving from stagnant follower counts to rapid growth by simply implementing the “Social Media Mindmap” and audit tools. The strategy works because it respects the constraints of real businesses while pushing for high-impact results.
Pricing
Investing in your marketing education is crucial, but understanding the value proposition is key. The Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy workshop is packed with templates and tools that would cost hundreds to develop from scratch.
- One-Time Payment: This course is typically valued at $495, representing a significant investment in your business’s future growth and operational efficiency.
This one-time fee grants you access to the full workshop, all fill-in-the-blank templates, the audit tools, and the social media mindmaps. It is a comprehensive package designed to pay for itself by saving you time and increasing your organic reach.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Actionable Templates: You get fill-in-the-blank tools like the Social Media Mindmap and Strategy Audit, which make implementation incredibly fast.
- Time-Efficiency: The course focuses on strategies that can be implemented in hours, not weeks, making it perfect for busy professionals.
- Expert Instruction: Learning directly from Garrett Holmes, the Director of Content at DigitalMarketer, ensures you are getting top-tier, proven advice.
- Focus on Repurposing: The emphasis on maximizing existing content helps eliminate “ideation stress” and burnout.
- Platform Agnostic: The strategy works for any industry and can be adapted to any social media platform.
- Competitor Intelligence: The “Big Box” tactics provide a unique perspective on how to model success from larger competitors.
Cons
- Pacing: Because it is a workshop format, the pace can be fast for complete beginners who have never used social media for business before.
- DIY Focus: The course teaches you how to do it yourself; if you are looking to outsource everything immediately, this teaches you the strategy but not necessarily how to manage a VA.
- Platform Specifics: While it teaches selection, it doesn’t offer granular “how-to” tutorials for every single feature of Instagram or LinkedIn (e.g., how to technically edit a Reel).
- Time Investment: While the strategy is fast, the initial audit and mindmap creation require a dedicated block of focused time to complete.
- DigitalMarketer Style: The strategy is heavily influenced by the DigitalMarketer brand voice, which may need adaptation for very niche or non-B2B industries.
- No Magic Button: You still have to do the work; the templates help, but they don’t write the content for you entirely.
FAQs
Who is teaching this course?
The course is taught by Garrett Holmes, the Director of Content at DigitalMarketer. He is the strategist behind their 3X social media growth.
Is this course suitable for beginners?
Yes, while it covers advanced strategy concepts, the fill-in-the-blank templates and step-by-step nature of the workshop make it accessible for beginners who are willing to learn.
How long does it take to complete the course?
The course is designed as a workshop that can be completed in a single day to launch your strategy, though implementing the calendar and creating content is an ongoing process.
What tools do I need for this course?
You don’t need expensive software. The course provides digital templates (Mindmap, Audit, Calendar) that you can use with standard office tools or Google Suite.
Will this work for B2C businesses?
Absolutely. While DigitalMarketer is B2B, the principles of audience identification, content repurposing, and competitor analysis apply universally to B2C brands as well.
Is there a refund policy?
Refund policies typically depend on where you purchase the course (DigitalMarketer or a reseller), so it is best to check the specific terms of sale at the time of purchase.
Final Verdict
After thoroughly reviewing the content and structure of Garrett Holmes – Launch A Brand-Building Social Media Strategy, it is clear that this is a standout resource for marketers and business owners alike. It doesn’t suffer from the fluff found in many other courses. Instead, it provides a razor-focused framework for building a social media presence that actually drives business results. The strength of this course lies in its practicality. The templates alone—the Mindmap, the Audit, and the Calendar—are worth the investment because they solve the hardest part of social media: planning and consistency.
If you are tired of posting into the void and feeling like social media is a waste of time, this course is the antidote. It shifts your perspective from “chasing trends” to “building assets.” Garrett Holmes is a credible instructor who practices what he preaches, and the success of DigitalMarketer serves as a powerful case study for the efficacy of this method. The course is especially recommended for those with limited bandwidth who need high-impact results quickly. While it requires you to put in the work to fill out the templates and execute the plan, the roadmap provided is clear and proven. I highly recommend this workshop to anyone ready to stop treating social media as a chore and start treating it as the powerful brand-building engine it can be.