The Problem
In this case study my client was a small engineering company who had a solid market presence but who was struggling to compete with larger competitors online
The Solution
We looked at all of the key competitors in the market place and analysed their online strategy. It was clear that the larger players were quite sedate and relied on their brand name and reputation to generate sales traffic online. Smaller players were aggressive and were spending heavily on website design and on SEO to win the most popular keywords.
When we reviewed the competitiveness of the obvious keywords it was clear that not only were they expensive but they converted badly as well.As a result we determined on a long tail key words strategy that focused on dozens of keywords that provided in aggregate a very large number of monthly searches. The subject matter was technical and boring which meant that there was little other content that was relevant on the internet. As a result we bought a number of relevant engineering standards and books on the subject so that we could become subject matter experts.
Over a six month period we wrote something like 200 pages on all the products that the customer sold. Each page was about 1,000 words and was full of both detailed technical information on the product, practical information on the purchase and use, and some quirky content to help our brand stand out. This was hugely exhausting and time consuming as it was all done in house due to the technical nature of the work. The worst part was doing extensive cross linking and referencing to other knowledge sources.
The Outcome
However within 6 months 40% of our keywords were in the top 3 in google SERPS and 90% were in the top 10. That translated into thousands of page views each week and dozens of enquiries each day. Given that the value of a sales enquiry was between $50,000 to $100,000 we generated significant sales as a result. When I checked in with the client a few years later I was told that they estimated the value to have been
“About $5 million over 3 years”.
The other outcome was to the company’s credibility with customers and suppliers. By investing so much in an outward and visible symbol of their competence the conversion rate for the sales team rose by 8%. Customer’s believe that my client knew what he was talking about and were thus more ready to buy
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