Imagine my satisfaction upon receiving this email from an internal customer (a Product Manager that relies upon my department for B2B Marcom guidance, advice, support, and execution):
Rick,
I did a quick search on Google with my set of keywords. The results of all three searches listed Indium.com on top of anyone else.
This is excellent!
Thanks,
Just WEEKS before this message I was consulting with this manager as to how they could ENTER the online market space with a new product set. Of course, amongst other endeavors, I detailed a web strategy for the market entry – a strategy that included very careful use of keyword strategy.
For the manager’s three sets of key words, he came out #1 in each search, on top of 30,000, 50,000, and 240,000 competing pages on the web. Within weeks!
The next step I have prescribed is BLOGGING. We expect that the competition will react to our market entry, and we want to leapfrog ourselves before they do. Indium has implemented this market entry practice several times (in various forms), and it works great. Here is what we do:
1: begin at the end (determine your goal) and consistently direct all activities toward that goal
2: establish the terms your customer uses when looking for your product/service
3: establish a website platform for multiple activities. Use SEO tactics to get the site ranking high on Google searches (for your key words)
4: build upon that platform via: blogs, tech papers, white papers, forums, webinars, videos, link strategies, and more.
The hard part is convincing your stakeholder to devote the time/resources to these endeavors.
With case studies like the one that is unfolding here, it should be easier and easier to get more product managers to adopt this strategy. Do you have an interesting story to share?
Image: dkimages.com
Sue:
Rick,
Great piece, it is in fact very difficult to get upper management to understand the fact that blogging is important. Coming from no back ground what so ever in copywriting or writing I have found it a fascinating endevour. It is yet in its infancy our blog, but it has generated several things that I had hoped it to. Brand Awareness is a big part of that.
Rick Short:
That’s great! Keep pushing, learning, trying, networking, seeking feedback, and you will go far.
Remember, always begin at the end. In other words, WRITE DOWN YOUR GOAL, and envision it coming true. Then devise the plan that gets you from where you are to where you are going. This will help ensure that your Marcom activities succeed in making all your stakeholders happy.
Thaks for the comment.