My LifeGlider, Ozzie, Helps Give Me the Strength to Conquer FA (Health, Technology)

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About the Project

THE NEED

There’s nothing like an inspiring story to encourage future customers to take action.

Myrna Nickelson, Head of Marketing for LifeGlider, knew that for many, it’s the real stories about how others are using this fall-safe, hands-optional upright walker that help them fully understand why it’s worth a try.

LifeGlider had an active user group on Facebook where many were eager to share their stories. All Myrna needed was the support of an experienced storyteller who knew how to capture these stories and present them to target audiences.

THE APPROACH

To emphasize the personality of each storyteller, we decided to tell stories in the first person. From the interview to writing and editing, I worked closely with each participant to ensure their story was accurate and written in their voice.

Kelly Gregory

Our goal was to demonstrate the diversity of LifeGlider users. We captured stories that ranged from people in later life to young adults (and even one child story) who struggled to walk independently for a variety of reasons.

Kelly’s story was about her battle with Freidrich ataxia. This is one of several rare diseases LifeGlider users suffer from that affect gait, balance, and coordination. The fall-safe LifeGlider helps her maintain as much mobility as possible.

THE RESULTS

These stories are now powerful content assets for LifeGlider’s social media channels and for the Customer Stories section of the website. At a glance, this page presents a broad overview of the diversity of LifeGlider users.

The stories have had the greatest impact when shared by the participants themselves. As product ambassadors, they proudly share the links on their own social media platforms. Their influence has encouraged many to try the product.

Each story is a uniquely inspirational example of what people mean when they call the LifeGlider “life-changing.”

“Our customer stories are important to our marketing strategy. They’re extended testimonials that speak to how the LifeGlider is changing their lives. Beyond using them on the website to improve SEO, we also use them for email marketing and social media posts.

“Matt does a great job interviewing the customers and effectively ghostwriting for them. Each story is unique and conveys the customer’s voice. He’s an excellent writer and a joy to work with.” – Myrna Nickelsen, Head of Marketing

Click the logo to read the story at MyLifeGlider.com.

B2B Lead Generation through Content Marketing: Renkert Oil (Business-to-Business)

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About the Project

THE NEED

As a leading supplier of specialty oils, Renkert Oil needed a content marketing strategy that would hit its niche audiences, such as:

  1. Lubricant makers (motor oil, industrial oils) in the market for refined base oils
  2. Thermoplastic elastomer (rubbery plastic molding), sealant and adhesive manufacturers who use process oils in production
  3. Food producers and farm operators who need a steady supply of food-grade white mineral oils for various applications
  4. Personal care and household product makers seeking isoparaffins (modified white oil) as a key ingredient

Content needed to address the needs and interests of each audience to attract interest and help generate leads.

THE APPROACH

  1. AUDIT: I began with a content audit, which revealed that a) the website’s blog content could be better targeted and b) LinkedIn was underutilized for content promotion and connection.
  2. RESEARCH & STRATEGY: Out of a combination of consultation with Renkert Oil and keyword research, I identified the best opportunities for keyword-focused topics that aligned with business goals.
  3. DEVELOPMENT: We began meeting regularly to discuss industry developments and new products. These conversations and ongoing keyword monitoring drove the direction of content development.
  4. PROMOTION: We used LinkedIn and email as channels to promote new blog content. We also leveraged LinkedIn to republish old blog content natively (as “Articles”) and to share news items from third-party sources.
  5. TRACKING: To monitor our progress, we analyzed rankings for target head terms and experimented with a variety of longtail keywords (key phrases). The results were published in a monthly report.

THE RESULTS

Improved Target Keyword Rankings

Baseline rankings for head terms prior to content optimization were extremely low (e.g. “white oil”), many not even showing up in the top 100 results.

  • Within six months, we saw huge gains in our Google search rankings for targeted head terms.
  • Within 12 months, several were beginning to show up in the top 10.
  • And through the strategic use of longtail phrases (e.g. “white oil supply”), we were able to maintain strong positions.

Increased Lead Generation

More importantly, as soon as year-over-year data was available, contact form submissions were up every month. Leads generated during the 5-month YOY analysis period as a percentage of the data from the same month in the previous year:

  1. July – 111%
  2. August – 179% (nearly 2x)
  3. September – 213% (over 2x)
  4. October – 340% (over 3x)
  5. November – 600% (6x)

In summary, content marketing is helping to raise Renkert Oil’s visibility through Google searches and generate leads for the sales team. If you would like to learn more about applying this approach to your B2B business, let me know!

Click the logo to visit the Renkert Oil website.

girl with 3D printer

The Next Phase of 3D Printer Programs in Education: Why Standardization is the Key to Successful Scaling (Technology)

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About the Project

THE NEED

Dremel DigiLab had already established itself as a leader in supplying K-12 schools with 3D printers. Following a decade of success helping instructors across the U.S. launch their 3D printing programs, the sales director was interested in providing guidance for school systems seeking to scale up these programs.

The sales team wanted to make the argument that the key to successful scaling is standardization. School systems that adopted a single model districtwide would be able to develop a uniform approach to training, instructional design, and maintenance, among other benefits.

Dremel already had plenty of sales and marketing materials about the quality of the products themselves. The idea was to associate the brand with thoughtful, experienced consultants in addition to product quality, making Dremel an obvious choice in a partner for administrators seeking to expand their 3D printing programs.

THE APPROACH

In partnership with Caylor Solutions, a marketing agency that works closely with K-12 and higher education clients, the sales manager contracted us to develop a white paper on 3D printer program standardization. This would be used in a variety of ways to educate school administrators, develop new leads, and engage existing clients for large-scale reorders.

After an initial consultation with the sales manager and marketing manager to get a sense of the direction they wanted to take, I interviewed two regional salespeople to learn more about the benefits of standardization as well as the products themselves. I also solicited their to connect me with clients who would be willing to provide a quote.

I then interviewed four K-12 administrators in a variety of roles, who were at different stages of the process of standardizing their 3D printing programs. Each provided a unique perspective about both the challenges and benefits of standardization.

THE RESULTS

This white paper is now a valuable lead generation tool for 3PI Tech Solutions, an authorized reseller of Dremel DigiLab 3D products. It is a free download on the Education page of the dealer’s website.

As a targeted thought leadership piece, The Next Phase of 3D Printer Programs in Education helps establish the authority of 3PI Tech Solutions as an extension of the Dremel brand in K-12 education. It facilitates important conversations that help school systems move forward wisely as it drives revenue for Dremel and its affiliate.

Link to landing page and downloadable PDF:

Cover image for attorney-focused financial white paper

Before the Sun Goes Down: Will You Be Ready to Retire? (Financial)

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About the project

THE NEED

Joe Delaney, California-based financial advisor and managing director of Lifeguard Wealth, recognized that he had a number of attorneys among his friends, acquaintances, and clientele. He felt he understood the challenges unique to the attorney space and identified it as a niche he wanted to focus on.

What he needed was a way to showcase his expertise while demonstrating his commitment to serving attorneys. The answer was high-value, niche-specific content inspired by attorneys and written for the benefit of attorneys. He reached out to me (we had worked together on blog content for about two years) to discuss the idea that would eventually lead to the development of a white paper.

THE APPROACH

Joe had already planned to conduct a series of interviews with the attorneys in his sphere. I helped him craft interview questions that would give us the raw material for a kind of attorney-informed financial guide. We didn’t get more specific than that in the beginning, because we wanted the interviewees to help guide us toward the kind of content that would be most useful to the niche.

After several months of interviews, Joe shared his notes with me. He and I saw some consistent themes. Most of them tied back to a single, overarching concern: retirement. We identified six obstacles attorneys face to retiring when they want to (or ever), and six action steps they can take to address each one:

  1. Time Management
  2. Spending & Saving Worries
  3. Managing Debt
  4. Financial Regrets
  5. Coping with Stress
  6. Keeping Up with Money Management

I put together a draft of the copy with notes on where I thought infographics would be helpful. Data came from Joe, our interviewees and my own research on attorney student loan debt and mental health issues. We turned everything over to our design partner, Spotted Monkey Marketing, who produced a beautiful PDF (link below).

THE RESULTS

Joe has successfully used this white paper as an outreach tool when making contact with attorneys and in a presentation where he offered a printed version to attendees. But more importantly to Joe, he offers it as a valuable resource to his friends and clients who practice law.

Before the Sun Goes Down is available as part of Lifeguard Wealth’s library of resources under the website’s “Learn” tab, existing both as a text-only blog post and downloadable PDF. It remains a useful relationship-building and educational tool for Joe. And it is an enduring product of Lifeguard Wealth’s thought leadership among top fiduciaries serving attorneys and other advanced professionals.

Link to blog post & downloadable PDF:

ALS Construction homepage

ALS Construction (Service Industries)

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About the project:

THE NEED

ALS Construction, a custom home builder and family business in the Hilton Head Island, SC area, had secured Hazel Digital Media to redesign their outdated website. Jason Hazel of HDM connected me with Brent Swofford, ALS’s marketing manager. The new site needed cleaner copy that utilized SEO best practices. And both Jason and I strongly recommended a blog to help drive organic traffic.

THE APPROACH

Website

After an audit of the copy transferred over from the old site, I identified and implemented four objectives to improve discoverability and readability on the About and Services (renamed Why ALS?) pages.

  1. Reorganize large blocks of text under headers.
  2. Incorporate target keywords in headers and body text.
  3. Move location keywords (e.g. Hilton Head Island) closer to the top of the page.
  4. Make the text more concise and convert the body text into bulleted lists where appropriate.

Blog

After interviewing Brent, I developed four articles that established the four categories we would focus on over the next six months: cost, process, lifestyle, and the environment. In partnership with HDM, we launched with four articles published weekly, with new content published twice monthly thereafter.

Each article was keyword-researched, content-researched, contained at least one image (stock photography) and was organized under headers according to SEO best practices. We incorporated a CTA (call-to-action) button at the end of each post that links to the site’s contact form.

THE RESULTS

From the April 1, 2019 baseline to September 30, 2019, the ALS Construction website saw net user growth of 80%. As HDM ran a paid Google CPC (cost-per-click) ad campaign concurrently with our blogging strategy, organic search accounted for 21% of users.

This is a classic case of marrying both quantity and quality; though PPC brought in far more users, both the average session duration time and contact form visit rate for organic users was far higher.

Contact Form Visits: Paid vs. Organic

  • Google (CPC): 2.53%
  • Google (organic): 27.48%
  • Bing: 30.16%
  • Yahoo: 11.11%

Overall, 67% of contact form visits came from organic search and about 21% came from the CPC campaign. Rather than revealing that one strategy is superior to the other, I interpret these data to mean utilizing both – if your budget supports it – is best for creating as many sales opportunities as possible. Promoting content (blog posts) via a strong social media presence is also recommended.

Link to site:

Avondale United Methodist Church (Not-for-Profit)

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About the project:

THE NEED

Josh Arthur, the new pastor of Avondale United Methodist Church in Muncie, Indiana, understood the church needed a regular social media presence. The small congregation had launched a number of programs from children’s ministry to small group study and a weekly community meal. He hired me to create a content strategy that would increase visibility to aid in developing community support.

THE APPROACH

Website

The church did not have a website, and it had no budget to create one. My first step was to put together a starter Wix site (http://avondalemuncie.wixsite.com/website) to be assigned the church’s own domain at a later date. This met the basic requirement of the site: a place to publish content.

Blog

The core of the content strategy was Josh’s Sunday morning messages, which contained the church’s ethos and biblical basis for its programming. Every Monday morning, I would write and publish a sermon recap. Sometimes I would use stock photography, other times I would use my own photos of Josh or whoever was speaking at the pulpit that Sunday. I would then promote that content on Facebook.

Social

The rest of the week, I promoted church programming via posts and as Facebook events. I would also draw relevant content from local media and resources provided by the United Methodist Church (umc.org) to maintain a routine of daily posting Monday through Friday.

THE RESULTS

Because of our efforts, we were able to increase average monthly impressions for the Avondale UMC Facebook page by 107% over 6 months (from November 2018 to April 2019). Anecdotally, the church received several compliments on its Facebook activity, and Facebook became a common way for people to interact with the church via direct message.

When my contract was up, I prepped a small team of volunteers to divide, continue and expand the work of keeping Avondale UMC and its vital programs visible to the local community.

Link to site:

Antioch College (Not-for-Profit)

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About the project:

A TOP-TO-BOTTOM REDESIGN

Antioch College needed a complete redesign of their website. Caylor Solutions had conducted a discovery session with the client to discuss the school’s existing brand and how they wanted it to evolve. They had an experienced team in place that could lay out, design and organize the new site. The only piece they were missing was an experienced content writer.

A MISSING PIECE

Owner Bart Caylor and his team engaged me at the right time – before any design work had been done. They understood that powerful words must drive design. I studied the existing site, notes from discovery sessions Bart had facilitated with key faculty and marketing staff, and watched a recorded video of one of those sessions. From those materials, I worked with the Caylor team to develop a branding guide.

A POWERFUL MESSAGE

Once Antioch approved the guide, I got to work writing and organizing copy for the primary pages – Home, Admission, Academics, Campus Life, and some secondary page material. The effect was a branding message that drove home the themes of self-empowerment, collaborative learning, real-world experience and making a positive impact on the world.

A HELPING HAND

The idea was to provide compelling copy for the highest-traffic areas of the site that would link to pages for which staff and faculty would write their own content. To help ensure the success of client-produced content, Caylor Solutions engaged me to record a custom webinar for Antioch on best practices for writing for the Web.

Link to site:

Why We Love (and Why You Should Care) About Pantone’s 2018 Color of the Year: Ultra Violet (Marketing & Advertising)

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Photo by Anderson Creative.

About the project:

Anderson Creative is a boutique agency based in the Indianapolis area. In early 2018, they enlisted me to help them launch a series of articles to capture who they are.

The first was about the founder and president, Arin Anderson. An artist at heart, Arin wanted the focus of our fascinating interview to be on the power of color. We explored how ultra violet was a reflection of the cultural moment and how brands utilize color to communicate values.

LINK TO ARTICLE HERE.

How to Prevent Degenerative Diseases (Health)

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About the project:

The Logan Institute for Health & Wellness wanted to announce their new physician to the practice. I interviewed Dr. Marwan Mustaklem to discover why patients should be as excited to work with him as his colleagues.

In capturing not only his passion for anti-aging research, but the results he has seen in patients, I created a compelling online companion piece to the waiting room announcement flier created by Anderson Creative.

LINK TO ARTICLE HERE.

Blood, Mouse Poop, Sewage – 3 Things You Should NOT Find in a Grocery Store (Service Industries)

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About the project:

This article is one of a limited series of blog posts I produced for Dalton & Co. Professional Cleaning Supply. This headline has some obvious shock value (blood! mouse poop!) that I didn’t choose lightly. Because Dalton & Co. serves both the general public in its retail store and commercial cleaning companies, we had two audiences.

The goal was to reach the general audience with a little shock value while communicating Dalton’s experience providing supplies to clean a specific type of facility. The primary audience, then, was commercial cleaning professionals with grocery stores and other facilities that must maintain health code standards on their client lists.

LINK TO ARTICLE HERE