How to launch your new blog
Overview
David Manchester of Automotive Assets has been a leader within the Automotive Industry for decades but was hidden behind his existing brochure website. The objective was to reposition David and develop a marketing platform to grow his prospect list whilst building relationships with prospects and clients.
Client
David Manchester: Automotive Assets
Category
Website development
Objective
Launch plan for a new blog and ebook
Strategy
We needed to change David’s existing website from a static electronic business card to a destination site for automotive dealership owners. We also needed to develop David as a personal brand and present him as a person who shares his wealth of knowledge and expertise.
The best way to achieve this was to start and develop a blog to help automotive dealerships realise their asset value and improve profit.
A launch strategy was developed to ensure that David could capitalise on this re-positioning and new marketing plan.
Most people or bloggers ignore developing a launch plan (however simple) and miss the opportunity to engage with their audience (which is the main point of running a blog).
Challenge
Right at the beginning of the process it was hard to identify what dealership owners would be searching for and what they needed help with.
How do you develop a strategy and content plan if you do not know what your audience wants?
Where do you put your information if they do not actively seek out the information you are sharing?
Ultimately the objective was to help automotive dealerships sell their assets for the best price and pitch David as the person to help them.
Solution
Through consultation it was clear that David had developed a system and a process which ensured success for a dealership owner.
This ‘system’ of getting results was developed into an ebook which could be downloaded by prospects. A simple email marketing campaign was designed to launch the blog using the ebook as the signature product.
The email campaign and blog had to:
- Be personal
- Show personality
- Show professionalism
- Provide a solution
Result
From the repositioning of David’s personal brand he is now the ‘go to’ person for automotive dealerships looking for help in improving profits.
As soon as the launch strategy was implemented, prospects were enquiring about what was to come and wishing the very best for the launch.
Changing the static website to an informative and helpful blog provided David with a marketing platform that actively encourages prospects to engage in conversations.
The intrigue of the pending launch actually resulted in 3 consultations even before the new site went live.
On the week the blog went live David actually received an impressive 92 enquiries and a massive spike in visibility.
Conclusion
The take-away lessons from this project:
- Don’t hide behind your website – people buy from people.
- Develop a strategy with your end prospects’ wants, needs, fears and desires in mind.
- Have the functionality to deliver your marketing objectives. Don’t build a website and then think about marketing.
- Tell people what you are going to do, tell them when you have done it and then ask them what they thought.
- To improve conversion rates, don’t think of your prospects as numbers in a database. Be personal with your marketing and help people.