Case Study: Online PR Agency for the Non-Windows Vista Social Club
I thought I’d share the machinations of a recent uber-hot campaign with you – just to give you a sense of how we do our Online PR agency mojo.
This one’s in the technology space, with our good friends at Squiz, and it’s a great example of really specific ‘BootStart’ style gig. We were in and out in two days, with results delivered and a new business lead for the client on the afternoon of day three.
Here’s what happened….
The Client
Squiz. Developer of one of the world’s leading Open Source CMS’s. They do fab work with folks like The Royal Society for Arts, Oxford University, Boots and others. All of whom use their product, MySource Matrix, to run their web sites.
The BootStart Gig
Squiz recently developed a very slick (and functionally comprehensive) Open Source version of a Social Networking Platform. Like FaceBook, but one that a company can build and run themselves in order to mantain their own social networks – for community forums, events management, that kind of thing…
Having done the hard development work to create it, their immediate goal was basically to sell it hard: to put it in front of a select bunch of people and win some development and implementation projects before Xmas.
Which is where we came in…
Our Online PR Recommendations
…also involved some good old fashioned offline tactics.
Firstly, the no-brainer selling opportunity was to take it to existing customers, or those in their current pipeline. Like, ‘Hi, got Matrix? Wow! Have you seen what you can do with our new Open Source Social Networking Platform…?’
So, we suggested working together on an exclusive breakfast seminar in town where they could invite their sales targets in to hear all about why the new product is so great, and why it’s a must-have item.
So far so good – once the venue was booked the sales teams hit the phones and started the invitation process,
In addition, we supported this direct selling effort with a two-pronged Online PR campaign, as follows:
- SEO: get the product some high-profile traction on Google
- Buzz: get the product out across the web via some standard network distribution
Our Online PR Process and Deliverables
Here’s how we approached it:
Day 1…
- AM: we took the client brief
- PM: we made our recommendations
- PM: we delivered our keyword strategy and stated our goals, as follows…
Strategy: optimise our online push around the terms ‘Open Source Social Networking’ and ‘Open Source Social Networking Platform’, which we knew – combined – would attract around 2,000 searches per month.
Goal: first page presence on Google for the product on this term (and variants of it)
Day 2…
We researched, created, delivered and implemented on site the following HEAVILY OPTIMIZED content:
- A new product page (see: MySource Matrix Open Source Social Networking Platform Software)
- A press release (see: New Open Source Social Networking Platform Software from Squiz: MySource Gets Plugged into the Social Matrix!)
- A blog post to position the offering (see: Open Source Social Networking Software: Platforms & Integration!)
- A seminar registration page (see: MySource Matrix Open Source Social Networking Platform Software Seminar)
We then applied some extreme motion to the above by pushing it out into the interweb with the express aim of raising awareness, generating backlinkage and such…
Late in the day, we also developed the home page creative which you see above (‘The Non-Windows Vista Social Club’)…. to add a little bit of fun to the proceedings at Microsoft’s expense. (Note: the sales prospects are technical – the ‘Vista’ joke was for their benefit exclusively!)
Our Online PR Results
Once we’d done all this stuff we had a good lie down – day two was a long old day!
The next thing to do was wait…. and wait, until the Google God had indexed the new content. (We knew this would be fast because of how we’d seeded the content on other external platforms.)
Day 3….
12pm…
New pages were indexed by around midday…. Here’s page 1 of Google on our broadest (ie toughest!) search term – note, our press release appears at #2, the target page appears at #4 (click the thumbnail for an enlarged view of the results page):
And here’s page 1 of Google on ‘Social Networking Platform’ (Note – no ‘open source’, just straight to the meat on a broader term)… This draws an audience of approximately 1,000 searchers per month. We’re #1 for our press release, and #3 for the target page – sandwiching the good old BBC…
Hmmm…. Looks like all the bases are covered then!
2pm…
Lo and behold, a product SALES INQUIRY from a large central London organisation appears in the sales team’s inbox. This led to a meeting being set up for a demo and a chat.
4pm…
The seminar sign ups begin (aided by the sales teams phone efforts).
6pm…
A beer or five.
The Net: What Online PR Can Do For You
Given a tight brief, a close working relationship, and some good source material, our Online PR tweakery can help you kick butt in the SERP’s (search engine results pages), get you and your products in front of the right people, and generate leads and sales.
Easy as day 1, 2, 3….
3 Responses so far. Add Your Own.
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SOAPBOX: BLOG POSTS /// MORE
Basic Things to Put in a Monthly Online PR / Social Media Report
Here at C&M, we’re advocates of ‘less is more’ and focusing on the bottom line – like proving what impact our work has on real-world conversions. As such, here’s our working list of things to measure campaigns by (albeit with a slight bias on B2B requirements…)
The C&M 2009 New Year Resolutions (For Doing Online PR Better)
We have two: i) Get Some History and ii) Make Less Haste. Both will help us to work smarter and to give our clients what they really want – well conceived, executed and measured Online PR activity.
SOAPBOX: LATEST COMMENTS
comment from: Roger Warner
Hey Craig…. thanks for the feedback. In principle this is a master ‘menu’ of things that we monitor quantitatively....
comment from: Doug - Velocity, B2B Marketing Agency
Great metrics. I can’t think of a client who wouldn’t love this kind of reporting, even if some of...
comment from: Craig McGill
That’s a thumpingly comprehensive report – how long would you expect it to take to generate/collate for a client?
[…] Online PR Case Study: Agency for the Non-Windows Vista Social Club By Roger Warner Late in the day, we also developed the home page creative which you see above (‘The Non-Windows Vista Social Club’)…. to add a little bit of fun to the proceedings at Microsoft’s expense. (Note: the sales prospects are technical – the … Content & Motion* – http://www.contentandmotion.com […]
WindowsObserver.com » Windows Vista Google Alerts for 11 October 2008
11 Oct 2008
It’s the speed of this which is the most interesting to me – not just the speed with which you did everything, but also the speed with which Google picked it up. Great job. The product itself sounds good too – always interested in anything new in the CMS field that can benefit businesses.
David Prior
17 Dec 2008
hey David. Matrix is an awesome open source CMS for SEO tweakery. in terms of the online PR campaign, the speed of indexing has a lot to do with how hard we’ve worked at blogging with Squiz over recent years… We now know that when we publish anew, we get indexed fast… and that, coupled with a high level of confidence in our pagerank and general SEO footprint, means we can start things with a good degree of predictability…. like any example of this work, you start out with a gut feel, and pretty quickly the confidence levels become tangible…
Roger Warner
17 Dec 2008