Case Study: Content Marketing + Alexa Voice Strategy for UX Design Agency - Nine Labs

Nine Labs is an Atlanta-based user experience and product design firm with clients including major airlines, hotels, and startups.

The problem:

With years of blog posts, podcasts, videos, white papers, and ebooks there was plenty of content but no strategic method to effectively share it on social media. Potential traffic and leads were left on the table. Nine Labs wanted to organize and share all their content to increase engagement, brand recognition, and ultimately leads.

Nine Labs: Made with ❤️in Atlanta, GA

The solution:

We created a robust social media marketing strategy and guide to help Nine Labs with content marketing. We also launched an Alexa Flash Briefing to establish a voice presence in the UX design category. Then we provided ongoing guidance in implementing, empowering their in-house team to manage it.

Custom Content Marketing Strategy

Goals:

1. Increase blog traffic

2. Increase leads

3. Increase social engagement

4. Establish voice presence on Alexa

Strategy characteristics:

• Content buckets and monthly themes based on Nine Labs’ driving principles from 4 Steps to a Human Centered Business Model

• Specific guidelines to create social posts (text, graphics, video, and audiograms) for different social channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn - each with different goals and slightly different audiences

• Introduction of audiograms

  • Guidelines on creating effective, short audiograms for Instagram and Twitter by repurposing past podcast and YouTube video content

Audiogram for Instagram (static image with 1-minute audio and captions)

Alexa Skills search ranking in app for “UX design” keywords - Nine Labs Flash Briefing

• Brand separation from executive profile: Clarity and direction on content strategy for CEO (and helluva smart guy) J Cornelius’s personal brand and the Nine Labs brand

• Strategy and launch of Design Driven, an Alexa Flash Briefing about UX and product

  Fact: Design-driven companies outperform the S&P by 228%.
  
  Interested in the intersection of business, design, UX, and product development? Enable this daily briefing about using design to build great products and lasting companies.

• Repurposing and repackaging high quality content instead of starting from scratch, saving the client time

• Optimize lead magnet forms on blog and website

• Strategically drive traffic to lead magnets, downloadable PDFs, and blog

• Optimized Alexa Flash Briefing keywords, description, and daily content. Hear past briefings below:

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Results of 8-week marketing engagement:

Obsess over your customers. #uxdesign

• Increase in social engagements:

  • Facebook up 21%

  • Instagram up 893% (from 312 to 3,100)

  • Twitter up 178%

  • LinkedIn from 0 to 48 average weekly engagements

• Increased blog traffic and leads from social

• VOICE SEARCH OPTIMIZATION: Within two weeks, ranked on page 1 , top three results of Alexa Skills search results for terms including “ux”, “product design,” and “ux design”

• Empowered marketing team to efficiently run with this strategy on their own

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“Emily has an incisive mind about marketing and how voice is rapidly changing the landscape. She worked hard to find the right use of the technology without compromising quality or our brand message.”

— J Cornelius, Founder and President, Nine Labs

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Why We Love Nine Labs

If you need guidance on designing a digital product, we recommend J Cornelius and his ace team at Nine Labs. Hands down, they’re the best. Nine Labs understands design and how it fits into business as a whole. They also run killer workshops and training.

Get the best thinking from startups and enterprise to give your projects the support to succeed. https://ninelabs.com/

Case Study: Fintech - Social Media Strategy for Global Payments Provider (Remittance)

The problem:

A successful fintech company with a monopoly on maritime payments had little to no brand presence on social media. As part of a brand overhaul and website update, we began a strategic effort to build the professional brand and thought leadership presence. As an award-winning fintech, this client wanted their LinkedIn and Twitter presence to reflect their commitment to democratizing global payments with innovative technology. Also important to convey: healthy culture and a great place to work with people who care.

The solution:

We focused on three audiences: local business and fintech, job seekers and candidates, and current employees. Through content marketing, hands-on daily management, and community building, after six months we had great results:

Objectives:

• Post consistently on LinkedIn and Twitter (@BrightwellApp)

• Increase overall social engagement rate

• Grow followers

• Establish a presence as subject matter experts and a source of industry updates

Organic growth - fintech brand Twitter account

July-December 2018 Organic Follower Growth:

• 4x increase - Twitter

• 57% increase - LinkedIn

Tactics - content we shared and promoted:

• Variety of topical articles from quality industry publications and users

  • Add commentary and insights for original viewpoint

• Tag engaged users and authors

• Behind the scenes photos (conferences, events, office culture)

• Relief campaigns for disaster relief in users’ home countries such as Indonesia

  • One relief campaign went viral (over 43,000 retweets, no spend)

• Job posts

• Twitter: Built original Lists to curate quality content faster

LinkedIn Followers (Organic)

Brightwell began with 1,085 followers. After our work, they had about 5,000 followers and a 201% increase in monthly page views.

Relief campaign for natural disaster: went viral organically on Twitter

LinkedIn and Twitter:

• We established consistent brand presence beginning in July 2018

• We created steady organic follower growth

• What happened?

  • LinkedIn post engagement:

    • Before our work: 2%

    • After two months: 19%

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