Colin Warwick shows how a B2B company makes the first page on Google

Colin Warwick, Signal Integrity Product Manager in the EDA Design & Simulation Software division of Agilent Technologies, is responsible for marketing software to help engineers overcome limitations in high speed digital connections.

As he was working on his marketing plans, he came to the realization that traditional business-to-business marketing like tradeshows are expensive and increasingly ineffective. He also understands the importance of the search engines for his business.

"Everyone understands Google," Colin says. "Everybody can instantly see when you enter a phrase into Google if your competitors come up and you don’t or vice versa."

The most important search term for Colin's products is signal integrity, and Agilent product information was coming up on the fifth page of results, clearly not ideal. So Colin set out to make Agilent appear at the top of the search results.

But unlike many organizations that use SEO techniques to try to creep up a few spaces in the results, Colin started writing a signal integrity blog.

Everything from the name of the blog and the URL to the excellent content was designed to appeal to the buyer personas interested in this topic and to drive solid search engine rankings.

"There are only 50,000 signal integrity engineers in the entire world and our average sale is about $10,000 with a six-month sales cycle," Colin says. "While the competitors show their brochures, we have a valuable blog. It helps a great deal to have such valuable information, both for search engine results and in the selling process."

Colin says that executives at Agilent were very supportive of him starting the blog, but there were some guidelines that he had to work within. "The company said I could blog but that the IT department would not support it," he says. "So I needed to create the blog outside of the company domain. I was required to follow some very common sense rules: Don't mention the competition; link to the Agilent terms of service and privacy policy; and include a copyright notice. It has been a very good experience. Companies need to trust that employees will do the right thing and let people blog."

The results have been very encouraging. "Many customers say that they like the blog and our salespeople tell prospects about it," Colin says. "Having a blog allows me to be spontaneous. For example, I can put diagrams up very quickly and let people know valuable information. If we needed to put content on the corporate site, it would take 3 days. With the blog I can get into a conversation in just five minutes."

So what about the Google search results? On Google, for the phrase signal integrity Colin’s blog is now on the first page of results (number five position when I checked).

"Prior to starting my blog, the company products page was ranked number 44 on Google," Colin says. "That’s a huge improvement."

But there are many added benefits to having a blog that took Colin by surprise.

"Trade magazine journalists read the blog and they include links to it in their blog rolls and I am making great web connections," he says. "For example, I asked Paul Rako, an important journalist at EDN, to moderate a panel for me and he did because he knows me from the blog."

Comments

[Ashley]

David, this is very inspiring. I work for a large construction firm and it's often difficult for me to describe the benefits of a blog especially to those who do not understand how useful they can be. I'll be sure to put this under my GM's nose!

Great post, thank you!

[Jeff Hillstad]

Good case study. I'm running a B2B open SEO experiment live for the community. I post what I'm doing and the measured impact. Read the blog here: http://datasheetreference.wordpress.com. You can chime in on the blog or the Facebook fan page.

[Colin Warwick]

Thanks, David, for your help and suggestions and thanks for the shout out. Since last we spoke interest here at Agilent in this topic has mushroomed! :-)

Cheers,
-- Colin

[David B. Thomas]

Social media can seem so overwhelming on a corporate level so it's great to see examples like this. You don't have to do everything. Just do something.

[Bob Scheier]

I especially appreciate the focus on keeping all the content laser-focused on one very specific subject. Very gratifying to see the actual results, and this tapping of internal subject matter expertise...

[Linda VandeVrede]

Examples like this help chip away at the resistance and plain "unawareness" of executives who don't understand the value of blogging, Google ranking, etc.

[David Meerman Scott]

Gang, Colin did this one right. Thanks for jumping in here with your comments.

Colin, Glad that you are finally getting some recognition. Tell your bosses that I said you need a big fat raise.

[Laura Hamlyn]

Entering the social media marketplace creates a deer-caught-in-headlights reaction for so many people. This simple idea (laser-focused content/expertise) can not only be a social marketing strategy in itself, but can also serve as a newbie's entree into gaining that first foothold online. Great article. Thanks!

[Updatesmbs]

It goes to show that the best efforts are focused ones. Small business owners who are typically overloaded with "too many hats" should consider outsourcing a lot of the necessary but tedious work and focusing on what they do best.

[Jamie Favreau]

Great case study I wound up sharing this story with someone who does communications for a B2@B PR Firm. Should be interesting... I wonder what his take is?

[Engago team]

Large corporations have problems with blogs, especially those being traded publicly.
Colin was still allowed to have his blog, but outside the company Internet perimeter.

These restrictions from large corporations are an advantage for smaller companies.

[Colin Warwick]

Hi David,

Me again. In my previous comment, I forgot to give credit to Mike Volpe and Pete Caputa at http://www.HubSpot.com who got me blogging in the first place. I was skeptical at first, but they were right.

Best regards,

-– Colin

[Vince Giorgi]

A little late in spotting this post, David, but it's a great one. Any company that feels blogging and social media aren't for them because their product is too nitty-gritty can take inspiration from the fact that signal integrity within high speed digital connections is the basis around which posts, conversations and engagement are being built.

[Southampton Internet Marketing]

Yes, I totally agreed that social media marketplace creates a deer-caught-in-headlights reaction for so many people. I loved what you have done here. This is good info to know.