How a Robust Content Marketing Strategy Fueled Corporate Growth in an Emerging Space [Case Study]

When your company evolves a product to enter an emerging market, how do you educate potential customers? How can you become a thought leader in a brand new space?

As part of its core mission, Treasure Data always knew that “for any business, the ability to make sense of its data and turn it into actionable insights would deliver a competitive edge.” But the company had made some fundamental shifts.

1. Product Evolution: moving into the new Customer Data Platform (CDP) space
2. Target Buyer: from a technical buyer in mid-market companies to Chief Marketing Officer of B2B enterprises
3. Geographic Market: a Japan-based company seeking to expand in the U.S.

Treasure Data recognized that it needed to quickly and thoughtfully develop valuable, relevant content to this new market. The solution was to bring in experienced consultants to help build and execute a new marketing strategy.

A New Approach to Address Marketing Needs

Treasure Data’s marketing team had been generating content, but the strategy was still nascent. Since the product was revamped, basic product and sales collateral were needed. Of course, their team was busy wearing many hats working in a startup environment.

Enter EM Marketing, which provided a strong team — a lead consultant serving as a content strategist and project manager as well as a couple of fantastic writers. As the lead, Colleen McCarthy came in with a deep understanding of what kind of information C-level buyers need, having led marketing for other SaaS products. She also “gets” data, having worked in data management solutions firms. In addition, the writers had previous experience with B2B enterprises, so they got up to speed quickly to create content efficiently.

Originally, the agreement was three-fold: 1) conduct a content audit; plan and execute a content strategy, 2) create a field strategy (to be executed by their internal team), and 3) plan and execute their first Customer Advisory Board meeting. Over the course of the three-month engagement, EM Marketing also helped drive positioning, test messaging with potential buyers, and build an effective “content machine.”

Dive In, Tap Into Knowledge, Create Good Content

In order to dig into the client’s needs, Colleen engaged with the Treasure Data team in the office two or three times a week. She went to regular marketing and sales meetings. Finding a general consensus on what to talk about, she saw that they needed to draw out the team’s subject-matter expertise.

Colleen worked closely with the marketing team to align their positioning and messaging across the company. From there, they developed a set of topics on which they could become thought leaders. Asking specific questions like, “What can Treasure Data do to help a CMO create a lookalike strategy?” gave enough fodder to tease out the knowledge people in-house had. They used external content to fill out the missing pieces.

Partnering an EM writer with Treasure Data employees proved to be a very successful model. They wanted to present a point of view but could not find the time to write. The process involved interviewing the employees, doing a bit of research, and creating blog posts, white papers, or case studies. The writers cranked out 10 solid pieces in one month.

A Winning Situation

By bringing in an experienced consultant to focus on an area of need, Treasure Data was able to get clear on what their new narrative was. They leveraged a team of writers, completely steeped in the story of its company, to quickly and effectively produce content. In addition, a tight collaboration between Treasure Data’s SEO team and EM’s content team resulted in moving from 29th to 19th place on Google’s SERP for a highly strategic term — in just one month.

Coincidentally, Treasure Data got acquired by Arm which strengthened their positioning in the market. With a robust content strategy, they demonstrate that they can educate customers and grow as an organization. Head of Marketing Tom Treanor continues to see the value of EM writers who have become CDP experts and keep the content engine running strong.

Could your company benefit from this type of service? If you’re ready to change how you market today, feel free to contact EM Marketing.

EM Marketing Team:

Molly Tapias — Practice Area Lead, Marketing Strategy, Messaging, Insights & Content
Colleen McCarthy — Lead Consultant, Project Manager
Stephanie Engelsen — Content and Field Strategy
Diana Donovan — Project Coordinator, Writer
Ed Sweet — Writer
Arianna Dogil — Writer
Garner Gollatz — Writer