Success By Blogging - a Case Study

Posted on February 26, 2008
Filed Under Promotion |

An associate in Denver sent me a case study he’d made of his client’s success since I set up a blogging campaign for the client three years ago. It was touching to see how it all worked out for the client. Note that all this happened without any additional promotion: it was just personal networking and offering valuable service that allowed the client to carve out his global niche - but it was the blog that gave him the necessary vehicle.

I’ll share this just as it comes.

Synopsis:
Joseph Brazier has been one of the most respected names in the old English gunmaking trade since 1827.

This nearly extinct industry has been focused over the last 30 years on the refurbishment and very limited creation of exquisitely fine, highly decorative, hand-crafted shotguns for competition shooters and collectors alike. These products have been traditionally made entirely by hand by a few craftsmen in England and Italy - even into the 1990’s.

Joseph Brazier, through the adoption of modern technology and acquisition of brilliant engineers, has recently begun a revolution in the industry by utilizing modern computer aided drafting and precision computer controlled machinery to completely change the way these products are made.

Goal:
To discover and dominate the existing market opportunities and lead a 300-year-old industry into the future while expanding into other related markets for precision engineering applications.

Challenge:
To create a dominant market presence for Joseph Brazier technology and the new products and methods it has developed. The target market is composed of a very wide range of companies and individuals from around the world, each searching for very specific and often obscure items or services.

A typical client from the public sector is the owner of a $150,000.00 hand-made shotgun that is over 100 years old and was fully engraved and inlaid with gold by a master Italian engraver. He has broken a small spring or screw that was originally made by hand in the last century, and it has rendered the entire piece useless - except as a very expensive paper weight.

Joseph Brazier is one of the very few companies in the world that can help him.

How do we reach that customer - particularly when he lives in England, India or Saudi Arabia as this clientele typically does?

Solution:
Creation of a website (that is highly optimized for search engine indexing) to act as a platform to reach out and educate the existing traditional market, creating an offering of its products and services, and discover new market opportunities.

This was all accomplished by the creation of a relatively static website that houses optimized information designed to attract potential customers in conjunction with a very dynamic blog that allows Joseph Brazier personnel to constantly add timely content that addresses new technology and product offerings, promotes public relations activities, seminars, trade show appearances, and educates both potential customers and partners alike.

The main website is found here:
http://www.josephbrazier.com/
It contains the largely static information - such as contact info, history, and standard service offerings.

One of the main level buttons is “News”.
This is a link to the blog and goes here:
http://www.josephbrazier.com/news/

All of the content found here - including imagery - has been generated and implemented by Joseph Brazier personnel over the last couple years.

Although dynamic in nature (eventually all older content moves to an archive automatically), all news content has a permanent URL as well by which the information article can be directly accessed.

For instance, say I want to send that friend of mine with the $150,000 paper weight the info on getting his screw replaced. I can send him this link:
http://www.josephbrazier.com/news/29/can-we-talk-parts/
to take him directly to an article written last year.

The big advantage here is that all this is visible to the search engines (Google) as well, and as a result, this site has become a clearing house for information for the industry.

Due to this high level of on-line visibility, Joseph Brazier, Ltd., largely through use of a blog, has gone from a mostly invisible company in a nearly extinct niche, to one of the industry leaders in the modern firearms industry with an average of approx. 3000 unique visitors to their website monthly.

In addition to selling their specialized services and products to the public, this marketing endeavor has produced agreements and contracts with several major firearms manufacturers that has resulted in the substantial expansion of the company as a whole.

And all this happened in 2.5 years.

Comments

One Response to “Success By Blogging - a Case Study”

  1. Blogging - The Professional Campaign on March 14th, 2008 2:05 pm

    […] One of the first things you might do is read a success story of a blog used by a man with a very specialized profession. The story tells of filling a niche - founding it really - and becoming globally accessible, simply and cleanly, over 2-3 years. Success By Blogging - a Case Study […]

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