Case StudyGrow the Blog to 100,000 views per month in a year (nearly 10x growth)

PROFILE

NAME : Ryan AxfordEMAIL : RyanAxford@gmail.comPOS : Inbound Marketing Manager

Ryan is an Inbound Market-ing Manager delivering triple digit gains and an additional million dollars in revenue at Falafel Software. Ryan is full funnel certified and has been strategic as well as hands-on in the creation of inbound marketing campaigns. His

content campaigns have helped SmartBear Software to drive millions in revenue, and he’s also delivered ana-lytical, ran multi-variant and A/B testing, and is capable designing and coding email and landing pages.

The Falafel Blog was built on the Sitefinity CMS platform and had about 14,000 views per month in January of 2014 and hadn’t seen more than 5-10% growth in 2013. Our CEO wanted to see those numbers grow to 100,000 views per month by 2015. Ryan was tasked with strategizing a solution for Falafel’s growth problem by evaluating how the blog operated at the time, what could be op-timizted, and which steps and training needed to happen to reach those goals.

PROBLEM

SOLUTIONRyan introduced the company to a number of new social sites including Dzone and Hacker News. At his suggestion, Falafel also moved the blog to Wordpress. Ryan coached the team on constantly creating last-ing articles, and how to write in a way which would allow them to repurpose their content in the future. With the combination of consistent posting, and also creating that content with a business purpose, and driving leads, the content team became more aware of why they were writing, and thus the program was successful.

The result was powerful. Consistent month over month increases lead to hitting our goal of 100,000 views in October of 2014, months ahead of schedule. Furthermore, Ryan built a number of landing pages around the content being posted to the blog, initiating lead flow. The blog continues to grow and generate new TOFU leads thanks to a talented team of developers writing every day.

RESULT

TESTIMONIALS

Ryan is an all-around marketing powerhouse. I was fortunate enough to work with Ryan for a year at SmartBear. Graphic design, social media, and project management are just a few of his stand out skills. He’s the kind of person who can take the initiative to drive a project from start to finish, and make sure the process runs smoothly along the way. One thing to note about Ryan is that he is truly a team player. His willingness to assist others during tight deadlines, and dedication to completing any task presented proves that he would be a strong asset to have on any marketing team.

- Rick DeCosta, Marketing Operations Manager, SmartBear Software

Ryan was a referral from a well-respected colleague and I am so glad that he decided to join the SmartBear Marketing Team. From the minute he started, Ryan worked on a brand-new marketing program to provide a video library for the flagship SmartBear product, Test Complete. This training library was designed in conjunction with our fabulous partner, Falafel Software, and Ryan’s consistent efforts led to 100 brand-new videos, a certification exam, and a program that knocks the socks off anything else out there. Ryan researched, wrote, created, developed, posted, and did everything possible to make it a success. A long time in the making, Ryan was able to cross the finish line with this massive undertaking, delivering revenue and success to the company.

- Jeanne Hopkins, Senior Vice President and CMO, Continuum

Ryan is a well-rounded and creative marketer. This guy can do anything! I had the pleasure of working with Ryan for a year at SmartBear where he acted as graphic design ninja, social media consultant, and production management leader. Ryan respects process and organization. I appreciated his willingness to assist in team projects and his honesty about deadlines and work cycles. Ryan’s technical skills and dedication to teamwork make him a great addition to any fast-paced marketing team.

- Kendal Peiguss, Marketing Manager, Toast INC

Ryan is a great asset for any marketing team. He’s the type of guy you can put on any task and he’ll knock it out of the park. A true marketing generalist. He has a GREAT eye for designing ef-fective landing pages and corresponding CTA graphics. His knowl-edge of social media management is far superior to anyone I’ve met. He took on every task at SmartBear with enthusiasm and professionalism. It was a pleasure to work with Ryan.

- Adam Barker, Director of Demand Gen, Continuum