The challenge

Kolabtree is an open talent platform that connects businesses to freelance scientists. As the organization speaks to a diverse set of clients, the challenge was to build a scalable and sustainable content strategy for the Kolabtree blog, aimed at maximizing conversions. 

The solution

To establish the Kolabtree blog as a secondary channel of business, by publishing trustworthy and reliable content.

The results

We’re growing organic traffic by 45% and conversions by at least 2x every year. In this article I break down how. 

My role

Own the blog and everything associated with it, from sourcing content and hiring writers to installing the right plugins and sidebars. I worked as part of a small and powerful team of 4 (sometimes 5), initially as the sole content marketer. In the last year, I had the support of an in-house Senior Content Writer.

The process

Here’s a 5-point summary of my approach: 

• Personas: Developing strong persona narratives to address specific challenges 
• Value proposition: Identifying our value proposition and competitive advantage. Communicating these at all touchpoints
• Content types: Experimenting with a variety of content types and channels 
• Data: Using data to measure, monitor and improve performance consistently  
• Repurposing and distribution: Making sure old content gets recycled and content is repurposed

TIMELINE 

2016-2018

• Established Kolabtree blog with the aim of it being a high-converting channel 
• Tweaked the SmartMag WordPress theme to add custom menus, sidebars and plugins
• During this time, we had a few thousand visitors

2018-2019

• Started investing in hiring experts to write for the blog on specific subjects, especially after Google’s Medic update 
• Split up content calendar by persona

100% increase in traffic and several improvements in page rankings.   

2019-2020 

• Moved from a subdomain to a subfolder 
• Had a specific industry focus every quarter 
• Improved the quality of traffic by moving to a high-intent audience
• Started a “how to hire” series on the blog that brings in a niche, small audience with high chance of conversions. 
• SEO strategy became stronger, using keywords with not only high search volumes but strong commercial intent. 

200% increase in traffic. 
140% increase in traffic from blog to homepage, demonstrating better quality audience.
350% increase in conversions

2020-2021

• Developed a massive content plan with content pillars for users across funnels. This means that Kolabtree will never run of things to write about 🙂
• Provided a space for freelancers to talk about their work 
• Started publishing interviews with freelancers to spotlight their work
• Developed a stronger plan to distribute content  
• Moved towards publishing content of at least 2,000 words

45% increase in traffic. 
240% increase in traffic from blog to homepage, demonstrating an even better quality of audience. 
350% increase in conversions