How Exemplifi Boosted Lead Generation by Improving Content Quality

Exemplifi checked all the boxes on any content marketing to-do list.

They posted consistently on their company’s blog page. They distributed that content to social media channels. Then they waited for conversions and leads to start rolling in.

But the results just weren’t there.

So, the team made subtle but powerful changes to their strategy to boost lead conversion and create content that engages their audience.

How’d they do it?

About Exemplifi

Exemplifi is a company providing technical services, such as website development and maintenance, for private enterprises and government agencies.

Founded in 2018 in Palo Alto, California, Exemplifi has remained relatively small, with about 15 employees.

Right now, there’s one marketing specialist managing content creation and working with internal SMEs.

Starting with an OK Content Plan

On paper, it seemed Exemplifi had a good content plan in place. They:

• Had a strong sense of their niche and what the audience needed
• Consistently published topical content
• Had a strong base of subject matter experts to rely on

As Ashwin Thapliyal, Growth Marketer at Exemplifi, explains, “The content was there, but it was not optimized or driving in the traffic content should be delivering.”

They soon realized that their content was too technical, keeping it from being engaging enough for their audience.

It also wasn’t leveraging one of Exemplifi’s strongest assets: authenticity.

Let’s see what they did to fix their content marketing strategy.

How Exemplifi Stuck to Content Marketing Basics to Start Generating Organic Leads

After revamping their content strategy, Exemplifi saw a dramatic increase in the number of leads coming from content, as well as organic and social media traffic.

“We now get a lot of inquiries that discover us through the content,” says Thapliyal.

They also managed to consistently grow their organic keywords, enhancing their thought leadership in the niche.

Here are the steps Exemplifi’s team followed:

1. Improve Tone and Searchability

Exemplifi is known for its highly technical and proficient approach to building websites.

Most of its web content is written by real engineers working with real clients, boosting their content with authenticity and authority.

For example, the company’s CEO is publishing a lot of content himself:

At the same time, potential customers are not always engineers or able to follow all the technical jargon.

But instead of “dumbing it down,” Exemplifi’s team found ways to make their content easier to find and read.

“We added the right keywords and links,” says Thapliyal.

Running a thorough keyword research and optimizing their content for search engines helped the brand generate additional traffic and boost their visibility.

Another important change was adding an extra editing step where Thapliyal reviewed the article for readability and tone of voice.

Doing so in addition to including basic marketing elements, like keywords and calls-to-action, helped in multiple ways. Mainly:

• Making content easier to read boosts engagement. Users stay longer and are more likely to scan through the entire piece. All of this sends positive signals to Google and increases conversions.
• Maintaining a relevant and consistent tone of voice helps connect with the audience. It builds trust and highlights the brand’s personality.

To achieve these results, you can use tools like ContentShake to keep track of your content’s readability and tone of voice.

It’ll instantly score your copy, highlight all potential issues, and help you fix them with AI.

Overall, having an in-depth understanding of their audience helps Exemplifi find the right way to communicate through their content.

They know the language their customers speak and the problems they have, which is central for content marketing success.

2. Feed Every Part of the Funnel

Next, the team audited its content to make sure it was reaching every stage of the content marketing funnel.

A variety of tech-focused and easy-reads attracts different levels of customers and carries them through the sales funnel.

Casual readers at the top of the funnel may be drawn in by lighter pieces, such as this blog on The Top Website Performance Metrics.

It’s high-value and actionable, but doesn’t get into the weeds. In other words, it’s not a piece of content that would necessarily attract users with an immediate purchase intent.

Serious leads and potential clients at the bottom of the funnel will likely read more technical content, like this Building Websites with Headless AEM and Gatsby article.

Finally, the agency publishes case studies with their work across various CMS platforms.

For example, they have a website section featuring various WordPress projects implemented by Exemplifi.

Along the way, creating content for various funnel stages nurtures their audience and makes users come back to the website.

“Eventually, the casual inquirer will turn into a client, but is still a few steps away,” says Thapliyal.

Their content builds trust and confidence that makes purchasing their services an easy “yes.”

3. Mine Content Ideas from Clients

As a specialized company, it’s vital for Exemplifi to create original content that showcases their expertise.

When they need to find content ideas, they turn to their own customers and create content to address their real-life questions.

For example, they gather ideas from current projects and even from proposals they’ve lost.

“Every contract we lose, we ask for information about who the winning team was and their proposal,” explains Thapliyal.

Then they take the feedback loop a step further and complete a competitive analysis of the winning company’s website, offer, and other content.

They look for gaps in their own site and offerings, and turn those into fresh content ideas.

“Sometimes we lose a pitch because they think we can’t do something, but we can and just haven’t highlighted it,” Thapliyal says.

You can also easily carry out competitive analysis using special tools like Semrush’s Organic Research.

First, simply enter your domain and open the “Competitors” tab to see your main organic rivals.

From here, you can click on any competitor and see which keywords and pages generate the most traffic for their websites.

Exemplifi also looks for trends among their existing clientele.

Bottom line: The agency’s content ideas are coming straight from their clients and potential clients. This guarantees engagement and the timeliness of everything they produce.

4. Lean on Subject Matter Experts

Creating original content that’s based on real-life experience is central to ranking high on Google. It doesn’t matter if you’re using AI or not; the original insights must be there.

That’s why Exemplifi relies on its own team to produce its content.

“We’re very tech heavy,” says Thapliyal. “Our content is based on the experience our team has had working with clients and solving their problems.”

Their content creation process looks this way:

• The tech team members are writing content based on their projects
• The marketing specialists review this content and polish it
• The final version gets approved by the tech specialists

And it works! See how one of their posts boosted their daily site traffic from 400 visitors to nearly 4,000.

Such content is generating a lot of leads because Exemplifi stands apart from similar companies by focusing on their superpowers and their tech experience.

In reality, you can make this process faster by using AI writing tools like ContentShake.

You can easily transform insights coming from SMEs into engaging and optimized copy using the AI chatbot feature and competitive insights.

Leveraging What You Do Best

When asked to name Exemplifi’s biggest takeaway from their content marketing journey, Thapliyal explains:

“Building authenticity in our brand has taken our content to another level. It’s not clickbait or something AI can generate. Our content comes from genuine work and experience.”

Zero-in on your strengths and apply some content marketing basics.

• Discover what makes your company unique; maybe it’s your mission, brand story, perspective, or the technology you use
• Focus on topics and keywords that your audience actually searches for
• Talk to your clients and document past learnings for content

It’s said that experience is the best teacher. It also seems to be the best content marketing tool in any marketer’s belt.