MyDrive Solutions, a UK-based B2B technology start-up, began with an ambition to establish itself as a key player in the specialist vertical market of insurance telematics – the collection of driver behaviour data for insurers to calculate the level of risk presented by each individual.
MyDrive enlisted the services of ITPR in order to raise the profile of the previously unknown company, who in turn created a bespoke PR campaign, based on thought leadership and SEO. Detailed web analytics demonstrated results derived from the first six months of the campaign that led to MyDrive being recognised as an undisputed heavyweight in the insurance telematics arena.
Thought leadership tactics
Targeting the insurance market, MyDrive Solutions was more than aware that its market was that of limited size and fast development – two factors that made PR an essential element of the marketing strategy. PR, unlike many other strands of the marketing mix, could quickly provide high impact, targeted media splash and regular content to feed other marketing activities.
But as like many fledgling companies, MyDrive had little or no profile in its target media, no search engine presence for its key terms and was yet to acquire customers who could recommend its product or services.
ITPR formulated a specifically tailored PR campaign, based primarily on thought leadership and SEO. Opinion articles and soundbites on topical issues were designed to give MyDrive and its key spokespeople a platform in influential trade publications from which to emerge as experts in the field.
PR push
Opinion articles, soundbites and topical commentary were secured in core insurance and niche technology publications – including Post Magazine, Insurance Insight, Telematics Update and the front cover feature of The Actuary.
Alongside this, one-to-one interviews were set up between MyDrive’s primary spokesperson and various key journalists, analysts and editors – resulting in significant additional exposure for the company in Fleet News and Intelligent Transport Systems and also in influential analysts’ reports from ABI Research.
As a result, MyDrive emerged as a credible contender in the insurance telematics market, alongside – and often in place of – other longer-established companies in the insurance telematics field. Linden Holliday, CEO of MyDrive Solutions, commented, “The campaign pushed MyDrive’s opinions and views on the market into publications that we knew were regularly read by exactly the people we wanted to talk directly to. This approach was absolutely vital to get our message in front of the right people at the right time. The campaign quickly gained traction and brought our company name to the attention of influential figures in our target market.”
Support through SEO
Having only recently launched its website, MyDrive feared that while the media response to the PR activity was undeniably driving interest, the organiation’s lack of search engine presence for its key terms undermined the website’s ability to be easily found and therefore be a lead generator in its own right.
ITPR defined the most important key search terms for which the MyDrive website most urgently needed to be found. ITPR then worked with MyDrive’s in-house web development team to distribute and create hundreds of legitimate anchor-text links to the website.
The combined effect of both on-site and off-site SEO activity led to a marked improvement in search engine performance, with MyDrive now on the upper half of the first page for all its key search terms – in turn resulting in a marked increase in traffic volumes from searches on these terms.
Measuring success
Through the use of Google Analytics, MyDrive was able to identify a positive and traceable step-change in website interest. This was directly influenced by the PR activity, shown in the first instance by an almost four-fold increase in volume of unique visitors to the website in the first six months of the campaign.
The analytics showed that along with a significantly reduced bounce rate, there was a considerable increase in the number of pages viewed by each individual visitor, proving that the traffic generated was of more value than previously as the visitors were more engaged.
In order to demonstrate a large proportion of the traffic was a direct result of the PR activity, rather than other simultaneous marketing efforts, analytics showed a series of online publications in which the PR team had secured coverage with links included to the MyDrive website. These directed a substantial volume of traffic to MyDrive.
As an example, one particular online insurance trade publication drove significant volumes of unique visitors onto the MyDrive site via an ITPR-produced opinion article and a link to the website, and as a result, each visitor viewed an average of six pages per visit and spent typically more than five minutes on the site – clearly more than casual interest.
Holliday comments, “The fact that these visitors were landing on our website having read our thought leadership material showed our message was not only picking up momentum in the relevant media, but that it was also resonating with our target market.”
In addition, Google Analytics was able to show the names of some of the larger companies who were spending time on the site. One insurance provider, in particular, was spotted visiting on six separate occasions, viewing a variety of pages each time, demonstrating significant and prolonged interest. Holliday comments, “Identifying the PR activity was generating an increase in visitors, page views and even identifiable potential customers proved to us that MyDrive’s profile was indeed rising. In fact, we were clearly becoming a thorn in the side of our competitors as we were even able to spot them coming on our site and having a look around!”
