Since we redesigned the Albachiara website 18 months ago, return on investment has been overwhelming.
Not only in terms of traffic (480% more than average in our industry with 10x duration time for each visit).
The new website has been especially instrumental to:
– generate leads
– acquire new clients
– establish new business partnerships
– strengthen our corporate identity
I feel it may have some value sharing my understanding of why and how this happened.
Data analytics clearly show that the number 1 success factor of our website is the
Albachiara Journal
At that time, we decided to dedicate an entire section to long-form professional content, because we wanted “to walk the talk” and build a poster child for what we have been saying for ever to our clients and partners: “every company is a media company” – Tom Forenski
What we mean is that, unless you:
- tell your own story,
- communicate regularly your ideas,
- share generously your knowledge and
- engage actively with your own industry,
you won’t
- develop your own (digital) space of authority in the marketplace,
- gain as many valuable business relationships,
- attract like-minded individuals and enrich your network with quality professionals and, therefore,
- be able to catch many hidden business opportunities.
Today, in the post-covid world, I feel that a strong digital presence is even more important to accelerate business growth. Human relationships are being craved for and, because of forced social distancing, digital networking is perceived as a safe haven: a place where we all can cling on to this ever-changing reality; where we can feel connected, updated and educated to the “new normal”.
How did we, in Albachiara, develop
our own little world of compelling content?
We expressed our own views on trending themes of the industries we serve, by:
1.
publishing articles
2.
airing a weekly podcast: are you not entertained?
3.
promoting, at zero cost, our content through professional platforms and networks
We quickly understood that, with this ever-growing infodemic, we had to develop content only when we really had to say something thought-provoking, useful and authentic. We therefore stopped being slaves to a fixed content media calendar and, as such, we made it flexible and started to own it.
With time, we furthermore understood how to tailor content and, therefore, fit people’s expectations and abundant advice, which we were collecting through various means.
As expected, we had to reorganise dynamically our offer, in order to adapt to the changing needs of our audience, which – in the meanwhile – had to go through and survive nothing less than a pandemic!
As a consequence, we neatly divided our Journal into two sections, each having a catalogue of past content for the keenest audience:
1.
The Albachiara Chronicle – are you not intrigued?
This space is for us a unique opportunity to transfer, in written form, our experiences and knowledge and gain new perspectives from all those people, who like to engage into stimulating conversations with us. We try to scratch the surface of things, to better understand the world around us and to always be learning.
Thanks to our articles, we managed so far to strengthen our professional network and to connect with industries leaders, whom we could have never approached coldly.
We also attracted new talents, interested in our Startup and Scale-up service. Some of them became an important part of our ‘investment portfolio’.
2.
The Albachiara Podcast – are you not entertained?
Our podcast was born to get back to the things that sport has always meant to true fans. We feel that this industry is losing touch with reality and with the needs of the younger audiences.
We moreover know, by professional experience, that the challenges of the sport industry are mirroring the ones of many others. Sport can indeed teach great leadership and business lessons. To different audiences.
The podcast has therefore evolved into a growing sport & business channel, offering now 4 different shows:
- Goal own Goal is 2 guys in a pub with the sports pages, bouncing off each other.
Light, fun and edgy. - The Groundsmen is 3 professionals giving their insights on why and how the industries of sport, media, entertainment and brands will evolve. Especially through technology.
Informative, honest, opportunity- and solution-oriented. - The big Interview is a chat with the movers and shakers of sport, media and entertainment, seen by all possible management perspectives.
Visionary, deep, vertical. - The Captain’s Table is a short, pleasant cruise on a pirate’s ship, where famous athletes and very important leaders of sport generously tell their personal stories, share their unique memories and simply show their normal selves.
Authentic, emotional and imaginative.
“are you not entertained?”
from Season 1 to Season 2 – download trends
The amazing growth trend of the downloads, witnessed since the start of Season 2 in September last year, convinced us to dedicate a space to each show. They now appear colour coded, in order to ease recognition to their different audiences.
I am personally very satisfied with the result of this restructuring exercise. It gave us an opportunity to reflect further on our growth strategy. Particularly, as we worked during an unprecedented time of uncertainty. Despite its scary outlook, it did offer precious time to reflect, analyse new opportunities and readjust to threats.
Corporate storytelling leads to a stronger strategic vision
Looking after corporate narratives is truly instrumental to redefining strategic visions, as putting a communication strategy together requires a structured and rounded approach to one’s own business. And this is exactly how we operate with those clients, who ask us to look after their corporate communications.
As a means to an end, any digital presence should therefore never be treated as static and definitive. Certainly not when corporate visions can change dramatically, almost over night, due to the uncontrollable circumstances we are living today.
Websites in particular are the digital headquarters of a company and, as such, they need to be moving, always alive and kicking; they need to have a lean structure in place, so to embrace change whenever needed, as opposed to resist it.
My personal advice is to use every (digital) content development project as a managerial tool to:
- measure the temperature of the competitive market
- track the direction of the organisation
- tell the story of your company and its people; describe your unique journey
- involve transversally all the staff, to achieve the best possible outcome
My experience is that you will never look back.
Here you can read about our content development work.
To find out what we do in change management, see here.
For our C-suite management services, read here.
To understand which type of professional training we deliver, discover our Corporate Learning programmes.
If you are interested in our own story, check us out here.
