The Client Spotlight is a short interview with a Rainmaker Platform client who’s succeeding with digital marketing. This month we’re featuring Fred Schenkelberg of Accendo Reliability.
What’s been the most effective channel or tactic for your business and why?
Blogging. I started blogging as a form of content marketing — more importantly, as a way to help others in the field one short article or tutorial or podcast at a time.
Sometimes I ask my clients why they choose me to work with them. The answer is almost always some version of “At our first discussion, you answered my questions and helped me to find resources to solve the problem myself.” I have long practiced the idea that if I help 100 people solve small problems, ten people will ask for help for a short project, and one will become a major client for a long time. Most looking for a helpful blog post are not shopping for a consultant, yet when the need arises to hire a consultant, those that know me from blogging or podcasting give me a call.
What made you embrace the Internet for your business?
I’ve been doing webinars and blogging since before web browsers. We used an internal email list where anyone could ask a question and they would get (and I made sure of it) multiple good responses. That was one part of how we created a community across an international company.
Accendo Reliability is the natural progression of how I’ve shared my work and built a community for a very long time. My three partners and I started the company when we realized that the four of us were each posting a blog post each week, but were rarely found via search. We were just too small individually to be noticed. So we decided to build one site and each post weekly. Having regular new, useful, practical content helped the site be found. Plus, if someone found my post useful, they might discover my peers via their articles right there on the same site.
You have a broad network of contributors. How did you build that network, and what advice would you have for people wanting to do it themselves?
We started with four contributors, and now have over 50 at last count. We’re stronger with many voices as each of the contributors brings different approaches and experiences to their writing or podcasting. We do not overtly advertise our products or services. If we know of a good solution, we’ll recommend it; helping our peers find solutions that work is the priority.
Contributors provide permission to publish and promote their work, and they keep their copyright and may include their branding along with links back to their site. We get content. Great content on a regular basis leads to more people finding the site. And, with repeat visits and finding solutions or helpful advice, visitors become members and subscribers.
My first piece of advice to others trying to follow this model is to always work to benefit your audience. If they don’t find solutions, the site will die due to the lack of interest and trust. Avoid self-promotion, banner ads, or other types of paid promotions. The content has to be useful, practical, and helpful.
The second tip is to always support the contributors. What is of value to them? Often it is a mixture of increased exposure of their work or being a greater part of the community. Provide guidance, coaching, sometimes editing. Encourage and sometimes enforce the idea of limited promotion or sales copy, and make sure the content is always helpful, practical, and useful. Help your contributors be successful.
What have you found to be the MOST useful Rainmaker Platform feature for your business?
This is easy — the most useful feature for the platform is the help menu. The knowledge base is a great place to start and the email to support is nearly always great, timely, and on point to a solution.
Any general advice for people who want to build their business online?
Get started! Online businesses do not build themselves. And always be helpful. Online you can craft short and long sales pages to your heart’s content, yet if one doesn’t find the solutions/service provided of value, that will be a missed or last sale. Let your potential customers or clients get to know, like, and trust you. Relationship first, sales later.
Thanks to Fred for sharing his experience. Want to tell your own story? Drop us a line at at https://rainmakerdigital.com/contact.