In 2020, a prominent full-service branding agency enlisted by a Goodyear licensed brakes manufacturer approached WSI for a proposal to spearhead their foray into digital marketing. Initially considered for both Paid Search and Content Marketing, by 2021, WSI was designated to focus solely on Content Marketing.
Discovery and Strategy
The journey began with a pivotal question during our discovery phase, “When I say Goodyear, what do you envision?” Not surprisingly, “tires” and the iconic “blimp” dominated the responses. Despite its strong association with tires, Goodyear’s venture into brake pads was relatively unknown, posing a unique challenge given the brand’s non-existent digital footprint in this domain.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, established in 1898 and named after Charles Goodyear—the inventor of the vulcanization process—had always been synonymous with tires, much like Coca-Cola with soft drinks. However, the brand recognition for Goodyear’s brake pads was minimal, compelling us to start from scratch. The brakes-focused website, launched in late 2020, began with just 20 pages and no traffic, setting our stage for a robust content-driven strategy.
Our content strategy was structured around the three primary stages of the buyer’s journey: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.
Awareness Stage
We produced 40 blogs over three months, focusing on educating consumers about Goodyear’s offerings beyond tires and addressing common questions and concerns regarding brake pads.
Consideration Stage
This phase involved detailing potential solutions for the issues identified during the Awareness stage.
Decision Stage
The final stage aimed at guiding the consumer toward choosing Goodyear for their brake solutions.
Leveraging Content Clusters
To maximize SEO impact, we implemented a Content Cluster strategy because this approach:
enhanced Goodyear Brakes’ authority on the subject
improved site navigation and user experience
led to better site metrics and higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs).
A seldom used tactic, news articles involve strategically creating and distributing content that aligns with your brand’s message and goals. This tactic is particularly effective in establishing your brand as an authority in your industry, enhancing brand visibility, and engaging with your target audience.
Chief benefits include:
rapid indexing
high-authority backlinks
rapid rankings and traffic
pick-up media cover online and offline
Achievements and Impact
Yearly Growth:
2021: 1.1 million impressions, 9,800 clicks, 13,000 ranked keywords
2022: 3.1 million impressions, 50,000 clicks, 48,000 ranked keywords
2023: 5 million impressions, 75,000 clicks, 100,000 ranked keywords
Total Impact: From inception to date, the strategy garnered 9.2 million impressions, 135,000 clicks, and 161,000 ranked keywords.
Our strategic content marketing initiative successfully expanded Goodyear’s brand perception from being just a tire manufacturer to a recognized authority in brake solutions, demonstrating the power of dedicated content strategy in establishing brand authority in a new product category.
About the Author
Rick spent 20 years in the insurance industry in finance, primarily developing reporting platforms for B & C stakeholders. His ability to speak to consumers of data (managers and analysts) and translate their needs to programmers led him to start his own digital marketing agency in 2004 to develop data driven solutions for business owners.
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