Founder Stories: David Tile On Growing Article-Writing.co
In today’s Founder Story we feature David Tile, the founder and director of Article-Writing.co!
Read on for lessons he’s learned from launching and promoting a content marketing business.
1) Please introduce your business and share your role.
My business is Article-Writing.co. We are a PR + SEO Content Marketing shop headquartered in Toronto, ON. We have a FT team of 12 here and another 35-40 that work with us internationally. We are 12 years old, we’ve worked with thousands of brands over our life.
We are hyper productized against our SEO Thought Leadership Package. What I mean by this is that we only take on new clients with one product. You can read a case study for this product here.
We start with best in class self published content (blog + social + newsletter). Published under a compelling hero personal author brand (founder? president?) for the client.
- Hits on micro or macro trends
- Employee or client interviews
- Interviews with industry influencers
- Interviews with prospective clients
We format this content to be SEO Optimized, but the primary driver is to build the brand through great storytelling.
We then take this hero author brand out to niche press. Digital Magazines, Podcasts, Newsletters, etc. We want to generate a couple significant features each month for our client. These press features generate great backlinks for our clients so we are able to see solid gains in search rankings. But more importantly they build the firm’s authority as a thought leader.
The mix here of tangible (SEO traffic) and intangible (brand building) business impact is super compelling. Read the case study above, you’ll note some tremendous return on investment in short order. Our best clients are able to afford 6 figure annual commitments. They are committed to building their brand and understand the long term vision of SEO + Content Marketing + Brand Building.
2) How do you generate interest in Article-Writing.co?
We generate interest in our services in two specific ways. At the moment we’re generating 40-50 meetings each month from the following:
The first is that we deploy our product against our brand. We practice what we preach. Obviously.
The second is through cold email + cold linkedin outreach. We deliver soft strategically oriented value at our target.
3) Since launching, what types of marketing campaigns and designs have worked best to attract and retain clients?
Retention is all about results. If you’re producing significant business impact for your clients, they aren’t going to want to rock the boat.
4) What have been the most influential brands for your business? Whose branding and marketing do you aspire to and why?
I’m heavily influenced by folks like Tim Ferriss + Ryan Holliday + Balaji Srinivasan + Naval Ravikant. In my view, design – as in the visual identity of your firm – is secondary to the intangible ethos of your brand. Your culture. Your energy. The visual identity that you put out into the world should match this energy. Frankly, I let smarter people than me inside my firm (i.e. my graphic design team) feel this energy and make these decisions.
5) What are your favorite marketing platforms/tools for Article-Writing.co?
Hubspot + Zapier.
6) Looking ahead, what are you most excited about?
Artificial Intelligence. AI is taking the Content Marketing world by storm. Look at Jasper’s recent fund raise valuing them around $1.5b. Search Engines are responding to this by promoting Human Level Content. See Google’s recent algorithm update. They are filtering search results against poor quality (AI) content and towards great storytelling. This plays to our hand significantly as a PR + SEO Content Marketing house.
7) Who or what inspires and motivates you?
I find motivation everywhere. I’m motivated by fear. I’m motivated by my friends that have made it. To keep up with them. I’m motivated by my son Louie and wife Brittany. To provide a significant quality of life for them. I don’t care for inspiration, per se. I care to find discipline. Get up in the morning – go to the gym – get to work and build the future you want. Hustle.
8) What are some lessons you’ve learned along the way that you would share with other entrepreneurs?
Don’t stop. The highs are high. The lows are low. Strap in and appreciate the ride. If this was easy, everyone would do it. It’s hard because it’s worth it. Push hard and make sure you surround yourself with people that support your mission.
9) What do you believe are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? And what makes a team successful?
Entrepreneurs that are well rounded… as in they invest in their families. In their personal + mental well being. In their teams. Understand that you need to be a monster. A machine. You need to fuel this machine properly. With your diet + your physical well being. Your mental well being. Etc.
Successful teams are given slack. They are given freedoms. They are given purpose. They are given the latitude to lead.
10) Let us know where we can go to learn more!
https://www.article-writing.co/