With two Online Community channels on TMCnet, Rich Marcia, Marketing Director for Coordinated Systems, Inc (CSI (News - Alert)), has tapped into what many companies are learning is a great way to reach TMC’s technology-savvy readers. CSI is able to sponsor additional content covering a range of topics outside of their own sweet spots but which are still relative to the call recording and call monitoring channel readers.

Three years ago, when CSI first learned about TMCnet’s Online Community program, it was clear to Marcia that TMC’s (News - Alert) readership was attractive and might be a good way to create some additional thought leadership and brand exposure. Marcia added “any place that has a good reputation in the industry and can provide quality back links to the site is a valuable tool and campaign.”

CSI wanted to reach readers from the telecom space: Avaya, Cisco, NEC, Mitel (News - Alert), Aspect, etc. We wanted to let them know “We’re here. We’re a viable option and you can work with us.” CSI currently partners with some of the largest telecom dealers in the industry, who are able to offer Virtual Observer as a bundled solution with their phone systems or as an application sale to get their foot in the door of larger accounts. The TMC channels has certainly contributed to their success within this arena.

Exposing a Next-Generation Recording Solution to a Highly Technical Audience (News - Alert)

“Knowing where our solution, Virtual Observer, was heading, with the speech analytics component and the web-based user interface,” states Marcia, “ I wanted to leverage TMCnet to generate additional readership for our content. We specifically include content outside of call recording or call monitoring in order to reach a wider audience, to make sure we’ve earned mindshare amongst people in the telecom space.”

What Kinds of Content Work Best for CSI’s Channels?

Marcia is heavily involved with his company’s content marketing efforts, so he knows that high-quality, valuable content is the best way to attract and engage site visitors to build meaningful relationships with them. When developing CSI’s channels, Marcia chose to incorporate some content that was repurposed from their own company website, and some content that was exclusive to the TMCnet Online Communities.

The most popular content pieces, which drove the success of the channels and generated a high number of leads were white papers, especially those which are educational in nature. CSI recently launched two new whitepapers to coincide with a re-launch of the channels. Marcia states, “Measuring the metrics of our channels is extremely important to us, and we wanted to reboot prior to any slippage in terms of success rate (downloads of the existing whitepapers)”.

In addition to the white papers and other valuable content Marcia contributes to his Online Community channels, he also has a strong system in place for developing, and sharing, blog entries across multiple social media channels. His blog currently experiences high readership, and Marcia will often share smaller bursts of content from the blog on the companies’ Twitter (News - Alert) account. Like most successful content, the blog focuses on more educational subject matter, and has become a very well known, syndicated blog on several sites in the Call Center space. 

Analytics is the key to maintaining success

Offering advice to fellow channel sponsors, Marcia suggests including TMC channels in measuring overall web visibility metrics. Watch for dips in referrals from TMC to your website and then make sure to keep introducing new content and offers which are linked across multiple channels. Explore new opportunities for testing out content prior to using it on your own website or social profiles. Don’t be afraid to rethink yourselves every now and then.