Identity Digital
Identity Digital, a global leader in registry services and top-level domain offerings, engaged MarketSmiths to conceptualize and craft polished thought leadership articles for Forbes and INC. Outsourcing this task not only saves over 40 hours a month at a lower cost than an in-house copywriter, but also yields high-quality content, with one piece garnering 5,000+ views.
Client
“We needed a team to help generate ideas and articles on an ongoing basis, and turn this work around quickly.”
As one of the premier providers of top-level domains globally, Identity Digital connects brands with concise, memorable, and relevant domain names that express authenticity, ensuring visibility in a saturated digital environment.
Expressing authenticity is a brand priority even for Identity Digital. While its internal teams concentrated on enhancing customer brands, its own brand needed a consistent stream of thought leadership content to sustain credibility, engage diverse audiences, and educate buyers on emerging trends.
“We needed a team to help generate ideas and articles on an ongoing basis, and turn this work around quickly,” says Kimberly Michener, Senior Director of Brand and Integrated Marketing at Identity Digital.
“Marketsmiths’ writers had a well-rounded knowledge of business, and they quickly learned ours. Their writing style and ability was incredibly impressive.”
— Kimberly Michener, Senior Director of Brand and Integrated Marketing
Challenge
“We considered in-house, but quickly decided we didn’t have the resources to make this happen efficiently and effectively.”
How does one build a nimble thought leadership engine from scratch?
“We considered in-house,” Kimberly says, “But we’re not staffed for this type of work—and we quickly decided we didn’t have the resources to make this happen efficiently and effectively.”
Identity Digital found MarketSmiths through a trusted resource that routinely refers top talent and were impressed by MarketSmiths’ thought leadership expertise.
The partnership took off in July 2021 with an eye on landing placements in prestigious publications like Forbes and Inc., and a handful of suggested topics. Over the last three years of the partnership, MarketSmiths has researched ideas for future pitches and drafted articles that have smoothly navigated CEO and legal approvals before publication.
For Kimberly, “success” is defined by the quality of the work, number of articles published and a smooth process. “The publications’ copy editors consistently have only very few comments, which makes the review and editing processes go quickly,” she shares.
Ultimately, Identity Digital achieved its desired results with MarketSmiths’ process efficiency and “exactly on-point” understanding of brand strategy and messaging.
Kimberly adds, “MarketSmiths’ writers demonstrated a well-rounded knowledge of business, and they quickly learned ours. Their writing style and ability were incredibly impressive. An outside perspective provided more varied ideas, naturally having broader appeal. The quality is far superior to anything we could have produced.”
Shared Success
“MarketSmiths saved us immeasurable time.”
MarketSmiths provided over 175 hours of thought leadership work in one quarter, including:
- 20 hours of pitch development
- 75 hours of writing
Kimberly estimates that it would have taken her team “at least twice as long” to research and write the articles in-house. “MarketSmiths saved us immeasurable time,” she reflects.
In real numbers, for the month of December, MarketSmiths provided the equivalent of 44 hours of support—at one-third the cost of a single salaried senior copywriter.
While direct leads or conversion rates aren’t measured, each article posted has received hundreds of views, boosting top-of-the-funnel visibility, with some—like this piece on the metaverse—garnering over 5,000 views.
“This endeavor helped elevate our brand and product, and provide greater visibility for our CEO,” says Kimberly.
In other words: mission accomplished.
As we enter the third year of our partnership, the success story with MarketSmiths continues to unfold. In addition to the successful thought leadership content, our collaboration expands to encompass blog posts for their channel marketing team and several domain-specific campaigns.
But that’s another story for another day. Stay tuned for more milestones and achievements.
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