??It helped this company grow from $6 million to $60 million in sales

Ben Goedeker started his entrepreneurial journey with Goedeker Radio and Television Repair in St. Louis, Missouri, in June 1951. The company grew rapidly, and in 1998, it expanded to a 50,000-square-foot mega-store that offered a wide selection of television, electronics, and home renovation products.

However, in the 2000s, the company faced stiff competition from larger retailers and online stores selling comparable products at lower prices. Despite these challenges, the family behind the business decided to revitalize the company by investing in online marketing techniques and search engine optimization.

They developed an e-commerce website after studying best practices for three months. The website they built proved to be a game-changer, as the company's sales skyrocketed from $6 million in 2009 to $48 million in just four years.

Despite the successful increase in sales, the company needed to rank better on Google.?Getting traffic to the Goedeker site depended on a "never-ending treadmill of paid ads on search engines,” according to family member, Steve Goedeker. “Not only was that treadmill never-ending, but it was also becoming very costly."

To address this, the company decided to begin a content marketing program. Content Marketing can?be defined?as:

"A marketing program based on the sharing of quality, credible, and pertinent information that generates traffic to a company's website and, along with it, interest in its products and services, leading to sales."?

It?hired full-time writers and published a daily blog about home renovations and appliances, which was also shared on social media platforms like X and Facebook.

Once the content marking program had been going on for 12 months, the family evaluated it. These were the results:

? Sales increased 14 percent, much attributed to the content marketing program.

? The number of links back to the company website (improving search engine optimization) increased from 3,000 in late 2013 to more than 40,000 in little more than a year.

? Site visits increased significantly. One blog about painting walls with watercolors got 30,000 visits alone.

? Sales grew from $6 million to $60 million with the help of content marketing.

The benefits of content marketing can vary. However, study after study continues to report that content marketing either directly or indirectly pays off in increased sales and often much faster than anticipated.

Robert Kravitz is president of?AlturaSolutions. For over twenty-two years, he has helped promote the value of his customers’ products and services. He can be reached at:?[email protected]

Company Update:?Goedeker’s was sold to a larger company in 2020. However, the larger company could not give its customers the mom-and-pop touch of the founders. Unfortunately, it went out of business.