How Cognism Built a DR 69 Site in Two Years

Happy Tuesday LinkedIn?

Today we’re going to look at Cognism.

They’re a UK-based B2B data company - they help you get emails and mobile numbers of prospects.

SEO is one of their tactics, and the site is doing well?

Here are two things they do well and some tips on how to compete with them on a smaller budget.?

Keyword Targeting?

The ICP for Cognism is predominantly sales and marketing people.?

But I think CEOs, investors, and roles across the C-Suite will influence purchasing decisions.

The keyword research reflects this.

Cognism targets BoFu terms - it’s #1 for:

• B2b lead generation?
• B2b prospecting?
• B2b email list?

They also target broader ToFu terms - #1 for:

• Go to market strategy?
• Revenue operations?
• Sales strategy

Surprisingly, sales and marketing terms are not especially competitive…

This term has huge user intent, and it’s a KD of 33??

On page one, there is a company with a DR of 1

I guarantee someone at Cognism looked at this space and couldn't believe how wide open it was. And they've proven with some solid content and a good plan, they can kill it.

If you are in this space looking to compete, take a look at where Cognism puts its content efforts. They will have great analytics, so if they put resources into a page, it’s because it’s working!

This leads us to point 2…

2 Get Content Right?

On LinkedIn, Cognism talks about how they create content.

Three points about their strategy stand out.

? A blend of professional writers and domain expertise.

? Different content types?

? Reuse and repurpose content?

This article is a nice example.

What is B2B Lead generation?

The page is getting strong traffic.

The page is ostensibly informational, but it captures some excellent BoFu terms.?

• Lead generation company b2b?
• Business to business leads?

The piece pulls in a rich array of content forms.?

Video…

Infographic…

Podcast…

The page gives a fairly basic overview of B2B lead generation. It’s written nicely, and it’s clear, but it’s not adding tons of value.

The rich formats add value.

The article also directs the reader to other useful and more detailed resources.

This is great for SEO but also keeps the user on the site and builds authority.?

How Can You Compete with Cognism on a Budget?

Cognism is a Series C-funded startup with $100m + in investment.?

They will be spending millions of dollars on marketing every year - how can smaller budgets compete?

Here are five tips?

?? Dial in your keyword research to high intent terms

Cognism can afford to try many different terms and see what sticks - you probably can’t. So spend a lot of time on keyword research.?

Look at where bigger players expend resources and use that to guide your efforts.?

?? Use Rich Formats

Launching a podcast may be a step too far at first, but making short videos or investing a little in infographics is relatively inexpensive and will set your content apart.

?? Sense Check Your Content?

Ask some friendly ICPs if they think your content adds value.

If you can't compete with Cognism on volume or range of content, you can make the value of your message higher quality.?

Do that by speaking with your audience regularly.

?? Make Your Site Clean?

Spend some time making your content easy to consume.

Tons of blogs are hard to read and unprofessional looking. With the tools available now, making your site look slick is easy - get this right.

?? Make Hyper-Specific CTAs

You need to make each page count.

Instead of a generic CTA, you dump across the site build ones that target users based on the page they’re reading.