Client Overview

The JTBD research highlighted the core needs driving our audience’s search behavior, allowing us to strategically build topical authority and establish this brand as a trusted source of relevant information. From only 25 checklists we saw 28,000 organic sessions (a 3,459% YoY increase) and a 15% conversion rate!

– Justin Tagieff, Sr. SEO Strategist

This brand faced two primary obstacles:

1. Limited Brand Awareness: Despite offering powerful solutions for facility and store operations, the brand struggled to reach its target audience effectively.
2. Stagnant Organic Traffic: The company’s online presence wasn’t growing, limiting its ability to attract new potential clients.

Recognizing that facility managers were the brand’s most engaged users, Directive developed a content strategy focused on addressing their specific pain points. 

We employed a Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) keyword mapping approach to identify the most relevant search terms around the brand’s Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Our strategy included:

We conducted extensive research to understand the daily tasks and challenges of facility managers, creating a comprehensive map of JTBD keywords. This approach is critical to Directive’s success as it:

• • Focuses marketing efforts on high-quality leads, increasing average deal value.
  • Enables personalized messaging that resonates with the ICP’s specific needs and challenges.
  • Improves content relevance and performance across all marketing channels.
  • Provides a competitive edge by aligning solutions with actual customer needs.

Based on our JTBD keyword map, we performed in-depth keyword research and organized topics into clusters, ensuring alignment with facility managers’ needs and search behaviors. We also identified topically relevant sub categories to refine the topic clusters. For example, we had categories for HVAC Maintenance, Electrical Maintenance and Plumbing Maintenance. Within each category were the topically relevant checklists (i.e., toilet maintenance or electrical panel checklist). Internally linking the relevant articles together improved our topical authority and user experience.

• • Electrical panel inspection checklists
  • Hot water heater preventative maintenance checklists
  • Restaurant preventative maintenance checklists

Over 11 months (January 2024 – November 2024), we partnered with the brand’s team to create and optimize 25 comprehensive checklists, addressing specific jobs-to-be-done for our ICP.

Our strategy yielded impressive results across multiple key performance indicators:

• Explosive Traffic Growth:
  • Checklist pages drove a staggering 3,459% growth in organic sessions

• Enhanced Online Visibility:
  • Generated 16,000 non-branded clicks from organic traffic
  • Earned over 15,875 new organic keywords

• High-Value Content:
  • Achieved 1,891 total checklist downloads

• Improved Lead Generation:
  • 28% year-over-year increase in organic channel demo requests
  • 273% year-over-year increase in “Contact sales team” requests

• Business Impact:
  • Significant growth in Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
  • Substantial increase in sales pipeline value

By focusing on facility managers’ specific needs and providing them with valuable, practical resources in the form of Functional Content, the brand was able to dramatically increase its online visibility, engage its ideal customer profile, and drive significant improvements in lead generation and sales pipeline value.

The success of this campaign underscores the importance of understanding your audience’s pain points and creating content that directly addresses their needs. It also highlights the effectiveness of long-term, strategic content creation in building brand authority and driving business results. 

The JTBD keyword mapping approach proved instrumental in aligning their content with their ICP’s actual needs, resulting in higher quality leads and improved overall performance.