ch 4 case study classic trader

Chapter 4 Digital and Social Media Marketing Strategy

Case Study Chapter 4: Classic Trader

Image: homepage of classic-trader.com reproduced with permission of Peak Ace AG

“Driven by Desire” is the SEO campaign created by the agency Peak Ace AG (Germany) for its client Classic Trader in 2015 to establish Classic-Trader.com as an online industry leader/voice in the field of selling and buying classic cars.

Overview

Classic Trader (CT) (https://www.classic-trader.com/ ) is a German-based marketplace dedicated to buying and selling classic cars (“old-timers”). Their long-term vision is to become the No.1 in the field of classic cars and an industry leader/voice within the classic car community. The commission from car sales generates their revenue.

Peak Ace was briefed to achieve the following objectives:

● Develop a strategy as well as technical set-up for a maximum SEO-friendly marketplace.

● Gain relevant rankings in Germany for the most important generic keywords like “Oldtimer kaufen” (“buy classic cars”) as well as for relevant car brands like Mercedes (“Mercedes classic cars”) and car models like “Porsche 912” and drive organic traffic.

Source: Heinze, A., Fletcher, G., Rashid, T., & Cruz, A. (Eds.). (2017). Digital and Social Media Marketing: A Results-Driven Approach. Routledge. Accessible online http://mastersindigitalmarketing.org/book/ #passion4digital This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://twitter.com/hashtag/passion4digital

http://mastersindigitalmarketing.org/book/


● Promote linking for SEO purposes to boost the keyword “Oldtimer kaufen” (search volume of 14,000 per month in Germany) into Google’s Top 10.

● Obtain high quality links from authoritative news sites due to the competitive landscape of the car industry.

● Help to continually build brand recognition online.

Implementation

The brief of the campaign included: 1) Implement a clear site structure: a. Classic Trader’s structure allows for the targeting of short-tail keywords (“Mercedes oldtimer”) as well as long tail queries (“Mercedes 220 Cabriolet A 1952 convertible”) and therefore ensures that the searcher finds the exact car type they are looking for. Additionally, this minimizes partial duplication.

2) Build target group-oriented landing pages:a. The target audience consists of two diverse group: occasional drivers and expert drivers. Occasional drivers like classic cars but are not too tech-savvy, not as familiar with details regarding car producers, car model names, car body styles, etc. and use more generic keywords and are therefore presented with a more generic landing page. For expert drivers who are very knowledgeable regarding technical details and are members of the “classic car” community as well as familiar with the details like car body style or manufacturing date, Peak Ace created a more precise landing page.

3) Cooperate with leading industry magazines in order to help Classic Trader build their brand awareness online:

a. Classic Trader initiated cooperation with a popular industry magazine: Octane magazine (a car magazine highly popular in Germany and the UK). The content of the magazine was successfully integrated into Classic Trader’s website: https://www.classic-trader.com/de/octane.

4) Implement successful PR campaigns to obtain high-quality links (‘news jacking’: a. Peak Ace implemented a news jacking strategy deriving from the popular movie “The Fast and the Furious”. A NISSAN GT- R belonging to Paul Walker (former actor from “The Fast and the Furious”) was being sold on the Classic Trader marketplace. Classic Trader created a campaign around this and promoted the page to websites, newspapers and






magazines that had previously mentioned the movie or were highly relevant to the topic. Classic Trader managed to obtain high authority backlinks that helped boost the overall domain of Classic Trader, which led to an increase in traffic.

Results

Classic Trader gained many relevant rankings within its niche in 2015. In January 2015 Classic Trader had only twenty Top 10 rankings. By the end of the year, this number increased by up to ~5,000. According to Searchmetrics, the domain’s SEO visibility (for Germany) increased by a phenomenal 750% (230 up to 2,000).

The organic traffic in Germany has been increased by 98% and almost doubled from January to December (MoM). The most important keyword (“Oldtimer kaufen”) now holds an established spot in Google’s Top 10, currently ranking #6 and steadily climbing.

The results from the news jacking “The Fast and the Furious” campaign as well as the proactive PR “VW Käfer” campaign have resulted in ~80 very authoritative back-links.

Due to a fantastic 2015 performance, Classic Trader was able to secure a first round of venture funding (€ 1,5 million) to further grow their business.

Commenting on the relationship with Classic-Trader and the success of the campaign, Bastian Grimm, President Organic Search, Peak Ace AG stated: “Working together with Classic-Trader during the last 18 months has been real fun. CT’s vision was clear from the beginning and even though the competition is massive we were able to grow the online footprint quite significantly and are happy that organic plays a significant role in CTs online marketing mix.”

Further Information

Selection of the links generated from the “Fast and the Furious” campaign:

1. http://www.boston.com/cars/news-and-reviews/2015/04/06/paul-walker-nissan- back-the-market/IjAmOoxXPbSixD7yu77kwL/story.html

a. (Dom-Pop: 179.136, Trust Flow 70, Citation Flow 55)2. http://www.autobild.de/artikel/nissan-gt-r-aus-fast-furious-4-zu-verkaufen-

5481659.html






a. (Dom-Pop: 4052, Trust Flow 64, Citation Flow 59)3. http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/paul-walker-s-nissan-skyline-from-fast-

furious-up-for-sale-ar166525.html a. (Dom-Pop: 14.617, Trust Flow 21, Citation Flow 30)

4. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassicTrader/ 5. Twitter: https://twitter.com/Classic_Trader 6. Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ClassicsForSale/ 7. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classic_trader/

Other resources: 1. https://www.classic-trader.com/uk/cars/listing/nissan/skyline/skyline-gt-r-

34/2007/3388 (F&F Skyline listing on CT)2. https://www.classic-trader.com/de/octane (Octane magazine integration)3. http://www.gruenderszene.de/allgemein/classic-trader-finanzierung (Classic Trader

funding (in German)) 4. Peak Ace coverage of EU Search Awards (in German):

http://www.peakace.de/blog/peak-ace-gewinnt-eu-search-award/

Discussion questions

1. Apply The Action Learning Cycle to the Classic Trader campaign.

2. Create a Buyer Persona for two of the main audiences of Classic Trader.

3. In your opinion, are the objectives stated above SMART objectives? If not, using the information in the case or other sources, convert the objectives into SMART objectives.

4. Apply the 8C’s model covered in chapter 4 to the campaign Classic Trader campaign run by Peak Ace.

5. Using the information in the case study and other sources, identify specific activities relating to tactics in terms of Content, Channel and Data using the following Digital Marketing strategy template:






https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YOXeSnAoSo1saRwYBw-Qv3bhRJotPYNjQBtYz6xmHLU/edit

Class activities

1. Imagine you are the CEO of Classic Trader and believe it is time to build your brand further. Explore possible brand building strategies that you can deploy and how you could work with Peak Ace to make them a reality.

2. Visit the www.classic-trader.com website and identify possible strategies on how it can be further improved.

Test adapted with kind permission from Prof Brian D Smith – www.pragmedic.com, 12 questions – focusing on key aspects of strategic planning

Please answer these honestly

====================1. Our digital marketing strategy makes it clear what markets or parts of the market we will concentrate our efforts on If your digital marketing strategy attacks all of the market sector equally = 0If your digital strategy is focused by the “descriptor groups” = 1If your digital strategy attacks needs-based segments = 2If you don’t know = -1

====================2. Our digital marketing strategy makes clear which actions fit with the marketing strategy and which do not If your digital strategy allows complete freedom of action = 0If your digital strategy allows a high degree of freedom of action = 1If your digital strategy makes most of your action plan decisions for you = 2If you don’t know = -1

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3. Our digital marketing strategy clearly defines our intended competitive advantage for our buyer personas If there is no strong and supported reason why the buyer persona should choose you = 0If there is a reason why the buyer persona should buy from you but there is no strong proof = 1If you can clearly state the reason the buyer persona should buy from you and not the competitor and substantiate that reason = 2If you don’t know = -1

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4. Our digital marketing strategy allows synergy between the activities of the different parts of the organisation If the strategy is a compromise of what each department is capable of = 0If the strategy uses the strengths of only one or two departments = 1If the strategy uses the best strengths of all departments = 2If you don’t know = -1

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5. Our digital marketing strategy is significantly different from that of our competitors for our buyer personas If you attack the same buyer personas with the same value proposition = 0If you attack the same buyer personas OR use the same value proposition = 1If you attack different buyer personas with different value proposition = 2If you don’t know = -1

====================6. Our digital marketing strategy recognises and makes full allowance for the needs and wants of our buyer personas If you only meet the basic functional needs = 0If you also meet the higher functional needs = 1If you also meet the emotional and ego needs = 2If you don’t know = -1






====================7. Our digital marketing strategy recognises and makes full allowance for the strategy of our competitors If you are ignoring the competitors’ digital marketing strategy = 0If you are allowing for some of the competitors’ digital marketing strategy = 1If you are allowing for all of the competitors’ digital marketing strategy = 2If you don’t know = -1

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8. Our digital marketing strategy recognises and makes full allowance for the changes in the business environment that are beyond our control, such as technological, legislation or social change If your digital marketing strategy is designed for today’s conditions = 0If your digital marketing strategy allows for one or two changes = 1If your digital marketing strategy considers the combined effects of all the external factors = 2If you don’t know = -1

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9. Our digital marketing strategy avoids or compensates for those areas where we are relatively weak compared to our competition If you have taken little or no account of your relative weaknesses = 0If you are trying to fix your relative weaknesses = 1If your strategy means that your relative weaknesses don’t matter = 2If you don’t know = -1

====================10. Our digital marketing strategy makes full use of those areas where we are relatively strong compared to our competition If you have taken little or no account of your relative strengths = 0If you are trying to use your relative strengths = 1If your digital marketing strategy means that your relative strengths become more important = 2If you don’t know = -1






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11. Our digital marketing strategy, if successfully implemented, will meet all the objectives of the organisation If your digital marketing strategy, fully and successfully implemented, does not deliver your financial and non-financial objectives = 0If your digital marketing strategy, fully and successfully implemented, delivers only your financial objectives = 1If your digital marketing strategy, fully and successfully implemented, delivers your financial and non-financial objectives = 2If you don’t know = -1

====================12. The resources available to the organisation are sufficient to implement the digital marketing strategy successfully If you have neither the tangible nor the intangible resources to implement the digital marketing strategy = 0If you have only the tangible or the intangible resources to implement the digital marketing strategy, but not both = 1If you have both the tangible and the intangible resources to implement the digital marketing strategy = 2If you don’t know = -1

====================How did you score? 18 – 24: Well done! It is all down to implementation now12 – 17: Good. You can succeed if competition is weak 6 – 11: OK. Let’s hope competitors are very weak< 6: Crumbs. A lot of work ahead






ch 4 case study classic trader

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