CASE STUDY NO. 1

Blissy

Blissy is on a mission to revolutionize the way people think about sleep and beauty. Their signature product? The Blissy Silk Pillowcase. Made from the finest 100% mulberry silk, this pillowcase is anything but just a pillowcase.

Industry: Sleep & Beauty E-Commerce
Role: Full-Time SEO Content Strategist
Project Timeframe: 8 months

I increased Blissy's organic traffic 8x, keyword rankings 18x, and blog revenue 30x in 18 months with my SEO content strategy for the Blissy blog.

There are so many benefits to using a Blissy Silk Pillowcase, it's hard to list them all. But to sum it up, Blissy gives you better hair, better skin, and better sleep.

Blissy's challenge was to convince people that a pillowcase can do more than just protect your pillow from dirt and oils. So how did they do it?

Content marketing became a large part of their strategy, of course.

When this project began, Blissy had limited resources dedicated to SEO content.

The leadership team reached out to me to implement a comprehensive SEO content strategy. Since May 2022, I have been overseeing the execution of this strategy in a full-time role at Blissy.

In 8 months, here's what I have accomplished:

Organic monthly traffic increased from 2k to 15k
Total monthly traffic increased from 7k to 90k
Top-10 ranking keywords increased from 30 to 550 (8k ranking keywords total)
Direct revenue from the blog increased from $1.4k a month to $42k a month

8-Month Results Summary

133 Blog Posts

Posted in 8 months

12x Top-10 Keywords

From 50 to 580

8x Organic Traffic

From 2k to 15k monthly

17x Ranking Keywords

From 440 to 7,800

15x Total Traffic

From 7k to 90k monthly

30x Blog Revenue

From $1,400 to $42,000 monthly

Challenge

Leadership came to me with the task of building their SEO content strategy from the ground up, as there wasn't a strategic program in place.

I had the opportunity to personally select and recruit a team of freelance writers. I was also provided with a number of premium SEO and analytics tools.

But aside from the team of freelance writers who would write the actual content, I was responsible for every aspect of strategy and editorial.

Areas of responsibility included:

Overall blog SEO content strategy
Managing a team of writers
Overseeing the editorial calendar
Topic & keyword research
Creative briefs & style guides
Partnering with designers & developers

All editorial & publishing tasks
Content audits
Website analytics
On-page optimization
Image selection & editing
Internal linking strategy

Image of Blissy Blog thumbnails after my strategy was implemented

Solution

To create a successful strategy, I focused on researching opportune keywords and topics, integrating with social media, refining the writing team, leveraging Blissy's creative team, analyzing web data, conducting audits, and optimizing on-page elements.

Keyword Strategy

To conduct topic and keyword research, I used the tools Ahrefs and SEMrush. I performed competitive keyword analyses to spot missed keyword opportunities. I also pursued low-difficulty keywords with higher volume that were relevant to our topic categories.

Competitive analysis in SEMrush

Content

Examining market data reports to learn about Blissy's target audience, I decided that blog content would fall under one of the following topic categories:

Beauty
Wellness
Silk 101
Home
Gifting

This focus would ensure relevance for our readers while also providing opportunities to expand the audience.

Using tools like Ahref's Content Explorer, and later, ChatGPT, I generated a continuous stream of topics. I wrote the headlines for the articles and used headline analyzer tools to enhance the potential for visibility and engagement.

To keep everything organized and to ensure a variety of topics each week, I set up an editorial calendar and content tracking system using AirTable.

The Blissy Editorial Calendar managed in Airtable, color-coded by topic

Establishing Credibility

I wanted to add value to the conversation and position Blissy as a credible authority. To achieve this, I focused on using academic sources to back up our claims and launched an Expert Series that included interviews with original sources.

Expert Series

I launched the Blissy Expert Series which aimed to establish Blissy as an authority on skin and hair care. This was accomplished by conducting exclusive interviews with leading dermatologists and hair stylists.

Exclusive interview with Dr. Jennifer Ahdout, a Beverly Hills dermatologist

On-Page Elements

I worked with Blissy's Design Team to create branded graphics, including blog header images, infographics, and pinnable media. I also created graphics in Canva as needed.

Working with our Front-End Developer, I added custom design tweaks like a table of contents, blockquotes, and custom embed codes.

Using voice cloning in the program Descript, I began adding audio transcriptions to every post to further optimize for search engines.

Some blog posts included companion videos to hone on-page elements even more.

Custom header graphic

Pinnable infographic

Off-Page SEO

We decided not to pursue a backlink outreach campaign considering we did not have the manpower to make it have a worthwhile return. Nevertheless, blog posts still earned backlinks from sites including Refinery29.com, HarpersBazaar.com, PureWow.com, and Bustle.com.

Integration with Social

The editorial calendar integrated with Slack which allowed a smooth workflow with Blissy's Social Media Team, who crossposted blog content across channels.

I also worked with the Design Team to create custom templates for Instagram and Pinterest to command a strong brand presence on those channels.

Instagram story post

IG STORIES New Blog Post Template (1).jpg

Facebook post

Managing the Writing Team

I hired and honed our team of freelancers, selecting quality writers that demonstrated the deepest understanding of the product and brand voice.

Writers were instructed to use Surfer SEO, a tool that uses natural language processing (NLP) and structural criteria to optimize content for search engines.

I ensured style conformity across writers by creating a Content Style Guide. With approval from leadership, I also instituted a bonus policy to encourage top-quality writing.

Surfer SEO Content Editor

Internal Linking

I strengthened the blog's internal linking structure by requiring writers to incorporate a minimum of four relevant Blissy blog links per post. I also employed Surfer SEO's audit tool to discover additional internal linking opportunities.

Audits & Analytics

I analyzed posts on a weekly basis using Google Analytics to monitor metrics like traffic and engagement.

Using tools like Surfer SEO Audit and SEO Tester Online, I regularly audited existing content to see what was working and what could be improved. I used these findings to make informed decisions about future content strategy.

Auditing in Surfer SEO

Results

In just 8 months, traffic was up, ranking keywords grew, and conversion revenue increased.

While the overall revenue impact of content marketing is hard to measure compared to direct marketing, we can say with certainty that the blog generates $42k/month from purchases made from blog CTA clicks. This is 30 times the amount before the start of the project.

2021

Keyword Rankings

Before implementation, keywords for which Blissy ranked in the top 10 in SERP hovered around 50. By December, they had increased to 550, an 11-fold increase. Total ranking keywords began around 440 and increased to 7,800, a 17-fold increase.

Traffic Gains

Before I implemented my strategy, monthly organic traffic was around 2k while total monthly traffic was around 7k. From the start of the project in May to the year's end, organic traffic increased to 15k (an eight-fold gain) while total traffic was up to 9k (a 13-fold gain).

Organic and Total Monthly Traffic 8 Months.jpg

Conversion Revenue

While a blog serves various purposes for a business, conversion revenue is not necessarily the primary indicator of success. Nevertheless, it was found that the blog's conversion revenue also experienced a significant boost compared to the previous year. Conversion revenue tripled from 2021 to 2022.

Conclusion

The content strategy I employed for Blissy served objectives for both the company and its customers. Readers were offered insightful information on subjects that interested them while Blissy enjoyed an SEO boost, social engagement, and increased revenue.