Online Marketing News: 4 Lessons from Aptean’s Rebranding Strategy

One of the main challenges for mergers and acquisitions is creating a single, clear brand identity for the restructured organization. Especially now that most marketing efforts are directed in the digital world, how can a restructured organization rebrand itself, yet still maintain a strong lead in the playing field?

MarketingSherpa’s (@MarketingSherpa) case study on Aptean (@Aptean), highlighted in their article “Brand Marketing: Rebranding effort puts $21 million in sales pipeline,” provides some online marketing insights on how a global company formed via acquisition was able to generate a $21 million sales pipeline through its rebranding endeavors. Listed below are some strategies to which the software giant attributes its success:

Website redesign. After mapping the old site, Aptean found 800 pages of products and companies that had accumulated on the website over the years. To make it more manageable, Aptean evaluated what products to feature and redesigned the site to make it more convenient and dynamic for visitors from the different industries it serves. The redesign process also factored in the current websites of six of its direct competitors.

Search engine marketing. Aptean first researched keywords for ERP, CRM, and supply chain industries, targeting long-tail keywords because of the highly competitive industry it’s in. It created optimized content to enhance SEO performance with titles such as “What is CRM in food manufacturing?” This tactic was further supported by FAQs pages, leading visitors browsing the company’s website to more industry-relevant content. To further compensate for the anticipated drop in SEO ranking, paid search was utilized for specific products and industries, as well as for new product launches.

Public relations. Announcing the launch of the new brand and the company’s new direction through press releases spread the news faster. Part of Aptean’s PR strategy included building connections with the media and analysts, as well as having some of its customers and internal experts talk about industry ventures during the event’s user conference.

Lead generation. Aptean implemented aggressive lead generation tactics. These included providing webinars to build leads from existing and new customers, building a complaint management tool, using media relations to create noise around products, utilizing search engine marketing to drive traffic to the product’s microsite, and placing bylines and case studies in industry publications, as well as using premium content (like industry-specific newsletters) to sustain momentum and interest.

Aptean’s strategies led to a yearly increase in website traffic of 36.62% and a 52.28% increase in organic search traffic. On the other hand, its drip marketing was able to generate 200 leads, while its media relations resulted in 32 placements of interviews and bylined articles. For more information on e-commerce and branding strategies, visit online marketing news websites like Marketing Digest.

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Megan Pearson

Community Manager at Marketing Digest

Megan Pearson is a hard-core online marketing consultant and evangelist. She is also passionate about design and fashion. Being part of Marketing Digest allows her to keep track of developments and innovation in the industry.