Companies across the world are increasingly adopting digital channels to market themselves to users. According to the annual CMO survey, 44.3% of marketing budgets are spent on digital marketing. In the next five years, it will finally overtake traditional channels and is projected to reach 54.1% by 2023. The lucrative opportunity of being able to reach millions of digital natives in data-driven and personalized ways which are more cost-effective than traditional marketing channels make this transition an expected one. It is this opportunity that CoSchedule, North Dakota’s fastest-growing startup, wants to tap into.

Coschedule, based in Bismarck, wants to do away with makeshift marketing. By providing a software solution which allows businesses to be regular in their campaigns and digital marketing efforts, it makes them more effective in communicating to their customers. The integration of various different marketing tools and platforms into one handy calendar-based system provides marketers the ability to strategically time and organize their communication with their potential customers.

The importance of a schedule

One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing is that it provides a space within which businesses don’t have to cater to everyone at once, like print and television ads. The other big advantage is the ability to aggregate data and adapt one’s approach, figuring out what digital marketing strategy is working for your business and what isn’t. Data makes targeting and converting users a lot easier.

However, effective digital marketing is difficult at scale. The existence of multiple potential channels – social media, email, banner advertising, contextual advertising, and content marketing, among others – means that at every step, businesses have to decide how much to invest into a specific channel. Companies should look to occupy the entire digital marketing spectrum, so that they reach the largest possible target audience; however, this also often means that they have a problem of excess.

91% of the consumers surveyed by Hubspot said they found digital advertising more intrusive than they were only two years ago. 79% feel that they are being retargeted by the same ads. Companies risk losing great leads while marketing digitally simply because they are overdoing it. But these very same leads are more likely to be converted when businesses use a multichannel approach. 97% of marketers, according to a survey conducted by Forrester, showed an increase in revenue when using multi-channel approaches. The challenge is one of timing.

The CoSchedule solution

CoSchedule is the 153rd fastest-growing business in the US and the fastest in North Dakota, according to the 2018 Inc 5000 ranking, which pegs the company’s 3-year growth at an astronomical 2771%. It has been able to achieve this growth because it has managed to do what digital marketers have needed – create a powerful way to manage campaigns and schedule them well, all from one place.

The company offers 4 specific benefits to digital marketers, according to the company’s website. First, it allows digital marketing teams to have a bird’s eye view of their campaigns across platforms and channels. This helps them find and fill gaps and build a solid, cohesive plan to ensure effective digital marketing. Secondly, this helps companies manage to keep a steady rhythm going on social media, where posting regularly helps increase brand awareness. This makes managing and coordinating social media and content marketing efforts a lot easier.

The third benefit touted by the company is its ability to work with a wide variety of tools. Digital marketers would be aware that much of their time is spent in switching between different platforms and tools, and keeping track of what patterns to adopt on which platform for maximum effectiveness can be hectic. CoSchedule makes that substantially easier by putting all these tools in one place. It also allows multiple team members to coordinate their efforts, helping them collaborate and and coordinate for increased effectiveness.

How CoSchedule markets itself

CoSchedule is not alone in providing such services, however. Given the constant need for businesses to engage with their increasingly digital audience, a variety of different competitors exist for CoSchedule, each with their own unique way of attracting customers. Different providers occupy and specialize in different fields. Hootsuite, for instance, is considered one of the world’s largest commercial social media management platforms. Relative newcomer Outgrow helps digital marketers build interactive tools which provide a differential marketing experience to users.

CoSchedule’s content marketing has been very effective

CoSchedule has made itself a thought leader by providing valuable bits of information to the digital universe about their digital marketing. By seeding digital platforms with useful content about image aspect ratios on different social media platforms, or prominent business news platforms like Forbes about how to use content marketing to achieve scale, CoSchedule has made their name impossible for people in the industry to ignore.

CoSchedule also conducts various surveys to share information about what works and doesn’t in the digital marketing ecosystem, thus demystifying what are often confusing questions about when and what to post. Is there really a ‘best time’ to post on social media? CoSchedule did the primary and secondary research to get the answer for the internet. This content makes CoSchedule seem less like a tool and more of a comrade as companies attempt to navigate the complexities of appealing to digital audiences. By providing relevant data and making the process easier for their customers, CoSchedule makes its value to companies and businesses abundantly clear. Their blog provides enough information for someone to learn enough to start learning digital marketing on their own, showing an intrinsic belief in effective content marketing.

CoSchedule’s engagement with community isn’t just digital. The company takes great pride in being a shining example of business in Bismarck. Co-founder and CEO Garrett Moon says that he “… think[s] we’re writing one of the next big success stories in North Dakota”. The company even feels invested enough in the North Dakota business scene to have its marketing strategist Jordan Loftis quoted calling out the state’s new tourism logo as “poorly designed”.

Garrett Moon and Justin Walsh, from the CoSchedule website

So while the Bismarck Tribune speaks of them in glowing terms as people who created a company in their town because they couldn’t find a job, Moon and his other Co-Founder Justin Walsh have put their company and town on the map. With customers like Uber, Ebay, and GAP being among their 8000 clients in 100 countries, they’ve brought more prominence to Bismarck than it has had before.