QUOTABLE
Building a standalone brand is a fun endeavor that involves a ton of thought, partnership, planning and passion.
With all the vast resources, knowledge, experience and connections at their disposal, Salesforce felt it was their duty to create a site that would serve as a thought leadership platform to help any sales professional get ahead - no strings attached.
So we created Quotable, a destination of sales insight and tips, with articles penned by leading sales authors and top Salesforce executives - with the driver being shareable quotations that can serve as quick thought starters.
Getting this up-and-running was an effort. We had different stakeholders from different departments, each with their own agenda and vision for what it should be. The best way forward was to focus on the commonalities, and nailing down what the mission statement is and getting consensus around that. It took time, but we got there.
The site was launched in March of 2016 with 26 articles, each written by a different sales leader, serving three different personas. We worked on our branding, SEO, partner marketing and more to keep it going. By May, we were up to 62,941 unique visits, which represented 93% surge from our big launch. We kept steady, with over 20,000 subscribers.
Those shareable quotations became the backbone of our visual language, voice and tone. We featured them on our site, social cards, emails, marketing materials - basically everything. We hunted them down while writing and curating these pieces. And although Quotable was a standalone site, we still wanted Salesforce to seen as a presenting sponsor. So we added a hint of Salesforce blue to our iconography.
Eventually, Quotable expanded past just a thought leadership blog and extended into a podcast series, documentary films, interactive pages and even an annual sales event that took place during Dreamforce. And as it took on different editors throughout its lifespan, the look and tone evolved - as it should. But Quotable always stayed true to its first intention of being a place for sales leaders to come together and share ideas - the mission statement we crafted at its inception.
