Materflow is an industrial 3D printing technology company founded in 2013. It is one of the leading players in the Nordic region. As experts in industrial 3D printing, Materflow also has strict requirements to ensure that the content is worded correctly in their communications and that the quality of the content matches their high level of expertise.
For some time, Materflow has had a challenge in marketing to get quality blog articles published regularly on their website about trends and topics relevant to their solution and industry.
Collaboration to produce regular content
As is often the case with other specialist companies, Materflow had concerns when choosing a marketing partner. How could an external party produce a quality blog and article content of substance that also appealed to readers with the company’s tone of voice? How much time and effort does the partnership require from them?
Sami Mattila, the founder of Materflow, describes the starting point of the collaboration:
– I have a background of experience with traditional marketing agencies. However, partnerships have had a rocky start and have taken a long time to get up and running before moving on to concrete action. Even after this, we have often spent a long time working on the content but have yet to produce quality content that is entirely our own. It is why I was interested in trying a new solution.
Materflow’s collaboration with Smoothly started quickly with a short introductory meeting organized by Smoothly’s account manager. During the onboarding meeting, the client shared the desired content style with the help of the business and marketing materials and the account manager.
– What I particularly liked about Smoothly was their efficiency and risk-free nature. I tested the service flexibly and made sure the content was high-quality. If I had not been satisfied, I could have ended the partnership during the trial period, says Mattila.
Making cooperation as easy as possible
After the onboarding, the customer could connect directly with their chosen Smoothly content creators, Ronja and Nina, through Smoothly’s digital interface. One of the most crucial things in any collaboration is enabling an easy communication method. Communication with Smoothly’s content team can take place in whatever way suits the client’s style: through Smoothly’s collaborative communication channel via messages or pre-made assignment forms or verbally through short weekly meetings.
Using Smoothly is built to be fast and agile.
– This step must often be revised with traditional marketing agencies, individual freelancers, or in-house recruitment. We must ease the client’s life as much as possible. The aim is to save time and make it easier to create content, not more complicated. With Smoothly’s platform, the client gets to share the company’s communication style and branding, and distribute essential communication materials such as the Brand Book so that content creation can start immediately, says Jarkko Aaltonen, CEO of Smoothly.
Mattila also describes the initial phase of cooperation as easy:
– It was easy. I put the materials into the Smoothly platform, and things took off immediately. I assumed that the collaboration would need more time and sparring from me.
Contents for publication without changes
The first content assignment for Materflow was to produce a blog article about a new production material for 3D printing. About a week into the collaboration, the client received the first article produced by Smoothly.
– Smoothly’s content creators are excellent writers, and we have also built in-house machine learning-based writing technologies. These technologies support our content creators in gathering relevant information on even the most challenging topics, proofreading, and structuring the text to fit their needs. This enables us to produce content exceptionally quickly, cheaply, and with high quality compared to traditional solutions, says Jarkko Aaltonen.
Smoothly’s content creation team delivers the content to the client, who can make edits or request clarification before publication.
– The content produced was already excellent in the first draft, and the article only needed to correct one technical term. After that, the content was ready for publication, says Mattila.
The cooperation has continued for the following content, and Materflow can publish quality online content regularly.
– I have experience with three marketing agencies that took much longer to get up and run. In addition, the quality of the content was nowhere near the level of Smoothly, Mattila says, adding:
– I am happy and surprised how little collaboration requires of me and how I can still consistently deliver high-quality content for our company’s communications. Smoothly’s solution has taken marketing content creation to a new level.
Smoothly combines familiar and modern freelance content creators based on industry knowledge and selected content types for countless companies in different industries.