Southern Swallow is a digital marketing and strategy consulting firm. We help brands take flight online through a suite of services, including content strategy, web and mobile design, and digital marketing support. Read about our clients in this case study packet to see the work we've done with world-class clients, including large brands, such as The New York Times and Bloomingdales.com; state-funded programs, such as Innovate Arkansas; and tech startups and media houses, including Mashable and Contently.

1. CLIENT CASE STUDIES
Helping brands
take flight online.

2. Our Story
Southern Swallow is a digital content
strategy firm.
The agency was founded in 2009 when founder Erica
Swallow took on her first client: The New York Times. We
took full flight in 2011 when Erica went full-time, with clients
including City Winery, Bloomingdales.com, and Contently.
Today, with degrees from NYU and MIT, as well as many
happy past clients, Erica acts as the key project manager
and wordsmith on accounts while pulling from an extensive
network of creatives and engineers for unique design and
development challenges better solved in a flock. From web
design and development to content strategy and product
marketing, we help brands do what it takes to stand out on
the web.
Services
We help brands take flight online through a suite of services, including content
strategy, web and mobile design, and digital marketing support.
Content Strategy Web & Mobile Design Digital Marketing
Increase visibility among
potential customers with
a blog or simply a well-
written mission and story.
Launch or refresh your
company site on the web
and mobile to put your
best digital foot forward.
From social media
to Google Analytics,
measure and grow your
audience engagement.

3. Clients
Our clients are world-class, and we take pride in helping them bring their digital
content to the next level. We’ve worked with large brands, such as The New York
Times and Bloomingdales.com, as well as state-funded programs, such as Innovate
Arkansas, and tech startups and media houses, including Mashable and Contently.
Interested in Collaborating?
Drop us a line!
hi@southernswallow.com southernswallow.com @southernswallow 870.565.5200

4. The Challenge
Mt. Merchant’s highly technical product suffered
from the plague of technical language. Though
Mt. Merchant works directly with technologists
and marketers, its collateral was very much
focused on attracting tech buffs within retail.
Mt. Merchant came to Southern Swallow with
a mission to reimagine its communications.
Furthermore, it had enabled successes with a
number of top retailers—including Sears, Lands’
End, and Craftsman—but it had no collateral to
share its successes.
Mt. Merchant is a technology startup focused on using
big data to help online retailers boost revenues through
personalized customer shopping experiences.
Supporting Sales with Data-Driven Content
The Solution
Southern Swallow redesigned the Mt. Merchant
website to focus on its most compelling story:
the fact that it had reduced overhead by up to
80% and increased revenue by 25-30% for its
clients.
We rewrote all web content, redesigned the site,
and produced a suite of case studies now used
by the sales team and downloadable from the
website.
Testimonial
“From day one, Southern Swallow
was a great company to work with.
We needed a cross between design,
product dev, marketing, and content
development, and Erica brings all of
those skills and more to the table. We
love the new site! The look and feel,
the design, but most of all the content
— what I liked most about working with
Southern Swallow is they help you steer
to a clear message.”
Joe Cashman
Co-Founder and CEO
CASE STUDY

5. The Challenge
After raising its seed round in July 2011, Contently
aimed to grow both sides of its community:
freelance writers and content marketers. As
a content marketing startup, it aimed to utilize
content to do it.
Contently is an enterprise content marketing solution. The
startup works with clients including Marriott, Walmart, Dell,
and Bayer to create breakthrough content that engages,
entertains, and builds trust.
Building Community on Two Sides of a Market
The Solution
Having worked with The New York Times on its
social media strategy and grown the supported
content program at Mashable, Southern Swallow
founder Erica Swallow consulted as Contently’s
Director of Community for an entire year.
She managed the social media and content
strategies, including acting as editor for The
Content Strategist and The Freelancer (formerly
known as The Freelance Strategist); launching
offline meetups for both sides of the market; and
managing the startup’s 2012 SXSW presence.
Testimonial
“Erica happens to possess a trio of skills that only
the best among us can muster in the workplace —
brilliant creativity, initiative and persistence. Time
and again, Erica envisioned unique solutions,
launched demanding programs, and saw them
through to success. One such example: she
founded the Freelance Writers Meetup, a monthly
series of speakers and events, to augment a web-
based recruiting program with an offline support.
The series was a tremendous boon to our network
growth that continues to pay dividends for our web
business. She is an asset to any business, but a
game changer in the world of Web startups.”
John Hazard
Former Vice President of Services
CASE STUDY

6. The Challenge
Innovate Arkansas came to Southern Swallow
with a vision to highlight the impact it had made
onArkansas’sentrepreneurialecosystem,aswell
as the impact it had made on individual ventures.
Simply stated, its website had not been updated
since its founding in 2008.
Mt. Merchant is a technology startup focused on using
big data to help online retailers boost revenues through
personalized customer shopping experiences.
Proving Client Value with Metrics and Testimonials
The Solution
We reimagined the Innovate Arkansas website
as a resource for Arkansas entrepreneurs.
Beyond highlighting the organization’s high
level impact with key data on the homepage, we
created client case studies on the blog, featuring
startups like RxResults and Treatsie. The blog,
too, was redesigned for visual appeal and search
optimization.
Testimonial
“This new site tells the
accomplishment stories of
entrepreneurs in Arkansas, but
even more importantly, lays out
the framework for more successes
in the future.”
Tom Dalton
CASE STUDY

7. The Challenge
After its Kickstarter success, StandStand
sought to maintain sales growth. While its
founders focused on optimizing manufacturing
and distribution, Southern Swallow crafted a
marketing strategy to attract customers.
StandStand is a portable standing desk that raised more than
$100,000 on Kickstarter in 2014 and has since launched a
suite of related products.
Fueling Product Growth with Digital Marketing
The Solution
We brought nuts-and-bolts digital marketing
tactics to StandStand’s already flourishing
Internet fame with the launch of a search-
optimized blog and strategies for social media,
press, and its 2015 booth at the Consumer
Electronics Show (CES). We also garnered press
for the startup, including coverage in Mashable,
The Daily Dot, and Treehugger.
Testimonial
“Southern Swallow created a solid
social media plan for us in 2015
that is still relevant for us today. All
the content Erica created was top-
notch: to-the-point and written in
an authentic, relatable voice. Erica
has creative, achievable ideas,
and she sees them through to
implementation and results. She’s a
great communicator — a joy to work
with!”
Luke Leafgren
StandStand President and Inventor
CASE STUDY

8. Interested in working with us?
Get in touch:
hi@southernswallow.com southernswallow.com
@southernswallow 870.565.5200