nDash ‘Bridges the Gap’ Between Tech and Content Talent

While attending ProgressNEXT 2018 and really immersing ourselves in the event, we were very intrigued to hear that Michael Brown, Founder and CEO of nDash.co was also attending.

nDash is a content community platform providing brands and agencies with the right tools to manage their content creation as well as providing exclusive access to an on-demand community of some of the world’s best freelance writers.

“The writers who have the most success on our platform are ones who have more specific subject matter expertise. What I always like to tell people is it’s really easy to find writers and it’s sometimes very hard to find writers who understand your space or vertical really well and that’s kind of where nDash comes into play.” Michael stated in our one-on-one interview.

Let’s listen in to hear more about what Michael had to say on his thoughts on the gap in the market and what some of the trends are that he is seeing become more important.

nDash ‘Bridges the Gap’ Between Tech and Content Talent

Founded in 2014 in Wayland, Massachusetts, Michael started the company as a freelance writer himself when he was working alongside various clients. What Michael was noticing in the industry was not necessarily the lack of resources or budget holding businesses back but “it was a lack of ideas”

With that said, the way Michael grew his freelance business was “I found companies I wanted to work with and I proactively pitched them content ideas and that is a huge part of the nDash platform. So it’s not just brands saying ‘alright here’s a couple pieces of content I need produced and I’ll find somebody to do it’ it’s writers looking at the brand and the system and proactively proposing ideas”.

Michael basically explained the foundation of nDash is really“an idea generation platform as well” given that a lack of ideas was one void that Michael was trying to fill when he came up with the concept of nDash.

Offering brands to get an outside perspective is a really genius way to approach it and to find out the trends in the industry folks outside of their organization are noticing. Michael brought up a great point that when he previously approached a company to ask if they needed help with content creation, generally the response was always ‘No’. But Michael said when he “proposed original ideas that they could sort of envision on their blog or envision promoting to their audience, the response rate was much higher”.

In order to ensure nDash wouldn’t become “just another content mill” Michael focused his business on these three major principles:

Making the platform fully transparent: Writers and brands should know one another (by name) and develop real relationships.

Letting writers set their own rates: To attract top talent (which is what our clients are looking for) we had to let writers set the terms.

Rewarding talent and creativity: Work had to be awarded based on the quality of a writer’s experience and ideas, not based on the lowest bid.

nDash Announced Content Integration with Hubspot

Back in April of this year, nDash announced its integration with major inbound marketing and sales platform, Hubspot.

What the integration does is "enables HubSpot users to push and synchronize written content created in the nDash platform for a more seamless publishing experience.”

Michael Brown, CEO of nDash commented on the news to say "Inbound marketing cannot succeed without great content. So in our view, this integration isn't just about connecting two platforms. It's about connecting two critical parts of a brand's marketing efforts: content creation and content delivery."

Here are the basics on how the integration works:

nDash users can now seamlessly push content from nDash into their HubSpot account, saving time on copy-pasting, formatting and other manual tasks

Inbound marketing agencies can set up unlimited integrations between nDash and their HubSpot client accounts, making it easy to manage content delivery for multiple brands

All content is pushed to HubSpot in draft mode, and perfectly formatted with images, video, and of course, wonderfully written content

According to Hubspot’s content marketing statistics, they say companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5x more traffic than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. Also something else I found very interesting was 1 in 10 blog posts are compounding, meaning organic search increases their traffic over time.

In regards to these stats, Michael mentions a good point saying “Brands from all industries are quickly realizing that one post per month isn't moving the needle.

They need to publish more, but for that to happen, they need to expand their roster of contributors. With nDash's community of writers, and HubSpot's inbound marketing platform, marketers are more equipped than ever to grow their brand's presence." said Michael.

If you’re like me, and enjoy watching a good visual, click on the video below to see exactly how the integration works and what it looks like on the nDash platform:

Ending Notes

According to Michael’s blogpost which he had written announcing the nDash and Hubspot integration, he mentions their product roadmap and plans for the remainder of 2018 stating “HubSpot is the first of several integrations we currently have in the works. Over the next few months, we’ll be launching other integrations with popular CMS platforms, as well as some with tools for marketing data & analytics.”

Looks like nDash is set out to have a busy yet exciting remainder of the year. I’m eager to see where they will be heading next.

In the end, Michael’s goal for nDash is “to make nDash a seamless extension of all your content marketing efforts”. In my opinion, I think he has a good thing going.

Gabriella Pirrone

Gabriella is the Digital Marketing Assistant for CMSC Media. She brings a wealth of knowledge from not only a CMS perspective but also content, SEO and eCommerce. She enjoys everything social media and staying ontop of the latest trends in the digital marketing world.

nDash ‘Bridges the Gap’ Between Tech and Content Talent