BidView is a veteran-owned startup in Texas that provides small businesses, especially veteran-owned, with government bid opportunities through online and mobile applications. To tell their story in a way that is both focused and meaningful, we led BidView’s amazing co-founders, Sevie Sarabia and Jesse Longoria through a series of creative exercises that helped them arrive at their brand’s identity. After playing with multiple concepts, they decided that the metaphor of “The Sherpa” perfectly illustrates how they help guide small business owners in Texas to the right government opportunities. In the confusion and frustration of searching for Texas government opportunities across hundreds of different local, city and state websites, Sevie and Jesse understood that their ideal users (Texas small business owners and sole proprietors) needed a curated source of opportunities: A One-Stop Government Bid Shop.

Our content strategy sessions with BidView led us to the idea that government procurement often feels like a dense wilderness to small business owners–especially those hoping to get started for the first time. It’s overwhelming. The options are limitless and yet it’s hard to know where to start. Sevie and Jesse chose the brand identity of “The Sherpa” because BidView serves as a trusted guide to the scary wilderness that is government contracting. BidView blazes the trail. Small businesses in Texas still have to go on the journey–finding and winning bids–but BidView helps them set out on the safest, best and most rewarding path.

After engaging the BidView team in a series of exercises to determine their brand identity, target audiences, creative content, and keywords for better search optimization, we were ready to design and implement a comprehensive content strategy. We strategically outlined a series of articles to post on their blog, inventing and scheduling the content so that each post would build upon the other. We worked together to generate blog content ideas that would engage BidView’s audiences and help them succeed in government procurement with the help of BidView’s applications. From here, we developed a consistent schedule for content writing and delivery using social media engagement and SEO best practices.

Because this content effort launched during Veterans’ Week 2016, we began our BidView blog journey with Sevie and Jesse’s compelling story. Read more about how their experiences as soldiers motivated them to continue serving their country after their time in the military in “Veteran Co-Founders Compelled to Help Small Businesses Win Texas Bids.”

Other posts in our series drew upon “The Sherpa” brand identity to provide guidance to small business owners h0ping to win government contracts. Visit the BidView blog to see other blog posts we collaborated on about navigating the government procurement space.

Our process of gathering BidView’s organizational insights and data allowed us to efficiently and creatively produce content and visual designs specific to their story, such as infographics and eventually, an eBook. With consistent and strategic writing for the blogs in place, we easily transferred the long form content into an eBook.

Project Goals

• Increase brand awareness by documenting a creative organizational story for BidView’s inspiring co-founders and their revolutionary government procurement app
• Grow BidView’s fanbase by sharing with Texas small business owners and sole proprietors useful and engaging guidance on how to find and win local, city and state Texas government contracts through the BidView app and premium web subscription service
• Drive website traffic by sharing content consistently to small business owners within the state of Texas and engaging them on social media
• Increase website traffic and downloads of BidView’s mobile application by consistently sharing content that strategically deploys research-based SEO keywords

Our Solution

As we developed strategic solutions for BidView, we recognized the power behind Jessie and Sevie’s experiences as soldiers and believed their story revealed an even more meaningful commitment to the services they provide as a company. With the storytelling aspect of our content strategy in mind, we crafted the following tactical solutions:

• Discover BidView Texas’ Brand Chemistry, Content Style, & Strategic Goals
• Document BidView Texas’ Content Strategy & Schedule
• Write 12 Blog Posts
• Design 3 Infographics
• Create 5 Email Experiments
• Circulate 100+ Social Media Posts
• Write an eBook for New BidView Users

Implications for Our Clients

• We research relevant technical information and collect data for your organization to develop strategic content and brand presence.
• Our knowledge of SEO and UX supports brand awareness and online analytics.
• We create content that builds your brand and inspires action.
• We emphasize the impactful stories behind your services.

Client Feedback

“I had the privilege of collaborating with Katie for about three months at the early stage of our startup. In that short time, I realized that not only had I met a professional content developer, but I had also met a great woman entrepreneur who cared about us and our mission. It was her shared passion, energy, and vision that helped tell our story even better, and build a content library in a few weeks. Katie’s creative mind elevated our social platform, and product to a whole new level. She is a tremendous asset, and I look forward to having her and Dani back on our team in the near future. Check out her creativity and content at http://app.bidview.net/.” — Sevie Sarabia, BidView Co-Founder