Getting to the top of a Google search result page is gold for online brands. It’s why companies spend big bucks on SEO (search engine optimization) tools and digital marketing talent. But optimizing organic search results across dozens, or even hundreds, of product SKUs can be a nightmare for any online brand. And, as marketer Bob Hutchins told Hypepotamus, a lot of the tools out there currently don’t actually help brands build out the product pages they need.
That’s where EKOM comes in.
EKOM, the latest product launched from Nashville-based Writerly, is a platform that optimizes, adjusts, and generates product detail pages automatically so that customers rank higher on organic search. The goal is to increase traffic, conversions, and revenue by making sure a brand has all the search-optimized assets created in one place.
EKOM looks at product description words and compares those to organic search data. It then helps rewrite that material based on what will rank higher. Importantly, the platform’s language model is designed to create these assets based on the brand’s own voice.
Hutchins, who serves as the startup’s CMO, said he likes to think of the platform as a pacemaker for the digital marketing world.
“So many digital tools out there are diagnostic but they’re not prescriptive. In other words, they give you great reports and they tell you what to do, but it is a manual and time-consuming process to rewrite, test, and approve [changes]. EKOM does that all automatically.”
GROWING IN NASHVILLE
EKOM’s parent company Writerly got off the ground about 18 months ago as an AI-powered writing tool. To date, the platform has attracted over 600,000 users. But as generative and conversational AI tools have taken off over the last few months, the team saw a clear market gap in how digital marketers create SEO content.
CMO Bob Hutchins
“We believe there’s a window right now for Writerly and EKOM to really define a segment and define a market,” Hutchins said, adding that most of the industry is currently “focusing on existing first-party data and bottom of the funnel customer analytics” and not thinking about top-of-funnel asset creation.
While the original idea for the company was born in London, Writerly and EKOM are now firmly headquartered in Nashville with Jon Ricketts serving and co-founder and CEO in Tennessee.
That gives the EKOM team a distinct advantage in the AI world, Hutchins believes.
The team of around 20 people isn’t just all tech people. EKOM has musicians, pilots, athletes, painters, authors, and actors working on the product, something that Hutchins said helps the company think outside of the box and provide a non-Silicon Valley perspective to the AI world.
Investors have also taken notice of their non-conventional approach to AI, too. The startup just announced it closed a $2 million oversubscribed initial fundraising round.
