Category Archives: Content PR & Marketing

Content PR and content marketing are redefining how brands communicate with audiences. Inbound tactics featuring content that answers audience needs attract attention and create gravitational pull for a brand.

SEO Trends for 2013 & What They Mean for PR

Posted on January 23, 2013 by | 8 Comments
seo_2013

This image, originally published on the Ink Blog, nicely summarizes the diverse tactics and approaches that are shaping SEO today.

The practice of search engine optimization has changed dramatically over the last couple years, and now offers PR pros and other communicators some real lessons in achieving relevance to audiences.    A look at current SEO trends offers some great ideas for anyone charged with creating content or doing outreach for a brand.   Here are some common themes I’ve been seeing on leading SEO sites and blogs this winter.

A mix of quality content:

You can’t read an SEO or marketing blog today without bumping into the phrase “quality content,” and there’s a good reason for that.   As brand publishing becomes more entrenched, the content we publish is at the very heart of our communications.  It’s the hub on our web site, it’s the landing page where we convert leads, it’s the fuel for social conversation, it’s the next step in the buying process.   So, content is crucial.  We get that.  But what does “quality” really mean?

In reality, and in this context, “quality” means a mix of content.  You need some attention-garnering, awareness-building, “upper funnel” stuff.   Many infographics, pithy blog posts about 6 ways to do something better and clever videos fall into this category.

However, this is the content equivalent of convenience food.  It’s bite-size and portable, but it’s not a feast.

“Clients are shifting not only to higher-end writers, but to subject matter experts,” noted Christina Zila in a recent Search Engine Watch post titled 5 Trends Shaping SEO & Content Marketing in 2013.  “In 2013, demand will increase not just for good writers, but for good writers who know their stuff.”

More substantial, meatier content that’s designed to inform and educate your audience – and move them deeper into the buying process – is crucial as well.   This content is tougher to produce, but  is high-value, more likely to generate links and readership, and is great fodder for derived content.

Integration of user experience and planned outcomes

Brian Loebig said it well on the InkBlog:  “There will be a tighter integration of websites, social media, press releases, SEO and mobile applications. In fact, I think the idea of optimizing for search engines will become congruent with optimizing for actual humans. If the content you are creating and distributing is highly useful and relevant for humans it will likely be favored by the search engines.”

This is an important point to remember, because while our audiences access content via all manner of devices (computers, smartphones, tablets) and platforms (web, mobile, apps, social) they expect a coherent brand experience.   This requires integration and coordination between departments, and also underscores the fact that we’re not optimizing discrete pieces of content or web pages anymore – we’re optimizing experiences.

It’s also worth noting that time-on-page and bounce rates are factors search engines notice.  Developing content and experiences that not just capture but keep attention is an important factor in both achieving successful outcomes and great online visibility.

Derived content – diverse and fresh

Content marketers have long advocated the derivation of many pieces of content from one.  A white paper, for example, can provide fodder for multiple blog posts, a deck for SlideShare, a webinar and be the basis for a variety of images.  Done well, this derived content can spark social sharing, and deliver readers back to the original work, which is often one of the meatier, more substantial pieces of content your organization has published (see above.)

Depending upon where the derived content is hosted, there can be some value in the links going back to the original work itself, especially if those links are coming from a relevant and respected industry blog or web site.  However, the fact that the work is being read and shared creates signals that engines notice.  Additionally, current content is still important, and derived works are a good way to fuel your brand’s content creation engine.  Just be sure that the derived works are themselves useful and substantial.

At this point, some readers may be thinking “This doesn’t sound like SEO to me,” and if your definition of SEO is limited to keyword density and link-building, then yes, you’re right.  This is new ground.  The lesson here for all communicators that we can learn from search optimization gurus can be summarized pretty simply:  Search engines are smarter than ever and they pay attention to signals generated by real, live humans.  To generate visibility in search engines, you have to start with compelling content, use multiple channels and formats to deliver the messages, and make serving your audience well the priority.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

See more blog posts on the topic of search engine visibility and content optimization:  http://blog.prnewswire.com/tag/seo/

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SEO is Dead! Now Let’s Optimize!

Posted on January 21, 2013 by | 14 Comments

top rank seo cycle

The heydey of SEO is over!

As a discipline it found a prominent place in the psyche of Web publishers because of the critical role the search engines played in driving traffic to Web sites, which in turn played a critical role in monetizing those sites.

But SEO was a victim of its own success.  That success led to excess and with that excess came a threat to the efficacy of the very search engines it was intended to attract.  Perhaps more importantly it caused publishers, marketers and various other content producers to lose the plot.  They stopped writing for their audience and focused instead on producing stuff that only resonated with algorithms, not with people.

Let’s take keyword search as an example, because that is SEO at its most basic level.  It was a pretty rational idea to try to identify what keywords were most commonly being searched for and then include those keywords in your story.  And add them to the headline.  And then add more and more of them.

Then the spammers joined the SEO party and put those keywords into content that had absolutely nothing to do with what the unsuspecting Web user was actually searching for.  In fact whole businesses grew up based on generating traffic by matching keyword queries and directing traffic to shallow, low-cost, low-value content.

So, 200 or so algorithm tweaks later, Google shuts this down.  The use of links is following a similar escalation to oblivion pattern.

The goal of Google and every other search engine is to have quality rise to the top (unless of course you’re willing to pay to be on top).  So naturally their advice to Web authors is “write great content.”

But the search engines can’t really identify quality.  What they do instead is first of all associate the quality of the content with the place it appears (e.g. you’re more likely to come up with quality on the New York Times than on eHow,) and secondly, try to predict quality based upon robotically identifiable characteristics of the content.  For example, it may be true that 400-word stories are more likely to be of higher quality that 200 word items.  But they can’t deal with the fact that you could say something brilliant in one graph.

Post-SEO Optimization

If you’re a marketer or a PR professional, if you’re the digital guru of your organization or one of the new breed of content marketers, you can’t afford to just write something good and say “Here you go, Google.”  What you need to do is to optimize in a post-SEO world and here’s some advice on how to do that.

  1. First of all your content needs a good home.  Just putting it on your Web site isn’t enough, you should have an online newsroom as part of your site.  That becomes the landing page where you drive traffic to your content and the place were you use some best practice SEO for Web sites in order to capture searchers.  Make it interesting.  One of the biggest challenges with search engine traffic is getting them to click on more than one document.  Use photos, use video and if you don’t produce enough content yourself bring some in.  Add a Twitter feed, YouTube videos or Flikr photos.
  2. You should also have a blog, whether as an individual or as an organization.  A blog is one way to personalize your content.  Take advantage of the unique writing styles and perspectives of individuals within your organization.  De-institutionalize your content and provide another path to your online newsroom.
  3. You are not going to maximize your audience with search alone.  Use social networks.  Every new piece of content should give rise to several tweets with interesting excerpts from the document and links back to your online newsroom.  One tactic that can be effective in building an audience is to not only use an organization account but also have individual accounts of thought leaders in your organization.   This personalizes the messaging and makes it more social.  (If you haven’t built a strong following on Twitter you can use PR Newswire’s Social Post to reach followers on our curated vertical Twitter accounts.)   For B-to-B companies in particular, LinkedIn is becoming an increasingly important place to share information.
  4. It’s important to hit every social network you can think of that’s relevant to your business or your brand.  However, quality beats quantity – it’s better to focus on a couple where you can really concentrate on building a following.  By learning what types of messaging draw the most likes, or follows, or shares, you can refine how you use each network.
  5. Placement is another way to get lots of readers.  I’m not thinking about the classic and expensive ad network type of placement.  There are many innovative alternatives in the market today including recommendation engines, keyword buy options and sponsored and preferred placement on mobile and social networks. A cost effective approach for placement is to use a commercial newswire service like PR Newswire that has a robust syndication network.  This can enable you to reach many targeted sites that may have a very selective audience specifically interested in your content.

So optimization is as important as ever, but not for the practice of SEO that’s all about keywords and links and gaming the search engines.  Optimization has a broader meaning that starts with good content and good places to put it and then drives readers to that content through search, social and syndication.

Author Ken Dowell is PR Newswire’s executive vice president of audience development & social media.

Image courtesy of Flickr user  TopRankOnlineMarketing.

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Using Multiple Communications Channels to Increase Message Exposure

Posted on January 16, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Multichannel effectsIf there’s one thing I’ve learned during my long tenure with PR Newswire, it’s this: distribution matters.  However, the ways brands distribute messages has evolved.  It’s no longer an exercise in pushing a message for audiences to consume.   Content we “push” is now fine-tuned to audience interests in terms of subject, and we take care to build in links and multimedia to more fully explain, engage and inform.  We’re also relying heavily on the “pull” good content generates over time, as audience share content with their peers and social networks, and as the traffic and interest the content has generated morphs into a signal recognized by search engines.  Distribution is no longer one-way in nature.  It’s more like a traffic circle.

It’s important to keep all of this in mind as your finger is hovering over the button on your computer that will send, post, publish or share a piece of content, because if you’re relying on a single channel, you’re selling your message short.

Derived and aggregated content – the starting points

Distributing content across multiple channels can be simple or more complex, but there’s a common element – multi-channel distribution is based upon content that is either derived from the core message, or aggregated to support it.

Here’s an example. 

content mnrLast week, PR Newswire issued a blog post highlighting some of the top performing press releases for 2012.  However, we didn’t stop there.   Instead, we created several more pieces of content to illustrate and convey the message. Here are all of the assets – and channels – we used to promote this messaging.

Distribution is the special sauce:

We could have just stuck with the original blog post.  But by adding the video illustrating the top releases, including links to the releases within the post, deriving from that post the multimedia news release – and then distributing all of these elements via our press release and syndication networks, plus social channels –resulted in the message garnering almost 15 times the average number of views one of our blog posts usually generates.

Why does this approach work?

There are a host of reasons why the multi-channel approach to content publication and distribution works.

  • More channels, more eyes.   Sharing and distributing different content elements across channels ultimately reaches larger audiences.   The opportunity increases exponentially when you derive content from your original message.  For example, the blog post, video and MNR we did for “Content We Love” provided me with separate opportunities to tweet, share and post content related to our core message.
  • The opportunity for relevance.  Different channels serve different interests.  YouTube is a great place to demonstrate key points of your message visually, especially if you’re showing examples or how-to tips.  SlideShare, on the other hand, has a lot of utility for those doing research, and can be a great way to showcase data that won’t necessarily translate well to video.  The point is, keep each channel’s utility in mind and fine tune your content accordingly.
  • Search.  Search engines are obviously crucial divers of visibility.  And by creating multiple content elements, you give search engines more things to index and serve up to interested searchers.  It’s also worth noting that YouTube is also the second largest search engine in the world, and offers important search benefits in its own right.

I’ll be digging into the topic of leveraging content across channels to deliver business results on a webinar co-hosted with the Online Marketing Summit folks next week, and then again in person at the OMS in Feburary, where I’ll be hosting a workshop.  Here are the details:

Webinar (January 23): Leveraging Converged Media’s Impact on Content Marketing

Workshop: Driving Qualified Audiences Into the Funnel Using Rich Media and Distribution Networks 

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.  

 

 

 

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Mobile Marketing – Size Matters!

Posted on January 16, 2013 by | 2 Comments

In the last 12-months, there has been a 179% growth in video consumption on mobile devices.

1/3 of time on the Web in the United States is spent on mobile devices.

Nearly $1 out of every $10 discretionary dollars are being spent online via mobile devices, according to Comscore & The US Department of Commerce, which equates to a 4x increase in the last 2-years (coincides with a spike of tablet ownership).

The secret is out, marketing communications folks… people love their mobile devices and they’ll use them to watch stuff, spend time online, and buy things. But how they use their different types of mobile devices is set to play havoc with mobile marketing campaigns.

According to a very insightful discussion that I attended by Comscore’s Mark Donovan (@joygantic) at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it is not enough for marketing communications pros to merely know that B2C/B consumers are tethered to their mobile devices and that a huge engagement opportunity exists.  Marketing communications pros must also understand the type of mobile device their consumers are using to devour information.

With today’s evolving consumption habits, marketing communications pros cannot just think “mobile”. They must understand the differences in how their targeted audience(s) use tablets (and even different sizes of tablet) vs. smart phones and adjust their campaigns appropriately.

Consider the following…

  • According to Flurry Analytics, smartphone users use more apps each week than tablet users but tablet users spend more time per app engagement.
  • Search is the top category for tablet usage. The bigger screen is the big difference here.
  • Smartphone usage is evenly distributed throughout the day. Table usage spikes during key “down time hours” in the evening when consumers are home and are likely using their tablet as a diversion during commercial breaks, according to beta data from Comscore multi-platform metrics and information from Flurry Analytics.

A comprehensive mobile campaign must take search, apps, and device category usage into consideration.

Companies like Google are now selling marketers and advertisers ads that will be displayed on smartphones during some points of the days and on tablets during other times. Content and site optimization remains very important due to 33% of time spent on the Web occurring via mobile devices. And a mix of apps and mobile-optimized Web content is key, thanks to differing smartphone and tablet usage habits.

With more and more metrics available about tablet (and soon, 7″ vs. 10″ tablets) vs. smartphone usage, there cannot be a one-size–fits all approach to mobile marketing.

4″, 7″, 10″ screens…. size matters when it comes to mobile marketing campaigns!

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An Emerging PR Trend: Content PR Strategy & Tactics

Posted on January 15, 2013 by | 7 Comments

Content PR.  You’ve probably seen this phrase bouncing around the blogosphere recently, and no wonder, it’s an emerging PR trend for this year.  But what is content PR?  To discover the answer, we need to look to marketing first.

ContentPR-infographic-loResOver the last couple years, we’ve seen a significant change in marketing tactics, and the subsequent rise of inbound marketing.   Driven by generating interest rather than causing interruption, inbound marketing tactics, including content marketing, draw the audience to the brand, rather than pushing messaging out and hoping that someone pays attention.   Doing this requires a brand to be in tune with its audience, know what they’re talking about (and where the talking is occurring) and the creation of content that speaks to the audience’s interests.

The Genesis of Content PR

Within that last sentence you see the genesis of content PR.    More than any other department, public relations is dialed into the sentiments of their brand’s constituents.  And knowing where influence and conversations are to be found is PR’s stock in trade.  And finally, PR pros are an organization’s master storytellers.  In a word, they do content.

What is Content PR?

Content PR is the extension of content marketing principles applied to PR.  The core content marketing principles include:

  • Understanding audience interests,
  • Creation of relevant and compelling content
  • Deployment of that content in various formats and across different channels in order to reach audiences where they live

New strategy & tactics

In practice, content PR requires some shifts in the traditional PR mindset and tactics.

From episodic campaigns to ongoing presence.   It can be tough to get away from the traditional idea of a campaign.  But as we all know, audience interest isn’t dictated by campaigns.   While campaigns do a great job of building interest, opportunities are lost when brands don’t serve the organically occurring interest that develops when a person has a gift to buy, is researching charities related to a new cause, or is researching vendors or a project at work.   Content PR is crucial to developing a plugged-in brand presence that understands – and delivers – what constituents are seeking, and what they need to make related decisions.

Reflecting the audience point of view in messaging.   While there’s still a place for news announcements of record, savvy brands are changing their messaging to reflect the audience point of view.   Rather than simply issuing a message from the ivory tower to the masses, brands today are communicating in the context of their customers and other constituents, building audience values into their messaging.   A brand that’s launching new software, for example, might develop content supporting the launch around related customer challenges, bringing in expert advice about dealing with a particular issue, and work in details about the new software’s capability within that context.  So instead of “NewSoftware from XYZ Corp. Offers Improved System Performance,” the headline might read “5 Ways to Improve System Performance.”  And instead of a simple text press release, the content might include an array of elements, including an infographic, slides or a short video with an expert.

Measuring pull, not push.   While we’ve been talking about “push vs. pull” communications for years now, fully embracing a “pull” mentality is crucial for the successful practice of content PR – and measuring it.  How do you measure pull?   While metrics will vary for each organization, here are some ideas:

  • Search rank, and inbound search terms used to find brand content.  A dive into website analytics tremendously revealing.  A look at the search terms people used to find your web site shows you pretty clearly 1) the terms for which your content ranks in search engines and 2) the terms your audience is using to get to your web site.  If those terms don’t jibe with the larger PR strategy, a focused content PR effort can help.
  • Traffic to specific content – and the resulting activity. Measuring the visits to specific pages is one obvious measure.  But take it a step further, and look at what happens next.  Are people sharing the content published on social networks?  Are they clicking on the links embedded in the content and taking the next step (see Outcomes, below.)   Looking deeper into page traffic will reveal whether or not your audience is truly engaging with the content your brand has published.

Collaboration.  More than ever, integration with marketing is crucial if content PR is going to work.  Key challenges that collaboration will address include developing a consistent and coherent experience for your audiences.    It’s also important to realize that one piece of content can trigger a variety of outcomes, and brand need to have their ducks in a row to capture all of the potential results.  For example,  in addition to generating interest among media and bloggers,  the direct connection the audience has with the content brings with it the opportunity for the brand to move prospects ahead in the decision process.   PR and marketing should collaborate to ensure the content is accurately mapped to the customer decision process, and appropriate next steps are offered to readers. Designed to further inform – and qualify – your brand’s prospects, next steps can include access to more specific information (such as case studies), tips for doing something better and access to staff.

A hallmark of content marketing is creating content that can ultimately represent the brand’s voice and POV within the timelines of an individual person’s search for information or buying process.  Content PR shapes opinion contextually.  When coordinated with the brand’s marketing efforts, content PR shapes opinion generates lasting visibility and delivers measurable, top line business results.

Join us for the upcoming webinar on Wednesday, January 23, 2013:  Leveraging Converged Media’s Impact on Content Marketing

Additional resources:

White paper:  Maximizing Content Marketing – A 6 Step Plan for Agile Engagement

4 Ways to Attract Qualified Audience With Content

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.   See her in person at the upcoming Online Marketing Summit in February, where she’s hosting a workshop on Driving Qualified Audiences Into the Funnel Using Rich Media and Distribution Networks.

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What is Content PR? [Infographic]

Posted on January 15, 2013 by | 1 Comment

ContentPR-infographic-loRes

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If cats have nine lives, why can’t our content?

Posted on January 9, 2013 by | 1 Comment
PR Newswire staffers Malcolm Atherton & Natalie Bering are on site at CES 2013.

PR Newswire staffers Malcolm Atherton & Natalie Bering are on site at CES 2013.

The day before the show floor opened CES 2013 booths received their finishing touches and exhibitors descended on Las Vegas. The lesser known fact is that CES is not just more than 1.8 million net square feet of exhibits, but it is also a learning conference with industry and role specific tracks.

Yesterday I was able to attend Women in Advertising: Innovation in Digital Technologies where eight accomplished and powerful women were poised to share their experiences with us. The landscape of the panel spanned from large agencies to small start-ups.

In the course of the discussion, the panelists encouraged us to think about our own messaging. Is our content relevant? How do we get the content to those that matter? What is our story? How do we tell it? I sat in the audience thinking that this is the same conversation that all communication practitioners are having – no matter if you’re in marketing, PR, or at an agency.

What was interesting was the digital perspective. The revolution is not necessarily the technology but how the content is being consumed and how to get where your audience needs you to be. Beth McCabe, VP/Group Director, Social Marketing & Technology, Digitas mentioned that it isn’t always about marketing using the latest and greatest technology but being inspired by it. For example, they have a MakerBot in their office, they are not exactly sure what is going to come of it but they are playing with it to see what it sparks. A Death Star, maybe?

The point that resonated the most for me was how are you making what you’re doing function across platforms? Does it relate and is it seamless? One example was if you are creating a innovative interactive digital board how are you then taking that content to create long tail success for the parts that make the whole? The videos to be used via social channels, and iPad apps for your sales team to leverage, in addition to weaving the assets to tell your story from different vantage points.

Again how are we as communicators supposed to repurpose our content to tell our story to that specific segment of our audience?

An audience question about if gender played a role in how these women create their strategy was answered in an array of strange recounts of being in male dominated fields, but I found the most satisfying answer to be from Kristin Ganong, VP, Digital Strategy and Engagement at Diageo. She acknowledged that gender shapes us, but that her strategy comes from being relevant to her customer needs and their audience.

Audiences in today’s landscape is looking for a personal and targeted experience, which necessitates communicators to meet them where they are on the devices they use with content that matters to them.

We are creating great content, why should it only have one life?

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The Diverted Eyeball Strategy: Why It’s Not Working

Posted on December 26, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Professional communicators have traditionally based a lot of their activity on capturing what I would call diverted eyeballs, putting content under the noses of an audience that only sees it because they were really looking for something else.

Most advertising works like this.  You’re reading a story in a magazine and when you have to turn the page you get, not the continuation of your story, but a glossy full color photo of a bottle of rum.  Or you may be watching October baseball and in trying to focus on whether that long fly ball clears the wall, you may or may not notice the name of the beer brand painted on the wall.

PR placement is a little more subtle but nonetheless based upon the reader sort of accidently falling upon the mention.  Maybe that involves an inch or two of commentary embedded in a larger news story or a couple of sentences rewritten from a news release that fills a hole in a newspaper page.

The diverted eyeball strategy was justified by some audacious claims as to audience reach.  That one graph short on an interior page of the local newspaper raised claims of an audience equivalent to the circulation of the newspaper.  Score a TV placement?  That means millions right? Because however many viewers Nielsen projects to have watched that station during that time period potentially saw the snippet of video or comment that you snuck in front of them.

Still working?  Not so much.  While the theory of diverted eyeball distribution made the migration from traditional media forms to online, it’s not quite the same.  Because the claims of audience reach are based upon a concept of a passive news consumer casually taking in whatever is hoisted at him (or her).  It’s about starting the day by paging through the newspaper at the breakfast table and ending it sitting down with the family to watch the evening news.

That’s not what today’s news consumer looks like.  Paging through the morning paper now might be scrolling through headlines from 10 news sources on Twitter.  Casually perusing what’s on the next page is less likely than searching directly for the information you want.  So with more paths to get information and more devices to access it, the role of editor or gatekeeper has in many ways passed directly to the information consumer.

What that means for the communicator?  You’re not going to be successful riding the coattails of someone else’s quality.  It’s up to you to produce the content that captures an audience.

Author Ken Dowell is PR Newswire’s executive vice president of audience development & social media.

Image via http://nicolemerrifield.wordpress.com

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What is Quality Content?

Posted on December 13, 2012 by | 5 Comments

Content-is-King-1-300x169Virtually every discussion of modern public relations and marketing practice will at some point refer to the importance of quality content.  It is the absolute baseline for brand publishing, content marketing, social media messaging and just about any other way that an organization communicates.

The need for quality applies across the board whether the content you are producing is called a press release or a white paper, sponsored content or a blog post.

Quality transcends category.

But what exactly is quality content?  Often that question is answered by what it is not:

  • It’s not spam.
  • It’s not jargon.
  • It’s not solicitous.
  • It’s not laced with tricks to attract search engine algorithms.

The don’ts are easier to point out than the do’s.

If we’re going to define what constitutes quality, let’s start at the simplest level.  Quality content is well written.  That means it’s concise, clear and grammatically correct.  I can’t recall reading anything that was so brilliant I could overlook the typos, mismatched tense and run-on sentences.

Secondly, quality content is honest.  It is honest about what it is and who is writing it.  If it is sponsored content, that is made clear, as is the author or authoring organization.  If someone else’s ideas or someone else’s research is referenced, that too is appropriately attributed.

Beyond that it gets a lot more subjective.

The Google Webmaster Blog talks about “unique, valuable, engaging.”  Other attributes that are cited by various Web authors include useful, relevant, well-researched, credible, and easy to read.

I suggest that good quality content has to be either interesting or informative.  Entertain or educate.  Great quality content does both.

There are many ways to be interesting.  For example, your content can be funny.  Photos and videos can be interesting in ways that are hard to replicate solely with blocks of text.  Great writing, especially if it is in a style and tone that is unique to the author, can in itself be interesting.

Content can be informative to a very broad audience, such as when NASA discusses some new information about the nature of neighboring planets, or to a very small audience, such as information about an innovation in industrial design.   Quality content doesn’t have to be brilliantly original, never-before-heard wisdom.  It can add context or insight to information that is otherwise widely known.  But it has to add to the conversation.

How good is your content?  Try asking yourself whether it is the kind of stuff that you would be interested in reading and why.  If your answer is affirmative, you’re on the right track.

Author Ken Dowell is PR Newswire’s executive vice president of social media & audience development.

Does your content need some fine-tuning?  We have some resources that can help:

Image via 100Kblueprint.com

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Using Multimedia to Power Content Marketing & Tell Stories

Posted on December 12, 2012 by | 3 Comments

Last year, you may have watched State Farm’s PSA about the dangers of deep-frying a turkey. Even though William Shatner added some silliness to the PSA, the campaign proved to be effective, with a decrease in the number of turkey-frying incidents.

It became a successful example of a content marketing campaign many companies will strive to replicate — and now can, with the information provided from last week’s webinar, “Brands as Storytellers: Powering Content Marketing Campaigns through Multimedia,” co-hosted by Online Marketing Institute and PR Newswire.

Kevin Wilk, divisional vice president, PR Newswire’s MultiVu, began the webinar with the discussion of paid, earned and owned media, breaking down the individual media types, and then offered some tips to increase the effectiveness of the content a brand publishes.   Some of his key points included:

  • Paid media is when a brand pays to place ad or content on a channel.
  • Earned media is publicity gained when an influencer promotes a brand.
  • Owned media is when a brand owns a channel.
  • The lines between paid, earned and owned media are blurring.
  • Earned media is gaining importance.
  • More multimedia = more views. Text + photo, video and downloadable files can increase views by up to 9.7 times.
  • Distribute content to different channels to increase earned media, and this will increase in the number of views.

Maria Pergolino, senior director of marketing for Marketo, Inc., followed by introducing six types of visual content that can be used in a content marketing campaign: comics, memes, infographics, photos, videos, and visual note-taking.

  • Comics: They can be used to introduce or transition into other content, e.g.,    introducing a white paper.
  • Memes: They are not only funny, but they can share quotes or a customer case study by including a quote, photo, brand logo, etc. A meme helps tell the story in a condensed way, similar to the function of Twitter. Memes are also easily shared on Facebook, Pinterest, etc. They are a powerful form of marketing.
  • Infographics: They are a little bit harder to utilize. One idea is to use a white paper as the basis of the infographic. Visual content, and not just stats, are important in an infographic, so it needs to be creative and stand out.
  • Photos: They can tell a whole story and, like a meme, can be posted on a photo-sharing website. Photos help viewers get involved in the company’s story.
  • Videos: It is increasingly difficult to improve video quality, as well as use it to tell a story. It is an investment to create a video ($10,000 per minute – but it ranges), and much more expensive than taking a photo. If you decide on creating a video, you need to weave in your story.
  • Visual note-taking: Pergolino mentioned this is one of her favorite types of visual content. It is very engaging. This type of visual content can trigger memories of the topics discussed at an event, meeting, etc. After the event, you can take a picture of the storyboard and post it immediately to your company blog, without having to wait to write up a blog post. Visual note-taking tells a story in a visual and engaging way.

The keys to visual marketing success include: 1) create a compelling story, 2) choose the right type of content, 3) partner with others while telling your story, 4) focus on great design and branding, 5) promote your content strategically.

When promoting your content, use different social channels to tell your story. Use the right content for each channel.

Todd Wheatland, VP of marketing for Kelly Services, began his discussion with “what is driving this change”:

  • Mobile is driving change, because people want content that is quick and easy.
  • Being social is driving change, because people want to share content they think makes them look cool. They also want to consume and not leave the platform providing them with the content.
  • Content needs to work everywhere, e.g., laptop, iPad, cellphone, etc.
  • B2B marketers need to learn how to entertain, because people learn from people, not companies.
  • There is content inflation – the volume of content is increasing dramatically. However, you need to find a balance between expensive video content and a good story.
  • The sharing of video content on mobile devices has doubled.
  • There has been an increase in the amount of online video consumed, and the average length of B2B videos has decreased. People are watching videos to be entertained — keep videos short.
  • Trends in video marketing include the use of humor and case studies (people buy from people – relate to a human story).
  • There has been an increase in video content on landing pages.
  • Don’t skip on costs when making videos – it is a showcase for your company’s products and services.

Interesting Facts

  • The number of companies with YouTube channels increased by 39 percent in the last year.
  • There are six types of Facebook posts, but image posts get 20 times more engagement.
  • LinkedIn Today, which shows daily trending news and shared content, prioritizes heavily. When tweeting from LinkedIn, every RT counts as one LinkedIn “like.” This will help your news trend.

Wilk then concluded the webinar by giving an example of a successful campaign created by Multivu for Apple Vacations. He explained it is a perfect convergence of paid, earned, and owned media using one platform. In addition, it can be easily found on search engines and the content can be shared on different channels. You can view the campaign here: www.multivu.com/players/English/51242-ap…

The webinar ended with a Q&A. Here is some of the info shared during the Q&A:

  • B2B means businesses selling to businesses. B2C is businesses selling to consumers.
  • If your company decides to produce a video, keep the video under two minutes. There is a higher abandonment rate (the point viewers stop watching) after two minutes. You can test the abandonment rate for your videos by creating videos with different time lengths.
  • The best way to make sure your content is mobile-friendly is by testing it. Load your content and see. Also, there are sites like YouTube that make your content mobile-friendly.
  • The goal for a company using social media is to establish a presence on the social networking site and keep people coming back.
  • Video content should not be telling people how awesome your company is, but needs to be engaging and entertaining to your audience. The cheapest way is to have a “talking head,” but you need to be unique and entertain. You can have a “talking head,” but should add another dimension that is more entertaining.
  • Don’t create accounts if you are not creating videos, posting images, etc. It doesn’t look good to create an account and then not post to it.
  • When using images for your content marketing campaign, you can use iStock (purchase images) or grab from your company’s material. Stay away from images that don’t belong to you, and include images your company is comfortable with you using.

You can follow these presenters on Twitter:

Kevin Wilk: @MultiVu

Maria Pergolino: @InboundMarketer

Todd Wheatland: @toddwheatland

Access the archived webinar here: Brands as Storytellers

Author Polina Opelbaum is an editor with ProfNet.

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