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VISUAL CONTENT THAT DRIVES PR & SEO RESULTS

Presented by:

Kyle Olson Senior Content Manager

Digital Third Coast

@BecauseSEO

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ALL-IN ON VISUAL CONTENT

•  Executed over 300 content campaigns •  Built over 6,000 links •  Received Billions of impressions

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RELATIONSHIPS BUILD LINKS

•  Build relationships, the links will follow

•  SEO link building is no longer transactional, it’s relational

•  Create win-win situations between you and publishers

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EVERY MARKETER HAS A WISH LIST

I don’t have the budget I don’t have the time

I don’t have the right people I don’t have leaders who understand

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I WOULD LOVE TO DO “XYZ”, BUT…

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STOP DREAMING, START CREATING MAKING LESS CONTENT, MEANS MORE TIME TO

CREATE BETTER CONTENT

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BETTER CONTENT MEANS YOU’RE CREATING A

BETTER INTERNET

GOOGLE WANTS A BETTER INTERNET

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

•  You can get links from major publications by leveraging visual assets •  Stop thinking like an SEO to build links, get in the PR mindset

•  Building strong relationships with influencers creates lasting value

•  Develop less content and create visual assets to see massive results

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“It's not about making more content, it's about the minimum amount of content for the maximum impact.”

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Robert Rose

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BRANDS = PUBLISHERS Companies are focused on creating quality content, even

partnering and buying with media companies:

Branded content is becoming harder to spot. There’s huge opportunity to develop a name for yourself (but don’t pay for it!)

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Content that drives engagement, drives ad dollars.

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And how do publishers get paid?

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PUBLICATIONS NEED...

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THE PUBLICATION CYCLE

Ads to make money

Space for ads

Content to create space

Writers to create the content

Content that performs

Ads to perform

Visitors, clicks, social shares

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The Four Misconceptions of Visual Content Marketing

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MISCONCEPTION #1 MY CONTENT NEEDS TO BE BRANDED FOR GOOD ROI.

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MAGIC ACT

YOUR BRAND NEEDS TO DISSAPEAR FROM YOUR CONTENT,

ONLY TO REAPPEAR IN THE SEARCH RESULTS.

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HAPHAZARD ADS •  They may never know or care about the producer of the

content they consume—that’s okay

•  It’s not about a direct target audience, it’s about broad appeal content

•  If you’re making content strictly for your target audience— you’re missing out on a HUGE opportunity

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THE HARSH TRUTH

Your brand isn't interesting enough to create content on just your products or services.

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MISCONCEPTION #2 I HAVE TO EMPTY MY

POCKETS TO MAKE A DENT.

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Native Advertisement

What you get: –  Article (with disclaimer)

–  nofollow link –  social promotion –  brand mention –  referral traffic

Cost:

$75k - $300k

Organic Placement

What you get: –  Graphic placement

–  dofollow editorial link –  social promotion –  brand mention –  referral traffic

Cost:

$5k - $10k

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MISCONCEPTION #3 I’M TAKING A HUGE RISK INVESTING IN CONTENT.

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MITIGATE AND NEVER DUPLICATE

TEST IT. BEST IT.

bit.ly/LowRiskContent

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MISCONCEPTION #4 I DON’T HAVE THE PEOPLE I NEED.

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I’m not mincing words...it’s really difficult

and strenuous on a team.

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IT’S VERY, VERY HARD.

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AGENCY ROBOT SEO ANALYST

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

PROJECT MANAGER

OUTREACH MANAGER

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

DATA ANALYST

WRITER

RESEARCHER

PROGRAMMER

COPY EDITOR

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•  Can be great for budget and take stress off internal team

•  Experts who can specialize in other areas

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FREE-LANCE-A-LOT

Researcher Designer Writer Developer

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Blog eBook

Press release

Press release eBook

Blog

Blog

Whitepaper

Blog Blog

Whitepaper

Press release

ARE YOU MAKING THE INTERNET A BETTER PLACE?

Whitepaper

eBook

Blog

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“Mediocre content will hurt your brand, more than doing nothing at all.”

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Joe Pulizzi

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•  Can we do it better?

•  Is anyone going to care?

•  Do I have the team in place to make something exceptional?

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ASK YOURSELF TOUGH QUESTIONS

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MEGAPHONES vs. MAGNETS

Your outbound can’t be your inbound.

Define your content as either megaphone or magnet content. Have a purpose before you create and define goals.

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It’s about the story you’re trying to tell.

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IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU

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Build it to be editorial. Compliment a larger story, news jack, have fun outside your core focus.

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•  Is this something people want to see?

•  Does it fill the “content gap”? - Andy Crestodina Co-Founder / Strategic Director of Orbit Media Studios

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CONTENT FOR CONSUMPTION, NOT CRAWLERS

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WHY ARE EDITORIAL LINKS IMPORTANT?

Let’s start from the beginning…

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96

Link Brand Awareness 45.5M Unique Visitors Monthly

Social 2.5M Likes 8.29M Followers

Referral Traffic

SEO – PR – Inbound – Engagement

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THEY’RE FOR THE USER

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ACT NATURAL

•  Editorial links are a form of citation on the internet

Become the source.

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INFOGRAPHICS ARE DEAD!

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...actually, videos are dead, eBooks are dead, podcasts are dead, webinars are dead, EVERYTHING is dead if

they have NO VALUE!

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HELP JOURNALISTS TELL THE STORY

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•  Give writers a starting point

•  Stop trying to tell the whole story

•  They can take it home, make it their own

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BITESIZE STORIES SPEAK VOLUMES

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VISUAL ASSETS

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INTERACTIVE CONTENT

bit.ly/SecondLanguages

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ON-SITE GUIDES

bit.ly/NonProfitWeb

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1.  Impact 2.  Timeliness

3.  Prominence 4.  Proximity

5.  The Bizarre 6.  Conflict

7.  Currency 8.  Human Interest

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THE REASONS WHY JOURNALISTS WRITE THE 8 JOURNALISTIC NEWS VALUES

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Simple Can it be pitched in a subject line? Unexpected You’ve got my attention, now can you keep it?

Concrete Can you express this in terms that I understand?

Credible Why are you telling me this story?

Emotional Why does this matter to my audience?

Stories What’s the narrative? How’s it flow?

Sexy Is it visually stimulating?

‘SUCCESS’ METHOD

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What you do

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THE SWEET SPOT

What’s interesting on

the internet

YOUR CONTENT

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TOO PROMOTIONAL TOO IRRELEVANT

THE SWEET SPOT

What you do

What’s interesting on

the internet

YOUR CONTENT

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The 6 Content Creation Phases

1.  Ideation 2.  Test Outreach

3.  Research 4.  Development

5.  Design 6.  Outreach & Promotion

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MIND THE GAP

Find the gap between the content that people want to consume and the content that doesn’t exist yet.

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WHAT IS THE CONTENT GAP?

•  Questions no one has answered

•  Statistics that don’t exist yet

•  Unique viewpoints on popular/newsworthy topics

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PROPRIETARY POSSIBILITIES

•  Content with proprietary data does very well – Any data that your company already has – Utilize surveys and create the data

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You’re saying something new, making a “report” or “study”.

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Research

•  Pay researchers to do it (they’re really good) •  Grad students need money

•  Contact local university/college job boards

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KNOW WHAT TO KEEP

•  Create an outline and trim the fat –  Anything that doesn’t help clarify the narrative, cut it

•  Keep the narrative concise, use the data to help tell the

story •  Visualize it, don’t ever hold their hands

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33 Places to Find Free Data

Bit.ly/33Places

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MITIGATE THE RISK

•  Test the ideas before they become content

•  Find journalists and get their contact info

•  If they say no, you’ve invested very little so far

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PressRush

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YOU’VE ALREADY BUILT THE RELATIONSHIP

•  If they say yes, you can move forward with development

•  You often receive critical feedback on the focus of the topic

•  As soon as it’s created, send it to them first

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BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WILL BUILD YOUR BRAND

•  Become a source of high quality content

•  Be conversational

•  The content will speak for itself, don’t over pitch

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EVERYTHING FALLS APART UNLESS YOU EXECUTE

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YOUR EXECUTION IS EVERYTHING

•  Design as if everything you create will be featured in the New York Times

•  Spend a little more to get a lot more out of it.

Great designers are worth it.

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IF A TREE FALLS IN THE WOODS...

•  Your content is nothing if it’s not discovered

•  Allow amplifiers to discover it

•  Let them do the heavy lifting with a built-in audience

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10M followers

ON AIR

ON AIR

The Ripple Effect

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GET IN THE PR MINDSET

•  Media Relations > Building Links

•  Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

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MEASURE CORRECTLY

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•  Clearly define what metrics matter before you start

•  Think outside the box about value

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SEO MEASUREMENTS

•  Quality > Quantity all day

•  Domain Authority – aim for the stars (top down) •  Track keywords in a keyword bucket

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PR MEASUREMENTS

•  Share of voice – who’s taking up the most space? •  Readership – how many people potentially saw it?

•  Social Impressions – shares + amount of followers

•  Ad Equivalency – readership x ad cost

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GREAT CONTENT MAKES A MEASURABLE DIFFERENCE.

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Kyle Olson Senior Content Strategist

www.digitalthirdcoast.net

Thank You

@BecauseSEO @DTCchicago