Want to successfully promote your brand's story? Wonder why it fell flat in the past? 7 Was to successfully connect and promote your story.

1. @OutspokenMedia
Story
Promotion
Pearl Higgins | @pearl_higgins
#pubcon @pearl_higgins

2. A little bit about me…
- Director of Client Services,
Outspoken Media
- MA in Children’s Literature,
Simmons College
- Former Children’s Book
Reviewer, The Horn Book
Guide
- Maurice Sendak enthusiast
- Former child
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3. Why Your Story Fell Flat
AND 7 ways to ensure it doesn’t next time.
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4. The digital marketer’s progression
4
Content
marketing
Storytelling
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5. 5#pubcon @pearl_higgins

6. More content
does not equal
a larger
audience.
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7. 7

8. Plot Delivery
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9. Promotable story has a
novel delivery.
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10. Where the Wild Things Are
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11. 11

12. - @pearl_higgins
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13. 13

14. 14

15. How do you want your
audience to feel?
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17. 17
- http://awaywego.carnival.com/360vacation/

18. Your existing stakeholders
are your built-in audience.
How do they feel?
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19. Your company’s
reputation will make or
break the success of
your story.
You can’t expect the story to be the fix for reputation issues.
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20. #hashtag @twitterhandle 20

21. #pubcon @pearl_higgins 21

22. No one wants to hear a story:
- If you over-charged them.
- If they’re angry about your billing practices.
- If they never received their product.
- If the product broke.
- If your customer service is sub-par.
- If your terms and conditions were not clear.
- If you made a social media snafu that you never really
fixed.
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23. #hashtag @twitterhandle 23

24. No one wants to hear your
story If you are not
meeting or exceeding
their expectations.
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25. #hashtag @twitterhandle 25

26. Step 1.
Listen to your audience
Listen early, listen often, and listen even
when you don’t think you need to.
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27. Listen when things are going well
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28. Deliciously well
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29. Listen when things aren’t
going well.
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30. Listen when
you don’t
have to
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Source: Blipsystems.com/your-
mobile-phone-helps-keflavik-airport-
give-you-a-better-travel-experience/

31. Your audience is half of
your story.
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32. Step 2.
Ask questions
Use stakeholders and advanced
outreach to zero in on the right story.
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33. Ask what isn’t
working
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Hi Pearl,
This is Joschka, one of the developers of Harvest
Forecast. We recently noticed a drop in activity on your
Forecast account. We want our customers to get the
most out of our product, so I’m reaching out to offer
any help you might need.
How is Forecast fitting into your team’s workflow?
What’s one thing we can do to improve your
overall Forecast experience?
If there’s anything we can help you with related to
Forecast, please let me know. We’re all ears.
Thank you,
Joschka Kintscher, Developer
Harvest Forecast

34. Make sure you address those issues
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35. Ask what is working
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36. Step 3.
Prioritize better tracking
By understanding your successes and failures,
you’ll be better prepared to pivot and respond.
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37. What are you tracking?
Really use your tools like Search Console, Google Analytics,
Facebook & Twitter analytics to track the following:
- Where is your story having the most success? Social?
Organic? Referral?
- What is the bounce rate and time on site for the piece?
- What kind of terms is the piece ranking for? Is that what you
expected?
- How are the click-through rate and the impressions stacking
up?
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38. If it’s working, pay attention
A piece of content created for a client that targeted a number
of keywords comparing one appliance to another.
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39. Adjust your story and
delivery to respond to the
data your audience is
giving you.
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40. Step 4.
Think differently about paid
Think smarter, think targeted.
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41. Bring persona development back in
Don’t just throw money at promotion, focus on those
personas again.
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42. Don’t be afraid of
sponsored content.
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44. Step 5.
Broaden your scope
Always look for that new demographic
to add to your personas.
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45. A niche publisher
was looking to
broaden its
audience beyond
researchers and
professionals in
that field.
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46. Scope broadened
For one feature, it broadened the scope,
widened the appeal to include:
- Astronomical community forums
- Natural history sites
- Amateur radio news
- Historical blogs
- Tech enthusiasts
- Hacker news
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47. This new audience
shared the piece
just under 3,000
times, driving
nearly 20,000
referral visits to the
article in its first
week live.
#hashtag @twitterhandle 47

48. Successful story
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49. Remember those appliances?
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50. Step 6.
Think tight with your outreach
Outreach shouldn’t be a numbers game.
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51. Use tools to narrow in on targets
The success that the science & news publication had was
not because of large-scale outreach, but because there was
a pared down list of targets.
#hashtag @twitterhandle 51

52. Step 7.
Become the audience
Give your community a platform to tell you their stories.
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53. Remember
to leave
the cycle
open
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Plot
DeliveryAudience

54. Close the loop.
Find a way to let your
community tell their own
stories.
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57. You have to listen to your
audience to have your
own stories heard and
amplified.
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58. 58
- @pearl_higgins
“All great literature is one of two
stories; a man goes on a journey or a
stranger comes to town.”