Finding Success After Defeat: Content Marketing Lessons from the Frontline | Adria Saracino
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We only ever hear about successful content strategies, but sometimes it takes a lot of bumps and heartache to reach the top. Adria will share real content strategy projects that failed and provide tips for not following in the same steps.
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Finding Success After Defeat: Content Marketing Lessons from the Frontline | Adria Saracino
- 1. Finding Success After Defeat: Lessons from the Front Line Adria Saracino Head of Content Strategy, Distilled @adriasaracino | #LavaCon
- 2. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon DOWNLOAD THIS DECK: BIT.LY/ADRIALAVACON
- 3. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon I work at Distilled. I wanted to be a journalist. I did a brief stint in graphic design.
- 4. total visits: 322K social shares: 3,300 @adriasaracino | #LavaCon
- 5. total visits: 1.8M social shares: 110K @adriasaracino | #LavaCon
- 6. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon coverage: 8 social shares: 34
- 7. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon coverage: 11 social shares: 90
- 8. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 9. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 10. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 35 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR CONTENT MARKETING EFFORTS SUCCESSFUL
- 11. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon AKA ALL THE WAYS I’VE F*CKED UP
- 12. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Research Plan Analyze Create Distribute
- 13. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Research Plan Analyze Create Distribute
- 14. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon coverage: 8 social shares: 34
- 15. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Badges improve customer trust source
- 16. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Winner, winner, chicken dinner Badges may improve customer trust source
- 17. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Long landing pages are hot right now source
- 18. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Long landing pages are an option source
- 19. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon We know our customers!
- 20. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon We may know our customers, but likely not fully
- 21. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Smart questions now = future success source
- 22. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon We all know “personas” are important image credit
- 23. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon But we’re missing some pieces image credit Where does Timo hang? What content does he share? Who influences him?
- 24. * all logos click to company site @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 1. Use tools to analyze your audience
- 25. * all logos click to company site @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 1. Use tools to analyze your audience
- 26. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon resource 2. Find influential customers
- 27. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 3. Discover what they read and share resource | resource
- 28. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon FREAKONOMICS, MARKETINGLAND, 3. Discover what they read and share resource | resource HBR, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT
- 29. 80 60 40 20 0 @adriasaracino | #LavaCon TOP 10 MOST SHARED DOMAINS 3. Discover what they read and share resource | resource
- 30. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon resource 3. Discover what they read and share
- 31. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 4. Discover their broader interests resource | image credit
- 32. What our customers need @adriasaracino | #LavaCon What we offer What our competitors offer 5. Don’t forget the other two pillars
- 33. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit Not convinced?
- 34. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit Not convinced? Can get you out of a “boring industry”
- 35. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Not convinced? Can get you out of a “boring industry”
- 36. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon total visits: 2.8M total social shares: 720K organic traffic: +45% retention: +30%
- 37. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Research Plan Analyze Create Distribute
- 38. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon coverage: 29 social shares: 177
- 39. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 6. Align content with appropriate goals
- 40. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 6. Align content with appropriate goals
- 41. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 7. Track the right goals (not necessarily pages/visit & bounce) source | resource | resource
- 42. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 8. Mine for conflict source | image credit
- 43. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 9. Stimulate brainstorming image credit
- 44. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 9. Stimulate brainstorming source | image credit
- 45. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 30-second rounds writing as many answers as possible to a single question 9. Stimulate brainstorming source | image credit • What do [X] care about? • What do homeowners struggle with?
- 46. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 10. Keep brainstorms structured resource
- 47. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 11. Don’t get hung up on “different” image credit
- 48. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 12. Do feasibility checks upfront image credit
- 49. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Research Plan Analyze Create Distribute
- 50. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon DOWNLOAD THIS DECK TOO: BIT.LY/MARKSEARCHLOVE
- 51. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon coverage: 11 social shares: 168
- 52. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story image credit 13. Make sure content is a SUCCES
- 53. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story 13. Make sure content is a SUCCES image credit
- 54. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story 13. Make sure content is a SUCCES image credit
- 55. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story 13. Make sure content is a SUCCES image credit
- 56. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story 13. Make sure content is a SUCCES image credit
- 57. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story 13. Make sure content is a SUCCES image credit
- 58. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story 13. Make sure content is a SUCCES image credit
- 59. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 14. Do user testing early Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Story image credit
- 60. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 15. Ask the people in charge of promo
- 61. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon WEEKLY BRAINSTORM (best on Fridays; vet on the spot) START OF WEEK 1 ASSIGN / WRITE, BRIEF, & SCHEDULE (1 week turnaround; shoot for 5 a week) BRIEF & BEGIN DESIGN (create or curate creative assets while content is being written) EDITING ROUNDS START OF WEEK 2 (ideally limit to 2 max, 2-3 day turnaround) END OF WEEK 2 CONFIRM LAUNCH DATE (if possible, schedule it for auto publish) REVIEW DESIGN (ideally limit to 2 max) FINALIZE DESIGN (if possible, complete in 2 weeks) PUBLISH & PROMOTE (social, PR, email, & paid advertising) 16. Create a clear process
- 62. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Research Plan Analyze Create Distribute
- 63. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon coverage: 11 social shares: 90
- 64. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon emails sent: 99 distribution methods: 1
- 65. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Content is king…
- 66. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Content is king…but distribution is queen and she wears the pants. – Jonathan Perelman, Buzzfeed
- 67. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 68. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon theaters PPC publishers review sites website emails social media word of mouth books TV billboards blogs in-store displays
- 69. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon theaters PPC publishers review sites website emails social media word of mouth books TV billboards blogs in-store displays
- 70. EARNED publishers OWNED MEDIA MEDIA PAID MEDIA @adriasaracino | #LavaCon theaters PPC review sites website emails social media word of mouth books TV billboards blogs in-store displays
- 71. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon DOWNLOAD THIS DECK TOO: BIT.LY/ADRIASEARCHLOVESD
- 72. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon EARNED OWNED MEDIA MEDIA PAID MEDIA group 1: owned media
- 73. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon source
- 74. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 17. Use tools to split test headlines resource
- 75. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon resource 17. Use tools to split test headlines
- 76. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 18. Setup retargeting cookies image credit | resource
- 77. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 19. Apply dynamic retargeting to email resource | resource
- 78. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon EARNED OWNED MEDIA MEDIA PAID MEDIA group 2: paid media
- 79. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Remember retargeting cookies? image credit
- 80. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 20. Use custom lists to target users who completed a certain action image credit | resource
- 81. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 21. Use custom combo lists to target users who visited specific pages image credit | resource
- 82. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit 22. Embrace Facebook’s creepiness
- 83. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 23. Create custom & lookalike audiences resource | resource | resource
- 84. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 24. Target users with related content
- 85. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 25. Find similar lists via MailChimp resource
- 86. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 26. Setup retargeting pixel on blogs image credit
- 87. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon * all logos link to company site 27. Use content distribution platforms
- 88. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 28. Keep an eye on Google source ?
- 89. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon EARNED OWNED MEDIA MEDIA PAID MEDIA group 3: earned media
- 90. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 29. Find writers who can amplify source 1 2 3
- 91. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 30. Find bloggers that follow you source
- 92. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 93. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon source
- 94. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon source
- 95. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 96. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 97. image credit @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 98. image credit @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 99. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 100. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 101. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon image credit
- 102. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon EARNED OWNED MEDIA MEDIA PAID MEDIA Outreach on steroids
- 103. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 31. Target editors via LinkedIn paid ads resource
- 104. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 31. Target editors via LinkedIn paid ads resource
- 105. EARNED OWNED MEDIA MEDIA PAID MEDIA @adriasaracino | #LavaCon
- 106. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Research Plan Analyze Create Distribute
- 107. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon total visits: 145K social shares: 28K
- 108. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 32. Attribute the right success factors
- 109. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 33. Think idea, not format
- 110. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 34. Have realistic expectations source
- 111. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon source 34. Have realistic expectations
- 112. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 34. Have realistic expectations source
- 113. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon 35. Measure and compare regularly
- 114. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon SO WHAT MAKES CONTENT SUCCESSFUL?
- 115. total visits: 322K social shares: 3,300 @adriasaracino | #LavaCon
- 116. total visits: 1.8M social shares: 110K @adriasaracino | #LavaCon
- 117. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Stalking Researching Clever positioning Understanding goal alignment & tracking Conflicting & communicating Effective brainstorming Double checking Creating for S.U.C.C.E.S. Multi-channel promoting Constant analyzing Waiting It’s a process.
- 118. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon Sometimes you’ll feel like this image credit
- 119. @adriasaracino | #LavaCon But sometimes you’ll feel like this image credit
- 120. THANK YOU! Adria Saracino Head of Content Strategy, Distilled @adriasaracino | #LavaCon
Editor's Notes
- All of this has afforded my team at Distilled and me a lot of successes with content.
- THAT’S THE POINT OF MY PRESENTATION, I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU 50 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR PROGRAM SUCCESSFUL
- To keep this organized, I’m going to go through the process of content marketing and give you stories and advice for each step.
- There’s a lot of “truths” in marketing, but really they are assumptions. Take this…
- Rand gave this great presentation on why marketers need to be better skeptics. We make a lot of assumptions, but they aren’t always right – and what works for one company won’t work for another. We made that fatal mistake with our uniforms piece. But if we’d had done customer research, we would have found a different story.
- But in reality we may know some about our customers, but not fully
- I am going to assume you know how to create personas and likely have created them before
- But in most personas I see done by clients, they miss some crucial elements, that is understanding their more tangential interests and where they can be reached online
- Use kaggle to find data scientists to do the number crunching for you
- YOU CAN FIND THE CROSS SECTION OF DOMAINS THEY ALL FOLLOW
- Or you can try putting their tweets or bios into a word cloud generator to find themes of topics
- We focus on persona research, but sometimes skimp on the competitor research & brand positioning research. Explain what an effective content strategy really is (finding the gaps)
- Tstory of simply business being an insurance carrier. Talk about how many B2B businesses hide behind their product & industry, sometimes complaining it’s “boring”
- 21 marketing how-to guides as part of a wider brand strategy of “the small business champion”.
- Talk about how client in the home security industry wanted to create a piece that “blew up the internet”, but they insisted it be about securing your home. Oh and they wanted it to get conversions too.
- Tell story that we struggled with ideating for this client, we’d get into a room & be like this
- That is, until we started playing with brainwriting
- Yet, you want to make sure you have a clear path to success
- TALK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD PITCH IDEAS BEFORE DOING FEASIBILITY CHECK, ONLY TO FIND OUT LATER IT WASN’T POSSIBLE.
- It didn’t work because there were flaws in the creative execution here. Mark our VP of Creative did an excellent presentation on this.
- Without annotations people didn’t now what this was, and I bet you didn’t until I explained it.
- Also, if we’d done user testing, we might have found out that people didn’t get it much earlier
- Also, if we’d had asked the team in charge of promoting it (aka, that was me at the time), they would have known I didn’t think it was credible for this client to be talking about this
- Remember this piece that didn’t do so hot?
- Paint narrative of how someone might hear about a brand
- The goal is to diversify your distribution strategy to incorporate earned, paid, and owned channels
- If you have a smaller budget make your remarketing list super targeted, by only including users who performed a specific action on your For example, pages/visit, times visited site, or those who scrolled down a certain portion of the page (need separate event tracking setup).
- Connect custom lists, such as your email list, create a lookalike audience of customers, or better yet, a lookalike audience of people who visiting your content
- When you do make a successful partnership, whether paid or not, work with the blogger to get a retargeting pixel on the content they put up featuring your brand. You can use this to hit their visitors with ads off their site, such as the products a blogger reviewed.
- Or is it?
- Reference that I have more in my presentation, but one idea is to target editors on LinkedIn by job title and publication, as you can get really granular with the company, title, & seniority level
- Remember, when distributing your content
- Talk about client attribute the success to it being interactive, but it was successful because we’d done research to know journos talk about acquisitions to death but there’s no aggregate data source
- Content marketing is a long-term game. Rand Fishkin did a presentation that explains this really, really well
- Content marketing is a long-term game. Rand Fishkin did a presentation that explains this really, really well
- AKA SHARING MY SCREW UPS AND ADVICE FOR HOW TO NOT REPEAT THEM
- Remember results like these don’t just happen