The Art of Storytelling Pubcon 2016

@OutspokenMedia

StoryPromotionPearl Higgins | @pearl_higgins

#pubcon @pearl_higgins

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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Why Your Story Fell FlatAND 7 ways to ensure it doesn’t next time.

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The digital marketer’s progression

Content marketing

Storytelling

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More content does not equal a larger audience.

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Storytelling is a two-way interaction.

Plot Delivery

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Promotable story has a novel delivery.

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Where the Wild Things Are

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-@pearl_higgins

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How do you want your audience to feel?

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17- http://awaywego.carnival.com/360vacation/

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Your existing stakeholders are your built-in audience.

How do they feel?

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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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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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No one wants to hear your story If you are not

meeting or exceeding their expectations.

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7 steps for success

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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Listen when things are going well

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Deliciously well

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Listen when things aren’t going well.

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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/

Your audience is half of your story.

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Step 2.

Ask questionsUse stakeholders and advanced outreach to zero in on the right story.

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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

Make sure you address those issues

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Ask what is working

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Step 3.

Prioritize better tracking

By understanding your successes and failures, you’ll be better prepared to pivot and respond.

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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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If it’s working, pay attentionA piece of content created for a client that targeted a number of keywords comparing one appliance to another.

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Adjust your story and delivery to respond to the

data your audience is giving you.

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Step 4. Think differently about paidThink smarter, think targeted.

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Bring persona development back inDon’t just throw money at promotion, focus on those personas again.

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Don’t be afraid of sponsored content.

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Step 5. Broaden your scopeAlways look for that new demographic to add to your personas.

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A niche publisher was looking to broaden its audience beyond researchers and professionals in that field.

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Scope broadenedFor 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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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.

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Successful story

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Remember those appliances?

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Step 6. Think tight with your outreachOutreach shouldn’t be a numbers game.

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Use tools to narrow in on targetsThe success that the science & news publication had was not because of large-scale outreach, but because there was a pared down list of targets.

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Step 7. Become the audienceGive your community a platform to tell you their stories.

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Remember to leave the cycle open

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Plot

DeliveryAudience

Close the loop. Find a way to let your

community tell their own stories.

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You have to listen to your audience to have your own stories heard and

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58- @pearl_higgins

“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.”