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It's not just search and technology that's changing; consumers' expectations are evolving. Consumer apathy is rife, audiences are fragmenting and almost every marketing tactic is becoming less effective. To combat this, brands need to work harder than ever before. Content isn't a silver bullet, but it's a useful tool in your arsenal. An exploration of trends & how to get content working for your brand.
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@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_bannaharder, better, faster, strongerour work is never over
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
harder
@hannah_bo_banna
seo is harder than it used to be
@hannah_bo_banna
2011 - crackdown on ‘thin’ content
@hannah_bo_banna
2012 - crackdown on ‘low quality’ links
@hannah_bo_banna
2013 - moving from indexing to understanding
@hannah_bo_banna
fast forward to today: search queries which shouldn’t work,
do work
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
this could be bad news if you’re a publisher
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
as google get smarter, publishers are getting an increasingly raw deal
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
but we’re not just seeing this for informational queries
@hannah_bo_banna
we’re also seeing Google’s proprietary products for generic transactional queries
@hannah_bo_banna
SkyScanner rank 1st
this is the fold
@hannah_bo_banna
it’s getting to the point that in order to survive you need to be a brand
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
but in some instances even that might not be enough
@hannah_bo_banna
MoneySuperMarket’s organic listing is
above the fold - but Google are being very
aggressive
@hannah_bo_banna
nevertheless organic search is still an important channel & brands still want to rank
@hannah_bo_banna
they also want to decrease their reliance on search and gain traffic from other sources
@hannah_bo_banna
to help them rank we need to get them links
@hannah_bo_banna
if they’re great links, they’ll also send traffic
@hannah_bo_banna
plus, if we create things which people want to share we’ll also get traffic from social sites
@hannah_bo_banna
so all we need to do is create some content
sounds pretty easy, right?
@hannah_bo_banna
it really isn’t easy
@hannah_bo_banna
it’s tough & it’s getting tougher
@hannah_bo_banna
Feb 2012: 400 LRDs 1194 facebook ‘likes’ 1943 tweets
@hannah_bo_banna
you may see your efforts becoming less effective over time
@hannah_bo_banna
Oct 2013: 93 LRDs 187 facebook ‘likes’ 619 tweets
@hannah_bo_banna
getting content to work for you is hard today& it’s likely to get even harder in the future
@hannah_bo_banna
challenge accepted
@hannah_bo_banna
so, we’ve covered off ‘harder’
@hannah_bo_banna
better
@hannah_bo_banna
publishing is changing
@hannah_bo_banna
today we have publishers that curate, rather than create
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
then this happened
@hannah_bo_banna
this corporate blog stopped letting their awkward CEO post lame stuff
& skipped straight to awesome
this probably isn’t true, but writing headlines like this is kind of fun
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
by replicating the upworthy model this pet food retailer blog
attracted 20m unique visitors in June 2014
http://dis.tl/PetFlow-WSJ
@hannah_bo_banna
what happened next will blow your mind
yeah, so that’s hyperbolic in the extreme, I’ll stop now
@hannah_bo_banna
today this is a stand-alone media business selling banners & content recommendation ads
http://dis.tl/PetFlow-WSJ
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
in a similar fashion we have publishers creating sub-brands(which are pretty divorced from the parent brand)
@hannah_bo_banna
this british newspaper established in 1903...
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
has created a ‘buzzfeed’ style sub-brand to reach new audiences
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
whilst this is interesting, this isn’t a great solution for many brands
@hannah_bo_banna
the vast majority of clients ask for this:
@hannah_bo_banna
get us links!
@hannah_bo_banna
or more accurately
@hannah_bo_banna
get us press coverage& exposure on sites our target audience read
(oh & social shares would be nice too)
@hannah_bo_banna
if you want coverage on other sites, you need to create things those sites will want to cover
@hannah_bo_banna
not curate stuff with clickbait headlines
@hannah_bo_banna
& those quizzes don’t always get as many links as you’d hope
@hannah_bo_banna
945k facebook ‘likes’ 4.3k tweets 75 LRDs
@hannah_bo_banna
that’s still reasonably impressive & I don’t imagine they’re shooting for links
but
if you are shooting for links then this might not be the way to go
@hannah_bo_banna
50k facebook ‘likes’ 1.6k tweets 54 LRDs
@hannah_bo_banna
it did generate 365k visits to the site& the client was happy
@hannah_bo_banna
this also happened
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
but how do we do things better?
@hannah_bo_banna
reactive real-time
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
the takeaway here is not:‘you need a bit of luck’
@hannah_bo_banna
the takeaway here is:‘be ready, willing & able to take advantage of opportunities
as & when they arise’
@hannah_bo_banna
if @Arbys hadn’t tweeted thatsomeone else probably would have
& they wouldn’t have benefitted
@hannah_bo_banna
whilst you should put processes in place to allow you to do this,
it’s probably not enough by itself
@hannah_bo_banna
what’s better?
@hannah_bo_banna
planned real-time
@hannah_bo_banna
when oreo turned 100, they created100 pieces of content
over 100 days
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
the campaign got over 1m facebook ‘likes’& thousands of pieces of press coverage
@hannah_bo_banna
this highly topical content put thecookie the centre of people’s conversations
without being self-serving
@hannah_bo_banna
what if you’re not a well known brand?
@hannah_bo_banna
ads that don’t feel like ads
@hannah_bo_bannahttp://dis.tl/wren-kiss
@hannah_bo_banna
my desire was to create something that was interesting to people beyond a fashion angle...
Melissa Coker - Wren
@hannah_bo_banna
[it’s] an interesting film that exists on its own, rather than something that feels like a commercial...
Melissa Coker - Wren
@hannah_bo_banna
92m YouTube views& coverage from over 1300 sites
@hannah_bo_banna
but that’s all content someone else has created… what about content we’ve created?
@hannah_bo_banna
content which breaks news
@hannah_bo_banna
961 LRDs 102k facebook ‘likes’ 4.4k tweets
@hannah_bo_banna
we made this to appeal to music fans& music journalists
@hannah_bo_banna
we think publishers covered it because it was a great story
@hannah_bo_banna
wait, what?
@hannah_bo_banna
we think that people shared it because it allowed them to express their opinions
@hannah_bo_banna
content which supports existing editorial
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
308 LRDs 2.2k facebook ‘likes’ 1.3k tweets
@hannah_bo_banna
we made this to appeal to the startup community (& tech journalists)
@hannah_bo_banna
we think publishers covered it because it supported the WhatsApp acquisition story
@hannah_bo_banna
content people ‘look good’ sharing
@hannah_bo_banna
354 LRDs 19,4k facebook ‘likes’ 6.5k tweets
@hannah_bo_banna
we made this to appeal to people working in the creative industry
@hannah_bo_banna
we think publishers covered it because creativity is a hot topic
and
the piece has impact because the people featured have devoted fans
@hannah_bo_banna
we think people shared this because it:
made them look smartand/or
made them look interested & interestingand/or
made them look literary
@hannah_bo_banna
so we’ve covered off‘harder’ & ‘better’
@hannah_bo_banna
faster
@hannah_bo_banna
I’m not necessarily saying we need to create content fasteror
find ways to ‘scale’
@hannah_bo_banna
an obsession with scaling is where we went wrong before
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
but we are playing catch up in some areas& we need to get better, faster
@hannah_bo_banna
the new normal
@hannah_bo_banna
if you’re *still* ignoring mobileyou will be screwed
@hannah_bo_banna
there will be more mobile search queries than desktop search queries
this year
@hannah_bo_banna
here’s google’s response
@hannah_bo_banna
towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for search on
mobile and tablet devices...
John Wiley, Google
http://dis.tl/john-wiley
@hannah_bo_banna
today we've carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience
John Wiley, Google
http://dis.tl/john-wiley
@hannah_bo_banna
google are going mobile first
@hannah_bo_banna
and there’s this
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
but it’s not just search;social is mobile
@hannah_bo_banna
77% of users access facebook via their mobile
http://dis.tl/fb-mobile-users
@hannah_bo_banna
80% of users access twitter via their mobile
http://dis.tl/twitter-mobile-users
@hannah_bo_banna
if you’re creating content that’s designed to be shared
@hannah_bo_banna
you need to design it mobile first
@hannah_bo_banna
understanding the power of ideas,as opposed to thinking in formats
@hannah_bo_banna
an idea is a novel combination of previously unconnected elements
in a way which adds value
@hannah_bo_banna
this is tricky to parse so let’s shoot straight to an example
@hannah_bo_bannahttp://dis.tl/axis-chords
@hannah_bo_banna
ever wondered why all pop songs sound the same?
@hannah_bo_banna
they all use the same four chords
@hannah_bo_banna
they could have just created a list of all the songs that use the same 4 chords
@hannah_bo_banna
meh
@hannah_bo_banna
but it’s not until you hear itthat you really get it
@hannah_bo_banna
why do pop songs sound the same?
they use the same 4 chords
bring it to life with a mash up
combining previously
unconnected elements
execute in a way that adds value
@hannah_bo_banna
an video is not an ideait’s a format
@hannah_bo_banna
an infographic is not an ideait’s a format
@hannah_bo_banna
you need a great idea
@hannah_bo_banna
then you need to communicate the idea by using an appropriate format
@hannah_bo_banna
but focus on the idea first
@hannah_bo_banna
further reading:
how to produce content people will sharehttp://dis.tl/MJ-share
how to produce better content ideashttp://dis.tl/MJ-idea
lessons in virality from axl rosehttp://dis.tl/HS-axl
@hannah_bo_banna
pitching for bigger budgets
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
the worst thing we ever did was claim organic search traffic was ‘free’
@hannah_bo_banna
we then made similarly foolhardy claims about social traffic
@hannah_bo_banna
we need to stop positioning what we do as ‘free’ or ‘cheap’
@hannah_bo_banna
cheap is rarely synonymous with great
@hannah_bo_banna
& in order to gain traction the content you’ll need to create
will require bigger budgets
@hannah_bo_banna
so don’t sell yourself short
@hannah_bo_banna
so we’ve covered off‘harder’, ‘better’ & ‘faster’
@hannah_bo_banna
stronger
@hannah_bo_banna
how has this affected how we work at distilled today?
@hannah_bo_banna
we’re trying to create things that
break newsand/or
support existing editorialand/or
people ‘look good’ sharing
@hannah_bo_banna
we’re seeing success with that approach
@hannah_bo_banna
& it’s opening doors for us
@hannah_bo_banna
we’re getting access to people higher up in the organisations which we work with
@hannah_bo_banna
& we’re able to do better work as a result
@hannah_bo_banna
I believe that those in the search industry today are in a great position for the future
@hannah_bo_banna
those currently chasing our tails have not evolved much in the past 70 years
@hannah_bo_banna
whereas we’ve evolved to the extent that we’re barely recognisable
@hannah_bo_banna
& we’ll continue to evolve
@hannah_bo_banna
our work is never over
@hannah_bo_banna
good luck out there x
@hannah_bo_banna
thank you ☺
@hannah_bo_banna
Hannah SmithContent Strategist, Distilled
caffeine addict; book worm; would really like a unicorn...
send cat pictures or questions to:
credits
Images:daft punk - http://www.gq.com/images/style/2013/05/daft-punk/daft-punk-630.jpgpanda - http://radiofreethinker.com/2013/04/19/pandagate-panda-primer/penguin - http://www.aktifmag.com/wacky-waddlers-10-penguin-facts-things/hummingbird - http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/anna039s-hummingbird-calypte-anna/male-annas-hummingbird-hoveringhydrant - http://giveupinternet.com/2009/01/14/mitchell-kapor-getting-information-off-the-internet-is-like-taking-a-drink-from-a-fire-hydrant-pic/filter bubble - http://www.popuppoems.com/2011/05/19/whos-afraid-of-the-big-bad-algorithm/daily mirror - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2Rj9mQCEAEc8WC.jpgpharrell - http://www.ibtimes.com/arbys-blasts-pharrells-grammys-hat-twitter-can-we-have-our-hat-back-1548140
future of marketing - https://plus.google.com/112310499813770104747/posts/JBesS2cnAGodanbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013unicorn - http://queenofheartsonthesleeve.tumblr.com/post/58736423727/ok-not-much-but-here-it-is-3