This is the slide deck from the November 14 webinar hosted by Vertical Measures (@verticalmeasure) #VMwebinar

1. Marketing Your Marketing: How to Drive
Discovery of Your Content
Sarah Skerik
VP Content Marketing
PR Newswire

2. Hello.
For the Twitterers among us:
I’m @sarahskerik of
@prnewswire, and our hosts
today are @verticalmeasure.
(Their CEO @ArnieK shares a lot
of great stuff too!)

3. Overview
• Evolution of media
• Subsequent changes
in buyer behavior
• Conversational
search & the social
media connection
• Tactics for driving
content discovery
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

4. For news & info traditional media have lost to digital.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

5. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

6. We’re looking for really granular stuff
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

7. And we’re OK with branded content.
Excerpt from Sharethrough infographic
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

8. And audience behavior has changed…
B2B customers contact a
sales rep only after 70% of
the purchase decision has
been made. – Sirius Decisions
2012
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

9. The new marketing reality:
We’re competing for finite
audience attention against an
infinite ocean of content.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

10. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

11. Social popularity drives content visibility in search
engines.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

12. Ripped from the headlines! (… and the Twitter feeds)
TACTICS FOR DRIVING
DISCOVERY
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

13. Popular stories = audience preferences
From EETimes.com
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

14. Using the attention current events generate
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

15. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

16. Pro tip: These are trackable URLs
Pro tip: These are trackable URLs
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

17. Tie thought leadership to timely events
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

18. Promoting blog posts drove increases in visitors,
visits and views.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

19. Use editorial calendars
to guide your content
calendar in terms of both
TOPICS and TIMING

20. Leverage sponsored/owned content

21. The most interesting aspect of your
research/study/white paper is your news
hook.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

22. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

23. Market your marketing: distribute the content you
publish.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

24. Content distribution seeds visibility within new audiences
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

25. Find the people who care, and get connected.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

26. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

27. Interested influencers will amplify & extend
your story.

28. Use free PR sites – judiciously.
•
•
•
Focus on different
message elements – no
duplicate content!
It’s about the content not
links
Use trackable links
CAVEAT
• Beware an emphasis on
SEO
• Look for no follow link
attributes

29. Balance time & effort against results.
Did you get any Clicks?
Shares?
Results? Anything?

30. Mind the long tail!
Granular search means
more qualified interest will
build over time.
And if you do a good job
of surfacing content in
relevant ways, the tails
will grow longer and
longer.

31. Formatting tips that my-hand-toGod will improve your message
visibility.

32. Headline length REALLY matters.
• Keep them short.
Why?
– Our data. (80-130)
– Search engines (65)
– Remember that AP
slide? (80)
– Twitter (100)
• Use a subhead to
keep peers happy.
Shoot for about 100 characters in
your headline, and lead with the
most important ideas (or keyword.)
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

33. Employ multimedia elements.
• Visuals have their
own distribution
networks
• Visuals draw eyeballs
• Algorithms value
visuals
• People like pictures.
• Better results accrue
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

34. Dump the speed bump.
Give the reader a reason to keep reading.
September 11, 2013/Cleveland/ -- XYZ Corporation, a
leading global provider of world-class, end-to-end
cross-platform scalable enterprise cloud solutions
designed to deliver comprehensive processimprovement outcomes for customers in various
vertical sectors including manufacturing, mining and
procurement today announced …
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

35. Format content deliberately to maintain
(and re-capture) attention
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

36. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

37. Embed a CTA near the top of the page.
Link strategically.
Think reader
service, not SEO.
•Link to profiles of
key people quoted in
the message.
•Embed calls to
action for prospects
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

38. Keywords aren’t just search friendly, they’re relatable.
200%!
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

39. Final thoughts
From your calendar to
your content, build an
element of distribution
into every information
component you
publish.
Driving ongoing
discovery of your
content is crucial.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

40. Thank you!
Sarah Skerik
Vice president of content marketing, PR Newswire
• @sarahskerik
• Linkedin.com/in/sarahskerik
Discovery is a recurring theme on the PR Newswire
blog. Stay up to speed with my latest experiments:
http://blog.prnewswire.com/tag/discovery/
http://promotions.prnewswire.com/discover.html

41. QUESTIONS?
Contact: 888-476-1881
www.VerticalMeasures.com

42. How Changes in SEO Will Affect
your Website in 2014 and Beyond
Presenter: Mike Huber, VP of Client Solutions, Vertical
Measures
12
DEC
11am PST
2pm EST
Learn about:
•Recap of Google 2013 updates and their impact and significance.
•Steps to take to mitigate negative impact of these updates.
•How you maintain and/or increase your website traffic for 2014
•Specific action steps you can take to grow traffic.
•How SEO will change for 2014 and beyond.
Check out our website at www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars
for registration information.