Stacey MacNaught's SASCon 2016 presentation on Data and Creativity for Content Marketing Success. Tips, tactics and learnings from 6 years of using data at the heart of content marketing for link building, coverage and citation acquisition.

1. DATA & CREATIVITY
A WINNING CONTENT FORMULA
Stacey MacNaught
Tecmark @staceycav

2. I WAS PART OF A TEAM OF
PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THIS
DISASTER…
@staceycav

3. @staceycav

4. @staceycav
“WTF IS THAT?” I HEAR YOU
ASK…

5. @staceycav
THAT IS A TERRIBLE PICTURE
THING WE CALLED AN
“INFOGRAPHIC”

6. @staceycav
YES, THERE’S
A DINOSAUR
ON IT.

7. @staceycav
AND NO, I DON’T KNOW WHY.

8. @staceycav
THIS WAS A LESSON IN HOW
NOT TO DO CONTENT.

9. For the record…
@staceycav

10. For the record…
My Nan liked it.
@staceycav

11. THE 5 STAGES OF
CONTENT FAILURE.
@staceycav

12. STEP 1.
You have this
amazing idea.
Literally amazing.
Possibly after a few
beers.
@staceycav

13. STEP 2.
You convince your
client/boss that this
will be the most
wonderful piece of
content ever and
you get the budget.
@staceycav

14. STEP 3.
You invest hours/
days (weeks?) into
graphics, dev,
research, pretty
things…
@staceycav

15. STEP 4.
You launch your
beautiful piece of
content and you
send emails to as
many people as you
can.
@staceycav

16. @staceycav
AND….

17. @staceycav

18. STEP 5.
You work out how
you are going to
salvage something
from this…
@staceycav

19. STEP 5.
You work out how
you are going to
salvage something
from this… Or
apologise and hope
it goes away.
@staceycav

20. We had to change.
We had to get
smarter.
@staceycav

21. THESE DAYS WE’RE DOING
STUFF LIKE THIS…
@staceycav

22. Link and citation
building with
surveys
@staceycav

23. Garden and
home security
survey
@staceycav

24. British Business
Dreamers
Survey
@staceycav

25. Browsing for
holidays while
at work survey
@staceycav

26. An old school one (2014) still
working for us…

27. @staceycav

28. June 2015
@staceycav

29. June 2016
@staceycav

30. 155 more
links.
@staceycav

31. 155 more
links.
NO
MORE
WORK
@staceycav

32. Link and citation
building with
proprietary data
@staceycav

33. Quick and low
cost coverage,
citation and link
opportunities
@staceycav

34. Link and citation
building with FOI
data
@staceycav

35. Quick win local
and regional
press links
@staceycav

36. Using data to create
content that answers
questions and wins
customers
@staceycav

37. @staceycav

38. @staceycav

39. @staceycav
Exists only because
keyword data
suggested a need

40. All of those examples
have something in
common.
@staceycav

41. They all have their origins in
DATA
@staceycav

42. Winning with
data.
So, let’s talk about
@staceycav

43. NOT
WINNING
@staceycav

44. NOT
WINNING
@staceycav

45. WINNING
@staceycav

46. WINNING
@staceycav

47. WINNING
@staceycav

48. Link building
with data
@staceycav

49. 100s
of projects
since 2011
@staceycav

50. resulted in great coverage
and links
Most
@staceycav

51. fell completely and painfully
flat
Some
@staceycav

52. Others…
@staceycav

54. So, we did a bit of
analysis…
@staceycav

55. NOBODY REALLY
CARES ABOUT DATA
@staceycav

56. DATA,
WITHOUT
STORIES, IS
JUST A LOAD
OF OLD
NUMBERS
@staceycav

57. @staceycav

58. What is “good data?”
@staceycav

60. Credible.
Good data is….
@staceycav

61. Timely.
Good data is….
@staceycav

62. Impartial.
Good data is….
@staceycav

63. Transparent
source.
Good data is….
@staceycav

64. Where can you get it?
@staceycav

65. £££ Surveys with Responses
@staceycav
h"ps://directory.esomar.org/

66. £ Surveys with Responses
@staceycav

67. Freedom of Information
@staceycavh"p://www.whatdotheyknow.com

68. Freedom of Information
@staceycavh"p://www.asktheeu.org/

69. Proprietary Data Examples
@staceycavh"ps://jawbone.com/blog/jawbone-up-data-by-city/

70. Proprietary Data Examples
@staceycavh"ps://www.kickstarter.com/year/2014/data?ref=yir2014

71. If you really can’t
source your own data…
@staceycav

72. Existing Public Data
@staceycav
h"p://www.staCsta.com/

73. Existing Public Data
@staceycav
h"ps://www.google.com/publicdata/directory

74. Existing Public Data
@staceycavh"ps://www.gov.uk/government/staCsCcs

75. Existing Public Data
@staceycavh"ps://datahub.io/dataset

76. Existing Public Data
@staceycavh"ps://knoema.com/

77. BUT…
@staceycav
News outlets don’t
publish “good data.”

78. @staceycav
They publish compelling
stories.

80. @staceycav
“To hell with facts! We
need stories.”
- Ken Kesey

81. stories.
The single
biggest job you
have with data is
to find its best
@staceycav

82. But what makes
a good story?
@staceycav

83. • Timely
• Relevant
• Unexpected
• New
• Close to Home
• Human Interest
Good stories are…
@staceycav

84. Timeliness and
Relevance
@staceycav
The reason you don’t pitch
Christmas stories in February or
money saving tips to Tech Crunch.

85. Unexpected
@staceycav
Dog bites man…
Not News

86. Unexpected
@staceycav
Man bites dog?
NEWS!
(via @neilbarraclough)

87. New

88. Close to Home
@staceycav
The reason that the Paris attacks
got more European coverage than
equally deadly atrocities in Africa
or the Middle East.

89. Human Interest
@staceycav
h"p://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/news/newsworthy.html

90. The number
alone wasn’t
publishable…
The case studies
(people) told the
stories.
@staceycav

91. @staceycav
The Linkable Asset

92. @staceycav
The reason that a
journalist would send
their readers to your
site.

93. @staceycav

94. @staceycav

97. Disappointment.

98. @staceycav
Sometimes, the
linkable asset is
simple

99. Raw data
download
@staceycav

100. Supporting
visual asset
@staceycav

101. A solution to
the problem
your story
uncovered
@staceycav

102. @staceycav
Don’t underestimate
promotion budgets
and time

103. We Use….
@staceycav

104. We Contact Via….
@staceycav
• Email
• Social Media
• Phone

105. We Contact Via….
@staceycav
• Email
• Social Media
• Phone
• Whichever method our contact
prefers

106. A Concise Version of our Process
@staceycav

107. A FEW TIPS
(FROM A LOT OF
EXPERIMENTING)
@staceycav

108. Buy consultancy time
from someone working
in journalism right now.
@staceycav

109. Sanity check your story
before you invest too
heavily in promotion or
assets
@staceycav

110. And then sanity check
throughout…
@staceycav

111. @staceycav

112. @staceycav

113. Have a backup plan
Multiple questions/data items
@staceycav

114. Don’t launch without a
linkable asset
@staceycav

115. Success or failure…
measure, record,
analyse and learn.
@staceycav

116. stacey.macnaught@tecmark.co.uk