Presented by Deane Barker at the Now What? Conference on April, 19th 2013.

1. The Emperor Has No News
Why Your News Feed Doesn't
Work and How to Fix It

2. • Theory
– How the concept of marketing news is newer
than you think
– Why news is important to humans
– How news helps us sell things
• Practice
– Best practices for the news process
– Survey results

4. “We’re gonna update
it, Daddy.”

7. We’re at an odd point in the
history of marketing where
brands can talk to us.

8. The concept of a post-purchase
relationship with a customer is
quite new.

12. Relationship Starters
• Purchase process required an account
• “Liked” them on Facebook
• Tweeted about them
• Registered at their website
• Used discount card
• Responded to some offer

13. We have an opportunity to
converse with our customers.
How are we going to use this?

14. Where does our desire for
news come from?

15. #1
News reinforces the belief that
we can discover information.

16. “[...] there are known
knowns; there are things
we know we know. We also
know there are known
unknowns; that is to say we
know there are some things
we do not know. But there
are also unknown
unknowns — the ones we
don’t know we don’t know.”

17. News reveals the unknown
unknowns, and we find security
in this.

18. #2
News gives us a shared
information space with other
people.

20. • “I’m utterly lost”
• “It’s been just awful”
• “Being without papers is like being without shoes.”
• “I just can’t seem to relax. I used to come home from work and relax
with a paper. I can’t relax anymore. It’s terrible.”
• “I miss the gossip, the dirt. It’s like taking part of my life away.”
• “It’s pretty lonesome without papers. I feel a great void.”
• “I just don’t feel right, that’s all. I can’t put my finger on it, but it
upsets me.”
• “I sleep on the sofa to make the time go before work. I work nights.
Usually I lay down and read the paper. Now I just sleep.”

21. News connects us to other
people; it gives us a sense of
community.

22. How does news help you sell
things?

23. #1
News signals security.

24. “If you’re buying a CMS,
you’re also buying into the
community around that
CMS. It’s just as much a
feature of the product as
anything the salesman
showed you during the
demo.”

25. #2
News gives you a connection
point

26. #3
News is sharable.

27. Sharing feasts on novelty.

28. http://bigco.com/news/whizbang-5000-launched

29. 1. How the Internet has accelerated
marketing news
2. Why we love news
3. How news helps us sell stuff
4. How do we create, deliver, and analyze
news better?

30. 1. Valentino’s
2. Tomacelli’s
3. Taste of the Big
Apple
4. Boss’s
5. Dominos
6. Hy-Vee

31. The News Process
1. Editorial
2. Delivery
3. Analysis

32. Editorial
• Who do we write for?
• What do we write about?
• How do we write it?
• What do we want the reader to do?

33. What is your biggest challenge?
• “…newsworthy content. ”
• “…the time to interview [experts]…”
• “Quality writing…”
• “Finding interesting, relevant, timely
stories.”
• “Lack of communication within the
organization about what is going on.”

34. • Content MANAGEMENT
• Content MARKETING
• Content CURATION
• Content DELIVERY
• Content ANALYTICS
• Content _____________ ?CREATION

35. Who do we write for?
• Customers
• Influencers
• Press
• Potential Employees
• Current and Potential Investors
• Local Residents

36. Analyze your audiences…

37. Consider outsourcing content
creation

38. Be aware of your call to action
(CTA)…or lack thereof.

39. What do you want them to do…
• Register for an event?
• Buy a product?
• Complete a form?
• Click a link?

40. Explicit CTA
• What do you want the reader to do with
the information you have given them?

43. Implicit CTA
• Sometimes the best you can hope for is
just better branding

44. Editorial Best Practices
• Analyze your audiences
• Consider outsourcing
• Concentrate on CTAs

45. Delivery
• Where do we publish it?
• Where do we promote it?
• How do we get this in front of potential
customers?

46. News must be pushed.
News that isn’t pushed is likely
wasted.

47. Publish in one place, promote
in many

48. Traditional Media Outlets
• Cultivate personal contacts with journalists
in your field of expertise
• Find angles that make for interesting news
stories

49. “…the best pitches are those that come from
PR people who have done their homework:
they’ve read my stories, they know my beat
and interests, and they’ve tailored their
pitches accordingly.”

50. “When someone has asked me how to get
their story on NPR, my answer has always
been: Make it news.”

51. “…you need to be focused and relevant. You
need to give reporters a real news story.”

52. Be careful with your credit.
Think twice before pushing
“wishful thinking” stories.

53. Wire Services

54. Delivery Best Practices
• Always push news
• Develop relationships with media outlets
• Calculate the ROI of paid services
carefully

55. Analysis
• How can we track it?
• Who is reading it?
• Who is acting on it?
• Does it have value for us?

56. Ensure your CTAs are trackable

57. Coverage vs. Precision

58. Coverage
• How far and wide did your news go?
• What channels resulted in most
amplification?

59. The Problem of Marketing
Attribution
What single action or placement
resulted in a conversion?

60. Precision = Conversion Rate
• What distribution channels drove the most
traffic?
• What was your conversion rate?
– General
– Per channel
– Differential

61. Analysis Best Practices
• Strive for trackable CTAs
• Calculate marketing attribution carefully

62. Survey Results

63. 65% of respondents had done no
demographic profiling of their
audience.

64. Over half of respondents have
effective CTAs less than 20% of
the time.

65. 75% of respondents claim to
market news to other outlets, but
over half don’t track the result.

66. 90% of organizations develop
news content in-house

67. News has to become less
obligatory, more purposeful.

68. Lack of intentionality.

69. Deane Barker
@gadgetopia
deane@blendinteractive.com