Gisele Navarro discusses common mistakes made in content promotion and how to avoid them. Some key mistakes include hoping for results without a clear strategy, focusing promotion on just one sector, and not having alternative promotion plans or properly evaluating campaign data. Lessons include involving teams in content creation, defining multi-sector strategies, having alternative promotion options per site, and staying on top of campaigns by regularly reviewing data and making adjustments. Strong pitches are also important, keeping openings tight and giving context for reader interest while formatting emails for easy scanning on mobile.

1. Content Promotion
Mistakes You’ll Never
Make Again
By Gisele Navarro
Operations Director

2. ¡Hola!
I am Gisele Navarro
And I was a cute, chubby baby once.
Look at me now, all grown up: @ichbinGisele

3. We are NeoMam

4. We are a creative agency with
only one goal in mind.

5. Content Promotion
Mistakes You’ll Never
Make Again
By Gisele Navarro
Operations Director

6. We provide in-house SEO teams
with media features that help
increase their search visibility.

8. It sounds great, doesn’t it?

9. BUT

10. Today I’m here to talk about
the not so shiny side of
content promotion...

11. Those stressful moments
when content doesn’t perform,
and campaigns fail.

12. Our mistakes.

13. Let’s start from the beginning.

14. The content promotion basics.

15. STRATEGY PROSPECTING OUTREACH REPORTING

16. This is how we used to think about it

17. BUT

18. It was like playing
Russian Roulette
with content

19. There was a lot of
hoping going on

21. Mistake #1:
Hope is not a strategy

23. If a team is going to be
promoting a piece of content,
shouldn’t they be involved in the
creation of that content?

24. Content promotion starts
in the production stage.

25. Lesson #1:
Team work
Everyone can add value to your content.
Create a space where they can.

26. REPORTING PRODUCTION
STRATEGY
PROSPECTING
OUTREACH

27. We’ve closed the loop by letting
feedback from previous campaigns
influence future content.

28. BUT

29. Sadly, we were still hoping content
would give us results.

31. Mistake #2:
Our strategies weren’t
thorough enough

32. TRAVEL

33. 7 ancient ruins around the world,
reconstructed
TRAVEL

34. Travel
Blogs
Culture
Travel
TRAVEL
MEDIA
LIFESTYLE
ARCHITECTURE
US MEDIA
Men’s
Magazines
Women’s
Magazines
Design
7 ancient ruins around the
world, reconstructed
Edutainment
EDUCATION
UK
MEDIA
AU
MEDIA
CA MEDIA
History Archaeology
History
Teaching
Resources
Homeschooling
parents

35. Questions to find people who will care about your content Example: 7 ancient ruins around the world, reconstructed
What types of sites would normally cover this topic? Travel media, travel blogs, lifestyle sites with a travel section,
news sites with a travel section
Who would find this content valuable? Who would benefit
from seeing this?
Educators, primary school teachers, history teachers,
homeschooling parents
Who would find this interesting? History sites, archaeology sites, “edutainment” sites,
architecture sites, design sites

37. The problem when focusing
on just one sector, is that
if your content doesn’t stick,
then you are left without a backup.

38. You’d be surprised at
how far content can travel
across different sectors.

39. Lesson #2:
Define a strategy
that touches upon many
publishing sectors.

40. TRAVEL
Family
Travel
Couples
Travel
TRAVEL
Digital
Travel
LIFESTYLE
Life-Hacking
Self-
Improvement
NEWS
Healthy
Living
Wellness
Health
Men’s
Lifestyle
Women’s
Lifestyle
HR
BUSINESS
Leadership
Start-Ups
Small
Business

41. Our team now defines smart
promotion strategies.

42. BUT

43. A great promotion strategy doesn’t
magically translate into features.

44. ✗
✗
✗
✗
✗
ACHTUNG! » Before you start taking notes, these are not real email addresses.

45. Mistake #3:
Not having a plan B

46. There’s more than one way
to get to a publication.

47. Pareto’s law applies to content
promotion as well.

48. (finding the right
people within
each publication)
Our 80-20 rule
REACHING OUT
TO TARGETS
PROSPECTING
FOR TARGETS
WE WANT
OPTIONS!

49. Lesson #3:
Have more than one
option per publication

50. Real-life example:
How Much Energy You Need To Burn Off 8 Junk Foods

51. Nowadays, we always have
at least two alternatives
for every target site.

52. BUT

53. When reports came in,
sometimes results still weren’t
what we were expecting.

54. GOOD RESULTS
=
GOOD LUCK
BAD RESULTS
=
BAD LUCK

55. Here’s the deal:
Content marketing doesn’t
have to be a ‘hit or miss’

56. Mistake #4:
Waiting to evaluate success
after closing the campaign

57. Promoting content is a lot like cooking!
You don’t just drop all the ingredients into a pot,
stir a few times and leave the dish to sort itself out.
You taste it along the way.

58. You have lots of data, even at the
initial stages of every campaign.
All you have to do is look at it
with critical eyes.

59. Lesson #4:
Stay on top of your
campaigns
(and make adjustments along the way)

61. Pay attention to what’s working:
Number of email opens

62. Pay attention to what’s not working:
Email opens vs. Reply rates

64. We are now in control of our
promotion fate.

65. BUT

66. Our pitches were getting lazy.

68. Mistake #5:
Not taking our pitch seriously

69. You can write a
personalised outreach template
(even if you’re sending it to 100 people)

70. It’s all about the message and
it has nothing to do with the fact
that you’re sending it to 100 people.

71. Enter my 4 rules for a strong pitch

72. Keep your
opening tight
1.

73. If you don’t
have anything
to say, just
don’t say
anything.
Introduce yourself and your business.
Don’t ramble about your job,
your business or why you think
their site is the best site in the world.

74. Give context
on why they
should care
2.

75. You don’t need
to tell them
everything
they will find
inside of your
content.
Make it about them and not about you,
your client or the content itself.
For example:
- Stats that show how much of a problem X
is/How much people care.
- How another journalist has written about
your content and the article was shared
over 5,000 times.

76. Format the email
to make text easy
to scan on mobile
3.

77. Limit your pitch to
4 sentences
covering:
● who you are
● why you’re
emailing
● what you want Lead with short sentences, bold important
bits of info and add bulleted lists if there
are many points you want to share.

78. When following
up, you’ve got
nothing to lose
4.

79. Try a new
subject line
and a new
pitch.
Use the headline of a feature as the
subject line of your follow-up.

80. Key
Takeaway

81. Be flexible

82. ¡Gracias!
You can find me at
@ichbinGisele
gisele@neomam.com
neomam.com/blog
Gisele Navarro
Operations Director
NeoMam Studios