You've planned your content strategy, and have published beautifully crafted messaging. But is your audience finding your message? In this deck we outline a variety of tactics for improving the 'discoverability' of the content you publish.

1. Driving Discovery of Your Organization’s Stories
Sarah Skerik
VP Content Marketing
PR Newswire

2. Hello.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

3. Overview
• Evolution of media
• Subsequent changes
in audience 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. So what does this mean to me?
AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR HAS
CHANGED

7. We’re looking for really granular stuff

8. And we’re OK with branded content.
Excerpt from Sharethrough infographic

9. B2B customers contact a
sales rep only after 70% of
the purchase decision has
been made. – Sirius Decisions
2012
Brands that haven’t published
Brands that haven’t published
supporting content are eliminated
supporting content are eliminated
from consideration right out of the
from consideration right out of the
gates. Is your organization capturing
gates. Is your organization capturing
their interest?
their interest?
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

10. Influence isn’t linear -- it’s a continuous loop.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

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

13. Social popularity drives content visibility in search
engines.

14. So what are the big guys doing?
MEDIA OUTLETS ARE
RETOOLING.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

15. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

16. In the coming days and weeks, we'll be
working with all editorial employees to train
and outfit you as much as possible to produce
the content we need.
These sessions will be mandatory and will
concentrate on several areas:
• iPhone photography basics
• Video and basic editing
• Transmission and social media
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

17. This is what a “radio guy” looks like today.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

18. Ripped from the headlines! (… and the Twitter feeds)
TACTICS FOR EARNING
ATTENTION (& MEDIA)

19. Popular stories = audience preferences
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

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

21. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

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

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

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

25. Use edcals to guide your
marketing team’s content
calendar in terms of both
TOPICS and TIMING
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

26. Leverage sponsored/owned content
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

27. They developed a great news hook
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

28. And earned a little media …

29. Market your marketing: distribute the content you
publish.

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

31. 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.
@sarahskerik @prnewswire

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

33. Headline length REALLY matters.
• Keep them short. Why?
–
–
–
–
Our data. (80-130)
Search engines (65)
AP in newsrooms (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

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

35. 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

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

37. @sarahskerik @prnewswire

38. 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

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

40. 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

41. 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 what we’re thinking (and
my latest experiments) here:
http://blog.prnewswire.com/tag/discovery/
http://promotions.prnewswire.com/discover.html