content presentation - bangkok conference 2012
DESCRIPTION
A presentation written for the franchise network at MyDestination.com focused on how to make your content work harder for your business. Includes sections on: - How to engage users - Knowing your audience - Understand influence - Implementing an Editorial Strategy - SEO & ContentTRANSCRIPT
Locally informed, globally inspired
Taking Your Content to the Next LevelMy Destination
Kirsty Brown, Head of [email protected]
Session Plan
• Intro - What is Content?• Editorial: Producing Content to Engage Users:
- Knowing your Audience- Understanding Influence - Implementing an Editorial Strategy- Using Narrative
• SEO & Content: Using Content to Drive Traffic• The Future
Session Plan
What is Content?
• Articles • Company Profiles• Regional Information• Useful Information• Events• Multimedia – Photos, Videos and Virtual Tours• Social Media feeds: Facebook, Twitter,
What is Content?
Main Content Areas
Regional Info: How to inspire and encourage people to visit your destination.
Useful Info: Giving practical information that users trust.
Profiles: How to do an engaging business profile in 30 minutes!
Travel Articles: How to write attractive and compelling articles that will get users clicking.
Main Content Areas:
Why Should I Write Travel Articles?
To inspire readers to your
destination.
To entice visitors to your
site!
To make your destination
stand out from the crowd!
To display your local
knowledge.
Help build your credibility and authority as a local expert in
your field.
They are perfect for sharing on
Social Media!
Why Should I Write Travel Articles?
“The Travel Articles Page and Travel Blog are the 1st and 3rd pages site-users visit after the homepage”
Did You Know?
The Travel Decision Cycle
Inspiration
Decision
Purchase
Experience
The Travel Decision Cycle
Key Elements of a Company Profile
Comprehensive written text Practical Details Map
Social Media Links Cross Links Local Tip/s &
Tagging
Images Multimedia
Key Elements of a Company Profile:
Company ProfilesA Good Company Profile has ALL the Elements:
MyD Science Centre, Amsterdam Vs *NEMO Science Centre Amsterdam
What would YOU want to know?
Profile Text: What it should include:
Location Bit about it’s history / owners
Overview of the exact service it offers
Opening TimesAn example of what you
can get there (e.g. a dish if a restaurant).
Who it’s ideal for
Other insider information: When to
go, where to sit, special menu’s, theme nights.
Profile Text – What Should it Include?
Making an Engaging Company Profile (in less than an hour…)
10 mins – research business
20 mins – write 150 to 250
words
5 mins – upload photos
1 min – plot it on a map
5 mins – add the social
media links
5 mins – add cross-links
5 mins – write your local tip
and tag
3 mins – to proofread it TOTAL: 54 mins
Making an Engaging Company Profile (in less than an hour…)
Absolute BEST way to get a flavour for
a business
This is what will make your profiles stand out and help grab
peoples attention…
Multimedia: The Piece de Resistance…
“Engagement is communicating well enough that the audience pays attention…”
Absorb, understand and possibly even
remember your content.
Converse, comment, share or like what they see.
Continue their journey with you.
Click through more pages.
Come back!Convert their
browsing into a commercial action.
An Audience that pays attention is more likely to…
… But HOW do I get an audience’s attention?
1. Know your Audience
2. Know Yourself
• Inspirational• Collaborative• Progressive• Keep it Simple• Go the extra mile
My Destination Brand Values:
• Passionate• Globally Aware• Supportive• Agile• Creative• Fun
“Locally informed, globally inspired”
My Destination Brand Personality:
3. Be Original
1. Curiosity2. Highlight the Benefit3. Elicit Excitement / Emotion4. Make it Tangible5. Appearance and Length6. Sound7. Expectations
7 Step Recipe to Seductively Clickable Titles
4. Be An Authority
LOYALTY
… then you will build:
Your content needs to resonate with your audience and you need to become an authority
Understanding Influence
Authority gives you the power of INFLUENCE
5. Create an Editorial Strategy
Content is King
“If people are to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information”
Bill Gates, Content is King, 1996
Content Is King
Headline Story
Additional Stories and Features
Imagery
Expert Tips and Local Knowledge
Nod to economic climate
Inspirational
Variety and depth
What You Can DoWhat You Can Do
“Good content takes time and effort to create and maintain. So content on high quality pages should be edited, reviewed, and updated.”
(Search Engine Watch)
Producing the Best Content
Taking Your Travel Articles to the Next Level…
Easy Travel Articles to Write
1. Top 10’s / Top 5’s / Top 50’s.
2. 24 Hours in XXX / 48 Hours in XXX.
3. A review of an attraction or event that you have just been to.
4. Seasonal Events.
5. Luxury / Budget travel in XXX.
6. Be traveller specific.
E.g. what to do with the family in XXX, Romantic weekend away in XXX.
EASY TRAVEL ARTICLES TO WRITE
• Be Original• Use catchy titles & taglines• Use your local knowledge• Check spellings and grammar• Use keywords and cross-links sensibly• Include QUALITY images• Be Engaging!
Tips For Article Writing
1. More in-depth topics. E.g. local history.2. Tackle controversial topics in your local area.3. Develop your storytelling abilities. Entertain
your readers.4. Start article ‘Series’5. Interview local characters.6. Increase your multimedia and / or make the
photos a talking point.
More Adventurous Article Ideas
GOOD CONTENT isn’t cheap
Tell Stories: Use Narrative
“People respond to stories”
“Make the story relevant
to your business”
“We are hard-wired to respond to the ‘beginning, middle,
end’ structure because it’s how we understand the world around us”
Narrative in Advertising
“Appeal to their emotions not their rationality”
The Perfect Formula for Content:
Surprise Emotional response
A little bit of happiness
The Perfect Formula For Content:
Brand Story
Customer Story
Using Narrative
Pick your online medium - TEXT,
PHOTOS, VIDEO:
Understand them all but
pick your favourite and go ahead and
excel…
Pick your topic - YOUR
DESTINATION!
Share your stories – LOCAL KNOWLEDGE!
Speak to What’s Broken
– FILLING IN THE GAPS!
WHAT’S MISSING IN
YOUR DESTINATION?
Finally…Dig Inside and BRING SOME
PASSION!
You have the ingredients for highly sharable online content – the rest is up
to you…
How to Create Engaging Online Content:
• Does your content cover what YOU would want to know?
• Ensure ‘Evergreen’ content is updated.• To engage your audience you need to
understand them.• You need to be original, build authority and
have a strategy.• Use narrative & draw on emotion to sell your
content.
PART 1 - In Summary
PART 2: Using Content to Drive Traffic
(…with a little help from SEO)
How to Drive Traffic:
• Commercially: Special offers, great value deals.• PR / Marketing: Raising awareness
(incl. social media)• SEO: Getting pages appearing on
SERPs• Content: Inspiring and engaging
content - articles
How to Drive Traffic
Your Content Should Be…
UNIQUE
ENGAGINGHIGH QUALITY
Your Content Should Be…
“High quality, original, engaging content is the key to any web-based business”. (Bill Gates)
How Does Google Define Quality Content?
“High-quality content is anything that is very satisfying, useful, or helpful for its purpose.”
1. Would You Trust The Information Provided in This Article?
2. Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
Ask yourself:
3. Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
4. Does this article have spelling, stylistic or factual errors?
_____ ___
Ask Yourself:
5. Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in the search engines?
Ask Yourself:
6. Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
7. Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
Ask Yourself:
8. How much quality control is done on content?
9. Does the article describe both sides of the story?
10. Is the site a recognised authority on its topic?
_____ ___
Ask Yourself:
11. Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get much attention or care?
_____ ___
Ask Yourself:
12. Was the article edited properly or does it seem sloppy or hastily produced?
13. Would you recognise this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
G o o gle A sks: 1 2 & 1 3
Ask Yourself:
14. Does this article give a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
15. Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
Ask Yourself:
16. Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
17. Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
G o o gle A sks: 1 6 & 1 7
Ask Yourself:
18. Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopaedia or book?
19. Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
Ask Yourself:
20. Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
21. Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
G o o gle A sks: 2 0 & 2 1
Ask Yourself:
• So Remember…
Building High-Quality Sites According to GOOGLE…
“Our advice for publishers continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience on your websites and not to focus too much on what they think are Google’s current ranking algorithms or signals. ”
Still unsure?Still Unsure?
“Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users”.
SEO Vs. CONTENT
The SEO Camp:
Remember:• Over optimising destroys quality content.• Fixation on keywords and links destroys
quality content.• Being motivated by one link to write 500
words is never going to be a good recipe for engaging content.
• Google penalises those playing the system…
The Die-Hard SEO Camp
The SEO CAMP…The SEO Camp
The Content Camp:Remember:• Ignoring keywords and links reduces the
chance of content appearing on SERPs. • Failing to include any links reduces the
usability of your content.• Ignoring popular topics that people are
clicking on makes you less relevant.• Failing to use Social Media to promote content
reduces it’s chance of success.
The Die-Hard Content Camp
The Content CampThe Content Camp
…Working TogetherWorking Together
The Solution: Working together
Good Content• Includes relevant keywords &
links.• Is engaging and relevant to
your audience.• Is well-written, original and of
a high quality.• Informs or entertains.• Contains excellent spelling and
grammar.• Is creditable.• Is promoted and shared!!!!
Good SEO• Optimises content to get it
seen on the SERPs but not at the detriment of usability.
• Includes a sensible number of keywords and links.
• Doesn’t try to outplay the system, i.e. GOOGLE.
• Enhances your content (instead of destroying it!!!)
Working Together, The Result:
What You Can Do…
• Go back over LOW QUALITY CONTENT.• Analyse previous pieces of content.• Update old content.• Invest in a good writer.• Build credibility and authority.• Provide opinion.• Keep up to date and topical.
What You Can Do
The Future…
The Future…
Remember…Remember…