Outbrain // An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

LESSONS FROM THE OUTBRAIN CONTENT ACADEMY:

AN A-Z GUIDE TO BRAND PUBLISHING

YOU ARE WHAT YOU RECOMMEND If you’re reading this, you may or may not be familiar with Outbrain already, but you almost certainly used it at least once today. Every month, 500 million people around the world use Outbrain to navigate to the next story on premium publisher sites like CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, Le Monde, and ESPN. We provide the personalized content recommendations that keep you reading later into the night than you might have planned…

But we make other kinds of recommendations as well.

In our work connecting brands, publishers and people over content, we’ve seen amazing growth in what’s now known as content marketing – the practice of communicating with authentic, informative or otherwise entertaining content.

Recently, that’s come in handy for all of digital’s constituents, as the migration of users to mobile and the downward trajectory of displays ads has forced advertisers to rethink how they interact with people online.

Rec.om.men.da.tion noun

a suggestion or proposal as to the best course of action, especially one put forward by an authoritative body.

Fortunately, a number of brands have already rallied around the idea that content is a more effective way to influence consumers online. It’s been a difficult but necessarily lesson to learn: Consumers may instinctively ignore ads, but people don’t instinctively ignore interesting content. The brands most renowned for executing this strategy – Redbull, Dell, L’Oreal, GE, American Express, among many others – have gone as far as building

“Consumers may instinctively ignore ads, but people don’t instinctively ignore interesting content.”

media arms that aspire to their publisher counterparts’. They program enough content, consistently, that their target audience has reason to expect great content from them and interact with it regularly. But for as much great branded content exists online, consistency, quality and measurable effectiveness are still challenges to overcome in content marketing.

As the debate over native advertising has revealed, we all have some work to do in earning the trust of consumers. The more consumers come across this kind of “content” or “baitive” advertising that is essentially the same in form and function of the display ads they’re now scrambling to block, well… you can guess where this is headed.

If we’ve learned anything from digital media’s upheaval, it’s that trust is what makes the world go ‘round. Without it, content marketing goes the way of the banner. As a conduit between millions of people and the content they might not find otherwise, we humbly accept our role in maintaining that trust and building a viable future, with content as its foundation. Which is why we’re so invested in sharing what we’ve learned from working with brands tackling this challenge. Our A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing, inspired by both the challenges and the successes we’ve seen and experienced, is a collection of these recommendations. If they’re in any way helpful to you, we’ll know we’ve set out on the right path.

Yaron Galai, CEO

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

BRANDING

CONTENT STRATEGY Before you publish a single word, you need to formulate a strategy to achieve your goals. Which, of course, means identifying your goals in the first place. Common goals between brand publishers often break down into the following: For some, their content hub exists solely to satisfy one of these three goals.

Others meet some combination of all three through diverse content. It’s up to

L’Oreal’s Makeup.com

you which of these goals content is best-

AWARENESS

suited to meet, given the state of your

I want to create content that

CONSIDERATION I want to create content that

ACTION I want to create content that

puts my brand on the map in a

affects the way people feel

guides the person interacting

way it hasn’t been before.

about my brand.

with it to take an action.

brand today. But content that doesn’t appeal to your target audience in the

Success in brand publishing begins and ends with your audience, which you can

Creating value for your audience is

first place is challenged to meet any marketing objective. You can take several routes to publishing “appealing” content:

define as anyone who comes into contact and engages with your content -- not just

your content’s primary objective,

your target demographic. In brand publishing, the problem you’re solving for is,

but it’s also the living, breathing

“Where will incremental audience come from, and how can I maximize its value for

embodiment of your brand. If you

my brand?” A combination of technology, partnerships, and experimentation will

choose publishing as your primary

Entertainment -- Content your target audience simply enjoys (nothing wrong with that). Popular for B2C companies-- especially those

form the basis of your audience development plan. Here are a few places to start:

form of expression online, you will

aiming for the millennial audience.

Education -- Content that delivers instructions on a discipline your target audience wants to master. Most popular with B2B companies.

have to decide the right balance of 1.

Social Platforms -- The pool of users who have opted to follow you over

traditional branding, such as the

Information -- Content that expounds on a topic your target audience is curious about. Fundamentally different from educative

time make for a great initial surge of audience. Hard to grow organically

use of logos, taglines, brand colors,

content in that it’s aim is less instructional, more enlightening. Thought-leadership initiatives typically fall into this category.

these days. Consider paid amplification for the content that yields the

etc. on your site and the brag-free

greatest value at your desired Cost Per Action (CPA). And think beyond just

content. To self-promote is to sell.

Inspiration -- Content that elicits empathy from your target audience and motivates them to an aspirational outcome. Particularly well-

Facebook and Twitter! LinkedIn is rich in value for B2B engagement, while

To publish is to influence.

suited for video content.

Celebrated sites like Makeup.com are

Once you have defined precisely who your target audience is, consider what kind of content:

Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat or any platform utilizing video all merit serious consideration for B2C engagement.

so subtletly branded a visitor might 2.

Search -- Research the keywords that matter most to your target audience

not realize it’s a L’Oreal domain. For

and optimize your content to create a trail that leads right to you.

a brand less well-known, that might not work, however. You must decide

3.

4.

5.

Recommended Media -- Platforms like Outbrain can deliver massive

what degree of subtlety you can

audiences from premium publishers in just about every vertical you can

live with - and what aligns best with

think of.

your content marketing goals.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: 1.

Meets the most salient needs or desires of your target audience?

2.

Is more likely to align with your brand’s

CONTENT CREATION

voice and values?

3.

Contains the lowest barrier to entry?

Partnerships -- Partnering with traditional media publishers can be a

4.

Will be credible with audiences?

great way to deliver audience to your content.

5.

Will differentiate you from competitors?

6.

Will breed customer loyalty?

7.

Will generate new business?

Mobile -- This is no longer some strange sub-set of audience. All of the

CONTENT PLANNING

CONTENT MEASUREMENT

CONTENT SEEDING/DISTRIBUTION

above is responsible for delivering your target audience on mobile devices too.

If you can answer these questions, essentially, you’ve begun the planning phase, which should be comprehensive so as to anticipate both the challenges and opportunities ahead before creating a single piece of content.

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

03

(BIG) DATA

EDITORIAL DESIGN

It used to be that the traditional media companies possessed all the data on audience behavior. That wall has since collapsed. Brands

What do influential publishers like Buzzfeed, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Pitchfork, The Guardian and The Awl have in

now have access to tools and technology that provide insight into consumer behavior ranging in sophistication. In analyzing the patterns

common? They have instantly recognizable brands that start with the look, feel and voice of their publications. These components are

that emerge on how people behave online, brands place themselves in position to extrapolate from, and even predict, consumer

the foundation of “editorial design,” and they will be hugely important in the success of your publications. It’s what identifies you as a

behavior into the future. And what brand wouldn’t want to do that?

unique publisher.*For more, read Designing the Editorial Experience by Sue Apfelbaum and Juliette Cezzar.

Arguably, the primary challenge Big Data presents is information overload. Focusing on what to analyze and where to look is easier

STYLE & VOICE

said than done when so much data is out our fingertips. Problem

How does your content express authenticity and

is, much of it won’t be terribly applicable to your business.

brand personality? Urban Outfitters’ (UO) blog style and voice include a color palette that reflects

Big Data is only useful if it helps you answer a burning question

ANALYSIS WHICH DISTRIBU-

with serious implications for your business. One of those

TION CHANNEL

HOW DOES EACH TYPE OF CONTENT AFFECT

IS MOST EFFECTIVE?

AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR?

their brand identity combined with lively and edgy imagery that screams “hipster”.

questions might be, “What kind of content should I create for maximum impact on my audience and my business?” This is

TYPEFACE

exactly the kind of question Big Data is ideally suited to answer,

The type you choose is largely responsible for

because it’s predictive in nature -- it can help you figure out what

expressing your brand identity and communicating

content to create and program beforehand -- and the answer could be a boon to your business. Fortunately, a number of tools exist to help answer this question -- especially the programming aspect for different channels, such as: Keyword Tools -- that reveal everything from keyword search volume to related keywords you can leverage

the potential audience experience.

The UO blog employs a simple, clean headline typeface with some unique character design. This subtle flare compliments the colors, content and imagery that exudes UO culture.

Interest graphs -- that map the relationship between users and the content they’re consuming, from the order in which they tend to navigate topics, to the keywords that get their attention when they’re browsing.

Social Listening Tools -- that track conversations about relevant topics to your business, to what people are saying about your brand.

ART DIRECTION How the visual identity of your brand publication is expressed, including where and how to apply negative space.

Last but not least, all the data you generate through audience interaction with your content is incredibly valuable to track. Perform a running analysis of both what drives performance in each channel you program for and how each type of content you produce elicits

The art direction for the UO blog demonstrates a

audience behavior.

cohesive layout with seamless integration of color, type and photography that is instantly recognizable.

Generating this kind of data is in fact a primary reason some brands choose to publish in the first place, as they try to map the relationship between engagement with their content and interest in their products and services.

USER EXPERIENCE All the mechanisms that affect a user’s navigation of your content (more on this later).

The UO blog is optimized for perusing (just like their retail spaces), presenting an assortment of modules, categories and eye-catching images that are largely given equal weight on the homepage. It’s as though they’re inviting you into their space and saying, “Go on, have a look around.”

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Urban Oufitter’s blog

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

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FREQUENCY

GOAL-SETTING

INTENT-BASED PUBLISHING

JOURNALISTS

Consider this key question: How often do your competitors

Goal-setting in brand publishing can be a multi-faceted

The Internet is now swimming with links and navigation to and from sites at a frantic

Is it fair to call yourself a publisher

publish? If you’re behind their pace, you risk losing the

challenge. First, there are the goals you establish in

pace. How you insert your brand publishing into this path will depend on your

if you don’t employ journalistic

attention war for qualified audiences.

publishing content to begin with -- from increasing

ability to master the behavioral patterns of your audience’s intentions when they’re

skillsets in creating your content?

awareness to changing perception of your brand to driving

browsing online.Furthemore, user intent should inform any channel-specific content

Let’s start with a range you want to avoid: If you’re

more direct sales. Then, there are the goals you establish

programming you undertake.

publishing 0-4 blog posts every month, you’re not

for each content campaign and, on a more finite level, each

producing enough to gauge effectiveness or even really

individual piece of content, such as: 1.

range is more like it, and businesses who are in the 10-15 posts-per-month range see a clear impact on KPIs.

2.

journalism and commerce is a Gone are the days of cookie-cutter engagement when you could create one piece

sensitive topic (for some, they’re

of content and then just post the link to all your social channels and watch the

becoming uncomfortably blurred),

Traffic -- What degree of visitor volume should

engagement pour in. Some channels require careful consideration of format, length

but the currency they have in

your content be driving?

and topic, among other considerations, to give your content the best chance to

common is trust. Without it, people

Branding goals -- Is your content creating a

succeed.

won’t bother with your stories, and

call yourself a brand publisher. Regardless of company size and dedicated resources to your content, living in the 5-10

Naturally, the relationship between

lift in perception, recall or other brand equity You must also consider how often you post to social media.

An average of three posts per day on your priority channel

3.

is a good place to start -- whether it’s linking to your own content or curating other content.

4.

they certainly won’t bother with

measures?

Here are four audience-first questions you should answer before determining which

Conversion goals -- Which pieces of content are

channels you should prioritize:

your products.

driving conversions more efficiently for you?

Your audience can tell the

Comparative goals -- How does all of the above

difference between a well-

compare to your competitors’ content?

researched, well-produced, or well-argued story and lazy “thoughtleadership” any day of the week.

Which isn’t to say you can’t

HABIT CYCLES

supplement efforts with, say,

Publishing content is a game of habit in every sense of the word. Consider this: users spend an average of 74% of their time online with

going to win trust and loyalty in

no intent other than being informed and entertained, yet they largely turn to only a handful of sources directly to fulfill this need.

the long-term, you need to make

curated content. But if you’re

a compelling case that you’re a

Habitually published content leads to habitually consumed content.

unique brand with a unique voice

These sites have become… well… habits for users. How do marketers break into this cycle? By now, display advertising peeking from the margins of web pages has proved ineffective in making a dent in consumer consciousness.

Habitually published content leads to habitually consumed content -- at least it has on major social platforms, blogs and news sites..

With savvy programming, a distributed model that accompanies your owned content, and an innate

and valuable content you can’t get

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

just anywhere (see the Editorial

Who is the intended audience for my content?

2.

Which platforms do they spend time on?

Do you have the in-house personnel

3.

How much time do they spend there?

who can translate your brand’s

4.

What are their intentions when they visit those platforms?

expertise into compelling words and images? With credibility and

understanding of your audience’s browsing habits, your brand can crash the party and, eventually, host the party. *Read Charles Duhigg’s book Power of Habit to win the Attention Wards

Design section).

1.

Answering these questions at the earliest phase of planning will eliminate FOMO

authenticity? Platforms like Scripted

and, at the same time, help you account for the channels that lend themselves to

and Contently or other freelance

engagement with your brand.

networks can help you cover the bases and match the right journalist with the right topic.

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

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KOTOZUKURI

LIFETIME VALUE

MOBILE

Brand publishing is particularly well-suited for the increasing focus on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

54%

52%

53%

49%

Global Average 42%

45%

as a measure of effective marketing.

44%

42%

41%

Why? Content maintains a point of contact with customers over a long period of time in retention strategy and is often the initial spark that converts an audience member to a customer in the first place.

Singapore

India

Australia

Philippines

Malaysia

Japan

UK

U.S.

Source: Outbrain Content Consumption Report 2014

The mobile revolution has been building for years, but the so-called “Mobilegeddon” brought on by Google’s shift to rewarding sites that are mobile-friendly certainly accelerated the pace of change. Having a mobile-optimized site is now an imperative for businesses that want to stay connected to the “always-on” consumer. If you’re

Nissan on Tumblr

As marketing attribution models

unsure if your site makes the mobile grade, you can

get more sophisticated, content is

check with this tool and work with your web dev

emerging as a primary function in

team to ensure proper tagging and responsiveness

repeat customer visits, upselling,

to help you reap mobile rewards.

For today’s consumer, a company with great products doesn’t make a great brand. A company with a great mission makes a great

and even softer metrics like

brand, and “kotozukuri” can be a powerful instrument in delivering that story.

customer satisfaction.

A further consideration still: some formats and platforms reward mobile engagement more than

A complement to mono-zukuri (Japanese for “making things”), Nissan coined this expression to describe “the art of making stories.”

In that respect, the notion of

others. Snapchat is the perfect example of a

The term succeeds in describing brand storytelling as a discipline that requires the same degree of artistry, calculation, collaboration

“lifetime value” needn’t only apply to

truly native mobile platform, a big reason for its

and customer-first mentality as the products you make.

customers and the dollar value each

burgeoning popularity with both traditional and

of them generates -- it applies to

brand publishers. Designed for the short intervals

content itself.

common to mobile engagement, it rewards two of

Some brands have even taken the concept meta- and adopted the device of taking audiences “behind the scenes” to expose the people and processes that contribute to the finished product. GE on Tumblr demonstrates one of the more visually arresting ways of bringing that story to life.

the most popular user behaviors on a smartphone: Hitting “publish” is only the

watching a short video and sharing content.

beginning of your content’s lifespan.

Have you embraced “kotozukuri” yet?

Evergreen assets that match

So in summary, if you want to get in on the mobile Snapchat mobile platform

sweepstakes:

scalable distribution can literally deliver value for years to come.

1.

Make sure your content pages are responsive or otherwise mobile-friendly.

2.

Identify the mobile platforms where your target audience congregates.

3.

Program mobile content that fits the form and function native to those platforms.

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

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NATIVE ADVERTISING

PAGE VIEWS PER SESSION

Brands partnering with more traditional publishers to create custom experiences is becoming a greater part of the media ecosystem.

As the debate over how to measure “attention” rages on in the industry, it’s important to delineate between traditional publishers with ad-supported models (in which case, it makes sense to focus on metrics like “time spent” to ensure both reader and advertiser are

Let’s look at the pros and cons of incorporating native advertising partnerships into your brand publishing strategy:

PROS •

CONS

It’s a heck of a lot more effective than display ads when it

•

comes to engagement.

happy), and brand publishers who are more likely to want a user to take specific actions on their site.

PAGE VIEWS PER SESSION

283

Custom creative with a hand-picked media partner can be tough to scale. It’s important to navigate this question with your media partners to find the opportunities to maximize

•

Publishers are true experts at engaging audiences with

effectiveness -- from creating serialized programs to

content. What they don’t build for you themselves you can

deploying retargeting or recommended media platforms.

70%

300

136

learn how to do just by partnering with them.

• •

Done right, people will actually remember your native

30%

150

Dec 9

If your media partner is the one hosting the content, they

Dec 15

NEW VISITOR

RETURNING VISITOR

also get the benefit of collecting all the data. Not you.

experience. Take Netflix’s multimedia article on Women Inmates for the New York Times, for example.

•

If you’re partnered with an incongruent publisher or misguided creative execution-- The Atlantic can tell you all

•

Once a user engages with your native ad experience, you

about that.

Brand publishing is a game of turning interest in your content into interest in your business. Remember, most audiences aren’t used to you as a publisher yet. They need time to get to know you, see what you have to offer.

can retarget them with relevant display ads that have a much better chance at effectiveness.

Measuring page-views per session and analyzing them by return visitors, new visitors and demographics in Google Analytics can help you get a handle on your audience’s propensity to do so.

OPTIMIZATION

QUALITY

Optimization, in short, is the art (and science) of making the best of what’s available. Ideally, we always have data at our fingertips to outright tell us which options at our disposal will yield the best results, but what happens when that data isn’t readily available?

You can generate it using A/B testing -- which most marketers know well from testing things like subject lines in email marketing

Qual.i.ty

/’kwälәdē/

noun

campaigns and calls-to-action on their websites. The new

50% VISITORS SEE VARIATION A

50% VISITORS SEE VARIATION B

VARIATION A

VARIATION B

23%

wrinkle brand publishing introduces applying those methods to

The standard of something as measured against other

audience engagement with content.

things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

CONVERSION

11% CONVERSION

For example, if you’re already in the habit of testing which subject lines lead to better open rates for your email campaigns, why not apply the same rigor to blog headlines and images

Quality, is a relative measurement, not one that should be determined in a vacuum. With respect to brand publishing, audiences will

you promote on a platform like Outbrain? As any traditional

consciously and subconsciously make these little calculations for you, comparing your content to what they experience on other sites

media company can tell you, the slightest change to a headline, image, or even publishing schedule can have a massive impact on engagement.

-- sites that have amassed very large audiences doing exactly what you’re trying to do: influence people on the strength of content.

Will your content receive a favorable comparison?

For more on how to optimize headlines for maximum results, check out the book we published earlier this year in collaboration with Hubspot called “Data-Driven Strategies for Writing Effective Headlines.”

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

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RECOMENDED MEDIA If thes

e reach the Ea like rub rth, the ber ba y com nds. “T ress th mess w h mo withpthe is plan cycle of the greater Internet, let alone daily discovery.

Discovery is a challenge for brands it trying publishing vemen h everto keep ein-step et’s ma t of the y thing fr gnetos appea magne om the phere ring fro tic of bandeveryday e Realistically, how are consumers going to regularly find your content, outside typing le m field c s tr s, whic (a day which may never e ical grid s genein your URL eming like rub h then rates e ly now to ber ba o il snap b here, w xtra cu p n ip d e s li . n ackhelp “The m the bconsumption come)? Born out of daily news itself, content recommendation engines like Outbrain initially to rrent,”existed just h e s ic . h out traditional “P est vie c o a oveme says Sz wer gr n over w in th nt of th id ope power abo, w e solar rcontent h a tr e magto to ic a n h can r s s publishers navigate users to more content on theirssites. present, and many of these recommendations fo ystemFast-forward w netic fi rmers ill see e , some elds ge and bu xcess c people nerate r n u rrent th e cando. s extra m out, navigate users to branded content, working much like paid search results ’t help ” he sa curren doing ys. t,” says a little Szabo, bit of s even w cience ith .

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Recom mende d by

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10 Moyou can take, depending on your needs.

When it comes to extending the efficiency of your content, there are multiple avenues TIAL st Com Mistak

PREZI

mon R ookie ublic S peakin g

es in P

• Evergreen content you know you’ll produce every year -- if you don’t have one already, plot out that editorial calendar.

• Visual content like cinemagraphs and infographics that are easily shared and re-programmed across multiple channels.

• Curation platforms that can help supplement your owned content like Newscred.

• Productivity platforms like Percolate that provide marketing software.

Is Ever est On Youadvocacy • BLISEmployee platforms like Dynamic Signal that can mobilize your team around content and disseminate the collective r Buck PU HER H

ERE

mind-share.

et List?

“We should do more thought-leadership!” If you ever hear this expression from a superior, feel free to respond with this line of questioning (or just go over it in your head).

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

1.

What is our area of expertise as a company?

2.

Does our target audience need or want guidance in this area?

3.

Do we already have the credibility with our target audience to be taken seriously? Or is the goal to establish this credibility?

4.

Do we have a unique or interesting point of view?

5.

Who within (or without) our organization can best express our point of view?

6.

What, in concrete terms, do we hope to receive in return for publishing our knowledge and opinions? How will we measure it?

If you’re satisfied with the answers to all of these questions, you have a rock-solid thought-leadership strategy.

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

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USER EXPERIENCE (UX)

VISUALS

Navigation and design can make or break engagement and conversions on your site. Remember: brand publishing is a game of turning interest in your content into interest in your brand. The most effective way to do that? Make it as easy as possible for audiences to navigate to your most valuable pages.

MINIMAL TOP NAVIGATION Even if you have a dozens of topics that you cover on your site, it’s best to simplify this information so your audience doesn’t get overwhelmed, and, in turn, paralyzed. Gather the biggest themes, try to keep them to six, and use drop-down menus that help audiences decide where precisely they want to navigate to.

ADS Don’t be shy about putting your own display ads to

Poketo homepage

your own products or other content experiences on your site. Remember -- you’re a publisher now.

Done tastefully and in the right context, your ads can be an effective way to navigate users to valuable landing pages.

Haven’t you heard? Infographics are out, video and cinemagraphs are in. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but digital content has steadily progressed in the direction of the moving image over static pictures. Here’s why: CALLS-TO-ACTION (CTAs) 1.

There are several formats and placements that

Motion gets our attention -- when scrolling down a feed of content, a moving image gives consumers a reason to stop and digest the visual information conveyed.

can be effective, from big buttons in the sidebar to highlighted sentences at the end of a post. You’ll want to test a number of these formats and place-

2.

ments for effectiveness.

Motion has more storytelling capacity -- if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a moving picture worth? Humans have yet to invent a format that literally brings ideas and emotions to life more effectively than the motion picture.

3.

It’s now easier than ever -- to create, host and distribute videos and cinemagraphs. Used tastefully, cinemagraphs and videos can be a signal to your audience that you are willing to invest in production value for their sake -- where your competitors

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

may not.

Give audiences the option to experience more content they might be interested in at the end of

Not that you should abandon infographics or turn everything into a GIF. But if the rise of interactive media on platforms like

every experience to showcase more facets of your brand and keep them engaged longer. More on

Tumblr, Instagram and Snapchat is any indication, the next wave of digital consumers has already begun to expect content that

that later...

engages them with movement.

Williams-Sonoma Taste article page

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

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WORKFLOW The Videographer -- If you want to explore the use of video in your content strategy, a dedicated resource to manage production, post-production, and hosting of your videos is a no-brainer.

The SEO Specialist -- The resource responsible for making sure your content is technically sound for search engine discovery, as well as other content optimizations for distribution channels.

WRITER

SEO SPECIALIST

Legal -- Always a good idea to keep in-house counsel aware of your publishing activities and seek buy-in for your program early in the process to avoid any last-minute fire drills.

The Proofreader -- A fresh pair of eyes on the content who checks for grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.

CMO

EDITOR

DESIGNER

LEGAL

COMMUNITY MANAGER

The Community Manager -- The person responsible for soliciting engagement with your content and programming your social channels, in addition to other audience development tactics.

Depending on the size of your team, a one-to-one ratio of personnel to function may not be feasible, or even necessary. This is just a general representation of the roles required for a robust brand publisher operation.

VIDEOGRAPHER

STRATEGY

CONCEPT

CONTENT CREATION

PROOFREADER

VETTING

DISTRIBUTION & ENGAGEMENT

X-FACTORS The characteristics that set flight to your content strategy aren’t always those you planned.

Now for the least glamorous aspect of brand publishing: establishing an effective workflow for editorial planning, execution, approval and distribution. Let’s start with the basic team you’ll need in place: The CMO - You need more than just “buy-in” from the marketer-in-chief. You need her utmost belief in the power of content to deliver against marketing objectives in the age of ad-blockers and mobile engagement. But support is a two-way street. Reward her faith with straightforward reporting on the KPIs you’ve agreed equate to success.

The Editor/Marketer -- The person who oversees the strategy and management of the actual production and distribution of your content. For teams varying in size, this editorial resource will often take on much of the content creation herself.

The Writer -- A highly skilled position responsible for realizing the editorial vision through well-researched, well-worded articles. The writer can also help the editor fill in the blanks on the editorial calendar with well-considered pitches. Consider a mix of in-house and

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: 1.

Do you have the internal support and resources to succeed?

2.

Are other departments in your organization excited about the content you publish?

3.

Is there a rock-star-in-the-making on your team who just needs a little push to maximize her creativity?

4.

A crazy idea bouncing around in your head that simply won’t go away, no matter how much you try to talk yourself out of it?

5.

A broken link in the workflow that hampers productivity and sends projects down the wrong path?

How you navigate both adversity and unexpected opportunity can be the difference between content firing on all cylinders and moderate disappointment.

freelance writers to fill out your team -- even if it’s a small team.

The Designer -- In tandem with the editor, the designer is the vanguard of your site’s editorial design, from the art that appears in your articles to the user experience itself. She can also be the bridge between marketing and web development.

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Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

17

YOUTUBE

ZEN

WHY DID YOU READ THIS?

The “mind technology” of meditation has landed in the mainstream thanks, in large part, to Steve Jobs swearing by it as the key to managing stress and unlocking creativity. Now, companies from Ford to Target have begun evangelizing meditation practices to their employees, in the hopes that it leads to greater productivity.

Whether embarking on the path to Zen Buddhism or subscribing to Mercedez-Benz USA YouTube homepage

the KonMari method of “sparking

2015 has practically come and gone already (can you believe it?), but 2016 looms as a huge opportunity to take your brand publishing

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. It simply can’t be ignored.

joy”, professionals in all walks have

skills to the next level. Hopefully this guide helps you plan for what you want to change next year.

Amplification tools like Outbrain can help seed videos across premium publisher

embraced the notion that peace

sites, but other hacks can grow your subscriber base and make your YouTube

of mind leads to better work. Find

channel a powerful component of your burgeoning media empire. Here are just a

yours for a clear path to success in

few:

brand publishing.

We recommend a few steps now to make sure you catch 2016 in confident stride.

1.

Consider Your Marketing Objectives for Next Year. If you made a big Awareness push this year -- either for a new product, new initiative, or because you’re a new company -- what’s next for your brand? Is a change in perception of the brand need-

1.

Optimize your thumbnail images.

ed? More emphasis on distinguishing yourself from competitors? Tackling a new international market? You’ll need to align

2.

Look for keywords that show video results in the Search Engine Results

your content strategy to this new direction.

Pages (SERPs).

2.

Do a Big Data intake. What are the behavioral patterns that emerged among your target audience this year (and not just

3.

Leverage all the CTA options.

with your content)? Don’t forget to account for their mobile behavior and how it differed from their desktop behavior. How

4.

Make sure you’re allowing people to embed your videos.

are you going to apply that insight to the content you create next year?

5.

Cross promote like a pro.

3.

Do a Distribution Audit. You may find after doing a Big Data intake that a few holes still exist in understanding your audience… which may be a signal that some key distribution platforms are missing from your mix. Investigate what those platforms are and why you haven’t already used them (there may be a very good reason). Alternately, is there a channel that warrants far less of your attention next year because your target audience simply isn’t there in a significant way?

4.

Consider Changes to the Workflow. Which skillsets are missing from your content team? Whose buy-in do you need to get for more support? Where has communication consistently broken down? Document them for discussion with your superiors on where improvement is most needed to achieve success.

5.

Create an editorial calendar for 2016. You can plot out the evergreen content you know you’re going to create, and mark important holidays and business events.

Brand publishing is not for the faint of heart. It takes a dedicated team, creative vision, research and plenty of planning to build a successful storytelling engine.

But above all else, it requires a raison d'etre. Is your brand’s story worth perpetual telling?

Only you can be the judge of that.

18

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

19

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