The Missing Link: Using SEO to Support Brand, PR & Social @JamesFinlayson
The Missing Link: Using SEO to Support Brand, PR & Social @JamesFinlayson
This year, so far, we’ve built 4.7k links
on sites like these
New York Post Washington Post
The Mirror The Metro The Sun
Daily Mail
Greenpeace WWF
NASA
TV3 (Denmark) NBC (US) ITV (UK)
TV2 (Denmark)
We’re becoming ad-blind + The way we’re searching is changing
How we do it
= brand is more important than ever
Brands need to be storytellers + News media has changed
= opportunity to make the news
(1)
(2)
(3)
We’ve Become Ad-Blind
65%
10%
your
brand
word-of-mouth
posters
TV
billboards
radio
telemarketing
print ads
point-of-sale
mailshots
product placement
PR
sponsorship
celebrity endorsements
seminars
whitepapers
reputation management
your
brand
word-of-mouth
posters
TV
billboards
radio
SEO PPC
point-of-sale
mailshots
product placement
PR
native content display ads
retargeting
remarketing
sponsorship
celebrity endorsements facebook
paid facebook
blogging
podcasts
online video seminars
webinars whitepapers twitter
snapchat
native advertising
paid twitter
reputation management
print ads
telemarketing
1,707 Banner ads per month
1,707 Banner ads per month
0.04% Average
click through rate
1,707 Banner ads per month
0.04% Average
click through rate
50% of clicks
on mobile are accidental
millennials are “able to filter out advertising and commercial messages on social platforms across the board” Professor Barnes, University of Massachusetts
By 2021,
74%
of all ad revenue is predicted to be spent on
native advertising
can’t recall
the sponsor of
native content
HubShout survey, 2014
We’ve Become Ad-Blind
the way we’re searching is changing
increasingly our preferences, whether communicated explicitly or implicitly,
are key
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
Rank
We saw 3x the CTR for an international brand in a country where it’s dominant vs countries where it’s not.
[John Lewis]
How do you become the default choice?
We’re becoming ad-blind + The way we’re searching is changing
How we do it
= brand is more important than ever
Brands need to be storytellers + News media has changed
= opportunity to make the news
(1)
(2)
(3)
Brands as Storytellers
Try to remember the last Samsung advert.
Try to remember the last any Samsung advert.
Samsung spends $9.9Bn a year trying to create impact with their ads.
Now, do you know:
What was sent to CNN’s office recently?
What’s wrong with Trump’s phone?
What did Merkel recently announce?
53% now read news online at least once a day
news media has changed
$0
$10.000.000.000
$20.000.000.000
$30.000.000.000
$40.000.000.000
$50.000.000.000
$60.000.000.000
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Print Ad Revenue Combined Online & Offline Ad Revenue
for every $1 of ‘digital’ revenue gained
$55 of print revenue had been lost
1,200 stories, graphics and videos
per day
15 articles a day
What has this got to do with link building?
People don’t invest in things they don’t understand
…mostly
Traditional link building doesn’t make sense to non-SEOs
73 websites
everything else
50% Of Traffic In The UK Goes To These 73 Sites
100 websites
everything else
Google Penalty
Link Building
Traditional link building doesn’t make sense to non-SEOs because:
1. You’re contacting blogs with little-to-no audience
2. Blogs are inherently risky as they sell links
3. That leads to a cycle of link building and link removal
4. It contributes nothing to other marketing channels
Bringing it together
We’re becoming ad-blind + The way we’re searching is changing
= brand is more important than ever
Brands need to be storytellers + News media has changed
= opportunity to make the news
(1)
(2)
SEO’s have a tendency to ask ‘how can we appear authoritative’ When we should be asking ‘how can we become more authoritative’
Moz popularized the concept of the T-shaped marketer
The T-Shaped Campaign
Expertise
Authority
Trust
Links
Rankings
SEO PR Social Brand PPC/Display Email
Relevancy
211 pieces of coverage
6 million views
211 pieces of coverage
In print On TV On Radio
New York Post (250k)
Yahoo Finance (131k)
Today Show (NBC) (2.5 million)
Virgin Radio Canada (7.8k)
ESPN Radio (59k)
WKRC Radio (79k)
E!News (3 million)
The T-Shaped Campaign
SEO PR Social Brand PPC/Display Email
211 links
Average TF35
Top 10 ranking for ‘casino’
>50% organic traffic increase
The T-Shaped Campaign
SEO PR Social Brand PPC/Display Email
211 links
Average TF35
TV & Radio 6 million views 7k shares 510k retargeting list talking point
Top 10 ranking for ‘casino’
>50% organic traffic increase
You’ll need to get comfortable with unknown unknowns
GIF For Twitter Behind the Scenes Video for Youtube
168 Links
Account Followers
40.4 million
7.8 million
2.1 million
1.3 million
911k
204k
112k
23.5k
26k
419 links
>15k shares
Washington Post
How we do it
Make the news
Target where the attention is
Have grit