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There are two roles at our digital PR agency: research and promotion. The research team develops ideas, crunches numbers, and creates stories with the data. The promotion team pitches those stories to journalists. Both teams work in tandem and team members lean on each other for creative ideas, solutions that will produce the best results for clients, and the occasional troubleshooting session. But each side of the team comes at our end goal of building links from a very different point of view. Combining these viewpoints yields great results, but our team relies on mutual understanding to get there. 

So, we decided to pull a switch.

What We Switched in Our Roles

For one campaign per year, two team members switch responsibilities for a campaign. That is, the research member would handle the promotion of a campaign and the promotion member would handle the research responsibilities. Both team members would collaborate closely to make sure nothing was missed, but each team member would ultimately perform the other’s tasks independently.

This allowed us to effectively see the other side of the project and get some experience with the tasks involved in making the project a success. 

What The Promotion Team Learned by Doing Research

When the promotion team was placed in the role of having to find reliable sources of information to entice journalists and build out their headlines, they were introduced to a new set of resources that presented dozens of new campaign ideas for them. In addition, they learned some of the limitations of different data accumulation methods, including the types of surveys our team could run, the types of data we could reasonably expect to get our hands on, and the reasoning behind some rejected ideas that the research team could not execute.

What The Research Team Learned by Doing Promotion

When doing research, it is easy to get tunnel vision and look for what we can do rather than what journalists want to see. In participating in the promotion side of the project, the research team better understood the types of headlines and information journalists were looking for, what kind of stories they needed to effectively tell with the data, and how to engage journalists with their main insights. They also understood more deeply why the promotion team rejected certain ideas on the basis of journalist interest and how they could bring that understanding of journalists into their research process.

The Outcome

As a result of this exercise, every team member walked away with the following:

• A new perspective that would add insight to their role
• An understanding of pain points the other team faces and how to address them
• A more comprehensive understanding of the work every team member puts in
• New sources for creative ideas 

We also experienced an even higher level of collaboration than usual during these projects. Overall, our team made the decision to incorporate this practice into our annual workloads as an exercise to challenge our limits and provide us with a new perspective that will creatively disrupt our routine. 

So, if you’re looking for a way to challenge your team and break out of a rut, consider a role swap! It might not be as fun as Lindsay Lohan’s, but as a creative exercise, it can’t be beaten.

What Our Team Learns By Switching Job Roles Every Year is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

One of the most common questions the Go Fish Digital digital PR team receives is “How does content that isn’t related to my product help my brand?”. 

While it is a fair question, we are huge advocates of tangential content for all of our digital PR campaigns. We’ve seen a massive amount of success with them for many of our clients, with a number of those campaigns going viral. So, how can a study on something that’s not related to who you are and what you do help your business? The answer is simple: you’re giving the people what they want.

The Argument for Tangential Content

To understand why tangential content is impactful, you need to hone in on the real goal of link building initiatives – enhancing your site’s credibility by delivering high domain authority backlinks to your site. When you develop a link building campaign, your focus isn’t on your own target audience. Instead, you’re looking at what other sites will find interesting or useful and by extension, how you can engage their audiences so that they’ll publish your content as a resource for their viewers.

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When other websites link back to your website’s content, that tells Google that your content is good and valuable to people looking for information. This helps boost the authority of your domain, an input that Google uses to quantify the strength of your website. This helps Google rank the results on the search engine results pages. It’s a sort of peer review system in the cyberspace world, with Google acting as the final judge of how good your content is. 

The thing to remember about link building campaigns is that they’re not about conversions or sales or even engaging your target audience. Building backlinks is about getting high domain authority sites to link back to your website and seeing the value of that link equity dispersed on your site. Whether that link equity comes from The Washington Post or Buzzfeed, there’s a major value in building backlinks from any high domain authority source. While industry publications are a good place to start, you’ll also see value from lifestyle and local publications, which gives you more opportunities to expand your backlink profile.

Where we tend to see projects stall is when companies get too worried about the continuity of articles on their site. Many businesses tend to get nervous about putting an article about food smack in the middle of all of their articles about best business practices. Often, they worry that their site visitors will wonder what that has to do with anything. However, it’s the out-there ideas that tend to lead to the best results. Look no further than our first major win for a software client. It might seem odd if a Customer Relationship Management company posts an article about Trader Joe’s. But in this case, that’s exactly what this company did, and the results were staggering.

The Trader Joe’s Campaign

This CRM software client was looking for a knockout campaign option. They wanted a project that would generate tons of backlinks and drive some traffic to their website. Our team had the Top Trader Joe’s Item by State idea in our back pocket and we were dying to try it out. There were a few reasons we thought it would be a successful project:

1. Trader Joe’s has a dedicated customer pool who love to hear about Trader Joe’s products. This would be a great piece of content to engage that existing audience.
2. Food publications are often high-quality links and they tend to be open to “fun” ideas such as this one.
3. Each year, Trader Joe’s releases its Customer Choice awards for their products. This gave us a news cycle to work with that we could piggy-back off of to boost engagement.

Ultimately, the client allowed us to try out this idea. We did the study, launched the article, and within two days, the links were rolling in. We received 26 backlinks total for this campaign, including coverage from MSN, Martha Stewart, Real Simple, and The Business Journals. The page received over 1,600 sessions in just a few weeks, and the client was as thrilled as we were.

Why It Worked for the Client

What does Trader Joe’s have to do with client relationship management software, you might ask? We tied the client’s brand in with the following logic:

Trader Joe’s has an incredibly loyal following. By enhancing your customer relationships, you can foster the same kind of loyalty in your clients as well.

It was simple and it was effective. Journalists were excited to see a study that related so effectively to a subset of their audience. This campaign gave foodies exactly the sort of content that they wanted and in the end, it led to a fantastic number of high domain authority links to the client’s site. Since that campaign, we’ve done a number of tangentially-linked content campaigns that have performed even better than this Trader Joe’s example. But that campaign marked the turning point of when our strategy for this client really broke through and we saw the results we love to deliver.

While it might seem like tangential content is too off the wall for your company to use, its benefits have proven time and time again how effective this strategy can be. Whether you’re trying to reach page one of Google or just trying to give your brand a boost, backlinks provide that extra punch. The fact that you can reach audiences outside of your industry and still get that same SEO value is an incredibly underused tool, which is why we love it when our clients get a little creative with their ideas. The next time you’re wondering how to drive a little extra SEO value to your company site, try thinking outside the box! You never know what could turn into your brand’s link building secret weapon.

Why Tangential Content is The Secret to Great Digital PR is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

A couple of months ago, the final episode of a little show called Game of Thrones aired on HBO. As the buildup to the final season reached its peak, our team developed a two-stage campaign that would release a Game of Thrones Sorting Quiz as stage 1 and the results as stage 2. The quiz went live and went viral, receiving nearly 50,000 results in less than 2 weeks. 

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As the season aired, we continued to collect results and within the tight timeline of 6 weeks, we created interactive results graphics and managed to get them out before the finale. We were ready to launch the second stage of our campaign. Then the final episode aired. And nothing happened.

So What Went Wrong?

When you’re creating content for a very specific news cycle, things can be extremely hit or miss. This campaign was a smash hit when we first sent out the survey, but by the time the results were ready to go out, people were unhappy with the episodes. They were angry about character arcs. They were furiously taking to the internet to express their displeasure and, unfortunately, not clicking on fandom-focused articles or links. 

Our strategy was solid and our campaign concept was fantastic. But the Game of Thrones news cycle came to an abrupt end after episode 4, when people got angry with the characters and ratings plummeted. This was an unfortunate twist that our team could not have taken into account when we were preparing the second stage of our campaign. We were banking on Game of Thrones content being a golden ticket for a month and a half, but instead, with 1 week to go before our results went live, people were more interested in talking about all of the ways that the writers had let them down.

This is one of the trickiest points of creating content that will be extremely relevant for a very specific amount of time. Any variable shift or change in the news cycle, and suddenly your content is obsolete or doesn’t relate to the topic in the same way. 

So What Went Right?

Regardless of the negative feedback towards the last three episodes, stage one of our campaign was some of our top-performing content ever, even with only half of the news cycle we anticipated. It played off of fans’ excitement for the final season perfectly and, had the final season been well received, we might have seen a similar performance for the second stage that included the quiz results. 

Ultimately, we saw fantastic engagement rates for this content and we certainly wouldn’t discount similar campaigns in the future. While being at the mercy of the news cycle means a different approach, we’ve seen the incredible results that are possible when things go right.

What Are Our Takeaways

Ultimately, Game of Thrones taught us the following points about digital marketing:

• Go in with your eyes open – Content tied to the news cycle has an expiration date and can be risky. It’s a higher risk, higher reward kind of deal.

• Stick to a timeline – If one person on your team misses a due date or a deadline, you can miss valuable time for the promotion of your content. Make sure everyone is prepared to get their assignments done to stay on track and be ready for the news cycle.

• Experiment with it – Content tied to the news cycle opens up doors for different formats and platforms. If there’s a type of content you want to create or some kind of strategy you want to test, a campaign with a shorter promotional period but an almost guaranteed larger audience is a good time to see how a new type of content does.
• Bring in the geeks – To impress the superfans, you need a superfan. Don’t be under the impression that you can read a quick synopsis of a show or movie and create something amazing. The best content for fans is created by fans, so if you have one in your midst, bring them in to help!

Overall, we were absolutely thrilled with the performance for this content and the engagement we saw from it. And this type of news cycle is an opportunity we will be watching out for in the future. Just don’t ask us what we thought about season eight of Game of Thrones.

What Game of Thrones Taught Us About Marketing is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

My team consists of 12 people. But, more importantly, it consists of 4 Harry Potter geeks, 3 podcast addicts, 3 Marvel superfans, 1 Excel aficionado, 1 fast food and dining deal finder, 1 British gentleman, 4 Target-goers, 5 dog owners, 4 cat owners, 10 sport fanatics (the sports we obsess over vary), and the list goes on and on. We’re all passionate about different things individually, but together, we combine our passions into campaigns that examine pet preferences according to Harry Potter house and popular podcasts across the US. We embrace our inner nerds, and that’s really where our creativity begins.

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We have a strong and positive team dynamic that allows for these types of interactions to happen, and we work better, harder, and smarter because of these seemingly inconsequential conversations. Given this, I wanted to look at why exactly this brand of productive creativity works in our favor and learn how other content teams can bottle up this same magic. Let’s get started.

Live Like Leonardo

It could be argued that these off-topic conversations are not work-related and should, therefore, be confined to lunch breaks or after work drinks. However, these occasional detours into internet black holes are often the most valuable conversations our team will have all day, and according to Time Magazine’s The Science of Creativity issue, there’s a reason for that. It turns out that we’ve been living and working according to the philosophies of Leonardo da Vinci himself.

Da Vinci was a creative genius, no doubt about it, but he also advocated techniques for creativity that, when employed, allow people to think more creatively on a regular basis. The article outlined tactics that include:

• Seeking for knowledge for knowledge’s sake – Whether it’s random bits of trivia, sports stats, or the latest romantic comedy, a key part of creative thinking involves diving into what interests you, whether it relates to your job or not.
• Go down rabbit holes – Don’t limit yourself to one article or website. Explore all of the sources you possibly can.
• Collaboration – What’s better than one creative mind looking at a project? Two or more creative brains.
• Imperfection – Pursuing perfection limits your options and forces you to work inside a particular box. Creativity, by definition, involves thinking outside the box.
• Create for yourself – Creating for clients is all well and good (and it involves a paycheck) but ultimately, you should try to create for yourself.

The ideas laid out above are what drive our team’s random conversations and forays into very weird corners of the internet. They’re generally quick, usually completely unrelated to our current workload, and in many cases, have resulted in an idea that turns into a wildly successful campaign. We fully immerse ourselves into all things geeky to contribute to an overall culture of creativity where whacky ideas are welcome. We love nothing more than someone dropping a link into the group chat with the caption “This is so weird/cool/interesting/bizarre.” It’s the employment of da Vinci’s theories that keep us moving forward at a pace that allows us to meet our deadlines.

So, don’t be afraid to have those raucous workplace conversations that highlight the topics you love to talk about. In fact, dive deeper into them to nurture your creativity. If it can work for Leonardo da Vinci, it can work for you too.

Flexing Our Creative Muscles

It’s a common belief that creativity is an asset that you either have or you don’t. This person is creative while another person is not, this person is more numbers and logic-oriented while this person thinks outside-the-box. That’s simply not the case. Creative thinking is a skill that can be cultivated, and just like anything else, you have to work hard to make it great. If you want to run a marathon, what do you do? You train. The same goes for creative thinking.

In my experience, one of the most effective ways to flex your creative muscles in content marketing is to (unsurprisingly) immerse yourself in content and collaborate. Our team looks at our daily research, news feeds, and general responsibilities as a smorgasbord of potential innovation. It’s a practice that we encourage in each other, and that ideology is what ultimately leads to our consistent creative success. By inviting multiple people to look at projects, we combine our points of view to create engaging content that we would jump to read — if we hadn’t produced it ourselves, that is.

This ties back to the idea of “creating for ourselves” that da Vinci championed. While we ultimately work for the client, we also make it a priority to find projects that we would love to work on. When we get to put one of these projects into action, they tend to be extremely successful, not just because they’re a creative option, but because we throw our heart and soul into them.

The Takeaways

While we all have days where the creative juices just won’t flow, we have many more days that involve rabbit holes, hysterical laughter, random thoughts and ideas added to our dream campaign document. Even as we work to maintain high productivity levels, employing these day-to-day tactics helps us think outside the box and keeps us from burning out or, even worse, relying on the conventional. These techniques are relatively easy to employ in your own life, not to mention a fun excuse to nerd-out over your favorite things. By living and breathing our passions, we’re able to carry that originality to every aspect of our jobs, which is ultimately what allows us to be great at what we do.

The Go Fish Geek Squad: Unpacking the Art of Productive Creativity is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

This culture makes it easier for our teammates to consistently deliver great ideas that bring our clients value. But, just because your idea is good, doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better. These are a few of our tried and true strategies to generate new ideas and enhance the ones we’ve already got.

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Ask the Right Questions

Every month our marketing team has a meeting to go over our ups and downs of the month, address any ongoing concerns, and learn something new. Our most recent lesson involved watching this video, a TEDx Talk with Mark Rober about creativity. One of Rober’s main points was that curiosity drives creativity. Asking questions about why things are successful and how to use that concept to duplicate their success gives you the tools to create new ideas off of the back of established success.

If you’re wondering how to make an idea better, try asking further questions about it. It’s easy to have an idea and stop there. Asking how you could repurpose the content, engage further audiences, or turn the campaign idea into a bigger project opens up even more possibilities.

Pull From Your Own Experience

Our team has a wide array of passions. We’ve got sports junkies, bookworms, foodies, reality TV enthusiasts, retail experts, beauty addicts, movie buffs, and that’s just the beginning of our interests. The best ideas that we’ve had came from one of our team members pulling a topic from something they are naturally interested in and turning it into a multifaceted idea. Not only do we have more excitement for these ideas, we have an expert in our midst to help us through potential roadblocks during the campaign.

One of our best campaigns came from our sports lovers. All of us were excited about watching the 2018 Winter Games and someone asked a question about how athletes could compete in the games for other countries if they had dual citizenship. This immediately peaked everyone’s interest and, just like that, our Olympic Athlete Campaign was born and went on to be very successful. The idea of “Let’s do an Olympic campaign” turned into a really great piece because we were able to look into one unique aspect of the games that interested everyone in the room and could grab attention elsewhere.

Keep Up with Industry Advances

We’re lucky to be working in an industry that is constantly changing. New advancements in content creation seem to pop up every day, and we’re always looking at the latest trends in the industry to see how we can integrate them into our campaigns.

These days, the internet is moving everyone forward at lightspeed, and even if your industry isn’t known for rapid change, keeping up with the news gives you the opportunity to answer new concerns and questions with your content, making it relevant and engaging.

Do Something Different

What’s the best way to bust through a block? Get out a sledgehammer.

Or in this case, get some new perspective. Look for a new data source, read some articles on a new topic, check the news, or even just scroll through social media. Ideas sometimes just pop into your head, but when the inspiration won’t come, start by looking at something you’ve never looked at before.  

A particularly popular way to get specific info on a broad topic is to check out Mix, formerly known as StumbleUpon. The best thing about Mix is that the information you’re looking for is provided to you in an interesting, unique way. If you type in a broad topic, you don’t have to sift through Google searches looking for something substantial. Mix provides articles based on your interests but without the need for a specific search. It’s a great tool to find random new ideas that relate to a broader topic.

Tap the Creative Culture

If you walk into our office, you can feel the creative vibes. Everyone’s plugged in, absorbed in their computer screens, and has an almost intimidating level of focus. But, the best part about working at our office is that there are at least 30 other perspectives you can tap into with one simple message. Our team has a dedicated office messaging channel for exactly this purpose. When we hit a roadblock or need another angle, we ask the office and they always manage to deliver something that gets us going again.

Creative ideas don’t always pop into our heads fully completed. More often than not, we spend a substantial amount of time researching and developing concepts into dynamic campaign concepts. Wherever you start with your idea, spend some time looking at it with these tactics and by the end, you won’t just have a suggestion – you’ll have a winner!

How to Develop Your Next Blockbuster Content Idea is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.