The Deep Content PR Strategy: Win By Going Deeper

I often sug­gest the Deep Content PR strategy.

Deep Content isn’t com­plic­ated; any­one can use it as a digit­al PR strategy, and the res­ults are predictable.

The down­side: You have to put in the work. It tends to be a slow burn. However, slow and steady wins the (SEO) race!

Here goes:

The Deep Content Structure

Deep Content

Above is an example of an online con­tent struc­ture that’s five levels deep.

In the example above, five lay­ers of ever­green con­tent are stacked:

• Level 1: Articles
• Level 2: Content Upgrade
• Level 3: Resource/​Lead Magnet
• Level 4: Ebook
• Level 5: Online Course

Deep Content is centred around provid­ing increas­ingly high­er qual­ity to Content Divers (click­ing ver­tic­ally) since they’re more valu­able than Content Surfers (click­ing horizontally).

As for the import­ance of struc­ture and depth, the logic is the same as for Iceberg Publishing and Content Themes.

Learn more: The Deep Content PR Strategy: Win By Going Deeper

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The basic struc­ture is derived from vari­ous levels of con­tent qual­ity. It doesn’t mean that your brand gets a free pass for pub­lish­ing low-qual­ity art­icles; it means that your art­icles must meet the require­ments of the social object cloud — and from there, the con­tent qual­ity must increase as users dive deep­er into your con­tent catalogue.

The Strangeness of Press Releases

Think of a reg­u­lar press release:
How do most press releases end?

Besides a stand­ard boil­er­plate with com­pany inform­a­tion, you will find con­tact details. Why use those con­tact details? You rarely get a pre­cise reas­on; there’s typ­ic­ally nev­er a com­pel­ling call to action.

So, let’s back out for a second:

The press release writer tries to make the head­line more com­pel­ling than the actu­al press release because every­one wants clicks. Then, the most valu­able inform­a­tion goes into a few sen­tences at the top. And the longer you read, the less attract­ive the con­tent gets.

Press releases are designed to become duller the fur­ther down the page you read. The typ­ic­al end is only befitting:

“For fur­ther inform­a­tion, please contact.”

If someone is so damn inter­ested in your dull press release that they’re read­ing it to the end, that’s how they should be rewar­ded? Huh.

Content Surfers and Content Divers

If a user has shown interest in your sur­face-level con­tent and wants to go deep­er and learn more, it’s your job as a brand to allow this to happen.

When users are sat­is­fied, they decide when not to go any deep­er. Your com­mit­ment to this strategy is to ensure that users nev­er leave because the option to go deep­er doesn’t exist.

Why deep con­tent? Unless you’re Wikipedia, offer­ing total breadth is a Sisyphean task. However, provid­ing great depth is pos­sible — with a nar­row enough focus.

Depth is neces­sary because Content Surfers (click­ing hori­zont­ally) are still just look­ing around, turn­ing over stones here and there. Content Divers (click­ing ver­tic­ally) are immers­ing them­selves — which is more inter­est­ing from your brand’s perspective.

Opt To Go Deep, Not Wide

There’s an argu­ment to be made here:

Simply put: Content Divers are more valu­able than Content Surfers.

The struc­ture requires the highest qual­ity con­tent at the base. Because if you “put your best foot for­ward,” con­tent divers will quickly aban­don ship if they notice that your con­tent is get­ting worse and worse the deep­er they go.

Content divers are, by nature, pick­i­er about their con­tent. Convince and con­vert them, how­ever, and you gain loy­alty and trust bey­ond any­thing you can accom­plish with sur­face browsers.

Strategic Prerequisites and Fit

The Deep Content PR Strategy isn’t the right fit for all brands:

Deep Content is SEO-friendly and caters to online audi­ences look­ing to dive deep­er into spe­cif­ic niches. It’s a good fit for busi­ness-to-busi­ness ven­tures. It’s a good fit for thought lead­er­ship PR strategies. It’s a good fit for B2B know­ledge work.

However, the Deep Content PR Strategy also goes bey­ond con­ven­tion­al white-col­lar industries:

Users are also look­ing to go deep in the most cre­at­ive of spaces. It can be any­thing from music to art, from gam­ing to col­lect­ables. Many online pub­lics are inter­ested in diving into the most remote online deep­sea trenches imaginable.

PR Resource: Content Themes

Content Themes

Let’s use a fic­ti­tious example of an IT com­pany. First, they decide on a Promise Filter for their con­tent strategy:

Promise Filter: We make IT easy to understand.

Then, the IT com­pany breaks their core mes­sage down into four busi­ness-crit­ic­al Content Themes:

Q1 Content Theme: We make people under­stand the Internet of Things (IoT).

Q2 Content Theme: We make people under­stand busi­ness auto­ma­tion.

Q3 Content Theme: We make people under­stand cloud com­put­ing.

Q4 Content Theme: We make people under­stand man­aged services.

For each quarterly Content Theme, they pro­duce Content Packages (to build Content Skyscrapers). Each Content Package could con­tain the following:

• Infographics
• Blog Articles
• Whitepapers
• Social Media Updates
• Landing Pages
• Lead Magnets
• Swipe Files
• Template Files
• Content Upgrades
• Online Courses
• Podcast Episodes
• Livestreams
• Email Send-Outs
• Events
• Case Studies
• Webinars
• Video Tutorials
• Interactive Quizzes
• Press Releases
• E‑Books
• Testimonials
• Influencer Collaborations
• Mobile Apps
• Slide Presentations

Learn more: The Content Themes PR Strategy

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PR Resource: Inbound vs Outbound

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Inbound vs Outbound

The inbound mind­set is a fun­da­ment­al shift in the PR- and mar­ket­ing industry.

Historically, many PR- and mar­ket­ing depart­ments have argued:

“Why should we spend our PR- and mar­ket­ing budgets on ‘already acquired’ audi­ences?”

The truth is — it’s the oth­er way around.

Instead of “spam­ming” non-exist­ing audi­ences, pub­lic rela­tions and mar­ket­ing can do much more with exist­ing online pub­lics. ¹Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

If your Inbound Shift PR Strategy is good, you might not need to pri­or­it­ise out­bound PR strategies — because your inbound audi­ence will attract out­bound publics.

Drawing a line between those who know you and those who don’t know you is noth­ing new:

• Push Marketing
• Cold Leads
• Traditional Marketing
• External Comms
• Pull Marketing
• Hot Leads
• Permission Marketing
• Internal Comms

This inbound shift is just the online equivalent:

• Outbound Comms
• Inbound Comms

Learn more: The Inbound Shift PR Strategy: Beauty From Within

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PR Resource: Evergreen Content

Evergreen Content

What’s Evergreen Content? For a piece of con­tent to be ever­green, it must sus­tain its value over time. Meaning: The con­tent must be rel­ev­ant today, tomor­row, and the fore­see­able future.

While news con­tent might have a more sig­ni­fic­ant short-term impact, Evergreen Content accu­mu­lates over time.

There are dif­fer­ent ways to lever­age ever­green con­tent. I recom­mend a few axioms for Evergreen Content:

• Two years. To be con­sidered ever­green con­tent, I think the con­tent must be rel­ev­ant and valu­able for at least two years. It’s an arbit­rary time frame, but if an organ­isa­tion can pro­duce con­tent last­ing for two years, it will typ­ic­ally last for much longer.
• Actual interest. To be con­sidered ever­green con­tent, there must be an exist­ing volume of search engine users look­ing for the inform­a­tion. The con­tent will nev­er be ‘ever’ without ‘green’ search volumes.
• Gentle garden­ing. Evergreen con­tent will only stay ever­green if you tend to it occa­sion­ally. To check if everything’s work­ing, add some­thing help­ful if needed, and per­haps clean out some unne­ces­sary stuff. It’s a bit like garden­ing, I find. 
• Personal touch. It’s dif­fi­cult to pub­lish some­thing unique. However, adding your brand’s ton­al­ity and flair to the con­tent is always pos­sible. The object­ive is to estab­lish trust and author­ity, so a touch of per­son­al­ity matters.

Evergreen Content is also help­ful in build­ing Content Themes, Content Packages, Deep Content, and Content Skyscrapers.

Learn more: The Evergreen Content PR Strategy: Forever Is a Long Time

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PR Resource: More PR Strategies

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Strategy PR Course

Unlock the power of stra­tegic pub­lic rela­tions with this free Strategy PR Course. Elevate your skills and boost your career today.

• The Bad PR Strategy
• The Magical PR Strategy Question
• The 1‑Page PR Strategy
• How to Create a PR Strategy That Actually Works

Public Relations Strategies

• The Thought Leadership PR Strategy: Rule Your Domain
• The Extra Mile PR Strategy: Wow Your Customers
• The Hidden Arena PR Strategy: Mobilising Change Agents
• The Superhero Solution PR Strategy: Be the Obvious Answer
• The Easy Street PR Strategy: Keep It Simple To Win
• The Surround Message PR Strategy: Make the Box Smaller
• The Stupid Majority PR Strategy: How Underdogs Dominate
• The Rebel Yell PR Strategy: Picking a Fight To Get Recognised
• The Wisdom Whisperer PR Strategy: Educate Your Industry
• The Deep Content PR Strategy: Win By Going Deeper
• The Evergreen Content PR Strategy: Forever Is a Long Time
• The Content Themes PR Strategy: Focused Birds Gets Worms
• The Honeymoon Outreach PR Strategy: Influencer Relations 2.0
• The Inbound Shift PR Strategy: The Beauty From Within

“The under­ly­ing prin­ciples of strategy are endur­ing, regard­less of tech­no­logy or the pace of change.”
— Michael Porter

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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