The PR BlogDigital PRContent & InboundThe Deep Content PR Strategy: Win By Going Deeper

The Deep Content PR Strategy: Win By Going Deeper

Content divers are more valuable than surface browsers.

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

I love to use 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 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 since they’re more valu­able than Surface Dwellers.

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.

Surface Browsers and Content Divers

The basic idea:

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, it’s a Sisyphean task to offer total breadth. However, provid­ing great depth is pos­sible — with a nar­row enough focus.

Depth is neces­sary because sur­face browsers are still just look­ing around, turn­ing over stones here and there. Content divers are immers­ing them­selves — which is more inter­est­ing from your brand’s perspective.

Deep Content - Surface Browser - Content Diver - Doctor Spin - The PR Blog
Surface browsers and con­tent divers (cre­ated by AI).

Opt To Go Deep, Not Wide

There’s an argu­ment to be made here:

The one per­son reach­ing your press release’s call to action is more valu­able than the hun­dred people who read its headline.

The value ratio will, of course, dif­fer depend­ing on the con­text. But the argu­ment is viable enough to build a suc­cess­ful con­tent strategy because con­tent divers are more valu­able than sur­face browsers.

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 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 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 audi­ences are inter­ested in diving into the most remote online deep­sea trenches imaginable.


Please sup­port my blog by shar­ing it with oth­er PR- and com­mu­nic­a­tion pro­fes­sion­als. For ques­tions or PR sup­port, con­tact me via jerry@​spinfactory.​com.

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. 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

Inbound vs Outbound

The inbound mind­set is a fun­da­ment­al shift in pub­lic rela­tions.

Instead of focus­ing on try­ing to spawn non-exist­ing audi­ences, PR can do so 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/

Jerry Silfwer speaking about inbound marketing
Jerry Silfwer (Doctor Spin) speaks about inbound marketing.

If your inbound PR strategy is good enough, you might not even need an out­bound PR strategy.

Read also: The Inbound First 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 impact short-term, ever­green con­tent instead 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. Without search volumes, the con­tent will likely be ‘ever’ without the ‘green’.
  • 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.

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

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PR Resource: More PR Strategies

Doctor Spin’s PR Strategies

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

Make sure to explore a wide vari­ety of PR strategies for every dif­fer­ent type of situ­ation and challenge:

Learn more: How to Create a PR Strategy That Actually Works

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ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1 Silfwer, 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/
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at KIX Index and Spin Factory. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Cover Photo

The cover photo has nothing to do with public relations, of course. I share for no other reason that I happen to enjoy photography. Call it an “ornamental distraction”—and a subtle reminder to appreciate nature.

The cover photo has

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