As Head Of Operations and Content Coordinators at RE:signal respectively, Irma Hunkeler and Edward Trippier know a thing or two about what it takes to succeed at content marketing. In this talk, they offered some invaluable insight.
Overview
Speakers’ names: Irma Hunkeler & Edward Trippier
Job role and company: Head Of Operations and Content Coordinator at RE:signal
Links to Twitter profile: @re_signal
Link to LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/irma-hunkeler and www.linkedin.com/in/edward-trippier-7b6a2614b/
Link to the slides:
What was the talk about?
Irma Hunkeler and Edward Trippier work for the SEO and content marketing agency Re:signal. Their talk focused on a case study, showcasing a content marketing strategy they developed for the American global travel company Expedia.
After working with the company for a long time, they decided that building links to a domain might improve organic performance, but for a large site it would be difficult to measure. So, they decided to develop a campaign that provided value beyond Expedia’s main site.
Although Expedia operate a variety of travel websites, which includes flights, hotels, package deals, and vacation rental, Re:signal concentrated on the car hire arm of the business. After narrowing the focus, they devised a content plan that covered three approaches:
- Commercial
- Informational
- Creative PR
The commercial and informational parts of the strategy involved optimising key pages and developing a content hub around the term ‘car hire’. However, for the creative PR part,
Re:signal did something a little different. They wanted to attract new audiences to Expedia and attract traffic to different lines of the business, but with a focus in car hire. After doing research, Re:signal found that because of Game of Thrones, there has been a huge surge in the number of global searches around ‘mythical creature’ terms.
Source: EdwardTrippier LinkedIn
Armed with this information, they decided to create a piece of content based on mythical creatures.
With a wide variety of creatures to choose from — including unicorns, dragons, and the loch ness monster — they were able to build an interactive map that featured a guide to mythical creatures around the world, and how to find them. This capitalised on the vast keyword opportunities with supporting content, including travel information, things to do in each area and, of course, guidance on car hire and hotels.
Potential impact on the industry
Rather than relying solely on the strength of search for the campaign’s success, Re:signal asked journalists what they thought of the project and whether they would write articles about it and link to it. They also collaborated closely with Expedia to make sure the tone and design met their expectations, scrapping first drafts when they weren’t up to scratch.
“Advisory board of journalists is our Pixar Braintrust”
Re:signal’s approach to this campaign shows how you can combine popular keywords outside your niche with complementary content for fantastic results:
Source: EdwardTrippier LinkedIn
Key takeaways
- Creativity requires lots of input and research to get right
- You need to decide between playing it too safe and using tested models
- Don’t settle for first drafts and listen to feedback
- Creative content with imagination can yield great results
