LESSONS FROM THE OUTBRAIN CONTENT ACADEMY:

AN A-Z GUIDE
TO BRAND PUBLISHING

TABLE OF CONTENTS

You Are What You Recommend.................................................................................................................................................. 4

Stop Right There........................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Audience Development................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Branding......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Content Strategy........................................................................................................................................................................... 7
(BIG) Data....................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Editorial Design............................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Frequency ................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Goal-Setting ................................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Habit Cycles................................................................................................................................................................................. 10
Intent-Based Publishing............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Journalists.................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Kotozukuri................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Lifetime Value.............................................................................................................................................................................. 13
Mobile .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Native Advertising ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Optimization................................................................................................................................................................................ 14
Page Views Per Session.............................................................................................................................................................. 15
Quality.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Recommended Media................................................................................................................................................................ 16
Scale............................................................................................................................................................................................. 16
Thought Leadership................................................................................................................................................................... 17
User Experience (UX).................................................................................................................................................................. 18
Visuals.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Workflow...................................................................................................................................................................................... 20
X-Factors...................................................................................................................................................................................... 21
YouTube ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 22
Zen................................................................................................................................................................................................ 22
Why Did You Read This?............................................................................................................................................................. 23

Rec.om.men.da.tion
noun

a suggestion or proposal as to the best course of action,

especially one put forward by an authoritative body.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU RECOMMEND

If youre reading this, you may or may not be familiar with Outbrain already, but you
almost certainly used it at least once today. Every month, 500 million people around
the world use Outbrain to navigate to the next story on premium publisher sites like
CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, Le Monde, and ESPN. We provide the personalized
content recommendations that keep you reading later into the night than you might
have planned. But we make other kinds of recommendations as well.
In our work connecting brands, publishers and people, weve seen amazing growth
in whats now known as content marketing the practice of communicating with
authentic, informative or otherwise entertaining content. Recently, thats come in
handy for all of digitals constituents, as the migration of users to mobile and the
downward trajectory of display ads has forced advertisers to rethink how they interact with people online.

Consumers may instinctively

ignore ads, but people dont
instinctively ignore interesting
content.

Fortunately, a number of brands have already rallied around the

idea that content is a more effective way to influence consumers
online. Its been a difficult but necessary lesson to learn: Consumers
may instinctively ignore ads, but people dont instinctively ignore
interesting content. The brands most renowned for executing this

strategy Red Bull, Dell, LOreal, GE, American Express, among many others have gone as far as building media
arms that aspire to those of their publisher counterparts. They program enough content, consistently, that their
target audience has reason to expect great content from them and interact with it regularly. But for as much great
branded content exists online, consistency, quality and measurable effectiveness are still challenges to overcome in
content marketing.
As the debate over native advertising has revealed, we all have some work to do in earning the trust of audiences.
The more they come across this kind of baitive advertising the less likely they are to trust the sponsored content
that is built with integrity.
If weve learned anything from digital medias upheaval, its that trust is what makes the world go round. Without it,
content marketing goes the way of the banner. As a conduit between millions of people and the content they might
not find otherwise, we humbly accept our role in maintaining that trust and building a viable future, with content
as its foundation. That is why were so invested in sharing what weve learned by working with brands to tackle this
challenge. Our A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing, inspired by both the challenges and the successes weve seen and
experienced, is a collection of these recommendations. If theyre in any way helpful to you, well know weve set out
on the right path.
- Yaron Galai, Founder & CEO

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

STOP RIGHT THERE

Why do you want to read this book on brand publishing? What
is brand publishing, and how do you plan to use it to grow your
business? No doubt, youve heard of content marketing, the practice
of creating and distributing content online to grow your businesss
influence with consumers. While this eBook touches on many
concepts and practices common to content marketing, this is not a
book on content marketing. Brand publishing is a type of content
marketing, the square to content marketings rectangle. If you want
to embark on brand publishing, prepare to make your content -- and
the domain its hosted on -- the center of gravity in your brand universe.

Brand publishing can satisfy a number of marketing objectives. You must decide which ones matter most to you.
Branding Studies show that consumers prefer to keep up with a brand through content and think more favorably
of brands who publish content regularly than those that dont.
Engagement Publishing content on a regular schedule helps you maintain regular contact with consumers and
earn their consideration of your products.
Conversions You may have a singular KPI in mind that equates to success, like email subscriptions, online
purchases, or use of a custom utility app, like a trip-planner or mortgage calculator. Its your site you to define it,
design it, and track it.
Retargeting Your display ads hold much more potential when they appear to consumers who have already
signaled an interest in your brand via content.
Insight Mapping patterns of engagement with content can clarify marketing strategy for driving business both
online and offline.
Whats Covered in This Book?

Setting a framework for your brand publishing strategy

CONTENT PLANNING

CONTENT CREATION

CONTENT MEASUREMENT

CONTENT
SEEDING/DISTRIBUTION

Tips on Editorial Design that make your site unique

How to evaluate distribution channels for your content
The role native advertising can play in your strategy
Key success metrics

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

BRANDING

Success in brand publishing begins and ends with your audience, which
you can define as anyone who comes into contact and engages with
your content not just your target demographic. In brand publishing,

LOreals Makeup.com

the problem youre solving for is, Where will incremental audience come

Creating value for your

from, and how can I maximize its value for my brand? A combination

audience is your contents

of technology, partnerships, and experimentation will form the basis of

primary objective, but its

your audience development plan. Here are a few places to start:

also the living, breathing

embodiment of your brand. If

1. Social Platforms The pool of users who have opted to

you choose publishing as your

follow you over time make for a great initial surge of audience.

primary form of expression

Consider paid amplification for the content that yields the

online, you will have to decide

greatest value at your desired Cost Per Action (CPA). Think

the right balance of traditional

beyond just Facebook and Twitter! LinkedIn is rich in value for

branding, such as the use of

B2B engagement, while Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat or any

logos, taglines, and brand

platform utilizing video all merit serious consideration for B2C

colors, on your site and the

engagement.

brag-free content. To selfpromote is to sell. To publish is

2. Search Research the keywords that matter most to your

to influence.

target audience and optimize your content.

Celebrated sites like
3. Recommended Media Platforms like Outbrain can deliver

Makeup.com are so subtly

massive audiences from premium publishers in just about every

branded a visitor might not

vertical you can think of.

realize its a LOreal domain.

For a brand less well-known,

4. Partnerships Partnering with traditional media publishers

can be a great way to deliver audience to your content.

that might not work, however.

You must decide what degree
of branding you can live with

5. Mobile This is no longer some strange sub-set of audience.

All of the above is responsible for delivering your target audience

and what aligns best with

your content marketing goals.

on mobile too.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

CONTENT STRATEGY
Before you publish a single word, you need to formulate a strategy to achieve your goals. Which, of course, means
identifying your goals in the first place.
Common goals between brand publishers often break down to awareness,
consideration and action. For some, their content hub exists solely to
AWARENESS

satisfy one of these three goals. Others meet some combination of all three

I want to create content that

puts my brand on the map in a

through diverse content. Its up to you which of these goals content is best-

way it hasnt been before.

suited to meet, given the state of your brand today. But content that doesnt
appeal to your target audience in the first place is challenged to meet any
marketing objective. You can take several routes to publishing appealing
content:

CONSIDERATION
I want to create content that
affects the way people feel
about my brand.

Education Content that delivers instructions on a discipline your target

audience wants to master. Most popular with B2B companies.
Entertainment Content your target audience simply enjoys (nothing wrong

ACTION
I want to create content that
guides the person interacting
with it to take an action.

with that). Popular for B2C companies

especially those aiming for the millennial audience.
Information Content that expounds on a topic your target audience is
curious about. Fundamentally different from educative content in that its aim

is less instructional, more enlightening. Thought-leadership initiatives typically fall into this category.
Inspiration Content that elicits empathy from your target audience and motivates them to an aspirational
outcome. Particularly well-suited for video content.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
Once you have defined precisely who your target audience is, consider what kind of content:
1. Meets the most salient needs or desires of your target audience?
2. Is more likely to align with your brands voice and values?
3. Contains the lowest barrier to entry?
4. Will be credible with audiences?
5. Will differentiate you from competitors?
6. Will breed customer loyalty?
7. Will generate new business?

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

(BIG) DATA
It used to be that the traditional media companies possessed all the data on audience behavior. That wall has since
collapsed. Brands now have access to tools and technology that provide insight into consumer behavior ranging in
sophistication. In analyzing the patterns that emerge on how people behave online, brands place themselves in a
position to extrapolate from, and even predict, consumer behavior into the future. And what brand wouldnt want to
do that?
Arguably, the primary challenge Big Data presents is information overload. Focusing on what to analyze and where
to look is easier said than done when so much data is out our fingertips. Problem is, much of it wont be terribly
applicable to your business.
Big Data is only useful if it helps you answer a burning
question with serious implications for your business.
One of those questions might be, What kind of content
should I create for maximum impact on my audience
ANALYSIS
WHICH DISTRIBUTION
CHANNEL IS MOST
EFFECTIVE?

and my business? This is exactly the kind of question

HOW DOES EACH TYPE
OF CONTENT AFFECT
AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR?

Big Data is ideally suited to answer, because its

predictive in nature it can help you figure out what
content to create and program beforehand and

the answer could be a boon to your business. Fortunately, a number of tools exist to help answer this question
especially the programming aspect for different channels, such as:
Keyword Tools that reveal everything from keyword search volume to related keywords you can leverage.
Interest graphs that map the relationship between users and the content theyre consuming, from the order in
which they tend to navigate topics, to the keywords that get their attention when theyre browsing.
Social Listening Tools that track conversations about relevant topics to your business, to what people are saying
about your brand.
Last but not least, all the data you generate through audience interaction with your content is incredibly valuable to
track. Perform a running analysis of both what drives performance in each channel you program for and how each
type of content you produce elicits audience behavior.
Generating this kind of data is in fact a primary reason some brands choose to publish in the first place, as they try
to map the relationship between engagement with their content and interest in their products and services.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

EDITORIAL DESIGN
What do influential publishers like Buzzfeed, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Pitchfork, The Guardian and
The Awl have in common? They have instantly recognizable brands that start with the look, feel and voice of their
publications. These components are the foundation of editorial design, and they will be hugely important in the
success of your publications. Its what identifies you as a unique publisher. For more, read Designing the Editorial
Experience by Sue Apfelbaum and Juliette Cezzar.
STYLE & VOICE
How does your content express authenticity and
brand personality? Urban Outfitters (UO) blog
style and voice include a color palette that reflects
their brand identity combined with lively and edgy
imagery that screams hipster.
TYPEFACE
The type you choose is largely responsible for
expressing your brand identity and communicating
the potential audience experience.
The UO blog employs a simple, clean headline
typeface with some unique character design. This
subtle flare compliments the colors, content and
imagery that exudes UO culture.
ART DIRECTION
How the visual identity of your brand publication
is expressed, including where and how to apply
negative space.
The art direction for the UO blog demonstrates a
cohesive layout with seamless integration of color,
type and photography that is instantly recognizable.
USER EXPERIENCE
All the mechanisms that affect a users navigation of
your content (more on this later).
The UO blog is optimized for perusing (just like their
retail spaces), presenting an assortment of modules,
categories and eye-catching images that are largely
given equal weight on the homepage. Its as though
theyre inviting you into their space and saying, Go
on, have a look around.

Urban Oufitters Blog

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

FREQUENCY

GOAL-SETTING

Consider this key question: How often do your

Goal-setting in brand publishing can be a multi-

competitors publish? If youre behind their pace,

faceted challenge. First, there are the goals

you risk losing the attention war for qualified

you establish in publishing content to begin

audiences.

with from increasing awareness to changing

perception of your brand to driving more direct

Lets start with a range you want to avoid:

sales. Then, there are the goals you establish for

If youre publishing 0-4 blog posts every

each content campaign and, on a more finite level,

month, youre not producing enough to gauge

each individual piece of content, such as:

effectiveness or even really call yourself a brand

1. Traffic What degree of visitor volume

publisher. Regardless of company size and

dedicated resources to your content, living in the

should your content be driving?

2. Branding goals Is your content creating a

5-10 range is more like it, and businesses who are

in the 10-15 posts-per-month range see a clear

lift in perception, recall or other brand equity

impact on KPIs. You must also consider how often

measures?
3. Conversion goals Which pieces of content

you post to social media. An average of three

posts per day on your priority channel is a good

are driving conversions more efficiently for

place to start whether its linking to your own

you?
4. Comparative goals How does all of the

content or curating other content. Brush up on

Hubspots blogging and social media frequency

above compare to your competitors content?

benchmarks.

HABIT CYCLES
Publishing content is a game of habit in every sense of the word. Consider this: users spend a majority of their time
online with no intent other than being informed and entertained, yet they largely turn to only a handful of sources
directly to fulfill this need.
These sites have become well habits for users. How do marketers break into this cycle? By now, display
advertising peeking from the margins of web pages has proved ineffective in making a dent in consumer
consciousness. Habitually published content leads to habitually consumed content at least it has on major social
platforms, blogs and news sites.
With savvy programming, a distributed model that accompanies your owned content, and an innate understanding
of your audiences browsing habits, your brand can crash the party and, eventually, host the party. Read Charles
Duhiggs book Power of Habit to win the attention war.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

10

INTENT-BASED PUBLISHING

JOURNALISTS

The Internet is now swimming with links and navigation to and from

The relationship between

sites at a frantic pace. How you insert your brand publishing into this

journalism and commerce

path will depend on your ability to master the behavioral patterns of

is a sensitive topic (for

your audiences intentions when theyre browsing online. Furthemore,

some, theyre becoming

user intent should inform any channel-specific content programming

uncomfortably blurred), but

you undertake.

the currency they have in

common is trust. Without it,
people wont bother with your
stories, and they certainly
wont bother with your
products.
Your audience can tell the
difference between a wellresearched or well-argued
story and lazy thought-

Gone are the days of cookie-cutter engagement when you could

leadership any day of the

create one piece of content and then just post the link to all your

week. Which isnt to say you

social channels and watch the engagement pour in. Some channels

cant supplement efforts with,

require careful consideration of format, length and topic, among other

say, curated content. But if

considerations, to give your content the best chance to succeed.

youre going to win trust and

loyalty, you need to make a

Here are four audience-first questions you should answer before

compelling case that youre a

determining which channels you should prioritize:

unique brand with valuable

content.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
1. Who is the intended audience for my content?

Do you have the in-house

personnel who can translate

2. Which platforms do they spend time on?

your brands expertise into

3. How much time do they spend there?

compelling words and images?

4. What are their intentions when they visit those platforms?

Platforms like Scripted and

Contently or other freelance

Answering these questions at the earliest phase of planning will

networks can help you cover

eliminate FOMO and, at the same time, help you account for the

the bases and match the right

channels that lend themselves to engagement with your brand.

journalist with the right topic.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

11

KOTOZUKURI

Nissan on Tumblr

For todays consumer, a company with great products doesnt make a great brand. A company with a great mission
makes a great brand, and kotozukuri can be a powerful instrument in delivering that story.
A complement to mono-zukuri (Japanese for making things), Nissan coined this expression to describe the art of
making stories. The term succeeds in describing brand storytelling as a discipline that requires the same degree of
artistry, calculation, collaboration and customer-first mentality as the products you make.
Some brands have even taken the concept meta and adopted the device of taking audiences behind the scenes to
expose the people and processes that contribute to the finished product. GE on Tumblr demonstrates one of the
more visually arresting ways of bringing that story to life.
Have you embraced kotozukuri yet?

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

12

LIFETIME VALUE

MOBILE
54%

52%

53%

49%

Global
Average
42%

45%
41%

44%

42%

Brand publishing is particularly

well-suited for the increasing
focus on Customer Lifetime
Value (CLV) as a measure of
effective marketing. Why?
Content maintains a point
of contact with customers
over a long period of time in
retention strategy and is often
the initial spark that converts
an audience member to a
customer in the first place.
As marketing attribution
models get more
sophisticated, content is
emerging as a primary
function in repeat customer
visits, upselling, and even
softer metrics like customer
satisfaction.
Hitting publish is only the
beginning of your contents
lifespan. Evergreen assets that
match scalable distribution
can literally deliver value for
years to come.

Singapore

India

Australia

Philippines

Malaysia

Japan

UK

U.S.

Source: Outbrain Content Consumption Report 2014

The mobile revolution has been building for years, but the so-called
Mobilegeddon brought on by Googles shift to rewarding sites that are
mobile-friendly certainly accelerated the pace of change. Having a mobileoptimized site is now an imperative for businesses that want to stay
connected to the always-on consumer. If youre unsure if your site
makes the mobile grade, you can check with this tool and work with your
web dev team to ensure proper tagging and responsiveness to help you
reap mobile rewards.
A further consideration still: some formats and platforms reward mobile
engagement more than others. Snapchat is the perfect example of a
truly native mobile platform, a big reason for its burgeoning popularity
with both traditional and brand publishers. Designed for the short
intervals common to mobile engagement, it rewards two of the most
popular user behaviors on a smartphone: watching a short video and
sharing content.
So in summary, if you want to get in on the mobile sweepstakes:
1. Make sure your content pages are responsive or otherwise
mobile-friendly.
2. Identify the mobile platforms where your target audience
congregates.
3. Program mobile content that fits the form and function native
to those platforms.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

13

NATIVE ADVERTISING
Brands partnering with more traditional publishers to create custom experiences is becoming a greater part of the
media ecosystem. Lets look at the pros and cons of incorporating native advertising partnerships into your brand
publishing strategy:
PROS

CONS

Its a heck of a lot more effective than display ads when it

comes to engagement.

Custom creative with a hand-picked media partner can be

tough to scale. Its important to navigate this question with
your media partners to find the opportunities to maximize

Publishers are true experts at engaging audiences with

effectiveness -- from creating serialized programs to

content. What they dont build for you themselves you can

deploying retargeting or recommended media platforms.

learn how to do just by partnering with them.

Done right, people will actually remember your native

If your media partner is the one hosting the content, they

also get the benefit of collecting all the data. Not you.

experience. Take Netflixs multimedia article on Women

Inmates for the New York Times, for example.

If youre partnered with an incongruent publisher or

misguided creative execution The Atlantic can tell you

Once a user engages with your native ad experience, you

all about that.

can retarget them with relevant display ads that have a

much better chance at effectiveness.

OPTIMIZATION
Optimization is the art (and science) of making the best

50% VISITORS SEE VARIATION A

50% VISITORS SEE VARIATION B

VARIATION A

VARIATION B

23%
CONVERSION

11%
CONVERSION

of whats available. Ideally, we always have data at our

fingertips to tell us which options at our disposal will
yield the best results, but what happens when that
data isnt readily available? You can generate it using
A/B testing, which most marketers know well from
testing things like subject lines in email marketing
campaigns and calls-to-action on their websites.

If youre already in the habit of testing which subject lines lead to better open rates for your email campaigns,
why not apply the same rigor to blog headlines and images you promote on a platform like Outbrain? The
slightest change to a headline, image, or even publishing schedule can have a massive impact on engagement. For
more on optimizing headlines for maximum results, check out the book we published in collaboration with Hubspot
called Data-Driven Strategies for Writing Effective Headlines.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

14

PAGE VIEWS PER SESSION

As the debate over how to measure attention rages on in the industry, its important to delineate between
traditional publishers with ad-supported models (in which case, it makes sense to focus on metrics like time spent
to ensure both reader and advertiser are happy), and brand publishers who are more likely to want a user to take
specific actions on their site.

PAGE VIEWS PER SESSION

2.83

70%

3.00

1.36

30%

1.00

Dec 9

NEW VISITOR

Dec 15

RETURNING VISITOR

Brand publishing is a game of turning interest in your content into interest in your business. Remember, most
audiences arent used to you as a publisher yet. They need time to get to know you, see what you have to offer.
Measuring page-views per session and analyzing them by return visitors, new visitors and demographics in Google
Analytics can help you get a handle on your audiences propensity to do so.

QUALITY

Qual.i.ty

/kwld/

noun

The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

Quality, is a relative measurement, not one that should be determined in a vacuum. With respect to brand
publishing, audiences will consciously and subconsciously make these little calculations for you, comparing your
content to what they experience on other sites sites that have amassed very large audiences doing exactly what
youre trying to do: influence people on the strength of content.

Will your content receive a favorable comparison?

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

15

m the
ring fro
here b
gnetic
electric
ands, w
m seem
fields g
like rub
al grid
enerate
hich th
ingly n
to oil p
ber ba
en sna
o
s
w
e
h
x
tr
e
n
ip
r
a curre
ds. Th
p back
e, whic
elines.
the be
e move
nt, say
h can o
out
Powe
st view
r grid o
ment o
s Szab
verpow
in the
o, whic
perato
f the m
er tran
solar s
h can
rs will
agneti
s
fo
ystem,
r
m
see ex
c fields
ers and
some p
cess cu
genera
burn th
eople c
rrent
tes extr
em ou
ant he
a curre
t, he s
lp doin
ays.
nt, say
g a little
s
S
z
bit of s
abo, ev
cience
en with
.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

Recom
mende
d by

Serena
William
s Wins
Open fo
French
r 20th
Grand
ESSEN
Slam
CE
.COM

The Wo
rlds Lo
ngest A
Takes O
irline F
ff in 20
light
16
CN
N

Still Fo

rd To

ugh -1
Alucycle
Discovery is a challenge for brands trying to keep in-step with the publishing
50 GetsInternet, let alone
minumof the: Fgreater
FORD

Makeo

ver

daily discovery.Realistically, how are consumers going to regularly find your content, outside of typing in your URL
everyday (a day which may never come)? Born out of daily news consumption itself, content recommendation engines
like Outbrain initially existed just to help traditional publishers navigate users to more content on their sites. Fastforward to present, and many of these content recommendations navigate users to branded content, working much
Hubble

Te
Cosmic

lescop
edo.
like paid Ysearch
Celebr
ears of results
a
INTEL

Wows

tes 25

How S
elf Con
trol Aff
Retirem
ects Yo
ent Pla
ur
nning
PRUDE
N
TIAL

SCALE

10 Mo
st Com
mon R
Mistak
ookie 
es in P
ublic S
PREZI
peakin
g

When it comes to extending the efficiency of your content, there are multiple avenues you can take:

Evergreen content you know youll produce every year if you dont have one already, plot out that
editorial calendar.

Visual content like cinemagraphs and infographics that are easily shared and re-programmed across
multiple channels.

Curation platforms that can help supplement your owned content like Newscred.
Productivity platforms like Percolate that provide marketing software.
Employee advocacy platforms like Dynamic Signal that can mobilize your team around content
and disseminate the collective mind-share.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

16

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

We should do more thought-leadership! If you ever hear this expression from a superior, feel free to respond with
this line of questioning (or just go over it in your head).
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
1. What is our area of expertise as a company?
2. Does our target audience need or want guidance in this area?
3. Do we already have the credibility with our target audience to be taken seriously?
Or is the goal to establish this credibility?
4. Do we have a unique or interesting point of view?
5. Who within (or without) our organization can best express our point of view?
6. What, in concrete terms, do we hope to receive in return for publishing our knowledge and opinions?
How will we measure it?
If youre satisfied with the answers to all of these questions, you have a rock-solid thought-leadership strategy.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

17

USER EXPERIENCE (UX)

Navigation and design can make or break engagement and conversions on your site. Remember: brand publishing
is a game of turning interest in your content into interest in your brand. The most effective way to do that? Make it
as easy as possible for audiences to navigate to your most valuable pages.
MINIMAL TOP NAVIGATION
Even if you have a dozens of topics that you cover
on your site, its best to simplify this information so
your audience doesnt get overwhelmed, and, in
turn, paralyzed. Gather the biggest themes, try to
keep them to six, and use drop-down menus that
help audiences decide where precisely they want
to navigate to.

ADS
Dont be shy about putting your own display ads to

Poketo Homepage

your own products or other content experiences

on your site. Remember: youre a publisher now.
Done tastefully and in the right context, your
ads can be an effective way to navigate users to
valuable landing pages.

CALLS-TO-ACTION (CTAs)
There are several formats and placements that
can be effective, from big buttons in the sidebar to
highlighted sentences at the end of a post. Youll
want to test a number of these formats and placements for effectiveness.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Give audiences the option to experience more
content they might be interested in at the end of
every experience to showcase more facets of your
brand and keep them engaged longer. More on
that later...
Williams-Sonoma Taste Article Page

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

18

VISUALS

Havent you heard? Infographics are out, video and cinemagraphs are in. OK, thats an exaggeration, but digital
content has steadily progressed in the direction of the moving image over static pictures. Heres why:
1. Motion gets our attention when scrolling down a feed of content, a moving image gives consumers a
reason to stop and digest the visual information conveyed.
2. Motion has more storytelling capacity if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a moving
picture worth? Humans have yet to invent a format that literally brings ideas and emotions to life more
effectively than the motion picture.
3. Its now easier than ever to create, host and distribute videos and cinemagraphs. Used tastefully, cinemagraphs and videos can be a signal to your audience that you are willing to invest in production value for
their sake where your competitors may not.
Not that you should abandon infographics or turn everything into a GIF. But if the rise of interactive media on platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and Snapchat is any indication, the next wave of digital consumers has already begun
to expect content that engages them with movement.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

19

WORKFLOW

CMO

STRATEGY

EDITOR

CONCEPT

WRITER

SEO SPECIALIST

DESIGNER

LEGAL

VIDEOGRAPHER

PROOFREADER

CONTENT

VETTING

COMMUNITY MANAGER

DISTRIBUTION
& ENGAGEMENT

Now for the least glamorous aspect of brand publishing: establishing an effective workflow for editorial planning,
execution, approval and distribution. Lets start with the basic team youll need in place:
The CMO You need more than just buy-in from the marketer-in-chief. You need her utmost belief in the power
of content to deliver against marketing objectives in the age of ad-blockers and mobile engagement. But support is
a two-way street. Reward her faith with straightforward reporting on the KPIs youve agreed equate to success.
The Editor/Marketer The person who oversees the strategy and management of the actual production and
distribution of your content. For teams varying in size, this editorial resource will often take on much of the content
creation herself.
The Writer A highly-skilled position responsible for realizing the editorial vision through well-researched, wellworded articles. The writer can also help the editor fill in the blanks on the editorial calendar with well-considered
pitches. Consider a mix of in-house and freelance writers to fill out your team even if its a small team.
The Designer In tandem with the editor, the designer is the vanguard of your sites editorial design, from the art
that appears in your articles to the user experience itself. She can also be the bridge between marketing and web
development.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

20

The Videographer If you want to explore the use of video in your content strategy, a dedicated resource to
manage production, post-production, and hosting of your videos is a no-brainer.
The SEO Specialist The resource responsible for making sure your content is technically sound for search engine
discovery, as well as other content optimizations for distribution channels.
Legal Always a good idea to keep in-house counsel aware of your publishing activities and seek buy-in for your
program early in the process to avoid any last-minute fire drills.
The Proofreader A fresh pair of eyes on the content who checks for grammar, punctuation, and sentence
structure.
The Community Manager The person responsible for soliciting engagement with your content and programming
your social channels, in addition to other audience development tactics.
Depending on the size of your team, a one-to-one ratio of personnel to function may not be feasible, or even
necessary. This is just a general representation of the roles required for a robust brand publisher operation.

X-FACTORS
The characteristics that set flight to your content strategy arent always those you planned. How you navigate
adversity and opportunity can be the difference between content firing on all cylinders and moderate disappointment.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
1. Do you have the internal support and resources to succeed?
2. Are other departments in your organization excited about the content you publish?
3. Is there a rock-star-in-the-making on your team who just needs a little push to maximize her creativity?
4. A crazy idea bouncing around in your head that simply wont go away, no matter how much you
try to talk yourself out of it?
5. A broken link in the workflow that hampers productivity and sends projects down the wrong path?

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

21

YOUTUBE

ZEN
The mind technology of
meditation has landed in
the mainstream thanks,
in large part, to Steve Jobs
swearing by it as the key to
managing stress and unlocking
creativity. Now, companies
from Ford to Target have
begun evangelizing meditation
practices to their employees,
in the hopes that it leads to
greater productivity.

Mercedez-Benz USA YouTube Homepage

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. It simply cant
be ignored. Amplification tools like Outbrain can help seed videos across
premium publisher sites, but other hacks can grow your subscriber
base and make your YouTube channel a powerful component of your
burgeoning media empire.
Here are just a few:

1. Optimize your thumbnail images.

2. Look for keywords that show video results in the Search
Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
3. Leverage all the CTA options.
4. Make sure youre allowing people to embed your videos.

Whether embarking on the

path to Zen Buddhism or

5. Cross promote like a pro.

subscribing to the KonMari

For more tips on mastering YouTube, read 9 Advanced Tactics for

Promoting Your YouTube Channel and Increasing Subscribers.

method of sparking joy,

professionals in all walks
have embraced the notion
that peace of mind leads to
better work. Find yours for a
clear path to success in brand
publishing.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

22

WHY DID YOU READ THIS?

2015 has practically come and gone already (can you believe it?), but 2016 looms as a huge opportunity to take your
brand publishing skills to the next level. Hopefully this guide helps you plan for what you want to change next year.
We recommend a few steps now to make sure you catch 2016 in confident stride.
1. Consider your marketing objectives for next year. If you made a big awareness push this year -- either for
a new product, new initiative, or because youre a new company -- whats next for your brand? Is a change
in perception of the brand needed? More emphasis on distinguishing yourself from competitors? Tackling a
new international market? Youll need to align your content strategy to this new direction.
2. Do a big data intake. What are the behavioral patterns that emerged among your target audience this year
(and not just with your content)? Dont forget to account for their mobile behavior and how it differed from
their desktop behavior. How are you going to apply that insight to the content you create next year?
3. Do a distribution audit. You may find after doing a Big Data intake that a few holes still exist in understanding your audience which may be a signal that some key distribution platforms are missing from your
mix. Investigate what those platforms are and why you havent already used them (there may be a very
good reason). Alternately, is there a channel that warrants far less of your attention next year because your
target audience simply isnt there in a significant way?
4. Consider changes to the workflow. Which skillsets are missing from your content team? Whose buy-in do
you need to get for more support? Where has communication consistently broken down? Document them
for discussion with your superiors on where improvement is most needed to achieve success.
5. Create an editorial calendar for 2016. You can plot out the evergreen content you know youre going to
create, and mark important holidays and business events.
Brand publishing is not for the faint of heart. It takes a dedicated team, creative vision, research and plenty of
planning to build a successful storytelling engine. But above all else, it requires a raison d'etre. Is your brands story
worth perpetually telling? Only you can be the judge of that.

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

23

Talk Soon.
info@outbrain.com

Lessons from the Outbrain Content Academy: An A-Z Guide to Brand Publishing

24