“In the future, everybody will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.”~ Andy Warhol
Would you like 15 minutes on a national television show to tout your company? For free?
Who wouldn’t?
I got mine. The ABC show “Shark Tank,” which brings entrepreneurs on camera to appeal for funding, invited me to pitch my company in front of a national audience. As a result, I received a lot of attention — and a major investment.
Those anxiety-ridden moments on air were only the tip of the iceberg, however. I used my years of experience in online marketing to amplify their effect and make them pay off long after the show was over.
And I learned two things that can help you effectively use the opportunities that come your way: Events of any kind are a good way to get noticed, and events only succeed with a huge amount of behind-the-scenes preparation.
Making It a Win, No Matter the Outcome
Before I was even invited by ABC, I had positioned my company to garner interest. “Shark Tank” reached out to me because the producers were looking for a paddle board company with a business model that would interest investors. Tower Paddle Boards appeared at the top of Google’s search results for various related keywords, even though our company competed against more than 70 well-established manufacturers. By using SEO techniques, I made it easy for producers to take notice of — and trust — my business.
However, the “Shark Tank” episode was a one-time event, and there was no guarantee that the outcome would be an investment in my company. I needed to make every minute of it count in the media, and I wanted to use this event to promote my industry and partners. I realized this was no different from old-fashioned public relations.
This was in 2011, and since then, Google has made the search world even more like the press engine of the past. Since the Penguin updates and the rise of social media, Google has revealed that timely, relevant content is what matters. It wants to see engagement with a site (social signals). It wants proof that what you provide is valuable. And being newsworthy makes you valuable to reporters, editors, and customers.
Preparing for Your Big Moment Online
In order to both build links naturally and use your press event as an SEO booster, you need to prepare. In today’s media cycle, you might only have one chance.
To get ready for your 15 minutes of fame, you should:
1. Analyze the one-time event. Is this something that will generate a lot of traffic (like a network TV appearance), or is it an event (like sponsoring a charity run) that can be exploited with a promotional, outbound link-building effort? Smaller, newsworthy events can be valuable for gaining links and directing targeted traffic. Creating landing pages or having specific guidelines for how you want your link to appear in a bio or an “about” blurb is the first step.
2. Prepare your site. If you’re going to get a massive traffic spike, you need to prepare your site and server. My “Shark Tank” appearance had 6 million viewers. Prior to the airing of the episode, we added a dedicated server, in addition to the semi-dedicated server we already had, and kept our traffic load balanced between the two. We didn’t want a spike in traffic to crash our site, which would cause us to lose out on opportunities. In addition, we created a basic, lightweight splash page on our homepage to minimize server pulls.
3. Identify article targets. If you don’t anticipate traffic to your site, then ask, “Who would write a story about this event?” My company is in San Diego, but my hometown is Bellingham, Wash. I targeted every newspaper, business journal, TV station, and radio station in both markets, and I reached out to my alma mater’s undergraduate and graduate programs. You should also go after industry publications, blogs, and business-related magazines. I focused on the paddle board industry, SEO community, entrepreneurship organizations, and media outlets.
4. Approach targets for a story. Once you’ve made your list, organize it by type and create a spreadsheet to track contacts and progress. Personally reach out to each contact and explain why your story is relevant to his or her publication and readers. This requires time and research, but even if you get just five media outlets to report on your event, it will have been worth the effort.
Getting press is only half the battle. Make sure that any mentions are factually accurate, and get the most out of your new, high-profile status by:
1. Following up with link requests. You’re pitching a story, so just pitch that. Once it’s published, some sites will provide links and some won’t. Make a point to thank every publication and author personally and publicly. They did you a huge favor; show your gratitude. After you’ve done this, ask for a link in the article if it hasn’t already been included. Editors will usually help you out.
2. Pitching story updates. Now that you’ve established a media connection, follow up with the reporter or editor in six months or a year to see if he or she is interested in another story. Don’t just pitch an update. Craft a compelling story that showcases your journey to success because of the event.
3. Documenting your media coverage. You should have a media page for all of your press releases and articles distributed in the media. Media begets media, so think of this as creating a snowball effect.
4. Making use of your new social proof. Perception can become reality, so make sure that what’s being said about you aligns with your brand. Use your status as an industry leader or expert to sponsor events, write for top publications, or provide insights to journalists.
A one-time event has value, but if you can make it replicable, it becomes exponentially more valuable. Online marketers need to step back and evaluate what they can do to keep creating newsworthy events. For example, I could sponsor paddle board races and put each through this process. This is a repeatable, link-building strategy, not just a one-time campaign.
SEO success with events is there for the taking, and you don’t even have to get in a makeup chair for it to happen.
