At the heart of our services is our ability to create and engage online communities. The foundation for this, and our speciality, is creating customer-focussed, editorially-driven websites. We can offer a turnkey solution which is hassle-free for our clients, and delivers in spades for the readers.

We provide a bespoke content creation and editing service with a unique tone of voice, regular updates and delivered with passion. Our community maintenance ensures the user base is engaged and active, and that user expectations aren’t just fulfilled, but exceeded. As part of our service, we provide full editorial consultancy to ensure the tone, style and voice of the site is in line with our client’s expectations, but appeals to the target user base. We can also provide new product, service and trend consultancy where necessary.

Our process

We have a simple but vital process which every article we publish goes through. Today though it isn’t just about publishing great editorial, but how and where it’s distributed and how readers are engaged.

Stage 1 – Create

Every article is planned, commissioned, written and edited before being published. This way we can ensure our editorial schedule is in line with our client’s expectations, editorial quality is upheld and every article adheres to the site’s tone of voice, style guide and appeals to the pre-set reader profile.
Every article is also written to strict SEO guidelines which will maximise exposure on search engines whilst also remaining appealing to readers, all the whilst staying on the right side of the fine line that separates writing for a robot and a human.

Stage 2 – Distribute

We can’t always rely on readers coming to the content, so sometimes we need to bring the content to them. We employ RSS, email newsletters and Twitter to reach out to readers. Video is distributed through TubeMogul to ensure it’s available where the readers want it, particularly on the Internet’s second biggest search engine, YouTube.

Stage 3 – Engage

Publishing is no longer a one-way dialogue. Readers need to be engaged, questions asked (and answered) and the more informed ones need to be encouraged to help the less informed ones. Through on-site commenting, Twitter and YouTube we can engage with readers where they’re most comfortable. All the whilst applying our editorial craft and knowledge to ensure your brand is best represented.

Editorial strategy

By applying strict rules to every piece of copy we write, readers are consistently engaged, informed and entertained. We combine traditional editorial principles, with key online learnings to ensure the user experience is always positive:

• Excite the reader by being excited Every article must be written with a view of turning customers into enthusiasts.
• Heaps of top quality daily content Every time a user returns to any of our sites they must believe that we are on the frontline delivering instant expert content on everything they could want to know.
• Tell it as it is If a product or service is bad, we say so. This builds confidence and respect. Not everything is a Five-Star product!
• Smash the wall down between ‘us’ and ‘them’ Building a direct open dialogue with the user is vital.
• Adapt and offer fresh editorial solutions and USPs To ensure that the reader remains engaged we must pursue new methods of presenting editorial proactively and reactively, exploiting exciting new technologies and trends.

To ensure we produce consistent editorial we produce a series of benchmark documents which form the basis for how we work, and how our clients can monitor our work. Our Reader Profile identifies the target reader and informs our Style Guide and Tone of Voice documents. Our Style Guide sets out the rules under which we work. Each article type will follow its own individual style guide, outlining article structure. Our Tone of Voice document sets out the editorial mission of the site, picking the crucial brand elements from our client and mixing them with a series of editorial quests to ensure articles are engaging, interesting and exciting.

These benchmark documents are produced by Republic at the beginning of every project. Once the first drafts are produced, we’ll invite feedback from the client to ensure all key brand points and messages are covered off.

Each solution is based on our shared understanding of the 
brand’s requirements and its intended audience

How we deliver

Step 1 – Discuss

• Identify objectives
• Clarify metrics
• Suggest solutions

Step 2 – Define

• Reader profile, tone of voice, style guide
• Editorial strategy
• Site design

Step 3 – Deliver

• Plan/write/edit editorial
• Distribute content 
Engage readers
• Build and maintain site

Building lasting trust

Our Social Media Publishing approach will deliver on the hardest to define, 
but potentially most valuable metric – trust.

14% of people trust adverts
78% of people trust recommendations from other consumers
Nielsen ‘trust in advertising’ report, october 2007

Measuring performance

We have a range of metrics on which we measure our own performance, and that of the editorial.

These metrics include…

• Unique users
• Page views
• Reach
• Passive syndication
• Dwell time
• Authority

Crucially, we will work with you to understand and implement the metrics that represent success for your business

Return on investment

The relative Cost Per Arrival of acquiring customers through advertising, search and Social Media Publishing