Brand journalism is a relatively new concept many companies may not be familiar with. However, it has become increasingly important for entrepreneurs to use the right tools, tactics, and journalistic style to tell their brand story. In today’s world, consumers are becoming more skeptical of companies and their marketing tactics.
Traditional PR and marketing approaches are no longer as effective as they once were. As a result, companies are turning to brand journalism to gain exposure and change consumer perceptions. By telling their story like journalists, companies can build trust and connect with their audience on a deeper level.
Storytelling has been a part of communication for as long as humans have existed. It helps them make sense of the world and decisions as they go through life. Technological advancements have enhanced information sharing, with consumers making more decisions based on stories. As humans, we generally desire to make real and meaningful connections. By using good storytelling, companies and organizations can humanize themselves. They can also establish genuine connections with people while remaining transparent, responsive, and – above all – accessible.
Real Quality Stories vs. Scripted Advertising Content
From traditional advertising to the current new media era, companies have used their content to advertise, using one-way communication tools to get people’s attention. But now, companies need to use brand journalism to tell quality stories about their brand and spark curiosity among consumers.
This approach means having personal conversations with consumers. You can tell them real and interesting stories they can relate to rather than creating marketing or advertising copy that bombards them with scripted messages. Since people are overwhelmed by advertising and marketing messages, a well-crafted story is the best way to get your brand’s message out there.
Brand journalism has existed for quite some time, first establishing its roots in the franchise industry. McDonald’s Chief Marketing Officer Larry Light says mass communication no longer works. This is because no single ad tells an entire company’s brand story.
He defines brand journalism as recording what happens to a company and creating ad communications that will, over time, tell the whole story of a brand. Franchise systems adopted the practice early, and more and more giant corporations are adopting this approach. It has become one of the most productive ways to generate leads and engage customers. Brand journalism is the primary marketing trend in the current content marketing era.
The quality of stories that brands put out can impact marketing effectiveness. For this reason, companies are rushing to hire journalists and PR professionals to create engaging stories.
Why do we need brand journalism?
Before the internet, companies could only rely on hiring PR agencies to create newsworthy content to distribute to media professionals. Nowadays companies can bypass publications and PR firms completely and publish content on blogs, online reports, websites, email, and social media. As such, companies can now communicate directly with their customers and other audiences using journalism-style storytelling.
However, it is still important to seek insight and advice from PR experts and journalists to know precisely how to create quality newsworthy content. PR agencies like Pressfarm help startups create quality content that captures the attention of journalists. We are skilled at developing email pitches, press releases, guest posts, press kits, and many more types of content.
Along with creating content, Pressfarm helps you to put this content in front of your target audience. For starters, we provide access to over 1 million media contacts through our media database. Moreover, our account executive will create a personalized media list that fits your brand. This list helps you to connect with the best journalists in your niche and tell your brand story. Overall, our team of experts will boost your online visibility by helping your brand feature in relevant search results across different search engines.
How to use brand journalism for marketing
1) Connect with your audience
According to experts, brand journalism is about appealing to people with “different desires in different contexts.” Your content should not serve the needs of customers alone. Rather, the aim should be to reach existing and potential customers, company employees, business partners, and others. Defining your audience should be the starting point of any brand journalism strategy because it gives you focus.
A way to identify who you want to write for is by creating buyer personas and analyzing their needs and challenges. Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers/audience. These personas help you to understand your audience better. Your business objectives should cater to the personas you create.
Having a clear picture of the people who make up your audience makes it easier for you to create content that addresses their needs.
Stages of the buyer journey
Once you determine your buyer personas, understand the buyer journey. This is the active research process a person conducts leading to a purchase. The three stages of the buyer journey include the awareness stage, consideration stage, and decision stage.
In the awareness stage, a potential buyer realizes a want or need for a product or service. At this point, they start researching to understand more about what they are looking for. They are generally seeking information to answer questions and resolve pain points. To effectively market your product, you must use your content to address the pain points the buyer is interested in resolving.
The consideration stage is when a buyer evaluates the different solutions available. Some examples of content geared towards this stage can include product comparison guides, expert guides, and live interaction to deliver critical information.
Finally, the decision stage is when buyers have decided on a solution and have a strategy to address their issues. Even so, they are still deciding whether they want to buy anything and the brand they want to buy from. At this point, buyers have already spent lots of time poring through data, reviews, and other materials to gain confidence in their decision.
2) Craft inspiring stories
While insight into your audience provides a general idea of what topics resonate better with them, you still need to narrow down your topics. Brand journalism can take many forms, including brand stories, industry trends, curated content, and pop culture.
Brand story pieces focus on the innovations and initiatives taken by a brand. They work best if your company is doing outstanding work in a newsworthy field. Moreover, in a digital landscape with so much information about different industries, curated content helps filter out the noise from your competitors. Finally, many consumer brands are in a great position to drive inspiration using pop culture trends.
Figure out what types of content will help your brand fill content gaps within your industry. Bonus points if you can do this while capitalizing on your strengths and satisfying your customers.
3) Produce engaging content
Most in-house marketing teams handle brand journalism. This is because they understand the company’s inner workings better than agencies. They, therefore, have a better ability to differentiate their message from the competition. Ensure the people creating content are skilled at storytelling, reporting, interviewing, and writing. These are all essential qualities for a brand journalist.
4) Establish strict editorial guidelines
Editorial guidelines ensure that everything your company posts is consistent. They also act as a beacon for both internal and external contributors. Furthermore, they give your company’s publication a sense of familiarity, so your audience knows what to expect. Rather than focusing on syntax and grammar rules, editorial guidelines should define a tone for each piece. Decide what your end goal is, and lay out some ground rules.
Some questions that can help you create your guidelines are:
- How do you want your reader to feel at the end of each piece?
- What tone will the publication take on?
- Which topics work well and which ones do not?
- How valid are your research sources?
- How will the company attribute sources?
5) Publish content consistently
A consistent publishing schedule can help keep your team focused while setting readers’ expectations. You must pick a realistic publishing schedule for your team. You should always prioritize quality over quantity. In other words, having a handful of high-quality stories is better than having mediocre content no one wants to read.
6) Distribute content widely
As media continues to evolve, so does the packaging and distribution of content. When packaging your content, you need to consider a couple of points. First, consider all the different content formats. Brand journalism exists in blogs, stand-alone websites, podcasts, video series, newsletters, and print publications.
Before creating content, think about the best way to tell stories to your target audience. Would members of your target audience like to listen to your story during their morning run? Is it more likely that they will become engrossed in a lengthy written feature? Is video the perfect way to highlight the company’s work? Frequently, a story may need multiple elements to enhance its impact. For this reason, you might have to produce a story accompanied by high-resolution images and short video clips.
When it’s time for distribution, you can send content through your company’s email list. This is because existing customers and subscribers are the best sources of initial feedback for a company’s content. Secondly, social media platforms can offer unique opportunities to repurpose and promote your content.
7) Measurement of Success
Finally, it helps to have tangible ways to gauge whether you are headed in the right direction. Most brands track success using a combination of traffic and social media metrics. There is no exact formula to measure the impact of your brand journalism. Even so, some things that you can keep track of include traffic, bounce rate, social shares, and publications.
Conclusion
Brand journalism offers companies and marketers an exciting new opportunity to create a narrative about the brand and present it to the public. Creating a positive brand image takes time and is an ongoing process. With patience and skill, you can create content that builds a positive brand reputation and increases sales.
