Five tips on using brand journalism in your content marketing

The brand journalist is a very different breed to the copywriter or PR. Their job isn’t to overtly sell a product or put a positive spin on a story, but to bring an air of authenticity and objectivity to a brand’s content. Well, that’s the idea anyway. Done well, brand journalism can create a credible corporate voice on a par with traditional media. Like Intel and Cisco, who have invested in newsrooms and turned their homepages into media hubs, and Coca-Cola‘s lifestyle sport and business title Journey.

Five tips on making your content timely, real and relevant:

1. Always put the reader first. This may sound obvious but it’s easy to get caught up in internal politics when you’re inside an organisation. Remember who you’re writing for and use the ‘so what’ test any time someone comes to you with a story or piece of content they want to run.

2. Build credibility and trust. Report from an industry-wide perspective and don’t fall into the all-too-common trap of sugar coating your stories so as not to look bad or upset your stakeholders. After all, this is journalism not marketing.

3. Make your content visible. Just because you’re posting fresh content on your website it doesn’t mean people are seeing it. Use social media, email and blogs to get your articles and videos noticed, commented on and shared.

4. Anyone can create content and comment on yours. Sometimes the comments at the end of an article can be more insightful and informed than the original piece. So respect the content democracy we live in and be ready to discuss and defend what you’ve written.

5. Be open to new ideas and collaboration. It’s only when you tear down the walls inside your organisation that you’ll come up with fresh ideas. Come together to create compelling content or develop new ways of working and communicating with the community, like these guys did in oldgamesclub.com.

By Smarayda Christoforou, the DMA’s copywriter