Win Clients With Brand Journalism

Video, photos, charts, blog posts, webinars, and your professional analysis can all help to tell a story that’s relevant to your audience. You’ll enhance your credibility, shape the image of your business, and drive online traffic. We call it brand journalism- the creation of informative, journalistic-style content for your business marketing.

Here’s our advice to create a compelling content to boost your business’ website:

1. Put the concept into the light

The content should be telling a good story first before selling stuff. Share a resource with your potential customer, or solve a problem for them. Put content before product. So a brand journalist, for example, might create a "Guide to Home Buying" for prospective buyers rather than simple marketing collateral that tout the benefits of working with your company. The first is really useful to people making a huge step, the second just talks about you.

2. Blog launching, where to start?

Think about why you have the blog and who you want to engage there. What do you want it to do for your business? What do you hope to accomplish? How can you help your audience or be a resource to them?

3. Good content

Show how your service has helped your customers in their lives. The stories of people are inherently more interesting than stories of products and services. Do you sell real estate, or did you help a single mother find a safe neighborhood close to the school of her choice for her kids? What’s the community like? These details make a place come alive for your audience.

4. Characteristics of a Killer Blog?

Talk about your customers, not about yourself. Your blog should create a sense of a momentum; people know how to contact you, or there are resources for them to engage more deeply with you.

5. Integrate Brand Journalism into your Business Plan?

Start small, and start somewhere. You don’t have to do everything (like video, webinars, audio, a blog, and a resource guide). Ideally, choose to start someplace you want to be—if you like to write. If you’re comfortable on camera, consider video. Create a routine, and then give it a chance to work.