In this digital world where everyone is bombarded with marketing messages on the internet and television, some of us are going the extra mile by developing the ability to ignore traditional advertising. That’s why traditional PR approaches are becoming outdated and aren’t as efficient as they used to be.
While some savvy marketers improve their marketing strategy with video marketing and content marketing, some others rely on brand journalism.
This not-so-familiar type of marketing came through the whole affair like a breath of fresh air and changed how businesses approach their potential customers. In such a short time, it becomes a must-have addition to businesses’ marketing strategy.
At this point, you must be wondering, “what on earth is brand journalism and how it has something to do with marketing at all?”
In this article, you’ll get the answers. So, if you want to get closer to this potential marketing strategy, then keep scrolling!
Brand Journalism: Digging Through the Concept
Brand journalism relies on editorial content to show off who you really are by providing your audience with valuable information and entertainment about your brand.
How is it different from content marketing?
In this case, content marketing is the strategy you use to create content to sell your brands. On the other hand, brand journalism is a marketing strategy to show off your brand’s identity. More often than not, just like it says on the tin, it adopts a journalistic style to impart information.
So, yeah, it’s quite different.
While the goal of content marketing is to inform or respond to the audience’s questions to sell your products, brand journalism is more focused on helping your audience understand who they’re doing business with.
With a journalist mindset, you can write on the latest trends and inform your audience on the current development that is currently happening in your audience’s market. In this case, you should also tell how your brand stays relevant to the trends.
You’ll need brand journalism to give your brand a personality that your audience can be familiar with. That way, they have no problem in trusting your brand and convert into a loyal customer easily.
Why Brand Journalism Matter For Your Business?
You now understand that brand journalism can be a powerful tool to help your business build a solid personality and image. But, that one advantage is only a small example.
There are a bunch of benefits you’ll get if you’re incorporating brand journalism in your marketing strategy. To give you more insights on it, we’ve listed some of the most obvious examples below:
#1. Create Your Own Media Platform
With brand journalism, every marketer can be a media owner. You can create a story about your brand and let your audience know about it. Remember, just because you’re in full control of your creation and publishing doesn’t mean you can lie.
Even if you want the audience to know that you’re a company in the best light, you still need to keep your stories genuine and authentic so your audience knows what to expect from your brand.
You can also write case studies that are still related to your brand. From the case studies, you inform the audience what they can learn from it and how your brand stance is.
Or, you can also do interviews with some experts in your field and create content from it. Later on, the audience can be engaged and involved by having them comment and ask questions.
#2. Boost Online Visibility
Brand journalism is a potential tool to make your brand more visible in the flood of content on the internet. The “report” or brand stories you create can make your audience think that you’re an expert in your field and worth referencing. In this case, they’re most likely to recall your brand too.
Since more and more people are just drawn to good stories, they are more likely to share your interesting brand story. Not to mention that when you tell your own news, it’s always easy for media sources to find you and pick it up and share it with their audiences.
Therefore, brand journalism can play such a significant role in increasing your brand’s online visibility. It helps your brand to emotionally connect with audiences by offering value.
#3. Improve Engagement
If you have more compelling stories to share, chances are other people are curious about what they’ll see next. That’s why they decide to stick around your brand and keep coming back for more. In other words, brand journalism makes it easier for you to engage more audiences.
Impactful, powerful, and inspiring stories stick with your customers. Consumers who connect with your values and voice won’t only engage in your brand but also more likely to convert into your loyal customers.
#4. Increase Leads and Sales
Brand journalism is indeed created for showing off your brand identity in the first place. But, if it is done well, it can also bring you quality leads and boost your conversion rates. How come?
Well, with the solid online presence and high engagement you have from this strategy, it boils down to increased leads and conversion rates.
Also, when you publish and share your brand’s capabilities with a relevant and outstanding narrative, it’ll attract more audiences. And from all the audiences, there must be colleagues or customers in the same niche who want to work with you.
#5. Expand Target Audience
With all the brand news you’ve created, you can seek promotional opportunities to appeal to a broader audience. You can look for the right influencers in your industry or on social media to help spread your content.
Some mainstream media outlets also look to publish syndicated articles. It provides you with more opportunities to get your brand stories revealed to a wider audience.
However, to make the news shareable and share-worthy, you need to make sure that it’s not promotional content at all. One thing you need to bear in mind is that you don’t have to make all the news about your brand or company. It’s crucial to also tell your audience about your industry and tips to improve their lives or businesses.
Wrapping Up
After reading the article above, you might have noticed that brand journalism isn’t a new thing in marketing strategy. It may just be a buzzword that not so many people often hear. However, this marketing strategy offers you the easiest way to tell your brand and industry stories to your audience in no time.
You don’t have to wait and pray for media outlets to write stories about your brand and company because now you can do it yourself. So, it should come as no surprise that brand journalism replaces the traditional press release and plays such a significant role in both B2C and B2B playing fields.
Read also: 8 Reasons Your Business Should Invest in Digital Marketing
