Today, brands use journalism tactics, styles, and tools to narrate their story. Western culture has evolved thanks to countless advertising and marketing tactics. Also, consumers are wiser and smarter today as they don’t accept anything that lacks validation and authenticity.
On the other hand, as politicians have started using avenue marketing tactics as their own, it has strengthened consumers’ perception that slogans are nothing but a commercial strategy to attract buyers. When a brand’s story sounds salesy, the audience has a hard time relating to it.
This is where the role of brand Journalism comes into play. Many people confuse it with content marketing, but it is a different mindset to help brands connect with their consumers. Professional PR firms like Los Angeles Public Relations are using brand journalism as part of their PR campaign and strategy.
Let’s get into the details to understand what brand Journalism is and how brands can break into it.
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What is brand journalism?
In the past, whenever businesses needed journalistic promotion, they had to approach outside channels and third-party companies to pitch what they wanted to publish. However, things have changed, and brands no longer use the same tactics. Rather, “Brand Journalism” plays a vital role in the trend’s evolution.
Brand Journalism is all about brands using their media or sources to publish news and stories to get readers’ or viewers’ attention or engage them. It is more like an organization thinking of itself as a news agency or newspaper. You might have seen many renowned brands such as Larry Light and McDonald’s use this concept since 2004.
Some even uses the newsjacking technique to increase their visibility. If, you’re unknown about newsjacking, we’ve written a blog regarding it. Read what is newsjacking?
As they incorporated the industry professionals and the mindset, companies started getting better outcomes and driving more engagement and attention. Put simply, brand Journalism falls between content marketing and traditional journalism.
Typically, the phenomenon of brand Journalism tends to keep people informed objectively. It further convinces them to engage with the company. Bear in mind that brand Journalism isn’t sales-oriented like content marketing.
Though businesses and companies use brand Journalism for various purposes, the strategy isn’t about driving sales or improving revenues directly. Instead, the concept behind using this strategy is to create an informative channel to let people (consumers) know about companies’ matters or updates.
Unlike content marketing, which focuses on the outcomes, brand Journalism emphasizes the impact and effect that stories and articles cause.
Why is Brand Journalism Important for Brand?
You’re probably wondering about the importance of brand Journalism for businesses. Here are some reasons brands should consider using brand journalism for their business:
Increase Awareness
Generally, marketers incorporate brand journalism into their marketing strategy to improve awareness of the business. The purpose is to make more consumers aware of who they are or what they do. Most brands publish unique and innovative stories to get readers’ attention.
That is to say, no matter the size of your business, you need to share things with people who find value and connection with the brand. Consumers will only read your blogs if they’re a valuable and excellent source of information. This increases the brand trust.
Portray Brand As A Thought Leader
Brand Journalism contributes to establishing a brand as a pioneer or thought leader. That’s when a brand starts guiding readers’ reflection and perception. With brand Journalism, you can inspire consumers’ considerations and thoughts.
When you talk about a specific topic, you not only generate attention but also create a demand for it. It helps make the subject relevant to people. It is more like behaving or becoming a well-known source to provide information and updates in the industry.
Focusing on the brand’s personal stories makes it easier to win people’s trust. Once consumers start trusting you, you gain an authoritative position or level where you can create discussions about different subjects that are important to your business.
This is one way to educate or guide people about the aspects and things you want them to know or learn about your brand. Essentially, brand Journalism helps brands pave the way for content marketing.
Address News And Update Related To The Industry
Brand Journalism is an excellent way to inform or address industry news. As a responsible brand, you can tell your readers about the latest trends, what is new, and things that require their attention. You typically educate your people when you address topics of value and importance to your brand.
Since conventional journalism is related to informative news, you can use it for brand-oriented content. Your brand puts journalists and press reporters to work, using their expertise and skills to do it effectively.
Generate Leads
Honesty and integrity are key to encouraging people to believe in your brand. By being transparent and sincere, you can connect with the audience. Remember that people find it more engaging when you create and share great stories about the brand with readers.
Then, lead generation and conversion are likely outcomes. Though you don’t use expensive market campaigns or ads for promotion, you get there. Most case studies of popular brands embark on the journey of brand journalism and get successful consumer engagement without establishing purposes.
The best part of using brand Journalism as a marketing tactic is that it’s a win-win for brands, writers, and consumers. It is especially true when you work with a reliable PR marketing agency to help create a brand Journalism strategy and communicate with people.
Businesses can use or share their story with the public in authentic ways through the newsroom to establish and foster meaningful connections.
Journalists or reporters choose brands whose products, culture, and values they want to align with.
It is easier to find more authentic information about the brands they want to know about and buy from.
How to Break Into Brand Journalism
Align with Your Brand’s Goals
While brand Journalism isn’t about mimicking an ad copy, it still targets the services and products of the brand or the benefits they offer. So the rule of thumb to entering this form of journalism is to find ways to help gently weave your brand’s overarching goals. Your story should reflect the brand’s goals engagingly. You can do so by having your company or brand’s overarching goals written on the screen. You can refer to it before publishing your content.
Post Content that Builds Affinity and Awareness
One of the great features of brand Journalism is that people who know nothing about a specific brand get a positive impression and awareness after reading the content. However, people already familiar with services and products use the content as prospective leads and an advocate.
In short, good brand Journalism can help brands turn unfamiliar people into engaging and interested parties. It is a great way to make past customers repeat customers and old buyers into loyal advocates who can verbally pass along the benefits your brand offers.
Build a Unique Persona
Brand Journalism refers to communicating directly with the buyers’ persona of your brand in a comfortable, engaging, and consistent tone. It’s worth noting that the buyers’ persona has to be pre-established to begin brand journalism or any marketing campaign.
A brand persona is one way to ensure that any marketing strategy, including content marketing, advertising, or brand journalism, receives profits that make it worthwhile. To break into brand Journalism, you must put in research and time to get benefits after a campaign attracts people. You can use your brand persona to cater to brand journalism needs and devise informative and engaging strategies.
Humanize The Brand
Humanizing the brand is an essential aspect of connecting with people. You can use brand Journalism as an opportunity to give your brand a voice and face, which is difficult in content marketing.
You can do this in many ways. You can talk about satisfied customers’ experiences with your services or products or let the company’s members speak directly and honestly to the audience. You can build through the consumer products and brands. Either way, humanizing the brand offerings is a crucial aspect of brand Journalism.
Narrate A Worthwhile Story
Marketers often get so involved or immersed in the offerings and products of the company they want to promote that their brand journalism and marketing efforts seem similar to promotional campaigns.
Remember that your desired audience doesn’t want you to sound salesy. Instead, they are more interested in listening to your brand’s story. Therefore, you need to narrate the story to establish an emotional connection with your audience and make them feel that the time they invested reading your content was worth spending. This is an excellent way to use brand Journalism to benefit your brand and engage the audiences.
Summing Up
Seeking out brand Journalism to engage people and inform them is an intelligent way to connect with them and resonate with their thoughts. It helps your brand weave its story and tone to engage readers. Brand journalism isn’t a sales pitch but a great way to tell your brand’s story and how it meets the audience’s needs. Thus, the article explains everything you need to know about brand journalism and the ideas to break into it.
