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Brand Journalism in Charlotte, NC | Union

Why Your Brand Should Try Brand Journalism in 2020

It’s possible that your brand, or a brand you know of, is already incorporating brand journalism into their content output. You just might not call it that — yet. Maybe it’s hiding in your blog posts, or in the news section of your website. 
<h2>What is brand journalism?</h2>
Brand journalism is a form of marketing that uses journalistic principles to create and distribute content in order to build relationships with customers and promote a brand. Brand journalists are often responsible for creating and managing a brand's news website, as well as writing articles, producing videos, and generating other forms of content.

Brand journalism is a smart practice to take on. Check out these five possible ROIs: 
<ol><li>Earned media opportunities. When you tell your own news, it’s easy for media sources to pick it up and share it.</li><li>Increased social media engagement. If you have more compelling stories to share, chances are other people will share them and interact with them, too. This leads to:</li><li>Expanded brand awareness. It helps that you’re emotionally connecting audiences with your brand by offering value. And because people are just drawn to good stories.</li><li>Lead and sales generation. When you publish and share the capabilities of your brand with a relevant narrative, you inspire others to want to work with you. </li><li>Brand loyalty. Impactful stories stick with you. Consumers who connect with your values and voice are likely to keep coming back for more.</li></ol>
Ready to incorporate brand journalism into your online strategy? <a href="https://union.co/contact">Let’s chat</a>.
Want a little more explanation? Read on. While working on our agency’s Innovation Initiative, I joined a designer to take a closer look. (Don’t forget, we’ve also explored <a href="https://union.co/articles/augmented-reality-apps">augmented reality apps</a>, <a href="https://union.co/articles/gesture-based-technology">gesture-based technology</a> and <a href="https://union.co/services/performance-media/digital-out-of-home">digital out-of-home advertising</a>.)

The short version

How do you know you are, in fact, staring at a piece of brand journalism when it’s right in front of your face? Key identifiers include:<ol><li>The <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/cmos-guide-to-brand-journalism">beat</a> is the brand and its industry</li><li>An emphasis on journalistic value (as in, this is good storytelling)</li><li>The incorporation of journalism-based skills like interviews and reporting (quotes and/or statistics are sprinkled throughout, with proper attribution)</li><li>There’s an editorial <a href="https://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/brand-journalism-a-modern-marketing-imperative/294206">framework</a> that encompasses an array of reader interests</li><li>The content is often longer-form (think 500-1,500 words, depending on what the brand wants to put out)</li><li>At its heart, this content is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140812000800-214909437-why-journalism-is-driving-content-marketing/">engaging</a>, informative and entertaining</li></ol>Ragan Communications chief executive Mark Ragan <a href="https://www.prdaily.com/24-great-b2b-and-b2c-brand-journalism-sites/">puts it bluntly</a>: “Brand journalism works only if your story is credible, is helpful to the reader and eschews all corporate-speak and jargon. If the story is self-serving or it is designed to sell, it’s not brand journalism. It’s marketing.”

So, what does brand journalism look like?

Honestly? It’s kind of blurry at times. But you’ll generally find with brand journalism:<ul><li>There’s not necessarily an explicit call to action</li><li>It’s less sales-driven</li><li>It acts as a form of audience support</li><li>It considers how people are <a href="https://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/brand-journalism-a-modern-marketing-imperative/294206">affected</a> by the brand</li><li>It’s a method of storytelling, and it can get personal</li></ul>Take a look at <a href="https://www.novanthealth.org/healthy-headlines/">Healthy Headlines </a>by Novant Health, which creates content around topics like daily wellness (from why to get the flu shot to which weight-loss mistakes to avoid), physician stories and medical triumphs. They provide health-related value, without badgering readers to use Novant services. However, the articles are shared through Novant’s social channels.Brand journalism hubs like Healthy Headlines still have similar goals to content marketing: stories can attract and maintain a customer base, increase brand impact and provide a sense of value.Pause for a sec and visualize a sales funnel. Then picture a wide, sweeping arc all the way around that funnel. That’s your brand journalism. It can hit people before the awareness phase.

How is brand journalism different from content marketing?

For example, when they stumble upon a <a href="https://www.patagonia.com/blog/2019/11/the-art-of-loss/">nice article</a> they found via a friend’s social media share about artist Zaria Forman and how she depicts climate change in the form of artwork inspired by melting ice in the Arctic.The reader may have simply been drawn to the images of ice, or the artist’s statement. Little did they know they were venturing onto Patagonia’s brand journalism blog, The Cleanest Line. The blog connects audiences with the value of the brand (saving the planet) without touching on the products that Patagonia sells (sweaters, wetsuits, outdoor gear). It’s a shrewd tactic, seeing as <a href="https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/branding-statistics/">89%</a> of shoppers stay loyal to brands with the same values.Back to that sales funnel and the arc around it. Articles like the Forman feature can also be found during the awareness phase via Patagonia’s social feeds, during the consideration and decision phase when a lead is clicking around the Patagonia website, or beyond, when the customer still has Patagonia on their mind — and in their closet.To spell it out: Brand journalism is useful for all stages of the customer journey, even before it ever begins.

Return on investment varies. And really, it depends on the brand’s reasons for launching their brand journalism hub in the first place.
On a general level, brands that publish this kind of content eliminate the need to wait on mainstream media to tell their stories — because they are already telling them, and taking control of their narrative, positive or negative. In turn, this also boosts earned media opportunities. Journalists can easily pick up this content by finding it on social media or online searches. The content is ready to be shared, linked to, quoted.
Scroll through Duke Energy’s brand journalism hub, <a href="https://illumination.duke-energy.com/">illumination</a>. The website was launched after a 2012 merger and a 2014 environmental accident, when a small internal team saw the value in (a) refocusing and boosting the morale of employees, and (b) controlling public relations damage while rebuilding reputation through great storytelling. 
Duke Energy <a href="https://apps.prsa.org/Intelligence/TheStrategist/Articles/view/11480/1125/Powering_a_Reputation_Duke_Energy_Dives_Into_Brand#.XfKKRpNKiL5">saw</a> more <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/performance-media/social-media">social media engagement</a> in the form of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, as well as earned media opportunities, thanks to journalists at news publications that were hungry for compelling stories.
Today, illumination highlights topics like energy conservation, interesting and innovative employees, company updates and community service undertakings, which are shared via Duke Energy’s social channels and writers. At their core, these are stories about the brand, or stories that are rooted in company values.
Beyond expanding brand awareness and emotionally connecting customers with a brand to provide value, brand journalism also creates a perception of honesty to establish trust with an audience. That’s the very nature of journalism — revealing the multiple sides of a story and creating a sense of transparency by reporting facts. Why it matters: <a href="https://www.imediaconnection.com/article/243839/can-brand-journalism-rescue-marketing">78%</a> of consumers consider companies with custom content to be trustworthy, while <a href="https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/branding-statistics/">94%</a> of customers are likely to show loyalty to a transparent brand. 
Reporting can lead to sales generation, too. Microsoft’s brand journalism hub, Stories, showcases the company’s innovations and stories of how technology is improving the world. One story in particular about their building automation work <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/cmos-guide-to-brand-journalism/four-models">stimulated</a> sales when other companies saw the article and wanted similar work done at their facilities.

What’s the ROI for brand journalism?

At the moment, it’s often an internal task for brands. Either they hire an editor and brand journalists to create this content, or they build a small editorial team that relies heavily on freelancers to deliver the stories. The big deterrent: Cost.
Because the cost of reporting is such a factor, smaller companies aren’t as visibly implementing brand journalism. HubSpot <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/cmos-guide-to-brand-journalism/media-for-small-companies">points out</a> that these companies are more set on lead generation.
But more and more marketing agencies are starting to join the fun. Agency websites are beginning to include brand journalism on their lists of services and capabilities, whether they act as the news team for a brand or manage a fleet of freelancers to crank out the content. After all, if an agency already knows the ins and outs of a brand (say they’ve built out that brand’s buyer personas, voice and style guide, plus its website and media campaigns), it would be natural for that agency to create additional storytelling content to slip into their <a href="https://cms.union.co/services/performance-media/content-marketing">content marketing plan</a>.

How does brand journalism get done?

Should your brand consider incorporating brand journalism into your marketing strategy in 2020? Absolutely. Whether your brand is focused on international or single-city reach, it’s worth trying. If you’re a smaller, local brand and you’re not ready to launch an entire brand journalism hub, start by slipping brand journalism into your existing content marketing approach. For example: Publish a few blog posts about your brand’s innovations (don’t forget your reporting techniques!), and push out those links on social media.If you’re a bigger brand with the budget to launch a new hub, decide what you’re aiming for. Engagement with brand values? Publicizing company accomplishments? Thought leadership? All of the above? Decide what matters most to you and your target audience, then <a href="https://union.co/contact">contact us</a> to get started. We have stories to tell.

Is brand journalism a good move for your brand?

Valtech + Union is a creative &amp; performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results. Obsessed with data-driven performance, we believe every marketing dollar should be viewed as an investment. Our clients expect a meaningful return and we prove the ROI of our work with quantifiable data.