What is brand journalism, and how does sharing your company’s story make marketing more effective for your business?
As a Senior Copywriter at KWSM (and a recovering journalist), I’ve seen other marketing agencies deliver hit-or-miss results because they were chasing trends and tactics, not relying on proven principles.
In my experience, brand journalism is an effective approach for creating marketing content that delivers lasting value to both buyers and sellers.
What is Brand Journalism?
At KWSM, we define brand journalism as a combination of institutional expertise and storytelling principles.
Institutional expertise leverages your industry experience and the lessons we’ve learned ourselves as an active digital marketing agency since 2010. Together, we position your business as a source of knowledge and value in the marketplace to distinguish your brand from other sellers or providers.
The other side of the brand journalism coin, however, is telling a compelling story. And that story isn’t about your product or even your company – it’s about your customer.
You’re in the story, of course. But your job in the story is to provide what the customer needs to overcome the obstacle they’re facing.
By framing your message in this way, you can position your business as a thought leader through content marketing, build stronger connections with your audience – and avoid the pitfalls that other marketing approaches are privy to.
“Many members of our team came from the journalism and media production world, which has made brand journalism a natural fit for our agency. That said, I believe we would have ended up with this approach anyway, because demonstrating both expertise and human connection works so well for our clients.”
– Jeffrey Soto, Vice President, Strategy and Client Relations, KWSM
Here are five benefits of using brand journalism to share your company’s story.
Brand Journalism Benefit #1: Consistency
If you’re crafting a digital marketing strategy that includes campaigns on multiple platforms, consistent messaging is just as important to your brand as your logo, color palette, or any other creative element.
Let’s say, for example, that your social media manager is using emojis and Gen Z-speak in posts and comments, but your emails are formal and robotic. Customers who interact with those channels won’t get a consistent experience, which could leave them with a confused or negative impression of your brand.
When you choose a brand journalism and storytelling-driven approach, you’ll establish your company’s voice and tone before producing any marketing assets. And an effective strategy will put those guidelines in place as a resource and reference for your marketing team as they interact with your audience.
Brand Journalism Benefit #2: Personification
Any decent marketing plan will include “buyer personas,” which attempt to define who the ideal customer is for the product or service being marketed.
These avatars are useful, but only when they’re complete. If all you know about your audience is basic demographic information and that they want what you’re selling, you won’t be able to connect with them in a meaningful way.
This is especially true for brands with longer sales cycles or technical products – you’ll need to build trust and speak the same language to convert prospects over time.
You can go deeper by leveraging brand journalism and the power of storytelling. Put on your “investigative journalist” hat and research not just who your audience is, but the why that leads them to your offer. Define and refine characteristics like pain points, mindset, and motivations so that you really know who you’re marketing to.
Using these specific elements as the foundation of your brand’s story will help you create more compelling content that will resonate with your audience.
Brand Journalism Benefit #3: Empathy
Empathy, broadly speaking, is the ability to share and respond to another’s feelings by imagining yourself in their situation and mental state.
Traditionally, marketing has focused more on generating an emotional response, not reciprocating a prospect’s existing feelings. While this “hard sell” approach can work if the content and offer are compelling enough, it’s not the best way to establish connections with your audience.
By incorporating the buyer’s why, however, brand journalism shows that you understand the problems that your prospects are facing and the context that brought them to you.
Leveraging empathy – saying that we feel your pain, to paraphrase a president – breaks down barriers and encourages buyers to continue moving forward in what is now a shared story.
Brand Journalism Benefit #4: Authenticity
In the early 20th century, a vicious virus slithered its way into modern society. It’s taken years, but we’ve finally achieved widespread immunity after learning some hard lessons.
No, we aren’t talking about Covid. We’re talking about clickbait.
Years of exposure to clickbait have made audiences wary. Digital commerce has matured, and shoppers know that if an offer looks like it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
Further, platforms like Facebook have all sorts of consequences for publishing misleading ads and making exaggerated claims, including banning your account.
Brand journalism is the antidote to clickbait and inauthentic marketing. Instead of misleading ads, you’ll share a credible argument that presents your offer as the solution to the real problems prospects are facing. Instead of exaggerated claims, you’ll share stories of personal transformation supported by user-generated content.
And instead of gimmicky campaigns that go boom-and-bust (or just “bust”), you’ll build an authentic online presence based on genuine interactions and serving your audience.
Brand Journalism Benefit #5: A Vision of Success
Approaching marketing like a story means thinking beyond your “Buy Now” button or thank-you page.
Every good story ends with a satisfying resolution. And in the story you’re telling, the “happily ever after” isn’t making a sale. It’s customers using your product or service to solve the problem that has been bugging them since before they even knew about your offer.
Presenting this “vision of success” as the culmination of your marketing story is extremely powerful. When it works, you’ve created a picture in your customers’ minds in which they already have what you’re selling.
To put it another way, you’ve recruited your prospect’s imagination and made it your best sales asset.
You can build trust and credibility, engage customers, and generate results with a story-driven approach to digital marketing. Fill out the form below to connect with KWSM and find out how brand journalism can benefit your business.
