Content Marketing vs “News”
When I did my A-levels and was about to finish school, I admittedly did not know what to study. I spent my final six months in school focusing on writing for our yearbook instead of studying for my last exam. Our Chief Editor was Jana, who became my best friend and one of the first digital e-commerce marketers for Cadbury’s and Mondelez in London.
So, next to other ideas, I dreamt about becoming a journalist or reporter. I figured out that Munich was one of the best places to study journalism back then, but it was tough to get in. My role model was Ulrich Wickert, a journalist and one of the best-known broadcasters in Germany. Then life happened, I studied linguistics and learned, that if you want to be good at writing, linguistics is the last place to look for. Two years after that, I decided to study business administration but kept my writing on the side. Blogs, columns, and short stories.
25 years later, my role in marketing brings me back to writing, storytelling, and creating good content that hopefully moves people. I think we’ve become a bit too technical and boring in marketing, focusing on bringing in all these lovely keywords for SEO and sticking to successful content types that start with either “How to…” or “3 things…”.
What can marketers do instead?
Shifting our mindset first. We would benefit from opening up to the idea that we are not only (technical) marketers but also journalists and writers. I do like Cognism’s CMO’s idea of building a media machine. So think about how you fit into that, how you can help write and create content that drives demand. For this, you will need to know your persona(s) very well, proactive, agile, and creative.
Hire real reporters and journalists. They write fast and up to 6 stories daily, which a marketer fails to do. Most companies work with contractors and freelancers, so why not get a good journalist on board? They can research the best stories and help the team get them out in a much faster way.
In general: Learn from those writers and journalist to not just write for Google Search but write for people. And people love storytelling. Invite your team to a storytelling course.
In summary, split your content team into 3: Demand gen writers, SEO writers, and journalists.
Sources:
https://www.cognism.com/diary-of-a-first-time-cmo/content-team-in-a-demand-gen-org#article_content
B2B Benchmark Report 2024 by LinkedIn