Brand publishing is the buzzword of the year for many marketers, especially those who are also in the midst of embracing native advertising for all it’s worth. Many content marketing experts are now looking to brand publishing as the new way forward for content marketing, as it provides a whole raft of benefits that would otherwise be unavailable.
This type of advertising can work for both B2C and B2B content marketing companies, as well as individuals, but utilising it will completely revolutionise the way your entire brand operates.
In simple terms, brand publishing involves putting content at the top of your advertising pyramid. When in this mindset, marketing companies treat their overall brand as a content publisher, rather than as an advertiser. This will completely change the ways in which your strategy and campaigns work, as both you and your co-workers or employees will need to begin working in different ways.
Why has brand publishing emerged?
Brand publishing is by no means ‘new’, but, like all things, it’s recently come back into fashion and is enjoying a revival. Of course, that’s because it works incredibly well.
One of the very first examples of brand publishing can be traced back to 1895, when agricultural machinery company Deere & Company began to produce its own magazine for farmers. Owned by John Deere, the company began to publish the magazine The Furrow and marketed it to their target customer group. The company’s still going strong today, and has updated the magazine for online readership, and also publishes useful and informative information for its customers through its social media channels.
However, John Deere was one of the few to do this ‘back in the day’, as the traditional method of showcasing adverts through other advertising platforms was the done thing.
Up until recently, media advertising (by way of magazines, newspapers and TV channels) was one of the most popular ways to get your company’s name out there. A quick 30-second advert or a full-page-spread advert could get you the customers you so desperately needed – when done right of course.
However, with £100bn of all sales taking place online nowadays, it’s easy to see why this older, more traditional method of advertising is suffering.
Your target market isn’t a whole anymore. You can’t guarantee that placing an advert in a magazine that’s at the forefront of your sector will mean your entire audience gets your message. There are simply too many places for consumers to find information now, which means you’ll often find that the idiom ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’ rings incredibly true. By covering all bases and marketing your brand to individual sectors of consumers, you’ll see much more success.
Similarly, by seeing your campaign as a brand rather than as an advertising strategy, you’ll be able to give your potential customers exactly what they want, which will make them much more likely to actually convert.
Why many people think brand publishing isn’t the answer
We could talk all day long about why brand publishing is good, but as with all things there are people out there who have their doubts. This is with good reason though, as it’s always worth weighing up both the pros and the cons before making such an important decision as completely changing the way in which your business operates.
Some of the negative aspects of brand publishing include:
- It can be risky: Brand publishing really isn’t for the faint of heart, as it does require a lot of work. This can mean more expense in the first place, but this does pay off in the long run if done correctly
- It can be time-consuming: Anyone who’s ever worked in marketing before will know that getting anything approved on a 24 hour deadline is virtually impossible. And, unfortunately, when going down the route of brand publishing, there’s likely to be an awful lot content that requires approval before it can finally be published. However, this is something that can be worked on when fine-tuning your distribution methods
- It’s always going to include failure: Even the gods of brand publishing themselves experience campaign flops every now and then. While we’d all love to believe that if you have the best team you can possibly get everything you produce will be the next best thing, it won’t. Not everything you create as a brand publisher will turn out to be pure gold, but that’s okay. You’ll learn from your mistakes
- It’s going to be fast-paced: This means that some of your existing team members may not be able to keep up with the rate of work that you’ll now come to expect. The fact is that marketing materials often take a lot longer to create than publishing ones, and so your team will either need to learn how to work faster, or will have to move on to pastures new
Why you should be thinking like a publisher
Being a brand publisher will ensure you’re able to go right to the heart of what your consumers want, but without actually having to sell them anything in as obvious a way as through an advert. Your advertising will be subtle and almost comparable to a friend recommending something to you. You can build up a fanbase, become a reputable source of information, and then say the equivalent of “Hey, why don’t you check out this cool thing we just made? No pressure though, you can just keep reading, if you’d rather”.
Some of the biggest benefits that brand publishing brings include:
- Audiences that are genuinely interested in what you have to say. By publishing content that is of value, they’ll be more likely to want to check out your latest blog, article, whitepaper, magazine, journal, infographic, tweet, Facebook update, and so on and so forth
- Increased engagement, as those reading your content, watching your videos and generally listening to what you have to say will trust you more, and will therefore stay engaged for a longer period of time
- Genuine relationships with customers, who will become part of your ‘fanbase’. These are the ones you can rely on them for repeat custom, as well as for acting as your brand’s flag-flyers. By being reputable, trustworthy and honest in the management of your brand, you can be much more successful
- Access to untold data, especially if you use data capture systems for some of your content. This will allow you to build up a wider picture of who your customers are, and will enable re-targeting and increased engagement further down the line
- Higher search rankings – as we’re fairly certain you’ve realised by now, we’re a fan of longform content and of content in general, to be honest. By making content the cornerstone of your delivery by utilising brand publishing, you’ll be ensuring search engines give you your rightful place at the top of those all-important search rankings
- A reputation that precedes you – for all of the right reasons. Again, brand publishing makes you less of a threat to consumers who’re sick of having companies go in with the hard sell. If you become known for being ‘that company that has the great content’ and then ‘that company that makes such-and-such-a-thing’, you’ve made it – people already trust you for being useful, valuable and right up their street
How to start using brand publishing
It’s all good and well talking about how good brand publishing is, but there’s going to come a time when you need to bite the bullet and test your metal if you really want to reap the rewards this form of content marketing can bring. Doing this will be difficult, but it’s worth it.
Here are some of the many things you need to remember when going into the world of brand publishing:
1) Make your voice heard
Being sure to shout above the other companies doing similar things, or even those that are still stuck in the mud that is traditional advertising, is key to being successful. Social media should be your weapon of choice for this, as it will give you a direct line to your customers.
Not only can you strike up conversations with people via social media, but you can also embrace controversy. You don’t have to be offensive (in fact, you never should be), but you do need to make sure you actually have something to say.
Think outside the box. Don’t just tweet about and post endless status updates that directly relate to what your company does. See your brand as a tree’s roots – they’re all connected to the tree proper, but they aren’t nice, neat and simple. They’re a little convoluted and can go off at strange angles, but it’s all relative at the end of the day. You don’t have to link absolutely everything back to that one product or service you’re trying to promote – it’s about making your brand noticeable and enjoyable.
2) Focus on content curation
One of the best ways to create amazing content without having to put in a lot of actual effort is to utilise content curation. With this, you can bring together the best resources on a particular topic that essentially saves your customers all the time in the world, as it means they no longer have to search through the entire internet to find a concise explanation of whatever they’re hunting for.
There are a few different methods of content curation, which is a blog post for another day, but this article by SEO Inbound is an excellent resource. It explains the five different avenues you can go down for content curation, and why it’s the ultimate brand publishing option.
Of course, it’s even better to use a mixture of content creation and curation for your brand publishing strategy, as it ensures the best of both worlds.
3) Be genuinely useful
We actually can’t stress this enough. Make sure that absolutely everything you do, from tweeting to writing, creating videos to recording podcasts, and absolutely everything in between has a purpose.
Don’t do something just because it’s what all of your competitors are doing.
Don’t do something just for the sake of doing it.
Don’t do something just because someone told you to do it – actually go away and research the pros and cons, and if you have a manager to report to, don’t be afraid of saying ‘sorry, but I don’t think this will work’.
In marketing companies, especially where brand publishing is involved, speaking up and putting in your two cents’ worth can and will help the business on the whole. If you’re the one in charge, make sure you constantly question yourself, and that you have people around you who aren’t afraid to second-guess you.
4) Don’t forget to be authentic
If you’re going to go down the route of brand publishing, you’ll be leaving yourself open to intense criticism from your fans and foes alike. If you aren’t 100% authentic in your quest for providing useful content, you’ll be seen as a fraud instantly.
Of course, other companies know that what you’re doing is a strategy, and many consumers will as well, but that’s the art of advertising, marketing and publishing. If you can convince them that you’re useful despite the fact that you’re still looking to promote something (even if it is in the nicest, more helpful of ways), you’re winning.
When should you begin brand publishing?
When shouldn’t you? Although, in all seriousness, opting for a new strategy method such as this isn’t something that you should simply jump in at the deep end with.
Before you implement anything, figure out:
- What will your strategy involve? How will you be creating content, and what kind of content will it be?
- Who are you creating content for? Are you targeting a range of audience types, or is your consumer-base incredibly narrow?
- How will you actually reach your customers? What methods will you use to distribute your content?
- What form will your distribution take? Who will be in charge of it?
- How will you track the progress and success of your new strategy?
- What are the financial implications of your campaign change? Do you need to hire additional staff, change pricing structures or make any other amendments to the way your company will work going forward?
There’s a lot to think about with brand publishing, but it’s worth it in the end. Content marketing and advertising are two industries that have seen huge shifts in trends in the last few years, and the emergence of brand publishing is just the latest one in a long line of alterations.
What do you think of this new marketing system? Are you a brand publishing fan, or do you think it’s a waste of time? Let us know via Twitter by tweeting us on @theukseo.