Be your own media outlet – Every brand can be a journalist, editor and publisher with blogging

Positive media attention is great for business, and it’s a legacy service that I’m proud to excel in at Elevate Communication, but owning your own stories and sharing them with people who are already invested and interested in you can have benefits that far outweigh those that come with the media spotlight.

Why be your own publisher?

We work so hard as business leaders to attract new customers through marketing, advertising and PR, but sometimes this can come at the detriment to a retainment strategy, which as Forbes points out, can cost businesses five times more than if it focused on retention over attraction.

This strategy then begs the question “how do we retain our customers?” Obviously every business will have a different response to this based on their service or product offering, but one thing that remains the same across every sector and every size business, is the fact that customers want to feel informed and valued. As human beings, we are hard-wired to make decisions based on the options in front of us. Whether the transaction takes place in a B2C or B2B environment, at the end of the day, it is a real person handing over the money and they want to feel confident in their decision.

What does all this mean then for your brand in the publishing space? It means you can leverage your blog, your social media pages, your website banners and your EDMs to drive home information that will help them decide you are the best brand for the job. Some people make this based on price, others on convenience or history or social proof. It’s your job as a business leader to know what it is that drives them to your brand, but it’s the role of a PR or Communication professional to know how to leverage this insight.

Communicating through your own channels helps build transparency which in turns builds trust which in turn puts you in the running when it comes to the purchase decision making process. This can take 10 seconds, or it can take two years! Being your own publisher, allows you to control your messaging and even your audience to some degree, nurture them through their decision-making process and be there when your customer is ready to buy.

How to be your own publisher through blogging
Blogging on your company website is the number one way to broadcast your news or announcements in my opinion. This way you have an opportunity to upsell them to more content or even your “About Us” page or products and services information – all information gathering opportunities for your customer. Of high importance, it gives you a place to ‘house’ your content so that you can use this URL across all your marketing channels to help drive traffic to not only the article, but your website.

Marketing channels you can use to drive traffic to your URL include your newsletter, your social media pages, any relevant social media groups you’re in, social media advertising and even stakeholder newsletters or intranet if suitable. Often these marketing channels are also your other publishing platforms as well, so make the most of these too with posts and content that aren’t just selling your business but complementing it. YouTube is a great example of this, but they all have their perks depending on the line of business you’re in.

The reason I particularly love blogging though is the more quality traffic you can drive to your published content on your blog, the better SEO you can start to generate for your business while penetrating new customer markets and servicing current customers. Elevate has over 100 blogs and counting, and we know they help build trust with our target market. New clients tell us it helped them build a picture of who we are as a brand, and current clients feel they get transparency with us, that we’re not trying to keep our knowledge a secret, but rather share it far and wide.

Leverage your own “brand media channel”
The concept of business blogging allows brands to own a message and essentially set the news agenda for the brand. March might be your spotlight on women to celebrate International Women’s Day, you might run an Easter holiday promotion and Father’s Day in September might drive your content in that direction. Having a plan on what to communicate and when to communicate it can ensure you consistently offer value to your clients. Elevate creates editorial plans that marry traditional media topics with in-house content so that one clear message is consistently driving attention every month. It focuses the business, streamlines the message and creates greater impact.

Attracting new customers is essential to growth, but so too is retaining your current audience and prompting them to keep coming back. Sure, it takes a great product or service to do that, but it also takes great communication.

One of the best things about your brand becoming your own media or content publishing house is that unlike traditional media, you control everything!

Want to get on the front foot with your business success stories, milestones, staff profiles and information about your brand? Contact Elevate today as we can find stories EVERYWHERE!