Under this digital, and commercialised age, some have expressed their hesitations with paving their careers toward the old media model. While bringing fresh, and sharp news daily never ceases to be relevant, there are still some who concede that content marketing offers rich soil for journalists to have better opportunities and living conditions. With this, many journalism graduates still pursue the duty of informing the public about the state of current affairs. On the other hand, there are just as many graduates who also pursue content marketing – letting the public experience products by how they weave words into their digital reality.
As most activities today are done with the help of the digital space, and its processes, more, and more businesses take on its arena. The digital space takes on a vast audience, permeating beyond the borders of Singapore, and more. Because of this, content marketing is ever more in demand. Since content marketing targets a wide range of audiences, there may be times when restraints become a bit loose. With this said, are there instances where we forget the strict rules set by pedagogies? We are not too focused on marketing our brand, are we? Are there conditions where journalism and content marketing stand on the same ground? Here are a few things that content marketers can learn from journalists:
Links are not enough
It has become a habit for some content marketers to just bombard their articles with links. These links would either escort the viewers to the main website they have been referring to or pool them into the website carrying their brand. That has always been the tradition. However, the challenge remains about how the writer should properly provide attribution related to the said link.
With this said, content marketers should also practice putting proper attribution when referring to the links they put in the article. Phrases like “according to”, “he or she said” make articles more holistic, and genuine.
Another thing we have to take note of is to provide a proper introduction, and context for the links that we put in our articles. Some content marketers just put the links in their articles or even bombard their articles with these links just to make the reader click on it. With this, it is a must that content marketers should at least provide a context about the link they have put. They must write a few things about what the link is about. The same way as to how you would cite a study, it would be best to also say who said it, and what it is all about.
Check your facts
For every writing that you are going to publicize, it goes without saying that its facts must be thoroughly checked. Facts are journalists’ lifeline in writing their articles. Extra effort in checking facts would be a good way for content marketers to write their articles. Aside from providing the readers with service, accurate facts would also bring your article, and online presence in general, solid credibility. This way, readers would continue reading your articles because they know that they would be reading a substantial article. Some marketers produce content just because. If your content is holistic, fact-checked, and substantial, it would gain organic views.
Put more effort into the research
In line with the point prior, content marketers should also put more effort into researching. There has been a trend with content marketers to just refer to another article online which probably also referred to another article online – the cycle goes on. The same knowledge would just become circulated from page to page, website to website, URLs to URLs. Audiences experience content fatigue because of this. For a change, content marketers could also research by conducting interviews with experts within the industry, perform fieldworks from time to time, and so on.
Tailor your topics
When pitching topics, make sure that it is tailored according to what the audience might need, and read. Content marketers should know what their blog is about. A great topic would show this, and the wits of the writer. Grasping the presence your website tries to evoke, or the image that it tries to put up would also help in knowing how you would write your articles. The content you would put up would, in a way, also serve as your website’s mouthpiece. If your website is all about elegance, sleekness, and class, you would not write a crass article, right?
Here are just some of the things journalists would say to content marketers. Surely, content marketers, too, would have a few things to teach journalists with. Learning is a two-way process anyway.
After reading this, we might have an impression of how meticulous content should be crafted. Now that the digital space is ever expanding, search engines are tweaked in a way that users would get a more optimised experience. With this, traditional SEO strategies would no longer be effective. All these would boil down to how organic content marketers would create their craft. Of course, you would also need the services of SEO, and SEM companies here in Singapore in ensuring that your online presence stays on top.
