Writing Your Own News Shouldn’t Be A Challenge
Believe it or not, your brand more than likely has something to say. The main assumption with this statement is that your brand is great at what it does, is full of great people who are great at what they do, and is a thought leader in the area in which it serves. I realize that’s a big assumption, but I am comfortable saying if those things are true, there’s absolutely zero reason you shouldn’t be writing your own news. Why?
“Position yourself, or be positioned”
Demonstrate Thought Leadership and Build Trust
Play the Long-Game on SEO
Integrate, Integrate, Integrate
“Position yourself, or be positioned”:
Allow me to unpack that a little bit. One of my favorite quotes in marketing is “Position yourself, or be positioned”. Wiser words may never have been spoken in our little corner of the world. If Private School A focuses intensely on their students’ growth and development, the environment they learn in, fostering connections with staff, small classroom sizes, etc and Private School B does the same, but tells their story better than Private School A, then Private School A is being “positioned” by Private School B. We aren’t saying anything about either of their abilities to educate - their audiences are evaluating both of them and coming to the conclusion that Private School B is better merely because they are aware of who they are, what their approach to education is, and how they are going to help their children achieve their potential if they send them to Private School B because let’s face it…we haven’t heard anything from Private School A and it now seems like a little bit of a gamble.
Demonstrate Thought Leadership, Build Trust:
Where else in your marketing stack are you able to serve as the guide to helping your clients/customers reach their goals through thought leadership? Google Ads? Nope. Radio? Nope. There’s a place and time for both of those things, but do those help you and your brand stand apart on the strength of the way in which you approach your work? I repeat: Nope.
Writing your own news gives you the opportunity your brand needs to truly stand on its own with a completely blank canvas, which you get to fill with detail. You get the opportunity to niche down, nerd out, and go deep on everything and anything you know. It provides your audience with the depth of your ability to solve other clients’ problems, and thus, we might not know the exact answer to their problem yet, but we know how you’ll approach the problem.
Play the long-game on SEO:
As anyone who’s read our news in the past, you’ll know we are no fans of scammy SEO practices. You know, the ones that promise the world and then get penalized when Google inevitably adapts the weight of their algorithm’s variables. That’s not helpful, and it always ends with a blow-up and a down-rank. Real SEO work feels like homework, and writing useful, technical, thought-leadership based pieces is the best possible long-game for SEO. Most of the time, our clients’ websites are portfolios for their services and it feels like homework updating them…and nobody likes doing their homework…so sites don’t get updated that often. If there’s a thought-leadership-based approach, it shouldn’t end up feeling like homework - it should feel like you’re communicating with your audience and hammering home great long-term SEO work.
Integrate, Integrate, Integrate:
Everything in your News strategy should integrate with the rest of your stack. You don’t create content just to post it on Social Media. If that’s your goal, then you’re doing it wrong. News content should work on Social, Web, Email, Print, Podcasts, Active Ads, In-Person Events, Webinars, etc. All of those things should work in harmony.
…Now go get started!
