Consumers gather 60 percent of information needed to make purchase decisions before contacting vendors and read about ten pieces of content before buying, according to data from Come Recommended, LLC, a digital PR consultancy. Brand journalism and the related practice of content marketing are strategies communicators are using to profit from this behavior. Each is expanding due to focus on creating news and educational material audiences really benefit from, rather than purely promotional advertisements. Companies across diverse industries are wielding the compounding influence of brand journalism and content strategies for tangible returns.

Catalytic Products International, a manufacturer of air pollution control equipment, implemented a content strategy in 2011 with its agency, Arment Dietrich, Inc., to generate product quotes from new prospects. Newsletters, web copy and whitepapers addressing prospects’ interests including EPA regulations, natural gas industry rule changes and advice for designing preventative maintenance plans garnered 66 quote requests for an additional $2.2 million in revenue.

“In an economy where businesses are concerned about spending large sums of money, the consistent visibility, thought leadership and accessibility of resources we’ve helped create form a special bond between our client and their prospects,” explains Arment Dietrich, Inc. account executive Molli Megasko.

Newsroom mentality

A key distinction between content marketing and brand journalism is the latter takes newsroom approaches to developing information. An online newsroom is the foundation of these efforts. Newsrooms are populated regularly with compelling stories, blogs and visuals that go beyond a brand’s own concerns and product news to cover broad perspectives about an industry including other players within it. Companies immersed in brand journalism often staff their newsrooms with full-time editorial personnel and augment them with curated posts from other thought leaders.

The Louisiana Seafood Board worked with News Strategies LLC following BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill to launch an online newsroom covering people and businesses impacted by the crisis through articles, photos and videos. Its stories were also picked up by mainstream media and the Board cites newsroom efforts as a catalyst for securing $30 million in relief assistance from BP.

Organic Valley, America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers and a popular national food brand, blends brand and industry news on its site plus provides a “Who’s Your Farmer?” web app so visitors and journalists can enter zip codes to ‘meet’ farmers in specific regions via brief or extended summaries about their farms.

General Motors uses Google+ as a social newsroom to share tailored information with individuals or groups of journalists, bloggers and customers via the site’s Circles feature.

While brand journalism requires effort and budget to sustain, it puts information for sales, donations, memberships and elections in a more logical sequence people can act upon as needed. Keep these ideas in mind when managing your content:

Customer experience pays off – Organizations reap rewards by putting themselves second, sharing valuable information while patiently waiting for moments their offerings can assist people.

Leverage lifecycles – If prospects read ten pieces of literature before purchasing, design yours to address questions they have along the way. For brand journalism, gauge trends you can cover multiple times versus news requiring one timely post.

Thought leading over lead capturing – Lead capture forms can brand your material as advertising. Just include your contact information; when your messages are good people will happily come find you.

A version of this post appears as the March Digital Dialogue column in the PR Tactics Journal, published by the Public Relations Society of America.

Fresh off a family visit to Dunkin’ Donuts over the weekend I see the franchisor has redesigned its website per details in a Mashable post which also cites DD for placing more “importance on self-distributed media.” This echoes the continuing trend of brand journalism: where big brands and businesses of various sizes publish their own news, advice and thought leadership pieces direct to customers and followers using web publishing tools. When big brands engage in these activities it brings more awareness to the value of brand journalism; a concept nearly one-in-the-same with content marketing and, I venture, self-distributed media.

DD’s “Behind The Beans” blog is one venue for some of its brand journalism efforts along with its well-followed Facebook page. Online brand journalism activities have grown into viable communication formats that are much more than ad hoc or auxiliary efforts. Consider that Dunkin’ Donuts is communicating directly to its own sizeable fan base [Facebook = 3 million-plus likes, YouTube = 1.2M  total views, Twitter = 75,000 followers] that in certain instances outnumbers the readership of some publications that cover it; although those pubs have a concentrated value all their own (quality vs. quantity) and some also have impressive social media presence. Still, when you have put in the work to attain a critical mass of followers the next natural steps are nurturing and leveraging that goodwill.

Another brand journalism objective is to help the media by providing easily searchable information that encourages pickup, sharing and expansion upon what companies themselves have published. Mashable merely mentioning and linking to DD’s Smart Talks Series is a good example – a prime-time online amplifies the corporation’s message within an appropriate context, aiding exposure and awareness.

Media representatives could view DD’s video series to obtain details for a piece on how and why fast food chains are designing more elaborate smart-choice menus, how Dunkin’ is incorporating customer feedback or simply for the healthy eating advice offered. They could view them to anonymously audition a spokesperson and determine if they want to interview him or her for an article or broadcast. And further ideas can surely be gleaned by skilled editors and news directors.

Brand journalism has become a fun and functional way to reach and engage multiple audiences – and it can be applied to more serious subjects too such as healthcare organizations or a politician’s public agenda (bringing personal branding into the mix).

Have you noticed any favorite brands publishing their own advice or news-oriented content?

Here is a recap of the 2010 Digital Dialogue column covering digital communication advice as published in the PR Tactics journal from the Public Relations Society of America. Enjoy the Holidays, and here’s wishing a prosperous 2011 to everyone!

Welcome to the DARC Side: creating compelling web content (Jan 2010) – HubSpot co-founders and “Inbound Marketing” co-authors Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah help identify digital communicators’ ideal traits.

Getting ahead of the class, social media style (Feb 2010) – How PR students channel social networking know-how into marketable career potential. Cites Butler University’s Evan Strange and Ferris State University’s Mikinize Stuart as best-practice examples.

What profile mining means for you (March 2010) – A look at online research and ge0-location tools with insight from strategy consultants and bloggers Valeria Maltoni and Jay Baer.

Building an online community with PRStudChat (April 2010) – How Mango! Marketing’s Deirdre Breakenridge and Valerie Simon of BurrellesLuce created the PRStudChat online community for PR students, educators and professionals.

Online newsrooms in the digital era (May 2010) – A discussion with The News Group Net’s David Henderson about the real audience for online newsrooms and how to make them valuable destinations people will actually return to.

Livestreaming removes broadcast boundaries, expands PR potential (June 2010) – Suggestions for outfitting your team to make the most of video technologies from Ustream, Skype and others. Quotes Jeramie McPeek of the Phoenix Suns.

Blogs and the art of thought leadership (July 2010) – Why blogging is an essential business communication tool with insight from Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 and the Content Marketing Institute, and Amanda Miller Littlejohn of Mopwater PR.

Crowdsourcing for innovation (Aug 2010) – A look at crowdsourcing’s business value with quotes from PepsiCo’s Shiv Singh and Go Daddy’s Marianne Curran.

Tumbling and posturing through the statusphere (Sept 2010) – An examination of short-form blogging with free tools such as Tumblr and Posterous. Quotes Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital.

Brand journalism creates another viable news outlet (Oct 2010) – How corporations are publishing valuable information free of sales and marketing jargon in an effort to educate, assist and engage their customers.

Influencing the news cycle in real time (Nov 2010) – An interview with David Meerman Scott, author of “Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business.”

Where PR pros are heading with the social Web (Dec 2010) – Suggestions for digital communicators as we head into 2011 with inspiration from Diane Sawyer and advice from Abbie Fink of HMA Public Relations and Christine Perkett of PerkettPR.

Denis Pombriant’s new book “Hello, Ladies! Dispatches From The Social CRM Frontier” is a thought-inspiring read for technology users and innovators, social media enthusiasts, economics junkies and, yes, professional communicators. If you enjoy writing that’s long on logic with a splash of wit, you’ll be right at home and enlightened.

Dispatches is a 166-page collection of Pombriant’s essays (mainly his blog posts, perhaps with some polishing) organized into several major themes: social media, sustainability, economics, customer relationship management, customer experience, Web 2.0 and cloud computing. Denis, an independent technology analyst, weaves today’s business realities and looming natural resource concerns within these themes to glue everything together. In the process he exposes the interdependencies of each and really gets you thinking about cause and affect.

Pombriant’s pragmatic approach to social networking – and really any technology’s promise – is what impresses me most. Like many, he seeks to indentify the ROI, but advises to first understand who is involved in a particular social network and what their motivators may be. Mere membership in an online community is not necessarily participation, he notes. Thoughts need to be exchanged, ideas mined, value generated.

The book explores the perpetuating online / on-demand economy to show how a profitable endgame is the sum of its parts. The publishing industry is touched on in several essays and the craft (or maybe it’s a science) of online billing and provisioning fee-based content and services, for example, is examined in an effort to steer publishing stakeholders toward a light at the end of the tunnel.

And for communicators…

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, communications professional or business representative there’s good advice you can glean from Pombriant’s approach, in addition his book’s content.

Format - Consider that this book is re-purposed blog posts – good ones that deserve more exposure. So whether it’s an Ebook, a compendium such as this, or bursts of information to fuel a content marketing or brand journalism strategy, you can gain extra mileage and a larger audience when applying a syndication mindset.

Style – Clear lines of thought go a long way toward informing and entertaining. I’ve always found Denis’ writing to do both and suggest a study of his style when considering a tweak to your own.

Thought Leadership - “You can’t expect to sell anything until you have convinced the customer of the correctness of your line of thought,” says Pombriant. Writing is exercise in some respects. If you do it often enough, you find your voice and some bright ideas worthy of consideration and use by others. That can go a long way toward building and sustaining your business.

This post also appears as the July Digital Dialogue column in “Public Relations Tactics,” a publication of the Public Relations Society of America.

Can you, your clients or your spokespeople be considered thought leaders in the digital era without a blog?

Joe Pulizzi, author of “Get Content Get Customers,” founder of Junta42, a content marketing advisory, and creator of the Content Marketing Institute, posed this question in a recent blog post.

“You can’t be taken seriously by business audiences unless you have a blog in the mix,” Pulizzi explained during a phone discussion, also noting that blogs are simply delivery mechanisms. Sharing your insights consistently is the true yardstick, according to Pulizzi, regardless of format. And while it is certainly possible to do business without a blog, having one is a key ingredient for establishing and sustaining online presence.

On a World Wide Web full of Twitter following, Facebook friending and YouTube viewing, it is easy to lose sight of blogging’s benefits. Blogs remain the most flexible online format for professional communicators.

Technorati’s most recent State of the Blogosphere report, released in April, found that 70 percent of nearly 3,000 bloggers surveyed say they are better known in their industries because of their blogs.

Amanda Miller Littlejohn, a PR and social media consultant based in Washington, D.C., is a believer. She started her Mopwater PR + Media Notes blog in November 2008, and has since seen her client roster grow and has had more speaking and training opportunities.

“People remember the Mopwater name, which has become an excellent icebreaker during networking events,” she says. “Blogging helps me stand out in the competitive D.C. region. People may forget about a specific PR project I managed, but my blog is always there archiving my expertise and advice. When people read its quality, they are instant believers.”

Her sentiments echo a common theme: Traditional journalists often prioritize interviews with bloggers because they see proof of expertise through a blog. Well-written, tagged and search-optimized blogs are their directories.

Pulizzi concentrates on frequent blog posts rather than press releases to promote Junta42, and says he receives three or four solid interview requests per week.

He finds that the most charismatic bloggers do not merely regurgitate the latest stats or trends about their industries, they offer opinions and analysis. They also expand their content’s reach, sharing it across Twitter, Facebook and other networks.

Blogging, then, is not only their central self-publishing outlet and home base; it is their resume for attracting new opportunities.

In addition, lacking a blog can potentially be perceived as lacking relevance within an industry. Blogs are the fabric of online communication, serving as outright thought leadership vehicles and behind-the-scenes content management systems. They require a time commitment, plus mind-set and priority shifts for those who haven’t yet tried one. Blogs are inexpensive (often free) and fully at our disposal. As professional communicators, we ought to maximize their use.

Ryan Zuk, APR, is a media and analyst relations professional and Phoenix PRSA Chapter member. Zuk can be reached at ryanzuk at gmail dot com and @ryanzuk on Twitter. He also blogs at criticalmasspr.com

Author David Meerman Scott and HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan hosted a fun Webinar yesterday for marketing and communication professionals entitled “Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead” (Replay Here).

I’m an easy sell when a classic rock or jam band theme is afoot and, besides, the hosts were putting their respective “World Wide Rave” and “Inbound Marketing” mantras into practice by providing valuable content at no cost to their audience.

Both gents did a nice job relating characteristics of the Grateful Dead with communication and content marketing concepts; even noting that, just as The Dead improvised during their long concert jams, they too were creating much of Thursday’s Webinar as the went along.

The most interesting thing about the Grateful Dead is their unique sound – tapping jazz, blues and psychedelic era influences – and the way they distribute and share it. While the band occasionally released studio albums until the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, their live shows are what made them remarkable according to Halligan. I agree, and although I’m not a Dead Head to the core I’ve certainly learned to appreciate the band’s music through its live recordings.

(Musical interlude #1 – I don’t think the band’s 1980’s studio album output – my era of introduction – was that bad either. Removing official live album releases you have “Go To Heaven” (’80) “In The Dark” (’87) and “Built To Last (’89). “In The Dark” alone gave us great songs including “Touch of Grey,” “Hell In a Bucket” and “Throwing Stones.” You may recall the “Touch of Grey” video that gave the band a brief MTV run.)

Letting fans record concerts for free is the cornerstone of the band’s strategy even today (post-Garcia iterations include The Other Ones, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Dead, and Furthur). The band has always allowed this, even staging designated recording equipment areas at their shows. This was the “original freemium model” as Halligan puts it, and it created viral, word-of-mouth marketing among fans who still spent plenty of money on concert tickets, T-shirts and posters; making album sales concerns an afterthought.

The Dead are willing to lose control of their marketing by letting fans define them and giving much of their music away for free. This has made all the difference in terms of the band’s long running success. Halligan and Meerman Scott implore marketers to engage in similar activities, creating great content that is meaningful for an audience instead of being all about products and services. Business opportunities and sales results follow as a content strategy develops awareness, reach and trust.

Meerman Scott reminds us that most organizations operate in a command and control environment with mission statements, boilerplate descriptions and processes and PR messages. “This stuff doesn’t spread much,” he said when suggesting businesses let people talk about them as they will, without dictating how they should say it. (I commented on dictation and collaboration previously in a Social CRM guest post for CRM Magazine). It’s a leap for anyone set in their ways, yet if you can accept letting prospects and customers use your information in a context that is valuable for them and their social networks, the likelihood of gaining favorability among them is infinitely better.

In The DARC

Halligan mentioned one of my favorites from his book “Inbound Marketing” with Dharmesh Shah as the hour concluded. Certain traits are desired when assembling top quality marketing and communication teams in the digital era. He and Shah offer the DARC acronym as a guideline, suggesting you seek people who are digital natives, analytical, have social reach and are content creators. (I explored this further in conversation with Halligan earlier this year.)

Several other points I liked from the Grateful Dead Marketing set:

• Halligan noted it is ok to “be worse than your competition in some ways.” The Dead were much worse at studio albums by most fan standards while better than most anybody else at live concerts. Focusing on your core competency helps you stand out.
• Modern marketing professionals are half marketer and half content creator. Your library of content stacks up over time and starts to pull people towards your business.
• Enable your fans to help spread your message. It’s simple and I like it. If you develop ebooks or whitepapers only to cage them behind lead generation forms, you’ve left most of your potential audience in the dark. Set these things free (and tag them with your contact info and social sites) – the goodness will come back to you!
• The Dead were experimenters, improvising within songs every night. No show was the same. “Sometimes they laid an egg,” says Halligan, but they failed fast and moved on to the next show. Quick cycles of experimentation work well in the new world of marketing.
• Your best fans / customers ought to get special offers and news about your new products first. Meerman Scott says most of the time marketers do just the opposite, offering special pricing to first-time buyers and subscribers while giving the rest of their customer base the shaft.

If you attended the Webinar, watched the replay, or just dig Inbound Marketing, I would enjoy hearing your perspective.

(Musical interlude #2 – Speaking of free music, I’m a big fan of Wolfgang’s Vault which features dozens of Grateful Dead shows among its thousands of free concert streams spanning the 60’s to present day. Many of the shows, including some Dead shows, were originally staged by famed concert promoter Bill Graham and have great history behind them you can read about in the Vault. My favorite Dead show in the Vault thus far is the New Year Eve ’88 show from Oakland Coliseum Arena. A good three-hour vibe. And www.deadlistening.com is another place to discover shows.)

I love when a good book finds me. This was the case with “Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, And Blogs” by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot. It was next up on my Amazon Wish List but then – Boom! – it came my way via a promotional copy handoff from Social CRM consultant Brent Leary.

This friendly exchange ended up being a nice example of what the book is all about; creating content (online content for the most part) and relationships that help people find you and your business. These guys are good… I called up Brian right away and he was open to sharing some additional thoughts regarding Inbound Marketing implications and opportunities. His comments became the basis of my January PR Tactics article “Welcome to the DARC side: Creating compelling content for your Web site.”

The article focuses on the authors’ DARC acronym detailing essential qualities for every communicator in the digital age (Digital Citizens, Analytical Chops, Web Reach, and Content Creators). I couldn’t fit everything from my discussion with Brian into this piece, so here are some additional insights he shared. His comment regarding Apple is timely this week given introduction of the iPad, and extension of their simplicity and ubiquitous themes. (Apple PR, by the way, is an interesting study unto itself. This New York Times article by David Carr gives further details.)

Ryan Zuk: You cite Apple and the iPod among the inspirations for HubSpot. Are there elements here communicators can apply to help do their jobs better?

Brian Halligan: When I think of the iPod, instead of a complicated MP3 player, I think of a great experience focused less on features and more on user interface. Apple designed an alternative focused not on features but on an enjoyable experience. This is the takeaway everyone in business should consider. At HubSpot, for example, we take complicated Web concepts and simplify them for marketers. Most marketing firms wanting to do modern marketing right need to assemble SEO, blogging, lead management and Web analytics consultants. This can get rather complicated. Our Internet marketing software harnesses these elements to help businesses generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of them into paying customers.

RZ: How does Inbound Marketing change business operation and communication?

BH: I was reading a comment by David Meerman Scott basically suggesting that the old-school rules of marketing focused on buying attention (advertising), begging for it (PR) or bugging people one at a time (sales). Inbound Marketing is about creating really compelling content for your Web site (videos, blogs, EBooks etc) that pulls people in to learn more about you. The people attracted include other Web site owners who link to your content, and people tweeting about your content and sharing it on other social networks. Lots of links naturally bring more people to you, and meanwhile you start ranking nicely on Google.

When you have good content it tends to snowball. More and more people start to find you. The nice thing about creating remarkable content is that it is very cumulative. You earn a few more links after each post. It’s kind of like compounding interest in your bank account.

RZ: What can we do as marketers, PR practitioners and communicators to get on board?

BH: Marketing teams and PR agencies need to help clients change their culture of content creation. Bigger, older businesses need to understand that every piece of content shouldn’t be scrutinized through legal reviews. You really need to crank out lots of good stuff, so focus on turning your clients into publishing machines. Businesses who win on the Internet are prolific publishers. Zappos and Whole Foods are a couple that come to mind.

Help your clients craft content that is right for them. Maybe it’s videos for one and blogs for another. Getting remarkable content to the masses creates an inbound flow of traffic that becomes your prospect pipeline, and eventually your paying customers.

My thanks to Brian for his time. You can find HubSpot’s free Grader resources at Grader.com if you haven’t experienced them already. The tools help evaluate and improve your Web presence as well as how you use Facebook and Twitter.

Also check out www.hubspot.tv which airs Fridays at 4:00 p.m. Eastern