Brand journalism is seldom done well by B2B organisations. Gay Flashman has answers in her new book.

Gay Flashman suggests that B2B organisations should become publishers to engage with customers and prospects. Her new book Powerful B2B Content was published earlier this month by Kogan Page.

Brand journalism is a form of content marketing whereby an organisation reports on its business, people, events and industry news. It’s a concept as old as the web itself but is something that very few organisations do well.

The challenge for a B2B organisation’s marketing team lies in matching the news and storytelling values of the organisation with its prospects and customers.

This isn’t journalism in the traditional sense. Brand journalists act on news value and report rather than engage in marketing promotion, but always seek to frame the organisation in a positive point of view.

Education and information are important values of brand journalism.  First person narrative is often used. It appeals to a fundamental human driver. People and organisations want to read stories about people like themselves.

Flashman is a former journalist with BBC, Sky and ITN turned agency marketing founder working for brands including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Tata and the World Economic Forum. 

Brand journalism works hardest at the top of the marketing funnel attracting new customers but it can also help sales nurture relationships and close deals.

Content is published to a brand hub on the organisation’s website and shared via social media channels and newsletters. Paid media is used to promote and target stories.

Flashman suggests following the design of a modern newsroom and clearly defining news values, story types, publishing schedule and channels.

Powerful B2B Content includes worksheets and planning tools to help an organisation get to grips with the process and the resources required to setup a brand newsroom.

If I have a criticism of Powerful B2B Content it’s that it doesn’t include a case study of the benefit that a brand journalism approach has delivered to an organisation as an integral part of its marketing effort.

The book does propose numerous measurement approaches and is packed with brand journalism examples by Autodesk, Bloomberg, Fujitsu, Redhat and the World Economic Forum, among others.

Powerful B2B Content: Using brand journalist to create compelling and authentic storytelling by Gay Flashman
Kogan Page, February 2020
£17.99
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