To help build awareness and trust with your target audience, a great tactic to add to your communications outreach is lifestyle editorial content. This is a form of content marketing that positions your company or brand as an expert or resource in a given situation. For example, a home and garden company giving tips to maintain a healthy lawn.
Through News Canada, clients have the opportunity to be featured in lifestyle editorial content that will be used by the news media and content editors across Canada.
To increase the chances of pickup, here are a few tips that we have found that help generate coverage.
Where it will be used:
Understanding who will publish the content will help ensure that its format and approach match the medium. For example, thinking about what content sections run in a daily newspaper or community paper will help you gear your headlines and content direction. For niche content like pets or babies – where there is rarely a devoted section – we’d recommend packaging that information into a more general article like “Tips for planning a road trip,” where one of the tips is about your furry companions or keeping a baby happy.
Why it will be used:
The main purpose of the content should be to offer valuable information to the reader, listener or viewer. A brand or company is here only to support this information in a non-promotional way. For instance, product features and benefits on their own do not provide value to enrich or educate an audience. However, if positioned properly a brand or product mention will maintain the integrity of the information while not appearing as a biased endorsement. For example, winter tires are a natural fit when speaking about driving safely in the snow, while recipes are relevant when you want to discuss health.
Who it’s coming from:
The purpose of creating lifestyle editorial content is to establish trust and rapport with the audience so they become familiar with the brand in relation to the topics covered. Writing in a neutral, non-persuasive tone is crucial. It means positioning the brand or company’s expertise without having to cheerlead for yourself. The knowledge and expertise should be supported by the company’s brand identity.
As part of your communications strategy, creating lifestyle editorial content for use by news media or content editors is a powerful way to generate brand awareness. Following these key tips will help ensure your content is focused on what your target audience needs from the content you’re featured in, and will help position your brand in a credible and authentic way.