Category Archives: Content Marketing

Newspapers stacked on a bench

7 valuable journalism skills you can use in content marketing

The last couple of decades have been tough for journalists—and it was bad way before COVID-19 ruined everything.

As journalism has contracted—or, to put a positive spin on it, as it’s evolved—I’ve run across a number of people who started in journalism and moved into content marketing.

I departed journalism long ago. I was trained as a journalist and I love the skill and craftsmanship of great journalism, but I was never compelled to be a journalist.

At this point, I’ve been in marketing far longer than I was ever in journalism. What’s interesting is that many of the skills I learned in journalism are touchstones in my content marketing work.

This piece covers the core journalism skills that have shaped my content marketing strategies and tactics. I put this together primarily for journalists thinking about a move to content marketing, but it’s also useful for established marketers who want to apply journalism skills in their marketing projects.

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Excavator with dirt pile

Repurposing content isn’t fast or easy

Ever heard this one? “We’ve got all this unused material from Project X. Let’s repurpose it into articles. It’ll be easy!”

This is the equivalent of a movie studio saying “We’ve got all this footage we cut from the movie. Let’s put it together into a totally different movie. It’ll be easy!”

That second example is absurd and we all know it. So why is the first example any different?

The goal of this piece is to provide you—the diligent content marketer / editor you are—with ways to push back against repurposing requests. My hope is that you’ll be able to minimize the impact of these projects and avoid the unnecessary work and frustration they carry.

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Sometimes there’s a gap between the keyword you think you’re ranking for and the keyword you’re actually ranking for. And that’s okay.

I’ve been working on a keyword project. The idea is to identify high-volume keywords in areas where my company is invested. Specifically, we put on a bunch of events and each of these events aligns with a technical area. These areas revolve around unique technologies and techniques, and technologies and techniques just happen to map beautifully with keywords.

So, we’re building original content that’s constructed to rank well for target keywords. And we’re doing this in a non-sleazy way that’s editorially sound and won’t make my journalism degree burst into flames.

I’ve been using Google’s Search Console with this project. While poking around in this tool, I’ve discovered there’s sometimes a significant gap between the keyword I think I’m ranking for and the keyword I’m actually ranking for. Continue reading