FirstWord’s six rules of content marketing
Welcome to our rules page. It is where we keep our framework for producing the high-quality editorial that we call content marketing.
Moreover, it is the essence of what we do.
Interested? Then scroll down for more…
Rule 1: Publishing
FirstWord staff have worked for publications including the Financial Times, Telegraph and Wall Street Journal, as well as the BBC.
We can help you become a publisher like these companies.
Rule 2: Get it out there
Remember when you needed a public relations executive to write and push your press release?
Only to see it go nowhere?
Now, it is not just possible for companies to tell their own stories but imperative.
Rule 3: It’s journalism
Display advertising is going nowhere while Google continually resets its algorithm to reward in-depth content.
Regular posting of text, images, multimedia and infographics, combined with analytics, can build your brand.
Yet it will not work unless it is treated as journalism.
Rule 4: Think QVR
We look to foster a newsroom mentality. It is about continually asking questions.
How many stories are we doing this month? What questions do we ask? It is as much about story gathering as storytelling.
Rule 5: Find the audience
Amazing content does not simply find its own audience. The two need to be connected.
Distribute your stories where your audiences live online: sometimes you will need social-media campaigns grown organically; at others you will pay to direct traffic on to the websites of media owners.
Rule 6: Newsroom rigour
Content marketing should not be confined only to your products, people and services.
Instead it needs input from outside voices and outside stimuli with the result that you become the sponsor and facilitator of debate and conversation about your industry.
While compiling your newslist/editorial calendar, you need to ask not just “What do we want to write about ourselves?” but “What else is happening in the world?”.
