There is a rapidly growing trend in the publishing community to create content that recognizes the important role that industry suppliers play in the industry or profession they serve. But, this is balanced by a concern among publishers about how this content is created and presented and the effect it may have on the editorial integrity of media products. This is especially true for association publishers.
Associations are in the unique position of having to create highly credible content that delivers valuable information to their members. Also, associations are unique in that they have multi-faceted relationships with their industry’s suppliers—not only as advertisers, but also as members, exhibitors, sponsors, and, in some cases, committee and board members.
So, how does an association balance the increasing demands from advertisers for more coverage than just the ad space they are purchasing against the needs of the members to read timely and credible content about the association and its activities? With a unique balanced approach to the creation of content that supports the needs of advertisers without it appearing to be free advertising.
We have developed an editorial model that perfectly meets this need. We take an editorial approach that is viewed from the perspective of the member rather than the supplier. Our approach describes an issue or problem from the members’ point-of-view and then seeks suppliers who can provide solutions to this problem and ends with a description of how the implementation of the solution worked.
We also recognize that there should be some rules that define how content marketing editorial should be created and presented. These rules are as follows:
- The content should not be written by the association’s editorial staff
- The article should be clearly identified as “advertising content”
- The article’s title should not be included in the table of contents
- The article should be designed with a typeface and page style that is different than the editorial content of the publication and should appear in the second half of the publication
With experience producing this type of content for association publications, we work with your ad sales staff to identify key advertisers and suppliers who should be contacted for inclusion in the article. We contact each and ask them to take the “case study” approach to how one of the association’s members utilized a solution offered by this company and then how the problem was successfully resolved.
We also recognize that a company that is a large supporter of the association as an exhibitor or sponsor may not want to participate in this product. With each association’s guidance, we will still include this company’s information in the article. That is what makes our program different than most such editorial solutions. Just because a company elects to not advertise doesn’t automatically mean that they should be excluded from the project. We recognize and respect the unique relationships that associations have with the supplier community and work to assure that those relationships are enhanced.
To learn more about how our unique approach to the development of content-based special advertising sections can work for your organization, contact us today for a no obligation discussion about how content marketing can become a major tool to increase ad revenues.
Click on the icon, below, to see a sample of the editorial approach we take.
