13 tips for marketers who may not have broadcast journalism experience, but they need to know how how these fit perfectly into creating a content marketing and brand newsroom machine.

1. brand
news
room
for creating aTips!
YourBrandExposed.com
Original Content Series
Scott MacFarland
November | 2014

2. brand
news
room
Tips!
!
As a young professional I worked in a broadcast
television newsroom for many years. This was an
eye-opening experience for me that I wouldn’t
trade for anything. The skills I learned I still use
today because they are timeless in strategy and
execution.
!
What a newsroom journalist does everyday is
what we marketers should do to create a
brand newsroom machine.
!
Here are 13 tips for marketers who may not have
broadcast journalism experience, but they need to
know how these fit perfectly into creating a
content marketing and brand newsroom machine.
02
for creating a

3. brand
news
room
Tips!
Every piece of content you create matters and is part
of the overall perception your audience has of the
company. Be very careful what your brand image
displays and says to the customer. Customers don’t
want to be told or sold. They want to make the
decision themselves. customers are much smarter
and have more influence over the brand than we give
them credit.
customers are much smarter
and have more influence
over our brand than
we give them credit.
Perception!
1!
03
for creating a

4. brand
news
room
Tips!
!
1.What type of content am I creating?
2. Why am I creating it? Determine a key message.
3. Is my audience going to be positively or negatively
impacted when they see my content?
4. What response do I want to get from the viewer once
they see my content
5. What criteria determine if content is not usable?
6. Who is responsible for quality control and final
approval?
Ask yourself these 12 questions
before you start the content
creation process.
Content!
2!
04
for creating a

5. brand
news
room
Tips!
!
7. Do you have an editorial calendar?
8. Will your content be a series of stories, one article or a
special feature?
9. What are the sources of your content and are they
validated?
10. What tone of voice is most effective when reaching
your customers? Speak and write in the tone of voice
you would speak to them as if they were in front of you.
11. Are you positioning your content as if it is the authority?
12. Is the content you create relevant and helpful to your
audience?
Content!
2!
05
for creating a
Content should answer customer answer
questions and help to solve their problems.

6. brand
news
room
Tips!
We know content is the genesis of a brand newsroom.
However, if you don’t have a plan for how it is best
distributed, the content most likely will not have the
impact you want. Think about how you plan on using
the content and on what distribution channels it makes
the most sense to reach your intended audience. Keep
in mind, there is most likely more than one.
Distribution!
3!
There’s another player in
the digital marketing world,
and it has an immense following.
It’s called distribution.
06
for creating a

7. brand
news
room
Tips!
!
We all know that great content is valuable. But, what if
that great content sits idle and nobody sees it? Is it
valuable now? I think not. Enter distribution. Content is
produced and distributed in a lot of ways. This includes
all forms of traditional and digital content. Every medium
known to mankind is a form of distribution. If we take a
look at just the global Internet users, we know that all of
them are consuming content that has been distributed.
That’s 2.8-billion reasons why distribution deserves the
crown.
!
!
Sorry content…
you’re a close second.
Distribution!
3!
07
Source: InterWorldStats
for creating a

8. 3!
08
LinkedIn
Pinterest
PaidMedia
WebLandingPages
Blog
Video
eBook
Blog
Sales Sheet
Customer Q & A
Fact Sheet
Testimonials
X X X X X XXX
X X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X X X
X
X
Infographic
App
X
X
X
X
X
XX X
X
X
These projects are
being completed
“X” means that
channel has been
selected for
distribution
Distribution!
More ideas on Content Distribution
Source: TheNextWeb

9. brand
news
room
Tips!
!
Every piece of content should be designed to elicit a
response from your personas. Think about who these
people are and clearly define their personal and
professional attributes. You also want to identify their
”motivators” for buying your product or service. These
are key.
!
Audience
09
4
Depending on who your
audience is will help you
determine what type of
content you create and how
it is distributed to reach
them most effectively.
!
for creating a

10. brand
news
room
Tips!
A simple way to look at your audience is to think about
what generation they are. Here are the main living
generations in America. The most influential used to be
the Boomers because of their buying power. However,
Millennials are making a strong run at the next high-
power generation. If you are not paying attention to
them, you should.
!
Silent: 1927-1945
Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
Generation X: 1965-1980
Generation Y / Millennial: 1981- 2000
Generation Z: Born after 2000
!
!
!
!
Audience
10
4
Get more information on Generations
Source: MarketingTeacher
for creating a

11. brand
news
room
Tips!
Feedback
11
5
How will you allow your viewer to
communicate with you in order to get valuable
feedback? Once you figure out an appropriate
method of getting customer feedback, think
about how you will use that information to
create and distribute content more effectively.
!
You can use you own company
social media channels to listen
and get feedback, or use others
to monitor conversations.
for creating a

12. brand
news
room
Tips!
Feedback
12
5
Social Mention
Addictomatic
Twazzup
IceRocket
TweetDeck
KnowEm
Ubersuggest
HootSuite
Buffer
Social Report
Cyfe
!
Here are 11 social media applications that are
easy to use and will provide you with more
analytical data, monitoring and automation than
you ever thought possible.
for creating a

13. brand
news
room
Tips!
Organization
13
6
Planning and organizing your content calendar is a
must. Without structure, your content strategy will be
haphazard at best and you won’t be able to produce
everything you need, when you need it. An organized
and planned approach always helps the key contributors
to be more efficient and effective.
Benefits of a content calendar
• Allocate staff and resources!
• Plan for upcoming deadlines!
• Big picture review of content topics!
• Prevents content redundancy!
• Helps with time management!
• Provides visibility of your content over time!
to ensure a balanced media approach is !
happening!
for creating a

14. brand
news
room
Tips!
Organization
14
6
!
A Content Calendar gives you visibility of your
planned content production and distribution over time.
This enables you to look at the big picture (3-6-9-12
months), or a week by week view. It also allows you to
take a look at 9 key areas that need timely attention
to detail when multiple project assignments are being
produced.!
!
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
for creating a

15. brand
news
room
Tips!
Organization
15
6
!
The benefit of a content calendar is to provide you with
a guided, organized approach. This will help to create
and produce content based on important factors that
you determine are most helpful for your team. Below are
the 9 that I use to organize content workflow.!
!
Day/Week/Month: When do you want it out the door?!
Topic: What content genre are you are producing?!
Keywords: Based on your brand and product!
Media Type: Blog, eBook, Video, Landing page…!
Persona: Select one persona not an “everyone” approach!
Stage: Awareness, Conversion, Purchase!
Offer / Call-to-action: “Download this eBook”!
Author: Determine the person who is the author!
Completed: When it’s totally finished
for creating a

16. brand
news
room
Tips!
Production
16
7
!
Think about the content production process and make
sure all your areas of responsibility are covered. This
can be accomplished with a simple spreadsheet
outlining the description of responsibilities, which is
performing the task, what resources you need and
when it’s due. This will help you manage all the
production aspects of a brand newsroom. Here are 10
roles that are commonly seen in brand newsrooms.
• Writing
•
Social Media
•
Designing
•
Photography
•
Videography
•
Video editing
•
Web/interactive programming
•
Content Management / Web / Analytics
•
Research
•
Media / Press
for creating a

17. brand
news
room
Tips!
Resources
17
8
Sometimes you don’t have the resources to produce
your projects in the time you need it done. How will
you accommodate for that to ensure it’s finished on
time? My suggestion is to always have a plan-B in
your back pocket ready to go. That way when a crisis
does happen and you need plan-B to be executed on
a moment’s notice, there will be a plan ready.
Your plan-B should really be a checklist which includes
specific duties and deliverables that need to be done ASAP.
Don’t forget to include a team member’s name so they
understand plan-B is their responsibility.
for creating a

18. 18
!
A crisis won’t come when you are
expecting it. It always arrives at the
worst possible time. Having a
pre-established plan-B will make
the crisis situation much easier to
handle in the heat of the moment.

19. brand
news
room
Tips!
Time Management
19
9
In a newsroom environment, just like in a marketing
department, there are multiple competing deadlines
and projects that must be completed, in short order.
Learning to manage your time, and have the ability to
jump back and forth from big picture to tactical, here
and now, is an absolute must.
!
Creating a project timeline is
critical to see both the big
picture and the tactical details.
for creating a

20. brand
news
room
Tips!
Time Management
20
9
!
Juggling projects, resources and challenges is a
fantastic skill to learn. You must ask yourself when
you are in the middle of juggling many content
priorities, “what is my deadline?” If you have project
timeline in place you can refer to them as needed to
help keep you and your projects on track.
!
!
!
Week 1-2: Start research and writing of design document
Week 3-4: UX implementation / Navigational structure
- Client Approval
Week 5-6: Design / Look & Feel / Submit mock-ups
- Client Approval
Week 7-8: Web testing / QC
- Final Client Approval
Week 9: Project Due
Sample Timeline
for creating a

21. brand
news
room
Tips!
Accuracy
21
10
!
When content is created, it’s not thrown together like
throwing caution into the wind. It’s planned and
purposely produced with a goal in mind. Regardless
of the due date on the project, accuracy is always at
the top of the list of important items to think about.
When you are accurate, your credibility skyrockets.
When you are not, your credibility is headed for the
toilet, and that’s a stinky place to be.
!
!
! The details matter, so pay
attention every step along the
way, even when you think
you can do the job with
your eyes closed.
for creating a

22. brand
news
room
Tips!
Speed
22
11
Energy in a newsroom is fueled by speed. Every
piece of content must be produced with this in mind.
Sometimes the most valuable content produced is
completed in the shortest amount of time.
!
In marketing, speed is also very important, especially
now that social media commonplace and requires
immediacy. Marketers today must think fast and
sometimes act on instinct.
!
!
!
!
Speed and accuracy combined
require a deep knowledge and
understanding of your job
function, brand, customer
and technology.
for creating a

23. brand
news
room
Tips!
Teamwork
23
12
Newsroom journalists know that without proper
teamwork, problems arise, deadlines aren’t met,
editorial, production and creative suffers and the story
is in jeopardy of not making it on air.
!
Teamwork is a vital ingredient for marketing
departments as well. Many aspects of marketing
require subject matter experts in editorial, design,
programming, production, strategy, social, digital and
traditional elements to name a few. With today’s
marketing being heavily integrated with technology,
marketers must also know who to turn to when the
tools you need aren’t working. All of these play
integral roles in the marketing mix.
!
!
!
A good team, produces a good product,
it’s as simple as that.
for creating a

24. brand
news
room
Tips!
Creativity
24
13
This is such an ambiguous skill that can sometimes
be hard to measure. We all know creativity is
imperative in order to produce top-level work. Make
sure you have a go-to person or team that can do all
things creative. This skill is incredibly valuable when
integrating multiple digital and traditional channels to
grab your prospective customer’s attention all while
increasing exposure and credibility. Without creativity,
your messaging, imagery and brand will fall far short
of expectations. Check out these three below. They
may help you add a boost of creativity to your work.
for creating a
Here are a few apps I really like!
Canva Visme Typendium

25. brand
news
room
Tips!
25
The mantra of your brand newsroom should be
defined with these 13 terms listed below. They
will be the foundation of how your brand
newsroom thinks, what makes it tick and keeps
it energized and fueled with the expertise it
needs to create incredible marketing.
Perception!
Content!
Distribution!
Audience!
Feedback!
Organization!
Production!
!
!
Resources!
Time Management!
Accuracy!
Speed!
Teamwork!
Creativity!
!
!
!
for creating a

26. brand
news
room
for creating aTips!
YourBrandExposed.com
Original Content Series
Source / Icons: HubSpot
27

27. Want more helpful tips on
Marketing, Digital, Content
and Social Media? YourBrandExposed.com
28
Original Content Series
Scott MacFarland
November | 2014