Can you make your content so good that people might pay to read it?

There’s recently been an article on the front page of The Huffington Post. Its title was ‘No Time To Waste’ and it was accompanied by an image of a Tesco supermarket storefront. I was intrigued, clicked and read the piece which turned out to be written by Tesco’s CEO, Dave Lewis. I wasn’t expecting that.

The article described the global problem of food waste. There were some shocking statistics followed by descriptions of Tesco’s plans to reduce such waste. The article was written in the first person and clearly attributed to Lewis. There was no indication that it was sponsored content, native advertising or any other sort of promotion.

So, is the CEO of a massive supermarket moonlighting as a blog writer to earn some extra income? Unlikely. Did he send the piece in speculatively because he wanted to tell the world about his plans for food waste? Again unlikely. If The Huffington Post did not pay Tesco, then perhaps Tesco paid the Huff Post. Or was it a mutually beneficial arrangement where no cash changed hands?

I’ll scratch your content marketing back…

The Tesco example raises an important question for content marketers. If a brand does not pay for its content to be published, is there any legal or ethical obligation to explain the nature of the relationship between publisher and business?

I read the Tesco piece because I was interested in the topic. The fact that it was written by the CEO gave it a degree of authority and inside knowledge that most journalists could not match. Of course it was self-serving but I expected nothing less when I saw whom the author was. It achieved the Holy Grail of content marketing: to give the reader what they want while also providing a benefit for the brand.

Raise your aim, and your game

Such lofty aspirations should be shared by all content marketers. The traditional publishing model was for editorial to be written by journalists, advertising to be placed by marketers and advertorials to be a skewed combination of the two. That has changed. Editorial teams have often been reduced to a skeleton staff as ad revenue has dropped. At the same time, online versions of magazines and newspaper demand a constant flow of content.

This is where the expert and ambitious content marketer can come into his or her own. Rather than sending out a press release that you hope will get some coverage, why not write the whole article?

You (or your team) will need to be very good. This post will be followed up with specific advice for writing ‘proper’ journalism, but if you don’t have experienced editorial professionals at your disposal then the chances are you’ll fail. Get it right, however, and you’ll reach a broad audience with a message that will carry greater authority than anything you send out or share directly.