A common challenge for brand publishers is connecting their editorial output with the wider marketing goals of their organizations. Publishing can supercharge marketing efforts, but competition for resources and audience attention often arises between content and other marketing initiatives.
On this week’s episode of The Brand Publishing Show, I was joined by Ian Leslie, chief marketing officer at home furnishing brand Industry West. His work caught our eye when he was editor-in-chief at Banknotes, a standalone publication owned and backed by #paid, an influencer marketing tool. At Banknotes, he oversaw a burgeoning content operation that covered retail, influencer marketing and e-commerce news.
Ian and I discussed why slow and steady is the best way to get into brand publishing, why audiences can become frustrated with over-the-top marketing, and how Leslie thinks about editorial independence in brand publishing.
Edited highlights from our conversation are below.
Why brand publishing has to go beyond marketing
For Leslie, one of his chief frustrations is that audiences and consumers are tired of being marketed to, and are also tired of marketing disguised as content.
“We’re all better educated as consumers. People are tired of being marketed to. People are tired of getting emails. So what we did at #paid is, we’re just gonna give you the content, we hope you think it has enough value that you’re going to come back and ask us for a call or an appointment or more information. That’s refreshing. Before, everything on websites was just CTA after CTA. And it was just selling you and selling you and selling you and beating you over the head with it. At the end of the day, it just becomes white noise.”
How Industry West is thinking about its content strategy
Leslie is in the process of revamping Industry West’s editorial strategy and plans to focus on emulating interior decor and design magazines.
“If we do a profile of a really cool house redesign or interior design redesign of a home, and we interview the interior designer, and we interview the homeowner, that’s content that I’m hoping everyone from the interior design vertical to like people who own a nice home in the Hamptons are going to want to read regardless if it’s on our website or not. And it’s not beating over the head with, it’s not going to be like, style the look yourself, it’s not gonna be that like, that’s not my intent. It’s gonna be like here, here’s like a cool piece that you would find in Elle Decor. And it just happens to be on our website.”
Starting a media brand is challenging
Rather than going out guns blazing to “start a media company,” Leslie is a fan of a more pragmatic and measured approach to brand publishing.
“It’s been a pet peeve of mine, especially as it got into the cookie apocalypse and iOS apocalypse, where everyone’s just saying to spin up your own media brand. That requires a ton of money and effort. It’s just such a stupid throwaway line to tell brands to do. So we’re starting with posting a couple of times a month, high-quality content that people want to share. It’s going to have SEO value but not be written for SEO, which I think there’s a difference there. We’ll be able to track how many people are connecting with this content and converting. Then obviously you’re able to retarget off of it, and retargeting is a lower cost than top-of-funnel. And ultimately, it lends credibility to the brand.”
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson at Lightningpod.fm.