News Comes First: What Marketers Can Learn From Journalism

In marketing communications, I often recognised long-winded phrases instead of getting straight to the point. Here’s why marketers should put the news first, whenever they can.

Here I started learning how news reporting works, at the former office of ZEIT ONLINE in Berlin.

The news is more important than the story.

• In journalism, the goal is to provide readers with as much information as quickly as possible.
• In marketing, promoting messages for discounts and new features have more impact when context and background information comes after the key message, rather than before.
• Even in everyday personal communication and especially when delivering bad news, the news should come first.

The inverted funnel for journalistic news articles

• News journalists work with the so-called reversed funnel principle. Readers are given the most important information first, followed by the sources and context.

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinzip_der_umgekehrten_Pyramide

The inverted funnel for content marketing comms

• I adapted the journalism funnel for marketing. It includes all the marketing sparkles that turns your key message into conversion.

Adapted funnel for marketing comms.

• The key message should be the main attraction, not the vague cliffhanger that leads to it. If readers are genuinely interested in the news, they will keep reading. Conversely, if they are not interested, not even a strong cliffhanger will convert them.
• Mention the benefit that the reader will get from reading further as soon as possible, instead of using empty cliffhangers.
• Context is often communicated at the beginning, which is a mistake. The key message should speak for itself. Then, the context explains the background information and strengthens the key message.
• The CTA is the equivalent of an outlook in a news article.

Checklist for marketing comms with news at the beginning

Source: https://www.eye-square.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/03/MediaAttentionBenchmark-EngFullBLUECOVERS.pdf

• Trust that your key message is interesting enough to come first in introduction and if not, don’t communicate it at all.
• Make sure that the headline, teaser and the first sentence are clear enough to understand the purpose of the communication.
• The lead sentence should answer all the W-questions and be written in the present tense and active voice.
• The final sentence should provide an outlook on what’s next and include a Call to Action. In this section, you can summarise again and conclude convincingly why your content piece has a reason to exist and should be shared or saved.
• Test your communication. Send your first lead sentence to a friend and test what they think the article is about, or ask a chatbot!

Put news first for Content Marketing.

In Marketing, put the news first …

• in long-form SEO articles.
• in CRM emails.
• in product marketing communications.
• in team announcements.
• in job descriptions.
• for any bad news.

In journalism, put the News first …

• in any news article.
• in journalistic reports.
• in analysis and coverage.

But in some cases, put the story first.

In marketing, put the story first ….

• when telling the company history.
• in the “About Us” section on the website.
• in a traditional advertising campaign.
• when writing a LinkedIn post.

In journalism, put the story first …

• in an essay-
• in a portrait.
• in a comment.
• in a gloss.

Bad news to deliver? Get straight to the point, always.

• Avoid storytelling at the beginning. When delivering bad news, storytelling works better for heroic stories.
• Use context afterwards to support the reasons for the bad news and put it into perspective.
• Combine a solution approach in the outlook. It will soften the bad news.
• Btw, this also applies to everyday communication:

Which message is more straight forward and progressive?

What marketers can learn from journalists

Stop using empty phrases, weak cliffhangers, and long introductions, if you want to get your message across. Putting the news first is also a good way to proof if your message is worth sharing.

Start communicating in a user-friendly manner by presenting the most important news first. Your readers will be most interested in the actual message. By providing additional context, you can reinforce the significance and importance of the news.

Continue to package your news in an emotional and hype-driven manner. While journalistic news strives to be as objective as possible, marketers can turn their news into a sensation without compromising the truth.