One of the newest trends in the world business is for large corporations to do media publishing. There are number of advantages to this, and really the only downside is the time and money spent on the project. In many cases, it may be well worth it. We will explore corporate publishing media and the thinking behind it in this article.
Why Corporate Publishing?
Companies are getting into corporate publishing for two simple reasons: First, they are able to reach more customers, potential employees or business partners, and second, they are able to control the content and use it to their advantage. That is why they are using corporate blogs. Public relations are tasked with getting the company media coverage. This allows the corporate identity to be sent out to a lot of people, but the company has no control over the content. Not only do they not completely control the information about themselves, they do not control the content surrounding their feature, which can definitely add context.
But publishing a magazine, newsletter or other media allows the company to control all of the content in the publication. Not only are they able to ensure the right message is getting across whenever their company is featured, they can add their brand in multiple locations throughout the publication. Plus, the company controls the other content that surrounds their corporate message. This makes it very attractive from a public relations standpoint.
What is Corporate Media?
Corporate media is basically any media that is published by a company or on behalf of a company that carries their message to a specific audience. Most companies have some form of corporate media, even if they arent actively trying to send a message by publishing something. Corporate media can include magazines and newsletters, but it can also be video content, podcasts or any other form of media that is published with a company agenda.
Target Audiences for Corporate Media
Companies publish different types of media for different types of audiences. Many companies publish media that is meant to be distributed internally. For example, employee training videos, company newsletters and many other types of content can be intended solely for the employees of an organization.
Corporate media can also be targeted towards those in the industry. Several major companies have started their own industry magazines that enjoy wide distribution. The beautiful thing is, the company publishing the magazine can be front and center at all times, and each issue that goes out strengthens their corporate image as an expert in that particular industry.
Finally, companies may publish media that is intended for their customers. This could be a catalog, a brochure, a magazine, a newsletter or video content published to YouTube. The media may be intended to entertain or inform, but it also includes a message that will raise conversion rates. The great thing about publishing an industry or trade publication is that by targeting people in the industry or interested in the trade, you may already be targeting potential customers.
Outsourcing Corporate Media Publications
One of the things that have been trending lately when it comes to corporate media publications is outsourcing the publication. This doesnt just mean outsourcing the actual printing or design of the publication, it means handing over the reins to a third-party firm and allowing them to create the content and design from scratch.
Fulcrum Resources-Tip: This can take an enormous weight off of a company that would like to be creating media to send out to their audiences, but simply do not have the personnel, time or space to do so. It is often more expensive to outsource, but the results can be really impressive, because not only do these third-party companies create the publication from scratch, they sometimes take care of distribution as well.
Content Marketing
Of course, the biggest type of corporate publishing media is content. Most companies now have a blog where they post content regularly and a team in place to ensure that the content is useful, optimized and appearing high in the search results. Content marketing is an absolutely vital part of owning a business in todays world. People browsing the internet must be able to come across your content if you want to get them to consider you as a solution to their problem. The value proposition that you offer customers must come across clearly in the content that you are publishing (please read also our article about content seeding), and the website, imagery and content itself must present a strong corporate identity that people will be able to trust in.