Don't Sleep on Content Marketing

Many companies have hired editorial staffers in recent years to write content for their blogs and be their voices on social media. Now, some are going further by building full-blown media properties of their own.

Take startup mattress brand Casper, for example. The company is currently hiring journalists and gearing up to start its own standalone Web publication about sleep. The site doesn’t have a name or a URL yet, but it’s slated to launch later this spring.

“Sleep is a growing subject that lacks a true editorial authority,” said Lindsay Kaplan, Casper’s vice president of communications.

This type of “content marketing” is in vogue. Instead of “renting” audiences with paid advertising, companies are increasingly producing their own content in an effort to attract consumers’ attention themselves, with the ultimate goal of promoting their brands, products, interests and ideas.

The broad goal of the Casper site is to “own the conversation around sleep,” Ms. Kaplan said. That might mean analyzing the science of dreaming, the effects of drug-use on sleep, or how sleep affects workplace productivity.

Casper

But Casper is making real efforts to position this as a real journalistic venture. It has already hired Elizabeth Spiers — former editor in chief of the New York Observer and founding editor of Gawker.com — to head up the initiative as editorial director. It’s also hired journalist Jeff Koyen as its editor-in-chief, and is currently hiring for senior editor and staff writer positions.

Meanwhile, online grooming retailer for men, Dollar Shave Club, has also been hiring journalists, and is building its own editorial team and capabilities.

The company hasn’t yet decided whether to launch a new standalone site or to focus its efforts revamping its existing blog, but says it now employs between five and seven editorial employees, some freelancers and some full-time. Job descriptions on its website indicate the new initiative will focus on men’s lifestyle topics.

“What we’re telling [editors] is they’re not coming here to write a ‘here’s how you get a better shave’ type article,” said Dollar Shave Club CEO Michael Dubin.

Casper and Dollar Shave Club aren’t the first brands to launch their own online content destinations. Previously, PepsiCo.’s Mountain Dew brand started a lifestyle-focused site at Green-Label.com in 2013, for example. Elsewhere, numerous business-to-business brands have invested in content and standalone websites in an attempt to position themselves as “thought-leaders” around certain issues.

Although the stated goal of these content initiatives might be to “own” or “contribute to” conversations around certain topics, the companies paying for them are also hoping they’ll help drive their business in one way or another. Perhaps the content they produced can be used to help the companies position themselves as trusted “authorities” around certain issues, or maybe it can directly drive users to purchase products from their sites.

Others say there’s value in the data that these content destinations might collect. For example, if a company knows what type of content users enjoy consuming, they might be able to target them with better advertising or even alter their products accordingly. For online retailers, they might also build profiles around users to compare their spending habits with their content consumption.

The details of Casper’s site are still being ironed out, but the company said its primary purpose is to build the Casper brand, or at least to align it closely with the subject of sleep. The company’s first product is a mattress, but it says it plans to expand into other products “very quickly.”

As far as Mr. Koyen is concerned, however, he’ll be producing journalism, not marketing.

“I don’t feel like I’ll be doing branded content. The goal is to launch an editorial venture and standalone media property,” he said, adding, “I’m hiring journalists; not marketers.”

As for how Casper’s site will avoid potential conflicts of interest, the company said its staffers will abide by editorial guidelines. “The site is focused on sleep and wakefulness in a greater sense, approached from any number of angles, but always in a more journalistic manner,” Casper said in a statement. “When we do publish service journalism, it won’t be tied to Casper’s current or future sleep products.”

Whether it’s marketing or not, some industry observers say it’s wise to hire journalists if companies expect their content to stand out. It’s now harder than ever to cut through the noise, they say, especially online.

Susan Bidel, a Forrester analyst covering digital publishing, said building a content destination is an “extremely ambitious undertaking” for a company whose core business isn’t in creating content.

“It’s very hard to create compelling content that’s going to draw enough users to a site to make that kind of investment worthwhile,” she said.

Casper and Dollar Shave Club say they’re still figuring out exactly what form their content initiatives will take. Both companies say they expect to have clearer strategies in place in the next couple of months.

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Don"t Sleep on Content Marketing