Brand journalism vs. traditional content marketing
The difference is not stylistic; it is structural. Traditional content marketing starts with a message the brand wants to convey and seeks the best way to deliver it to its audience. Brand journalism starts with a question the audience is asking and seeks the most honest and well-documented answer possible.
In practical terms:
- A marketing article on AI in HR will list the benefits of the company's product using selected customer testimonials.
- A brand journalism article on the same topic will interview several industry players, cite independent data, present conflicting viewpoints, and allow the reader to form their own opinion.
The latter format is more difficult to produce. It is also much more powerful for building lasting industry authority.
Why it is relevant for a B2B tech startup
A B2B tech startup targets professional buyers who are often highly informed: CIOs, HR directors, CFOs, and founders of other startups. These profiles have a very low tolerance for promotional content. They read to learn, not to be sold to.
Brand journalism creates real value for this audience while positioning the company as a player that deeply understands its market. It is a way to earn the trust of prospects even before they have a purchasing project.
On LinkedIn, in-depth articles published by tech founders—such as detailed experience reports, market trend analyses, and breakdowns of strategic decisions—generate shares within highly qualified professional circles, reaching far beyond the leader's existing community.
To delve deeper into the link between editorial voice and media positioning: PR and thought leadership: how to establish a narrative in the media.
Brand journalism formats
Several formats are particularly well-suited to this approach:
- Industry studies: data collected or aggregated on a market issue, complete with analysis and a clear stance.
- Field reports: coverage of a reality experienced by customers or the market, featuring testimonials and context.
- Decision analysis: decoding a strategic choice, trend, or industry event from a unique perspective.
- Long-form interviews: conversations with industry players (clients, partners, experts) focused on their convictions, not the product.
- Documented post-mortems: honest reflections on a project, initiative, or mistake, highlighting concrete lessons learned.
What we see with our clients
Brand journalism content published on LinkedIn by tech founders generates, on average, 3 to 5 times more shares than traditional marketing content on the same topics. The reason is simple: they provide something the reader didn't have before reading them. They are shared not to promote a brand, but because they are perceived as useful to the community.
This content is also what journalists read. Several of our clients have received interview requests or press collaboration offers directly from in-depth articles published on LinkedIn.
