In my experience, most content marketing writers learn their craft writing for publication. The constant vetting and back and forth nature of perfecting the piece for the specific reading audience demands a solid relationship with the editor. Negotiating that relationship itself is a learning experience for every freelance or staff journalist.
The lessons don’t stop with negotiating the relationship. Form, fact checking, quote choice and style considerations are all decisions writers learn to make in consideration of each publication and its audience. The New Yorker and The Technology Review may have some overlap in their readership, but even that group is looking for two very different things from each magazine. The writer must learn what the reader is looking for.
In content marketing, that is an even more precise consideration because even more work has gone into defining exactly what the audience wants from a brand. Buy personae, content funnels, market research and content analytics are all tools in constant use in a revision cycle that spins with continuous improvement and the infinite desire to connect with a customer.
The form and style of content marketing, though, that owes everything to journalism. There are, ultimately, few differences between my journalistic profile of Leah Goldstein for The J and my professional profile of Ravi De Souza for the Mississauga Business Enterprise Centre.