Editorial, often referred to as “Opinion,” is content that offers a fresh perspective and educates audiences about a topic. This type of content is distinct from advertising because it does not promote a product or service. Using editorial to connect with your audience can help increase brand awareness and generate qualified leads.
The most important factor in writing an editorial is clearly expressing your opinion and supporting it with facts or believable evidence. Unlike a news article that typically uses only statistics to inform and persuade, an editorial should use a mix of data and personal experience. For example, if you are writing about the impact of poverty on child well-being, include a story about one of your patients and how that person’s situation impacted their family. This will give your audience a more personal connection to your opinion and make them more likely to trust it.
Whether you are developing thought-leadership articles in-house or licensing editorial from publishers, it’s essential to consider your target audience and the tone of each piece. For example, if you are a healthcare company, it may be more effective to write about the health effects of stress than the benefits of meditation.
In addition to identifying your audience, it is critical to define the goals of your editorial strategy and determine how you will measure success. This includes setting lead generation and brand awareness goals for your content marketing team and determining how to incorporate editorial into the rest of your content marketing program. For example, you can leverage editorial pieces in your email newsletters or use them as the subject of live events that address common questions from customers.