What Is Editorial Content?

For businesses and organizations, editorial content is an important aspect to any content strategy. When most content teams develop their content marketing strategy, they often focus on commercial content. However, editorial content is also a necessary factor in establishing a successful marketing strategy.

By creating high-quality content that is either educational or entertaining, you can attract your target audience to your website. Over time, content is also a great way to develop a loyal audience base and to engage that audience on a consistent basis.

Learn how your content team can implement an editorial plan that not only improves your content strategy but also boosts your advertising performance metrics.

What is meant by editorial content?

This type of content is any copy that is not directly trying to sell something. Rather, the goal is to educate, entertain, or inform.

While this type of content plays an important role in optimizing your content marketing strategy, it’s not a form of affiliate marketing. Instead of trying to sell something to the reader, editorial content is trying to gain the reader’s trust.

What are the main elements of editorial content?

From style to audience, there are numerous elements that play a key role in your content strategy.

• Tone and style: The tone and style of your content establish your brand’s voice. Thus, it’s important the tone of your content accurately reflects your business or organization. For example, if your objective is to showcase your business as an industry expert, then your content should be professional and informative. On the other hand, if your goal is to connect with your target audience, then consider assuming a casual tone to relate with your readers.
• Target audience: Identifying your target audience before your team begins the content creation process can help your writers create content that is relevant to your target audience. Different types of content appeal to different demographics. As a result, it’s important to understand who your target audience is so you can generate content they find interesting and useful. Researching your target audience as you develop an editorial strategy can you help generate successful content.
• Content type: From blog articles to social media posts, there are different types of content that fall under the category of editorial content. As you develop your editorial calendar, consider including written content as well as visual content. Incorporating videos and images in your business’s social media is a great way to grab your customers’ attention.
• Search engine optimization (SEO): Your editorial content should follow SEO best practices so that your content can rank well. By including relevant keywords and organizing your text into subcategories, you can improve your SEO.
• Placement: Consider where you want to publish your content. Different types of content fit different social platforms. For example, short-form content is more applicable to social media whereas long-form content is more applicable to blog posts and website copy.

What should you consider when writing editorial content?

First, consider your marketing goals. Good content improves your content marketing strategy.

There are four main types of editorial content: interpretive, critical, persuasive, and praising. Each of these different forms of content focuses on a different marketing objective.

For example, persuasive content aims to encourage the reader to act while interpretative content explains the context of an industry event. Outlining your marketing objectives early on will help you decide which form of editorial content will best achieve your goals.

When writing editorial content, you should also consider your timeline. Creating consistent high-quality content requires clear deadlines. By communicating your content strategy and sharing your editorial calendar with your editorial board, you can post weekly and monthly content pieces.

How should businesses use this content?

Businesses can use editorial content in different ways. For instance, businesses can use it to demonstrate their expertise within an industry. By sharing your perspective on a problem and offering a solution, you can highlight your company’s knowledge within the field.

Businesses can also use this content to express their opinion and highlight their leadership. Writing an article for or against a current event within your industry is another way to share your insight and develop your editorial image.

Finally, businesses can use this content to improve their SEO. Publishing new and updated content can help improve your search ranking.

Search engines look for content that provides accurate and relevant information. By creating fresh editorial pieces, you can avoid having outdated copy on your site.

Likewise, the more editorial content you create, the more opportunities for backlinks. As you publish more pieces on your website and social media accounts, you can add links to previous posts. By adding internal and external links to your content, you can also improve your SEO.

Why you need editorial content

This content is crucial for both your marketing and content strategy. It can help increase your brand awareness and online reach.

What is the aim of this type of content?

The aim of editorial content is to inform, educate, or entertain. Therefore, when you add it to your social media channels and website, you’re demonstrating your experience and authority within your field.

This is especially important for B2B marketing. Establishing your expertise is necessary when trying to connect with other business owners.

How does editorial content create brand awareness?

Brand awareness is essentially how well consumers know your business. Companies that are easily recognizable by the average consumer have good brand awareness.

Editorial content creates brand awareness by showcasing your company’s knowledge. For example, if your business sells gardening products, then you can create in-depth articles teaching readers how to care for their gardens. This type of educational content relevant to your business’s industry will help establish your brand as a gardening expert.

Creating content that relates to your industry can help users associate your company with your field. Thus, when they need advice or products related to your business, customers will think of your brand.

Publishing evergreen content, content that is relevant year-round, can help you establish brand awareness. Evergreen content can also help improve your SEO, as you can generate backlinks connecting old content to new content.

How can businesses use this content to solidify brand identity?

Solidifying brand identify stems from building trust with consumers. Consumers want to buy products from companies that understand the industry. By generating consistent high-quality content that demonstrates your company’s knowledge, you can start building a level of trust with your users.

Over time, as your content production increases, your business will have an archive of relevant content. This library of blog posts, white papers, social media writing, and website copy will reflect your company’s tone and mission, highlighting your brand across your online sites.  As a result, the more editorial content your business has across its social platforms, the more consumers will recognize your brand.

Editorial content versus advertorial content

Both editorial content and advertorial content are an essential part of your content marketing strategy. Oftentimes, companies use these terms interchangeably when outlining their content calendar and plan. However, these types of content are different and therefore serve different purposes for your content strategy.

What are the main differences between editorial and advertorial content?

In its most basic form, advertorial content is advertising copy that looks like editorial content. However, one of the main differences between these types of content is the objective. Thus, their goals are different.

The main objective of advertising content is to sell a product or service. As a result, advertising copy has a direct sales tone.

On the other hand, editorial content does not sell a product or service. Instead, it offers commentary or insight on the industry with the main goal of providing value to users and readers.

Another main difference between these types of content is that advertising content is a form of paid content. This means that advertorial content has a price tag to it because companies generate income with clickthroughs.

How do editorial and advertorial content inform each other?

Editorial and advertorial content inform each other by generating content ideas. By repurposing content, you can use content from your editorial team to generate ideas for your advertorial pieces and vice versa.

In addition, these different types of content also work to create a consistent tone and brand voice for your company. Whether you’re writing editorial content or advertorial content, your writing style should reflect your business. Thus, editorial and advertorial content inform one another through tone.

Finally, your editorial content should provide context for your advertorial content. This means that your content should supplement your advertorial content by providing industry expertise that helps consumers better understand your advertorial content.

Why is it important for editorial content to avoid an advertorial tone?

Editorial content should avoid an advertorial tone because the purpose of this content type is not to sell a product or service. If you assume an advertorial tone when writing an editorial piece, you can risk losing your consumers’ trust.

Consumers read editorial content for advice or entertainment. If you directly try to sell a product through your editorial content, you are not prioritizing the user experience. Providing value for your readers should be the main objective of editorial content.

Examples of appropriate writing styles for editorial content

As you develop your content strategy, it’s important to consider your content style guide.

What are the most important style guidelines for writing editorial content?

Your editorial style guidelines should focus on three main elements: grammar, tone, and SEO.

Grammar: Grammar is a broad category for everything that relates to the nitty-gritty details of your content creation. From spelling rules to punctuation preferences, your grammar guidelines communicate your style preferences to writers. One of the first editorial style notes you should make is which style guide you want your editorial team to use.  For example, The Chicago Manual of Style has different formatting, hyphenation, and grammar preferences than MLA or AP style.

Tone: Your editorial style guide should also communicate your business tone. Outlining your tone will ensure your company’s writing matches your business and stays on brand.

SEO: Whether you’re publishing descriptive writing, expository writing, or persuasive writing, all forms of content should be formatted for SEO. Creating an SEO best practice guide for your writers will help ensure keywords and links are properly included throughout your company’s copy.

Why is point of view important in content?

Point of view is important in content because it indicates how your writers should be formatting copy. For instance, some companies prefer using the second person point of view because it allows writers to communicate directly to the reader. This creates a personal experience for users.

Conversely, some companies prefer a third person point of view to appear formal and professional. Choosing a point of view that reflects your business tone will help you write copy that fits your brand.

What should writers avoid when creating editorial content?

First, writers should avoid adopting a writing style that mimics an advertising campaign. As noted above, it’s important to keep editorial content separate from advertorial content.

Writers should also avoid generating content that does not include metrics. Data and statistics are a great way to inform and educate your readers. They’re also a great way to establish your credibility as a business.

Finally, avoid creating content that is not relevant to your target audience. At the end of the day, your content needs to provide value to your readers.

Elite Content

The right content can help you grow your business by generating traffic, leads, and brand awareness. By creating branded content that informs and entertains your target audience, you can scale your business and optimize your content marketing strategy.

At Elite Editing, our team of writers and editors can help you generate consistent high-quality content. Our writers will make your content both educational and engaging for your users. Get a free quote today and learn more about our writing services!