A twist on sponsored content that drives thought leadership

Anyone who has ever retained a PR agency knows that earned media isn't free.

It is hard and time-consuming to vie for the limited attention of reporters and editors in an attempt to get them to cover a company in a positive way. Conflict and tension drive the news cycle: Just look at the homepage of any mainstream news outlet. Most every story is bad for its subjects.

Reporters have power because they are the ones asking the questions and writing the articles. The premise of our approach to thought leadership is to put our clients into that enviable position.

We've developed partnerships with leading news outlets, including Fast Company, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Forbes, and a group of regional business journals. Under these partnerships, our our clients receive guaranteed access to publish columns as contributors to those outlets.

The columns are run through editorial desks and receive editorial vetting--and this is a feature, not a bug, in our process, because it ensures client submissions meet a minimum standard for newsworthiness and quality. Nobody wants to read a section full of self-serving ads.

Our method is a twist on conventional thought leadership activity. Ordinarily, PR agencies and practitioners seek to place contributed articles on a piecemeal basis. This practice is generally fine, but there are never any guarantees when shopping an op-ed submission, and the time this takes adds up quickly in the form of billable hours.

Instead, our process starts by using our partnerships to onboard clients as columnists in the outlet of their choice. This provides a guaranteed space to publish, and while these columns are usually are fee-based, the fee is included in our cost.

Then we provide outsourced editorial management that drives the creation of the columns. Our network of ghostwriters write for many outlets, and they provide whatever level of writing and editorial support clients need. We also handle the submission process and the back-and-forth with the publication's editorial staff.

Once the columns are set up, how clients actually use them is crucial to our process. We recommend clients treat their columns as an opinion journalist would treat a column -- and that means talking to credible sources, asking questions, and uncovering new arguments. This can blend in to a company's marketing approach, because one way to access important people is to ask them to give comment to a like-minded columnist for a well-known media outlet. Facilitating and managing those conversations falls under our scope.

For more information on our thought leadership offering, click here.