I’ve been out of journalism for 10 years now. It’s been almost exactly 10 years, in fact — my last day at The Washington Post was May 16, 2012.
In a nice accident of timing, I had a chance to reflect on how journalism has helped me succeed as a digital marketer when I appeared on Gresh Harkless‘s I AM CEO podcast recently.
You can hear everything I had to say on that topic starting at the 7:00 mark of the podcast. But here’s the key portion, cleaned up a bit (because after all, I’m still an editor):
“Marketing is telling your story in an engaging, meaningful way. So working as a writer and an editor helped me get better at that. I can figure out (the answer) to those questions: What are people going to find interesting about this topic? How do we explain why it’s important? Those sorts of questions are ones I (had to answer regularly) in my old life. I can do that really well.
“Also, a really important element is my relationship with my client. I feel like I will spend the time with them and ask the questions so I really get to know their business, and that makes me a much better marketer for you. If I understand, ‘Oh, this is exactly what their product does, and this is who it works for, and why it works,’ and all these things, (I will do a better job for you) …
“I might not know everything about your business and your industry when (our engagement) starts, but I’m going to spend the time, and we’re going to make sure I know it really well, and I can tell your story and it’s going to seem authentic.”
The interview with Gresh was a lot of fun, and I’d love it if you listened. If you do, let me know what you think! Here’s the link:
I AM CEO Podcast: Season 5, Episode 1370: Jon DeNunzio, Squarely Digital
