At LaunchTech, we are keenly aware of how businesses have needed to pivot during this time of remote operations. At the onset of the ‘new normal’ we rapidly identified advantageous strategies for our clients’ to implement within their communications programs to meet the demands of the digital environment.

A combination of factors led us to understand that contributed content (also referred to as byline articles) would rise to be one of the most impactful ways to grow our clients’ share of voice during an insanely crowded year of news. With anecdotal evidence that online publication readership had increased 500% at the start of the initial lockdown orders, our clients would have a captive audience!

Immediately, we guided our clients to ensure the right mix of contributed content was a part of their program and doubled down where needed. Writing thought-provoking, sometimes controversial, vendor-neutral articles backed by a third-party is an amazing way to build thought leadership, corporate credibility, and trust among your target audience in a way that a marketing blog on your company’s website just cannot. It’s a great way to educate your audience on issues related to your endeavors while controlling the message stamped by a credible publication.

A few things to pay attention to when drafting contributed content:

1. Keep your target publication’s audience in mind.
2. Select a theme, concept or technique that is related to current trending news, but put a forward-looking spin on it. Your article may be sitting in a queue to be pushed live for several weeks so you want to make sure the content has longevity.
3. Build a pipeline of articles. Don’t be a one hit wonder!
4.  Once your article is live, remember to share it to your company’s social media! Pro tip: Leverage all of your employees by encouraging them to share your social posts as brand ambassadors, expanding your social reach.

Even as some practices of old may return with the vaccine roll-out, digital forms of communicating and other advances will continue to be a mainstay with key audiences in 2021 and beyond. Make sure contributed content is a contributing part of your PR strategy.