In his Adweek mini-manifesto, “Genuine Brand Publishing Needs to Trump Generic Content Marketing,” Contently’s VP of Content, Sam Slaughter states: “A great story told on behalf of a brand isn’t really any different than a story told on behalf of anyone. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It has characters and a plot, heroes and villains. And in the end, the brands that tell consistent, compelling stories about themselves and their products are the ones who build real brand affinity and equity with their customers.” Several thought leaders, like Forbes’ Steve Olenski, agree with the idea central to Slaughter’s argument: content marketing has become so formulaic, contrived and pervasive that it has the opposite effect of connecting with customers.

Contently co-founder and visionary, Shane Snow, defines brand publishing as a brand literally publishing its own stories as a blog or magazine would. The rise of brand publishing signals an important shift for marketers. In, “The Catastrophic Social Media Content Marketing Mistake Marketers Are Making,” Olenski argues that companies have largely and erroneously viewed marketing as a tool to generate sales, as opposed to a means to build relationships with consumers. Brand publishing is shifting the traditional marketing paradigm. Namely, profit is no longer just what businesses generate; it’s something that responds to their creative call.

The enduring adage, “If it doesn’t make dollars, then it doesn’t make sense,” may soon be replaced by: “It’s either creative, or irrelevant.” As Rana Flordia once told SiliconANGLE, “creativity is the new economy.”  When it comes to content marketing, the businesses that stand to profit the most will be those are the most creative in content; the most creative in leveraging existing social media channels; and the most creative in either developing or implementing new technology to create and distribute dynamic content. Can you embody the ideals your business stands for in words, images and video differently than your competitors? How will you monetize your business’ aura, and not just products and services? In this new digital, social and creative economy, companies will need to answer these questions well.

Recently featured on Forbes’ “30 under 30” future of media list, Shane Snow, is Contently co-founder and visionary. Contently’s virtual platform that places the entire process of running a magazine – including brainstorming, formatting and fact-checking – in the cloud. Contently services agencies like Weber Shandwick and Federated Media, as well as brands like Facebook and Allstate in managing and enhancing brand publishing. Media companies use Contently to hire and collaborate with freelancers.

In his interview Snow offers practical insight on how to measure ROI on brand publishing and which business should be most concerned with branded content. He also explains why long-form writing is here to stay and predicts how funding models for journalism will change in the future. We end on a light note as Snow shares his appreciation for Gossip Girl and entire life story in less than 140 characters.

Can you tell us about the vision for Contently? How does the platform work?

Our mission is to empower journalists and brands to tell great stories. Today, we do that by giving journalists free portfolios to showcase their work, and selling project management software for publishers to find and hire journalists and manage their publishing operations in the cloud. The vision is to build a public company that becomes the technological plumbing for every brand publisher.

What’s the difference between “brand publishing” and “content marketing”? Why is the distinction important?

These terms tend to get used interchangeably, often erroneously. We’re going to be coming out with a glossary soon. Content marketing is a catchall term for a marketing strategy that involves communicating and educating rather than advertising. Brand publishing is when a brand literally publishes its own stories like a magazine or blog would. When a brand sponsors some great piece of content, or injects itself into a conversation on Twitter, those are examples of marketing with content, but the brand itself isn’t acting as a publication. Sometimes they end up being the same thing.

How do you measure return on investment with brand publishing? How does strong content drive greater profit?

Every company is different, but generally we see ROI manifest in one of several ways: conversions (sales or signups that a brand can tie a value to), pipeline growth (for B2B companies), retention (keeping existing customers engaged, which a brand can tie a value to), and brand lift (increasing people’s affinity for a brand, which brands can tie a value to in terms of future sales and loyalty).

Strong content can help you get all of these things, but it takes patience, because fundamentally, as a publisher, you’re building relationships with people. You don’t form a strong relationship from a first meeting. You develop it after several. We’ve got some cool announcements coming soon on this front, but suffice it to say that the “measuring ROI” pain can be mitigated by software.

If you are a small business whose resources are already spread thin, should branded content still be a priority? Does the need to prioritize branded content depend on your area of business?

Depends on your business. If you’re a web business, it’s extremely important. If you’re small and resource constrained, my advice is to have your leadership team guest blog for publications in your industry. That will get you the most bang for your buck in the early days. Once you get big enough, though, it’s harder to pull that off without having to pay for it, and it behooves you to start cultivating your own audience.

Why would a company choose to work with Contently instead of leaving content creation to internal or external marketing?

First, hiring and paying freelance talent through Contently is cheaper and more efficient than running an in-house publishing operation (without cheapskating out on the writers, who we make sure get paid higher than any other network!). Second, our software makes the process easy. Many of our clients bring their own staff and freelancers to us and use Contently to manage them, because it saves them headaches.

How do you vet the writing applicants?

Through both data and human screening. Writers’ portfolios fuel a sort of Match.com algorithm based on where they’ve written and how well their work has done. Then, we have editors hand verify those who want to join our professional marketplace based on a variety of criteria. The main ones are, “Is this writer masquerading as someone he or she is not?” and “Has this writer written multiple excellent pieces for publications with high editorial standards?” I.e. have they written for top 100 newspapers, magazines, and blogs, enough times to show that editors actually liked working with them and invited them back?

Despite the short-length and rapid feel of blogs and social media platforms, you think long-form writing still has its place. Why is long-form writing still appealing?

Yes. Long form isn’t going away. Data indicates it’s getting more popular because of mobile; people read books and long articles, consume videos and movies on their phones, kindles, tablets. Sites like LongReads are only getting more popular.
People have always been drawn to good stories, and we’re not going to stop watching movies or reading novels just because we read BuzzFeed to procrastinate at work. The challenge for brands in long-form is how to create stories that people will want to consume in their leisure time. We’re seeing more and more interest in that at Contently.

I definitely agree with you about the need for more sustainable business models in journalism. The New York Times reported that the bulk of your profit comes from the software you lease to companies that hire content writers. It seems the profit to be made, not only in your case, but with new journalism models, is not so much in the writing or contracting, but the technology that enables it. Do you think this is a fair assessment?

Journalism has always been subsidized by something. It used to be the classifieds, then the full-page Tiffany’s ads. Now it’s subscriptions and crowdfunding and sponsorships. I think in the future most of our information and entertainment will come from brands who pay off the content by selling products or improving their brand reputations, and that journalism will be subsidized in many cases by donations and technology.

What does your software allow the companies to do? What do clients like about the technology?

Take the whole process of running a magazine and stick it in the cloud, and that’s what Contently does. You put all of your staff, stringers, editors, lawyers, etc., in a virtual team room, then you field story pitches, hand out assignments, track editorial calendars, automatically funnel drafts and assets like photos to the proper people who need to edit and approve them, automatically format stories for publishing (so you don’t push content to Tumblr and get a bunch of invisible garbage characters from Microsoft Word), and get people paid instantly without having to process paperwork. Contently eliminates the spreadsheets and sticky notes and gargantuan email chains involved in all of this.

But now, think about all the other things that go into telling great stories. Contently can feed in data for story inspiration, so you know what you should be talking to your audience about and can assign stories based on it. It can hook in with the content management system you’re using. And we can manage and optimize content distribution for you, sending your headlines around the web through a dozen networks, so you don’t have to deal with a bunch of different vendors to promote your content. And, more coming soon.

The ANGLE on Shane Snow

What did you like most about being on Gossip Girl?

The best was getting to see Ed Westwick up close and in person. I love that guy. The worst was standing around literally all day for a couple of small scenes.

What’s the best advice you’ve received about being a good journalist?

My professor, Paula Span, always said, “Good writing speeds you along.” The phrase reminds me to chop out the unnecessary. But the best advice for every journalist is to never betray the reader.

Favorite quote by a writer?

Dr. Seuss: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

What sums up your life story in 140 characters or less?

Napoleon Dynamite moves to New York, hangs out with geeks. :)