I'm curious how many B2B marketers had the same kind of career pivot I did. Honestly, whether you experienced the pivot, or even if you didn’t, if you write marketing copy, this article is for you.  

I graduated with a journalism degree right as the internet was becoming a thing. For a while I aspired to be the next Lois Lane, but eventually I traded in my reporter's notebook for a laptop and started focusing on search engine optimization. That work turned into content strategy, which then evolved into content operations, and now I’m the Director of Content Operations and Visibility for more than 150 journalists in EndeavorB2B’s Digital Newsroom, which means my job is making sure the work of 150 journalists is found by the people who need to read it.  

You may be asking, "Erin, why does your career matter to me?” It matters because as my career has progressed, I’ve noticed the same tips and tricks that help a journalist’s story reach its intended audience also help marketers’ content reach buyers.  

My background and my day-to-day have me working with journalists the most often, so that's who I’ve trained the longest. But the fundamentals don’t change a lot when you cross over into marketing. Both journalists and marketers are accountable to a client. For journalists, that client is the reader; for marketers, that client is the purchaser. For both, getting content in front of the right person runs on the same core rules, which I’ve outlined below.  

Implement the 5Ws into your copy 

Every journalist I’ve worked with knows the 5Ws before anything else. "Who, What, Why, Where and When" are the backbone of any journalist’s reporting. It’s also the first thing I look at when I’m looking at a story that’s not landing for me. Usually there’s a missing element, and more often than not, that missing element is one of the 5Ws.  

The 5 Ws serve as a foundational element to any newsroom’s reporting:  

• Who tells us who this content is for.
• What tells us what happened or what’s important to know.
• Why tells us why the information is important to the audience.
• Where tells us either where the thing is happening or where this information is useful.
• When tells us when the important thing happened — or is happening — or when the information might be useful.

I remind our journalists about this framework because, despite its basic nature, it makes a story complete. It also helps when you’re writing copy for a product page, an email or a social media post. No matter which format you’re writing for, including each of these elements in your writing doesn’t just optimize it for engines; it also gives your potential buyers the information they need to make a decision. It’s the same way a good news story tells the reader what they need to understand what happened.  

Integrate the “How” into everything you write 

There’s a sixth element I try to work into every conversation I have with my newsroom; it’s not a W, but an H: How. In journalism, How turns a story from a report to something the reader can act on. The same can be said in marketing: How does this impact the person reading it?

Consider:  

• How can the person use this tool in their job? 
• How will this software help the person be more efficient? 
• How can your customer use this information to make an informed decision? 
• How can your buyer contact you to set up a demonstration? 

I’d be willing to bet everyone reading this article is already doing a great job of informing prospective buyers about your company, your products and your thought leadership. Are you telling them How to use that information? What can — or should — they do after they read it? That’s a question I ask with every piece of content that passes my desk, and it’s the one most marketing copy forgets to answer.  

How to put this framework into practice 

I’ve put together a checklist to help you apply the 5Ws + H to everything you write going forward. Whether you’ve had formal journalism training or not, you’ll want to think of everything you write as if you’re a journalist preparing to post a story:  

• Read your title/headline (or subject line) like a journalist reads their lead paragraph. Does it answer at least two of the 5Ws? If someone only read this one thing, would they know who it was for and what it was about? 
• Seek to find the missing W. Review your content line by line and see which of the 5Ws your copy answers and which ones it skips. In my experience working with journalists, the Why and the How are often the first ones cut (or forgotten altogether). 
• Move your Why up. If what you’re writing about matters to your potential buyer, the Why shouldn’t be buried in the third paragraph. Buyers — and answer engines — won't go searching for the Why. Don’t make them dig for it. 
• Give everything you write a "What can I do with this" line. This is essentially your How. If a potential buyer makes it to the end of your copy and isn’t sure what to do next, tell them what they should do. 
• Write your Where and When, even if they feel obvious. You live inside your product; your potential buyers don’t. Phrases like “Available Now” or “check out our site” may seem obvious or redundant to you, but to a potential customer — or an answer engine — they're anything but obvious. 
• Name your Who specifically. One of the most challenging issues I run into in our newsroom is reminding our journalists to name the audience they’re reporting for. "How to Help Marketers" is much stronger than "How to Help Professionals," and it’s much more likely to land with the audience it's meant for. 
• Make sure your call-to-action answers How and Why, not just What. Book Now tells your buyer what to do; Book a 20-minute demonstration to see if this is right for you tells your buyer Why and How this is worth their time. 
• Give it a cold read. Read your content out loud as if you’re someone who’s never encountered it. If something in your writing would confuse a potential buyer without context, it’s likely missing a W.