Gay Flashman - Powerful B2B Content: Using Brand Journalism to Create Compelling and Authentic Storytelling

An in-depth examination of how B2B brands can build trusted relationships in todays volatile information environment. Required reading for communicators and marketers across the world, with plenty of invaluable insight from some of the worlds top B2B players.

Arun Sudhaman, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, The Holmes Report

Many B2B brands today publish more material in a week than Time magazine did during its heyday. Yet embarking on brand journalism is fraught with perils and pitfalls. What constitutes a good story? How can compelling content be created not just once, but continually and indefinitely? And how, in the era of fake news, can brands engender and earn the trust of their audiences? This book tells you how, both with practical advice and scores of real world examples. Its a must for the B2B content marketer.

Rebecca Lieb, analyst and author of Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing

This book is a comprehensive review of how B2B brands can build the most important aspect of sales and marketing today: trust. Its filled with real-world, applicable examples that can help marketers become a trusted source.

Robert Rose, Founder, The Content Advisory

This book provides a fresh look at the role of brand journalism in successful brand building. Rich in examples, frameworks and models, Powerful B2B Content provides a very hands-on analysis, exploring the careful balance between creating compelling digital content that actively engages audiences throughout the customer journey and brand positioning that is authentic. A top read for brand experts and business leaders alike.

Christine Diamente, Head of Brand, Nokia

The only way to acquire new customers today is through stories that generate trust. In Powerful B2B Content, Gay Flashman shows us not just why, but also how to generate trust that leads to new customer relationships and business growth. All business leaders need to pick up a copy of this book today.

Michael Brenner, CEO, speaker and bestselling author of Mean People Suck and The Content Formula

A richly illustrated guide to how businesses can create their own media brands.

Mark Jones, Head of Digital Content, World Economic Forum

I was lucky enough to work with and learn from Gay Flashman in the newsroom in the late 1990s. Journalism and marketing have undergone a revolution since then, and Gay has been riding that rollercoaster all along there is no one better placed to help you take control of your businesss narrative, own your story and use it to connect with your customers beyond the level of mere transaction.

Julian March, CEO, Made by Many

For many companies in the B2B sphere, the first point of interaction with clients, on a multi-touch point journey, is through content, be it digital or above the line. To entice customers a brand must convey an enduring narrative that resonates with their target industries. This book provides insights from leading industry experts and acts as a guide on the production of powerful content with purpose. It is a must-read for B2B marketers aiming to create engaging content that portrays their clients story.

Georgia Halston, Founder, Halston Marketing

In this comprehensive guide, Gay Flashman explains why journalistic thinking, newsroom practices and editorial values underpin successful brand journalism. Easy to say, difficult to do, but heres someone who has walked the walk in some of the worlds busiest newsrooms and knows a thing or two about engaging storytelling and how to deliver it. Read and learn.

Gary Rogers, Editor-in-Chief, RADAR AI

Storytelling helps B2B brands to cut through the noise and helps in winning the hearts and minds of buyers. Gay Flashman shares her insights on how purpose-driven storytelling can help marketers engage with their audiences and create lasting and meaningful relationships.

Ashish Babu, CMO (Europe and UK), Tata Consultancy Services

If content is still going to be king then great storytelling is how we must cut through the noise to deliver that content. But this in itself wont be enough for businesses to win in this complex world. Gay Flashman tells us that building trust and relationships are essential to not only winning but keeping new customers. A great resource for all B2B marketers.

Howard Krais, President, International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), UK and Ireland

If youre a brand looking to create a content practice, Powerful B2B Content provides a detailed roadmap for setting up shop.

Melanie Deziel, Founder, StoryFuel

Every business must be engaging and inspiring if it wants to remain relevant and reach new customers. This handbook is chock full of dos and donts from brand journalism leaders shaping the craft. They explain why authentic storytelling is essential for business success, and how to do it right.

Ken Kaplan, Editorial Director, Nutanix

A must-read for anyone working in the B2B sector. If you are a business leader, read and be inspired. If you are a communications expert, read and discover best-in-class practices to build your business case. If youre an expert or a beginner in corporate communications, read it and save yourself the headache of starting from scratch. Stories are the fabric of our world. With this text Gay Flashman cracks open the art and science of becoming a master storytelling company.

Casilda Malagon, global communications professional and Co-Founder, Archetypical

In this compelling narrative, Gay Flashman practises what she preaches: she awakens our interest, informs us fully and engagingly, and leaves us converted to the critical importance of building and nurturing our brand stories. Vital reading for boards and the C-Suite.

Piers Cumberlege, Chair, Straightview International

For Dad

Gay Flashman is a pioneer of brand journalism, blending her experience as a senior journalist, communications professional and digital marketer to create compelling content strategies for some of the worlds leading brands.

Gay is the founder of Formative Content, a global content marketing agency that works with clients such as the World Economic Forum, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Standard Chartered, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Tata Consultancy Services, creating powerful B2B content ranging from social media and blog content to thought leadership and white papers.

Starting in newspapers, Gay built a career at the BBC and ITN in TV news journalism, culminating in her position as Managing Editor at Channel 4 News and Channel 5 News. Following a move to Sydney, she worked as a management consultant at both ABC News and SBS in Australia before founding Formative Content.

Gay is a frequent public speaker on topics relating to content, digital marketing and media.

This is a book about a hidden power: the power of storytelling.

Its not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of marketing. Its not about the hard sell. Its about finding the human stories that pulse beneath the surface of big corporations and that connect all of us, in all of our hopes and dreams and fears. It is about building trust.

Genuinely impactful, disintermediated content lets brands amplify the issues and the topics that matter to them, and talk directly to the people they want to engage with.

That is the power that this book uncovers. Not marketing advertorial, but genuine editorial. At its best, it delivers substance over slogans, and insights over earworms.

I cannot think of a better person to explain the value of story-driven content marketing than Gay Flashman. She has been around content and journalism all her working life, as a journalist, as a television executive, and as a founder and CEO. Shes created the strategies to deploy meaningful content and the material to make it real for some of the planets most progressive businesses.