The Strategic Storyteller

7Content Marketing Applied Part 1

Content Marketing Applied: The Content Hub

SJR's idea to turn brands into their own publishers evolved during the financial crisis of 2007. Amid an economic collapse, everyone was nervous about the future, and there was constant discussion about how the United States would recover. Lawmakers were about to pump billions of taxpayer dollars into “shovel‐ready projects” through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (widely known as “the Stimulus”).

We were fascinated by it, and decided to create a blog that focused on infrastructure, energy, and sustainability—the areas that would create jobs and grow the economy. It featured news and thoughtful analysis written by journalists with true expertise in these areas. We called it The Infrastructurist and launched in 2009.

We had been market researchers and public relations specialists for master brands as well as strategists for politicians for many years, but our world was changing with the evolution of digital communication. For the sake of our longevity, our business had to expand its capabilities.

The Infrastructurist started as a passion project that filled a niche that other blogs in the world weren't filling at the time. And when we started it, we hadn't thought about how to monetize it. We just knew we had something interesting to say that people would want to read about.

As with many passion ...