Sponsored content is one way that brands and companies from all kinds of industries can achieve their marketing goals. As with any kind of marketing, planning must come before its spread. If not, the results won’t be what the company wants and, what’s worse, it could hurt the company’s reputation.
This means that it is not enough to just make programmatic media campaigns, set a budget, and wait for sales to go up. In addition to these things, every business will need to pay attention to the type of content it broadcasts and, more importantly, how this content will be spread.
Are you curious and want to learn more? Then keep reading, and don’t start planning your next campaign until you’ve read the next few sentences.
What is sponsored content?
Sponsored content needs to be set apart from advertising reports in order to be defined. The first is made up of all kinds of content, whether it’s text or video, made by professional content designers. The second is up to the advertiser.
So, we have a problem for businesses that want to get their message across but don’t know how to use the techniques that marketers, journalists, and advertisers do. After all, it’s one thing to know about fashion and another to talk about it, don’t you think?
It is possible to be very good at both. But when we have heads that help us think about how to reach an audience, communication tends to go much more smoothly.
Not only that, but when people are working on marketing and communication strategies full-time, the advertiser has more time to focus on its main business.
In this way, sponsored content is a lot better than traditional or even digital ads that are served through programmatic media. Here are some of the pros.
1. A better reputation
Your brand’s exposure, whether on the Internet or in real life, could lead to credibility gains, losses, or nothing at all. One thing is for sure: getting a good reputation takes time, and trust that has been lost is hard to get back.
Because of this, sponsored content is a big plus when it comes to security and credibility. In this category, the Brazilian Media Survey 2016 found that newspapers are the most trusted. Sixty percent of the people interviewed said they always or often trust what they read in the printed media.
Compared to ads on Google’s display network, it can be a slightly more expensive investment. But the investment pays off in the end because of the things that can’t be seen or touched. The weight of the prestige of the big media outlets ends up having a much bigger effect than banners on sites with a small audience and a questionable reputation.
2. More people who are qualified to watch
Even though programmatic media can be segmented in some ways, ads won’t always reach the right people when they’re broadcast.
Even worse, depending on how high your company bids in the auction system, it is very likely that your ads will be rejected. This is how platforms like Google, Facebook, and many others work.
In sponsored content, the situation is seen in a very different way. Since it’s made to teach or entertain, it has a much better chance of attracting and keeping an audience. With more security and a bigger audience, portals like Folha PE make it more likely that your brand will be noticed.
3. More communication with the customer
A Rock Content study proves what we can easily see in our everyday lives: 94 percent of the links that get clicked after a Google search are organic results, which means they are not ads.
This number shows how much content can influence people’s buying decisions. And this power is used to help your business when it decides to sponsor an article, podcast, video, or other form of interest.
- Give people content that answers their questions. If the vast majority of people prefer organic results, that means they expect to find the right answers to their questions.
When a brand is shown in programmatic media or in advertising reports outside of the Web, a whole new relationship is made. Since the format is directly aimed at conversion, i.e., sales, it ends up getting a “back foot.”
5. Integrating it with other plans
When it comes to digital platforms, content has another advantage over ads. Because it is full of information, entertainment, or education, it can be used in other media.
So, sponsored content has a much higher chance of being shared again because it can be used as a hook in banners, ads on social networks, newsletters, and other formats.
6. Make sure your customers know about your products and services
You’ve probably heard of the conversion funnel. It is a figure that shows what has become known as the “consumer journey.” When a customer is at the beginning of his or her journey, he or she is at the top of the funnel, along with all the other customers who are also looking for information.
At the narrow end are customers who are more knowledgeable and have made a mature decision to buy because they were “nurtured” with relevant content.
Customers who know more about your brand are the best kind, because they know more. They are more loyal, spend more on average, and spread the word about your business. On the other hand, this process of education can only be done by brands that put money into content.
Even though strategies that focus on content take more time to produce results, those results are much more consistent and tend to keep coming back.
Because of this, formats like sponsored content can make the trust between brands and consumers much stronger. Explore it strategically and always with a long-term view, and you’ll get much better results!
