What is Sponsored Content Marketing?

There are more opportunities to market your business online than ever before, but at the same time, many businesses are finding it hard to generate a consistent stream of new leads and customers, even though they’re pouring money into their marketing efforts month after month.

That’s because many of the traditional marketing approaches don’t generate the same results as they used to.

The habits of today’s internet consumers have changed, and they have learned to recognize or even flat out ignore any messages that are pushy or salesy.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to be marketed to.

In fact, if you can make your promotional materials a seamless part of their browsing experience, you can capture attention more effectively than ever before.That’s where sponsored content can be extremely useful.

What is Sponsored Content?

Sponsored content doesn’t differ that much from regular content – it also provides value, has all the qualities of a regular article, and might even be difficult to distinguish at first sight.

However, the key difference that helps to understand what is content advertising is that sponsored content allows companies to publish their own messages on other publications in a form that is much more likely to get read by the audience.

Instead of a banner on the side that 99% of visitors will most likely ignore, sponsored articles have the appearance and features of a regular article, but promote the business or its products in a way that is consistent with editorial content that gets published on the site as well.

Since ad-blocking software is now used by a large part of online consumers, native advertising sponsored content has become one of the most effective ways to get through to consumers and deliver promotional messages that serve as a natural continuation of their browsing experience instead of a disruption.Some have argued that sponsored content poses a danger to the integrity of publications, but the truth is, users have embraced sponsored content, as studies show that more users look at sponsored content than editorial articles.

What Are the Different Types of Sponsored Content?

The thing that makes sponsored content so effective is also what makes it a bit difficult to define its main characteristics clearly.

Since sponsored content has to blend in perfectly with editorial articles of the publication, a lot of the elements are determined by the specific website or media outlet where it is published.

That means that the theme and style of the sponsored article must match up perfectly with what is regularly posted, and it has to meet the expectations of the reader to be opened.  

But this versatility also means that there are countless opportunities for making sponsored content work for your business – no matter the field that you operate in, there are most likely numerous publications that are read by your target audience, which could be the perfect place to publish a well-placed sponsored piece.

Does Sponsored Content Work?

As you can probably guess from what we discussed above, sponsored content not only works, it could potentially become the single most effective way to reach your online audience and grow your business.

Instead of having to break through barriers and various walls designed to block out advertisements, sponsored content can help you get in front of your audience where they like to hang out and present them with an article that is relevant and offers value while at the same time promoting your business.

What’s more, the unique editorial-style format of sponsored articles allows you to tell your brand’s story in more depth, as you have an entire article to present your message and position yourself in the way that you want. With trust in banner ads at an all-time low, sponsored content has been one of the fastest growing online marketing approaches, and the competitive sponsored content pricing ensures that the trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

Best Practices for Using Sponsored Content

Even though sponsored content marketing is one of the best ways to promote your business online, success isn’t guaranteed – in fact, many companies fail to reach their goals because they don’t follow a few of the key principles of putting together an effective native advertising campaign.

The first and most important thing you must figure out is who you want to reach – without in-depth knowledge about who your ideal prospects are, it will be almost impossible to choose the right publication and develop a relevant piece of content that generates the desired results.

Once you know who you want to reach, it will become much clearer which publications you should consider, as well as the type of content that would work best. While it’s crucial that the content matches the style and tone of the editorial publications, you must also be able to inject your brand’s personality and get your message in there as well.

Finally, it’s important to understand that achieving good results with sponsored content can take time – if you don’t have prior experience and don’t understand the nuances of native advertising vs sponsored content, it might take a few campaigns until you figure out what works for your brand and your business goals.

So, if you want to maximize your chances of success, it might be best to consult a professional native ads platform. And at Storygize, we have the experience to handle even the most complex sponsored content advertising projects and can help you make the right choices for your campaign.Call us at +1 (866) 786-7944 or schedule a call you here, and we’ll help you figure how to get sponsored content to work for your business.