What is Promoted Content?
Developing informative and useful content is at the forefront of any successful online marketing strategy.
However, if you can’t get your content in front of an interested audience, it doesn’t matter how much value you provide – your articles will sit on your website, unread.
And while there are organic ways to attract readers to your site, they take a lot of time and effort and don’t always bring the desired results, which isn’t an ideal scenario when you have to start attracting leads for your business today, and not sometime next year.
That’s where promoted content can be so helpful.
By getting your content in front of an audience that’s already interested in what you have to say, you can gain an instant influx of traffic and potential leads for your business.
Promoted Content Explained
There is some debate regarding exactly what is a sponsored post and what is promoted content – some people think that it’s the process of displaying social media posts in the news feeds of users, but in this article, we’ll explore it from the perspective of publishing promotional content on websites which is designed to look similar to editorial content of the publications.
This sponsored strategy involves finding a publication that is read by the people that you want to reach and writing a sponsored post that has all the features of a regular article, while at the same time promoting your business and products.
Since most people have become resistant to traditional advertising such as banners or pop-ups, content promotion using sponsored posts is becoming an incredibly effective alternative that allows businesses to get around people’s defenses and get their message read.
But even though sponsored posting may seem sneaky, users actually prefer it as well, and that’s understandable. Instead of having to deal with pushy and salesy ads that disrupt their browsing experience, online users can consume content that is relevant to them while at the same time learning about offers that they are likely to be interested in.
And if your product or service is genuinely helpful to your customers, having the chance to tell your story and lay out your reasoning through editorial-style content is going to be much more effective than trying to sell using pushy language or flashy banners.
How Does Promoted Content Work?
In its most basic form, promoted content works by providing users with relevant article suggestions that they could be interested.
They are usually displayed next to the “related articles” section on the website, and although they are usually marked as “sponsored,” they look like and mostly are normal articles that offer helpful advice to the readers, with the only difference being that they also help to promote your business.
You can customize the promotional content according to your preferences, making sure that it not only fits your brand and your voice but is also in tune with the website that it is being promoted on and offers relevant information to the people that you are trying to reach. There are content promotion services networks that can help you distribute your content on relevant websites, which give you a lot of customization options and can help to make the process simple and efficient.
Best Practices for Successful Promoted Content
If you want to have the best chance of success with paid content marketing, you need to have a clear plan of action and follow the best practices that are used by the leaders in the industry.
Let’s explore some of the things you should focus on below.
Define Your Target Audience
It’s impossible to develop a successful sponsored content promotion strategy without knowing who you want to reach, so before moving forward, you need to identify who is your ideal prospect, what is he interested in, and how you can reach him.
Try to be as specific as possible – think about their background, their age, their location, their interests, their online habits, and anything else that could be relevant.
Figure Out Where You Want to Be Seen
Once you have a better understanding of your audience, you can start looking for places to publish your content, as well as how to best reach your prospective customers.
Look for site categories that could be overlapping with what your business is about, and also think about your customer browsing habits, identifying things like the best time of day to show your content and even the devices that you could target.
Personalize Your Content
Finally, if you want people to click through to your articles, you will need to develop content that’s engaging, interesting, and relevant to your audience.
You should invest a lot of time into developing catchy headlines and descriptions, as well as finding appropriate images that will draw interest, as you will only have a few seconds to capture attention and make people want to learn more.
These are some of the most important aspects that you need to consider when developing your promoted content strategy, and you may need to run a few campaigns before you get some experience and can achieve the results that you set out. If you want to fast-track the process, you can always turn to experienced service providers like Storygize. Our native advertising services can complement and enhance your sponsored content promotion strategy, so if you want to maximize your chances of success and get your project moving as soon as today, call +1 (866) 786-7944 or fill out a form here and let’s get started!