In the absence of competition, no brand can survive. To thrive and grow, every business requires a steady infusion of supporters who buy into its viewpoints and customers who purchase its products. This is why marketing was developed in the first place – to attract an audience by spreading information about a brand’s positive characteristics, generating demand for the goods and services, and providing an understandable route to make a purchase.
There is no doubt that content marketing can help further all of these goals on its own. However, due to the high volume of noise and distractions competing for attention online, the sharp decline in organic reach on social media, and search trends and algorithm changes complicating the playing field, it is time to face a brutal truth.
If you want your content discovered by the appropriate audience at a scale that will help further your business purpose, you will need to amplify its power by incorporating paid promotion into your content marketing strategy.
Is Paid Content Promotion Worth It?
The total amount spent on native digital display advertising in the US was 16.7 billion dollars in 2021, and it is anticipated that this number will increase to 41.1 billion dollars by the end of 2022.
This figure demonstrates that many businesses include sponsored content in their content marketing plan as a component of their overall strategy. However, this does not guarantee that it will succeed every time. Using sponsored ways to create leads can only be successful if the content you provide is high quality and you properly plan out your promotional efforts.
What are some ways to make sure you are not throwing away money? The best strategy is to get started on a modest scale and gradually increase it as you gain experience. Keep in mind that the ultimate objective is to get visitors to visit your website or landing page, where they can find out more information about your company and go one step closer to making a purchase.
How to Grow Audience Via Paid Promotion
It’s a universal fact; without some assistance, nothing can attain the level of excellence it is capable of. For example, the growth of beans requires water.
When it comes to paid content promotion, the first stage is to produce high-quality content, but it must also be delivered and shared for that content to realize its full potential. The use of social media, email marketing, and search engine optimization are all excellent ways to increase the likelihood that your content will be found by the audience you are trying to reach.
However, certain essential assets need further effort on your part. When this occurs, sponsored marketing is an excellent choice to consider. Note that you need to get off the ground to give your content a push, even if you only have a small budget to work with.
Once you have determined your paid promotion objectives and established a baseline budget, you are in a position to begin brainstorming and studying which produced marketing channel may be the most suitable for your business. Keeping this in mind, here are some paid promotion strategies.
Social Media Platforms
It should come as no surprise that social media plays a significant role in most content marketing strategies, given that there are more than 3 billion active social media users around the world. Furthermore, more than 40 percent of social media users have stated that they are more likely to purchase from companies that provide helpful educational content.
Since there are hundreds of different social media networks, it is neither feasible nor productive for even the most well-known companies to try to make use of all of them. The vast majority of companies might benefit from concentrating their efforts on only a handful of social networks. The first step in developing a social media marketing plan for your company is to determine which platforms will be most beneficial for your company.
Facebook is still the undisputed leader in user count, even though there have been persistent whispers about its extinction over the last several years. Facebook is responsible for around 70–90 percent of all time spent on the world’s most popular social networks. This percentage varies significantly from region to country.
It is also essential to think about the content categories most suitable for each platform. On LinkedIn, thought leadership pieces do very well, while visual content performs particularly better on Instagram and Pinterest. YouTube is, of course, the central platform for the video.
Email Marketing
If you want to make sure that people who have already shown an interest in your brand will see your posts, sending them an email can have a high click-through rate if done correctly. Keep in mind that people will only sign up for your list if there is something in it for them. Start by creating enticing subject lines for your emails. On top of that, maintain brevity and focus when writing the body text of your email, and don’t forget to add a direct call to action along with a link to your content.
Native Advertising
Native advertising takes many forms, but it most often occurs on news websites or platforms for social networking, where it is designed to blend in with the rest of the content on the site. They are often tagged as “promoted” or “sponsored” and appear either in line with other articles or below entries on the website. All social mediums show sponsored content, and each platform gives users a variety of choices to promote their content.
You might, for instance, promote a single piece of content on a particular platform, or you could segment campaigns over a network of third-party sites and social networks. They all have exceptional targeting capabilities, which means that your content has a greater chance of reaching a more significant number of eligible prospects.
To increase the number of people who see your content, you will be required to pay the price on each platform, either on a cost-per-impression (PPM) or pay-per-click (PPC) basis. You are in charge of deciding the budget and the specifics of the targeting.
Recommended Content and Content Syndication
Recommended content is quite similar to an in-feed advertisement that you could come across on social media networks; however, it is presented in a slightly different manner. In most cases, these content suggestions are determined by the preferences of the reader or the subject matter that they are presently reading about.
Content distribution across other websites, either in its whole, in a portion of it, or as a link to your site, is known as content syndication. Through content suggestions and syndicated content, each of the following content distribution platforms may assist advertisers in connecting with their respective target audiences:
- Taboola advertises your content on MSN, NBC, USA Today, and Tribune.
- Outbrain your work to appear on media outlets, such as CNN, People, and ESPN.
- Your content may be promoted on various websites using SimpleReach, including Forbes, TIME, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post.
- You can advertise your content to various audience categories by using the StumbleUpon platform, which is used for content discovery.
Paid Search Advertising
One of the most well-known methods that marketers use to promote their content is via Google’s search adverts, which were once known as AdWords. Marketers can advertise their content alongside organic search results using this method, often known as search engine marketing or SEM. The Google Adverts program uses a concept known as pay-per-click, or PPC for short. This means that advertisers only pay when users click on one of their ads rather than for impressions.
It is an excellent method for putting your content in front of the appropriate audience since the adverts display the search queries entered by users to determine results. Additionally, considering that around seventy-five percent of people never go beyond the first page of search results, this might significantly boost the visibility of your content.
Bonus Tips for Paid Content Promotion
It doesn’t matter what formats or platforms you work with; the end aim of sponsored promotion should be to bring viewers to your website, blog, or other owned media channels—where they may learn more about your company, deepen their engagement with your content, and get closer to making a purchase. The following are some suggestions based on established standards:
- Know target market and audience.
- Research your keywords carefully.
- Craft your creatives thoughtfully.
- Put your best content forward.
- Optimize your landing pages.
- Take advantage of retargeting.
The Final Cut
When it comes to advertising your products or services online, one of the most successful tactics is to engage in content marketing. But if you have the correct strategy for paid promotion, you may get an edge over your competitors and magnify your success. Utilize the strategies mentioned above and modify them to work for your particular brand. If you’re still unsure what to do, get started with anything simple and figure it out as you move along.
This brings us to the end of this quick-start guide. Now it’s time to hear from you. Any questions? Or maybe there’s something we missed? Either way, feel free to leave a comment below.