Content creation has seen a steady rise in the last couple of years. This has surely been one of the effects of the pandemic, when brands have realized the importance of content marketing to succeed.
But producing content is not easy. You need a lot of time to plan, draft and produce the material, especially for audiovisual content. And don’t forget about the people needed for this task. Not everyone is good at writing, designing or editing, so it’s important to have a team that specializes on this matter.
In fact, one of the main challenges brands face is the lack of staff dedicated to content creation. That’s why a lot of them have decided to increase their budget during the last years and spend it mostly on two aspects: hiring content creators or agencies to do the work and getting content management tools.
The democratization of content creation
This rise in content marketing can be a result of the constant evolution of content democratization.
Oxford Reference defines content democratization as:
The production, editing, personalization, and distribution of digital media content by ordinary users, rather than by the traditional content providers in the established media industries.
This has obviously been propelled by the internet and especially social media in the last years. Media publishers are no longer the kings of the content landscape. Everyone now can be a content creator and brands, of course, don’t want to miss out on the fun.
What do brands gain with content marketing?
But why are now brands focusing on producing content? They have discovered that content marketing can provide multiple benefits. In fact, according to a recent Parse.ly survey, 8 in 10 of content marketers are interested in creating more content than they’re doing currently. The motivation is there.
The most common reasons why content creation is beneficial for brands are:
- It increases brand awareness
- You can build a community with your consumers
- You can educate the audience about your brand
- It generates demand leads and sales
- You can engage your audience by increasing loyalty and trust
At first, this can sound like a threat for publishers. However, this can generate great opportunities!
How can publishers leverage the rise of content by brands?
You may think that brands producing content can be considered direct competition for publishers. After all, brands create content to reach and grow their own audience, so why do they need other publishers?
However, there are many opportunities that publishers can leverage from the content already created by brands. Here are some of them:
1. New topics to write about
You can take advantage of new created content and redirect brands’ audiences to your own site.
Expanding on their topics and writing about related or complementary subjects can be a good option to explore when creating content for your site. In short, it can be a new source of topics for you to use if it fits your target audience and editorial line.
Also, it’s a way to follow and write about current trends and news in your industry.
2. Increase traffic to your site
In relation to the last point, having a connection to brands’ content can help you gain more traffic and increase your CPMs.
Apart from owned media, this can help you produce shared media between publishers and brands in a constant exchange of content and information.
Naturally, this will ultimately bring attention of brands to your site, which you can leverage with paid advertising and branded content, which relates to the next point.
3. Partnerships with brands and their influencers
You can find brands that fit your editorial line and create new partnerships with them, which will help you create value for your audience.
Even though brands are increasingly creating their own content, they may lack the expertise that many publishers have been learning in years. That’s why this is a good opportunity to build partnerships with them and dive into sponsored content, which can be beneficial for both you and the brand.
Not only can you create partnerships with brands, but also with their influencers. It can be a new way of co-producing content and exploring other ways of telling stories.
4. Recommendations and rankings
Publishers can be sometimes considered middle-men between brands and audiences. By reviewing brands’ products, placing recommendations and commenting on brands’ content from an independent perspective can give your audience new valuable information and quality content, creating, as we pinpointed before, shared media.
Content created by brands doesn’t need to mean bad news for publishers. This can generate new opportunities to stay in contact with brands, create collaborations and improve the experience of their audiences.
What is content democratization?
Content democratization refers to the creation of content by ordinary users and not traditional media and content producers.
Is brand created content beneficial for publishers?
Publishers can definitely take advantage of content published by brands and create new opportunities to increase their revenue.