Generating sponsored content seems like an easy feat. In fact, it is more effective than traditional advertising as 78% of marketing professionals believe.
First, let’s talk about what sponsored content is.
In Hubspot’s words, it is “a type of promotional media that’s paid for by an advertiser, but created and shared by another brand, influencer, or publisher”. This way, the content is published in a medium where its audience is going to react in a positive way.
Publishers understand their audience and they know exactly what kind of content they’re looking for. Therefore, it’s a guaranteed way of increasing revenue.
Understanding how sponsored content work
Sponsored content involves three parties that must be satisfied with the deal for it to work: publishers, brands and, of course, readers. That’s why it demands high personalization, but also great creativity since it’s important for publishers to broaden their opportunities to work with different brands.
The content must:
- Fit the brands that are advertising on your site. It’d be useless if the brand didn’t reach users that are not part of their target audience.
- Be transparent in a way that readers know they are consuming sponsored content. It must not be misleading to the audience and state that it’s, in fact, a type of ad.
Actually, since sponsored content is of a high quality and personalizable, readers are willing to consume ads when they’re in this format as long as they’re interested in the topic at hand.
5 ways publishers can reach brands for a sponsor partnership
It’s publishers’ job to contact and eventually get the appropriate brands for creating sponsored content on their site. According to the A.I. ad tester Ezoic, brands pretty much don’t reply to 99% of partnerships requests, so it can be an difficult task.
Then, how can publishers get them to start a cooperation?
- The most important thing is creating content that you can sell to brands. You must have a defined audience so advertisers have it easier to select you.
- Providing data that allows brands to know what traffic they’re buying, their reach and what their impact will be.
- Drawing attention to your site by setting up a Become A Sponsor or Advertise Here page.
- Identifying advertisers that are already promoting on your site via other means, such as display advertising, and contacting them to make a deal.
- Via other platforms that connect publishers with brands to distribute sponsored content, like DirectoPub.
Once the partnership has been established, you can create different kinds of sponsored posts such as reader survey contests, “ask a brand a question” articles or blog series. You can also use other formats such as sponsored photos, videos or podcasts.
After learning about all these options, what methods will you use to sell sponsored content?
Is native advertising and sponsored content the same thing?
Sponsored content is similar to native advertising because it appears in a way that looks like it naturally belongs to the usual content that publishers already provide on their site.
How do I get sponsors for my website?
It is crucial to have an established audience that can attract brands to your site. You must also reach out to brands and provide all the info necessary for them to choose you.