The most pressing questions advertisers are asking us about branded content

I had the privilege this week of leading a Lunch and Learn on branded content for a group of advertisers and the results just blew me away. 

We have done a variety of these this year and every single time I see huge value and I think our clients do as well. We share the importance of branded content as a marketing channel and then information on how the media company can provide the solution to those sitting in the room.

The one we did this week resulted in several closed sales just 24 hours after the event. And all were multi-month sales. One client even scheduled an appointment with one of our content writers at the event.

I’d love to tell you about how these work and conduct one in your market. Just message me here.

Today I want to share some of the questions that advertisers have asked us during these Lunch and Learns, as I think they are relevant for many.

1. How do you decide what stories to write?

This is the process our team uses and one that I would encourage you to think about as well:

The advertiser’s ideas: Ask the client if they had something in mind, whether an angle, a product or a focus.

Ask questions: We like to go through a needs assessment that gets at the heart of who the advertiser is and what to focus on: Their history, their goals, questions customers ask them and what’s most important to them in the next few months.

Bring the data: Share things like keyword phrases around that advertiser’s industry and questions that readers are asking on Google (tools like Semrush and Answer The Public) can help you identify these questions.

This moves this from a profile on the business to a much more strategic purchase.

2. What kind of SEO efforts go into the content?

The SEO value you can create for the advertiser should be a significant part of your positioning.

When we’re talking about creating content, we stress our deep knowledge of SEO and how the same tactics we use to generate traffic for news content can be used for their content as well.

We share a laundry list of those things that we will do like optimizing for headlines, URLs, meta descriptions, SEO titles, headers and photographs.on.

But it’s also important to show that you are an expert in the future of SEO, explaining how more content will be found through Generative Engine Optimization and why their content needs to be discovered through questions they can answer in the content.

3. How will we know this works?

Explaining the metrics that you are tracking is key. I like to share that this is really an engagement marketing track and that we would rather focus on things like time spent and scroll depth over a huge impressions number.

If your media company offers the ability to create newsletters that can drive people to the advertiser’s website (like a e-newsletter with their display ad) through your branded content program, showcasing potential leads can be a very effective metric to share.

Explain to an advertiser what kind of reporting they are going to get and then ensure you deliver that report with not just numbers but detail that explains the impact. really are great branded content stories that could be spread across the last quarter of the year.

Let’s work together on branded content!

We’d love the chance to share how we can help your team develop branded content strategies and the actual content that advertisers are seeking today. Contact me at David@davidarkinconsulting.com today so you can learn more and also check out this flyer below.