Decoding the Value of Branded Content
Brands and marketers often find it challenging to define 'branded content' succinctly, largely due to the ever-evolving nature of the industry. At Scale Selling, we view branded content as any media piece that helps sell your brand to your ideal client(s) and involves the creative contribution of the brand. This refers to content specifically crafted for distribution through a publisher, such as prominent entities like Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, Bloomberg or CNBC. It can also refer to your companies website, social media presence and content your brand puts out to the public via any of the above mediums. All of it should be branded, and optimized for SEO. Through this approach, brands can tap into the trust, proficiency, and expansive reach of top-tier publishers, the web and social media platforms enabling them to engage with new, precisely targeted demographics, shorten sales cycle and build relationships with their prospective clients/customers on auto-pilot.
Navigating a dynamic sector: Ever Evolving & Fast Paced Change.
Branded content has evolved beyond being a mere industry jargon. The landscape of this advertising and marketing variant has dramatically shifted from its advertorial focused infancy, attracting an increasing amount of investment from both publishers, businesses and advertisers.
Whether you represent a trailblazing startup seeking to revolutionize a sector or a Fortune 500 powerhouse like Apple, Tesla or Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) working to forge connections with newer customer generations, businesses of all sizes are scouting for novel ways to captivate audiences. The most effective approach to this is through narratives, content and online branding, not traditional advertisements.
Besides serving as a conduit for building relationships, branded content is emerging as a solution to the quest for long-term sustainability. It's morphing into a significant revenue stream for many businesses. Even the industry's most prominent players have restructured their teams to integrate branded content as a crucial element of their digital ad revenue.
It’s common knowledge in the new online landscape, whether older agencies tell you this or not, that you should always do Branding and some foundational SEO BEFORE ANY promotion. Your brand is what your ads and promotion and sales outreach send people back too. Your brand is what people remember, grow to love, refer people too and build a connection with. If you’re advertising or promoting before investing extensive resources in branding, you’re leaving money on the table in the best case, or it’s probably not getting you the ROI you want as a whole in the worst case; and advertising before branding is why. It needs to be the other way around.
The slow death of the traditional ad
No matter what you bring to life, your content must strive to outperform traditional advertising. Why? Because the banner ads no longer captivate consumers (if they ever did).
Research indicates that approximately 25% of internet users employ ad-blockers. In the last few years, Netflix, which went ad-free, saw its subscriber count soar from 50 million to 125 million. Other streaming platforms like YouTube implemented the same; giving consumers the option to purchase a version with 0 advertisements shown to them.
The blunt reality is that people aren't fond of ads, and they're willing to pay to sidestep them both on the internet and while binging their favorite shows. Consequently, marketers must offer them something that conveys their brand values in a way that genuinely resonates with their interests; rather than annoys them. This is the difference between an outbound VS inbound approach to your internet marketing.
Traditional advertisements are the equivalent of cold calls; they barely work and aren’t the best approach. New strategies like SEO and Branding focus on connecting with your audience or ideal clients, so they come to you, rather than you going to them and potentially annoying them. It’s the difference between making a cold call to solicit business, or someone calling in to do business with you. One of those will be much easier to close.
Audiences appreciate branded content since it prioritizes delivering value over product sales. It’s been revealed that 70% of consumers prefer learning about products through content and reacted favorably to brands that gifted them with insightful subject-matter expertise.
Branded content represents the modern approach to fostering relationships in todays world. It purposefully caters to the client/reader without any disruptive elements. The focus lies in conveying the brand's essence, highlighting the narratives it supports, presenting culture and way of thinking, demonstrating your companies unique value and expertise, educating them on why you over competition, and aligning with the ideas your brand advocates.
Essentially, its the secret to marketing success in the 21st Century and it is how to successfully do marketing in todays world.
Why the growing interest in branded content?
The increasing interest in branded content isn't simply about boosting brand ego, though there's undeniable satisfaction in seeing your name in renowned publications like Global News, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNBC and the results that comes with branded content creation. Branded content is an effective strategy for drawing in and building trust with new audiences - and in the online marketing world, attention is money.
Branded content is often a high-value offering with costs ranging from $1,000 to over $50,000, dependent on your partners and campaign size. As a result, many teams are dedicated to demonstrating the impact of branded content. The silver lining is that aside from being a robust tool for building awareness, content can directly lead to increased traffic to your brand's website and more revenue in your offers.
“We’re crafting brands and brand narratives for our clients + selves, based on the brands unique voice, culture, value, beliefs, and customer selling points to help clients Scale Selling. We’re leveraging branding as a storytelling technique to educate and inspire your ideal clients. It isn’t a digital or a physical product, it’s simply a tool for growing your business, receiving higher quality leads and shortening the sales cycle when done right - and everyone gets that.”
Don’t just take our words for it, here’s the cold hard statistics to back it up:
Engagement with branded content vastly outshines interaction with display ads. On average, users spend 45 seconds with branded material versus a mere 1.6 seconds with banner ads, reflecting a 22-fold increase in engagement.
Branded content is more memorable than pre-roll video advertisements. Nielsen reports an impressive 86% brand recall for branded content, surpassing the 65% recall rate for pre-roll ads.
Brands gain traction with consumers through branded content. Research led by IPG Media Lab reveals a 14% uptick in users seeking more advertiser content after exposure to branded content. This suggests an active role of branded content in the consumer journey.
Compared to other digital ads, branded content ensures 59% higher brand recall. As per an IPG Media Lab study, there's been a 17% improvement in recall since 2013, indicating either enhanced user familiarity or superior content delivery.
Collaborating with premium publishers for content distribution yields a 50% increase in brand lift. This is attributed to pattern recognition - our brains associate a brand with a reputable publisher, perceiving shared values and credibility.
The future of branded content looks bright, with 90% of surveyed media groups predicting revenue growth in this sector within the year. This optimism surpasses expectations for other revenue streams such as subscriptions and video or display ads.
The native advertising landscape, a key player in branded content, is expected to balloon from $85.83 billion in 2020 to over $402 billion by 2025, according to AdYouLike.
Among communication professionals, 74.5% integrate branded content in their campaigns, and 67% predict an increase in client spending on branded content in the upcoming year.
Ad blockers are used by 27.5% of internet users. Particularly averse are millennials, with nearly two-thirds using ad blockers, despite acknowledging potential relevance in retargeted and social media ads.
Interestingly, a majority of marketers evade ads too. As per a Pressboard study, 98% opt for ad-free streaming, and 27% use ad-blockers. Nonetheless, 96% favor articles over banners, providing hope for content creators.
A significant 58% of young audiences, despite their distaste for ads, will view them in support of their beloved digital personalities. However, authenticity, entertainment value, and usefulness are essential to keep them engaged.
Premium publishers command more consumer trust than social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter when it comes to news. A UK survey reveals that 79% of respondents trust sources like the BBC, Time, and The Guardian, in contrast to the 36% who trust news on social media.
A Verizon Media study suggests a preference for unobtrusive ads among 79% of respondents. They are more accepting of ads blending with page content than disruptive banners.
Branded video content elicits more positive reactions than traditional commercials. Viewers of branded videos are 62% more likely to respond favorably than those watching 30-second ads.
Emotional connection with a brand leads to double the spending, as per 70% of respondents in a Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute study. Moreover, 81% of these respondents promote their favorite brands within their social circle.
A Sprout Social study reveals that consumers expect brands to voice opinions on social and political issues. Such initiatives, however, need to be authentic and aligned with company values for successful results.
These statistics underline that branded content, regardless of the customer's position in the sales funnel, is an effective tool for capturing attention, fostering trust, and ultimately, driving conversions. It offers valuable insights for businesses aiming to engage consumers more effectively, proving that a strategic investment in branded content can yield significant returns across various performance metrics. As digital advertising continues to evolve, these trends highlight the growing importance of authenticity, relevance, and consumer-centric content in creating memorable brand experiences.
How to Scale Selling
Businesses venturing into the domain of branded content marketing need to bear in mind that their focus shouldn't merely be on creating enjoyable content. Just as in the entertainment sector, the objective is to build an audience, pique their interest, and nurture loyalty. The ultimate aim, however, is rooted in the commercial sphere - to lead your audience towards purchasing your offerings and to stimulate sales.
Survey data from CollectiveBias indicates that one out of three millennials has bought a product after encountering a sponsored post. Nevertheless, it’s the intangible aspects of branding and content creation that can make it hard to quantify the precise influence that your branded content had on a sale made two months (or even two years) prior.
When inquiring about the top concerns clients express when it comes to scaling sales, Spencer Williams, CEO of Scale Selling, stated, "One word encapsulates it all: RESULTS - with branded content and internet marketing you get better results and much more insights to further improve results. We're facilitating the creation of a relationship between clients and potential customers on auto-pilot. Connecting with them intimately, face to face, at all times of the day. Building a relationship, selling prospects on why you and facilitating a direct connection between brand and consumer is not possible through a traditional banner ad, bill board or a 30-second TV slot. On top of that, you can’t go back to your billboard or TV ad and ask it for data about the people who viewed in the same way you can with up to date online marketing strategies."
Establishing a relationship with your audiences, and earning their trust, is a pivotal first step in the customer journey-Something that previously made sales cycles long, and something that can be half put on auto-pilot with proper branding. Enlightening clients about the benefits of branded content also increases the likelihood of their investment.
On discussing the approach of Scale Selling to branded content education, Williams added, "When I engage with clients, particularly when we propose doing branding before any other promotion or advertising campaigns, everyone possesses a different comfort level with what they term as branding, and their level of understanding of it. So, I believe our initial conversation invariably revolves around education — education in the general sense, about what branded and native content entails — to help people feel at ease with utilizing it and assist them in making an educated decision. This is why our new book “Scale Selling: The Digital Marketing Survival Guide” is a key tool for educating our prospects, team members and clients on how to utilize digital marketing to drive business growth in todays world and why they should be. It’s coming out soon, so keep your eyes out, or book a free strategy session with us to get a free copy."
