How to Create Sponsored Content that Engages Consumers

In digital marketing, content that does not attract engagement is not a valuable content. This is more so with sponsored content which many consumers usually avoid because they tend to see most sponsored content as ads. The main issue with sponsored posts particularly on social media and other digital platforms is really about the manner in which sponsored posts are displayed and not about the messages. That is what most consumers resent and it tends to put many off the messages all together. However, in terms of engagement, sponsored content whether as social post, a blog or a video can be as engaging as a non-sponsored content when done the right away. Both can be effective digital marketing strategies when properly deployed. These here are very effective tips to help boost your sponsored content to get the right engagement.

Avoid Text on Photos

As a digital marketer, it is inevitable that you do have to market with texts and photos. How these texts and photos are used in what determines their effectiveness particularly in matters of user engagement. You must therefore ensure always that your content looks very natural to your consumers. Avoid as much as possible text overlays on photos. In the eyes and perception of consumers, text overlays make your content to look like an ad or a meme. For this reason, you must always keep your text limited to your caption, but even at that, you must avoid going overboard there either. In addition, if you habitually utilize too many hashtags, it makes your sponsored post look spammy and that ultimately results in decreased engagement which you can least afford. When your sponsored content is of poor quality and just feels like an ad, consumers are less likely to engage with it. But, when the content is properly placed, doesn’t include too many tags, utilizes sharp photography, and feels organic and very natural, it turns out to be the right content that can effectively generate very good results for your brand.

Avoid Poor Photographs

Sharp and very high quality photographs are a must in digital marketing. Poor quality photographs are about the most common mistakes most brands and influencers usually make within sponsored content. No matter where the photographs are used, whether on social media or other digital platforms, blurry or poorly cropped photos are always a put off for most consumers. Such poor quality photos therefore usually help to decrease engagement a great deal. Expert marketers advise that as much as practicable, digital marketers should utilize an HD camera to ensure the best visual quality for their marketing photos.

 

Avoid Unnatural Product Displays

If marketing pics appear unnatural on content they reduce engagement. Consumers are people and they relate better with any visual content they see as natural and not outrageous or garish. That helps engagement. What most consumers really want to see influencers doing is to see them use a product in a vividly demonstrable form. Seeing things like that simply tells the story in a very succinct and captivating manner. If for instance you are promoting a sponsored content about a clothing item, the influencer must wear the item to clearly show to consumers how it fits. The idea is to make it feel less like an ad and more like an item that just happened to be captured in the influencer’s photo. That looks more natural and tells the marketing story much better even without appearing to be doing so. Engagement is better as a result instead of prominently featuring the product in such an unnatural manner that may even be disgusting to consumers.

How to Make Your Personal Blog Profitable

Making your personal blog profitable depends largely on your knowledge, skills and proficiency. But first you must be ready to build a loyal following for your blog before you can successfully turn the audience into revenue. Admittedly, doing so takes quite a while and a lot of patience though. But with the right planning, marketing funnels and content development, even an average blogger can do so. Below are some tips how.

 

Go for Affiliates Revenue

Having your own blog running is not enough to make money out of it. You must actively promote and share it for it to be able to make money. By the time you successfully build a good following for your blog particularly on social media, you can develop an affiliate marketing strategy for it. This is one great way to earn recurring income from the blog. All you need is to embed relevant affiliate links of the products you are promoting in your blog content to enhance your reader’s experience. With these links in place all over your content, you earn a commission every time a sale is made through these affiliate links. That helps you to generate commissions in perpetuity from all sales made through these affiliate links. If your blog does this for you even on the short or long term, it becomes a success story you can build upon to make the blog more profitable.

Offer Sponsored Content

Most bloggers know that one of the best ways to generate revenue on a blog is to offer sponsored content. Bloggers must however ensure their advertising aligns snugly their audience to get the best results. Profitable sponsored content can be packaged in form of videos, podcasts, blog posts, roundup stories, reviews and interviews. Payment for sponsored content is usually swift. As soon as you create the content and it is published, payment is made. Earning from sponsored content is usually faster than affiliate marketing arrangements because affiliate commissions are paid at agreed intervals. On sponsored content, earned revenue isn’t directly dependent on clicks or views, unlike other types of blog monetization strategies. The earned revenue depends on how large the blog readership is and in what location the brand’s message is placed on the blog. 

Package your Skills into Marketable Services

As the traffic, audience and contacts on your blog grow, you can think about many ways to use those assets to earn income. You can for instance reach out to more targeted audiences and package your knowledge as service programs for those who are willing to buy. You can through these programs create a sales funnel to ensure consistent stream of revenue from your blog. It is possible and profitable to set this funnel up in such a way as to guide readers from social media, publicity, and Pinterest advertising (top of the funnel) to your blog posts/landing pages to your email list and funneling them to your sales pages (bottom of the funnel). This process may take a while and some testing to improve conversions. But, it is always worth it on the long run when the pieces fall in place and align properly. The revenues start flowing in directly from these efforts and your blog starts turning a profit.

5 Tips to Monetize Your Website

If you are desirous to monetize your website, you must first work to create a proper monetization strategy. That is what you really need to be able to drive relevant traffic that converts real good. Even if you have a great website and steady traffic, you may not be able to make money from your website if you have no monetization strategy to do so. These here tips will help you to create that strategy and effectively monetize your website to earn money for you.

1. Sell Digital Products

To sell digital products on your website, you must first create such products that people will like to buy or you collaborate with other content creators and help to promote their products. The commonest digital products that really sell well are eBooks, educational courses, how-to templates, workout programs, research findings/data, travelogues, healthy food recipes and Industry trends. Make sure the digital products you offer on your website are essentially relevant stuff and of the highest quality available. You make good money selling digital products because creating and selling them is hugely cost-effective. It is much easier and cheaper distributing digital products than physical goods because you do not have to worry about handling, warehousing and shipping costs.

2. Join Affiliate Marketing

First be sure your website is designed to be able to handle affiliate marketing. Next is to reach out to product merchants whom you can promote their affiliate links on your website. You earn a commission from all sales made through the links you promote on your website. You can insert these links in your blog content and other articles on your website. You can also create side banners with images that promote affiliate products. Alternatively, you can decide to join reputable affiliate programs. The right affiliate program to join is directly dependent on the niche of your website. The most popular of these programs are ClickBank, SFI, Amazon, and eBay where you can seek niche-specific products that you can effectively promote to your audience. These programs will help to drive traffic to your website and each successful conversion will net you a commission. The more conversions you get, the more money you make. It is as simple as that.

3. Run Paid Ads

You can earn money through online advertisements on your website even if it is not your primary monetization method. These days, to earn money from online ads, you must factor in the huge impact of mobile devices in online traffic. What this means is that your website must be optimized for smartphones and tablets, not just computers. To run video ads, you can create inPage, inBanner, and inApp video ads which make it easier to insert professionally-looking online ads. You get paid by product merchants whose products ads you run professionally on your website. This payment depends on the number of clicks and views.

4. Publish Sponsored Content

If you write a popular blog or you have a large social media following, you can publish sponsored content and get paid for it. Having a great blog allows you to sell guest posts to make money. Here is how it works. You deliberately seek out interested parties who would like to publish an article on your website and get a do-follow link to help their SEO campaigns. By this arrangement, your website will benefit from good content besides the payment you’ll receive for publishing the content. However, you must ensure such content is genuine and original. For ethical reasons, you must notify your readers that the content is sponsored.

To find leads for good content, start with Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media platforms. You can also join relevant online groups and advertise yourself as someone who invites interested parties to post on your website. With time, and through this collaboration, you’ll be able to find more leads, get more sponsored content and make more money.

5. Paid Membership

Paying for a membership on a website when you can probably find a free alternative usually presents some kind of dilemma for some marketers. These are marketers who are not too conversant with the benefits that may accrue to them for doing so even though some of these benefits might not seem so obvious. Membership sites create relationships and loyal communities. They also give website owners a pre-qualified audience for marketing and upselling. Growing a significant community also establishes you as an authority in the industry. Finally and most significantly, as the website scales and your value increases, the community will keep you on your toes and encourage you to create the best possible content you can. Checking all these marks should be good enough to turn a membership site into a sustainable source of income. Other than just the membership fees, you can also consider other monetization methods as the membership grows.

Last Line

All told, these five website monetization tips are just a few of the ideas website owners can really depend on to make money form their monetized websites. The business niche of your website and the efforts you are prepared to put in matter a lot in the eventual income you’ll generate from your website. You may choose to work with just one of the methods or you combine as many of them as you are comfortable with. The bottom line is the amount of income you generate with your website if you monetize it with a good strategy.