The advantage of content-based advertising is that, in most cases, the publisher requires only a onetime fee and the content remains on the site forever. In this scenario, your SEO-optimized content will continually generate more and more views without an increase in cost to you, resulting in an everincreasing ROI. Why would publishers permit and even favor such an arrangement? The answer is quite simple—you are providing content for their site that pulls in visitors, thereby increasing overall site traffic and making it easier for them to sell more content-based advertising. The situation is a win on both sides and, when combined with complementary banners or other advertising, makes a potent one-two punch.
Social and Viral Opportunities When was the last time you saw a banner and said, “I’m going to email this to all my friends and post a link to this banner on my Facebook!”? Likely never. However, you have likely shared a link to an article or other content-based advertising. This is a significant pro content-based advertising has over traditional advertising. There are 750,000,000 users on Facebook, 400,000,000 on Twitter and 150,000,000 on LinkedIn. So whether you are advertising B2C or B2B, the power of social media cannot be ignored. Good publishers should have their own social media outlets they can use to prime the social pump and get your content in front of social networkers. For example, for every piece of content-based advertising that we publish on one of our sites, we also send it to our opt-in email lists and share it on our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn* social networks, sharing the content with thousands of potential clients. *We only share B2B-based content with our LinkedIn groups.
Multiple calls to action. Another benefit of content-based advertising is you are not limited to one link. In a well-crafted article, as you progress through the story you want to tell, inserting a series of well-timed embedded links will drive readers to specific products or services. This is a powerful way to generate stronger leads as you are offering the reader something more tailored to their interests. Lastly, let’s look at the numbers. In 2009 ADfusion released one of several reports that identify where online marketing effort should be focused. A whopping 51% of those surveyed said they were likely to read and act upon online advertising articles that include brand information. This is over double the percentage that said they would act upon a banner advertisement and in sharp contrast to the dismal 13% for pop-up ads. The conclusion is clear; people prefer advertising that tells a story. The time of content-based advertising has arrived.
Beyond the Banner: The Advantages of Content Based Advertising - GroupUniversity.com