What Is Branded Content?

So what is branded content, anyway? Simply put, it’s content that helps your company establish a connection with your customers. Any marketing team can advertise a product. But your specific brand’s content goes deeper by telling the story of your business. When you post an Instagram story or write a blog about your company, product, or service, your audience learns the “how” and “why”—not just the “what.”

Digital marketing and advertising establish brand awareness. And brand-specific content marketing establishes brand loyalty. When your customers are loyal to you, you’ll get repeat and referral business. That’s why your brand’s content should be a key component of your overall marketing strategy.

What does branded content include?

You have to produce high-quality content in order to boost your search engine optimization (SEO) so that each potential customer can easily find you online. And at the end of the day, that’s basically what content marketing involves. But branded content is a bit trickier because it aims to both attract your target audience and establish a connection with them.

How does this type of content work?

Branded content allows you to engage with your target audience. Think of it less as marketing and more as branded entertainment. Don’t just pay someone to create an ad. Instead, produce videos, blogs, and social media posts that speak directly to each potential customer.

Creating branded content isn’t easy. If you’re struggling to produce successful content, consider researching some content writing services to help you. You can hire an agency to act as a business partner to design and execute your content marketing strategy. This is an investment, but it can really drive up your brand awareness, brand loyalty, and sales.

What are some examples of branded content?

You can find examples of branded content all over the internet and across social media. Here are a few ideas to consider as you research the best branded content tools for your company:

• Instagram branded content. Post a fun Instagram story that your target audience can engage with and share.
• Influencer marketing. Find an influencer with a large social media following, and hire them to create a branded content tag or ad for you.
• Branded video. Smartphone technology and social media make it easy to create and post videos. And people love watching them! Post your videos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to increase your brand awareness.

Why is branded content important?

All digital marketing is important because your customers search for products and services online. And it’s easy to create sponsored content as a way of advertising what your company offers. Because so many businesses advertise on the internet and social media, your company can get lost in the shuffle.

That’s where your brand’s content comes in.

Branded content lets you connect to your target audience. As they learn more about how and why you do what you do, they develop brand loyalty. They buy more products from you and their competitors. They tell their family and friends about your products and services. And that leads to more sales.

So invest in your business by developing a content strategy tied to your brand. Be proud of what your company does, and share your message with the world. You’ll engage with your customers and earn more business!

How to use your content

Many companies use branded content to connect with their target audience. This content focuses on your customers rather than the product or service you’re selling. Instead of sitting through a sales pitch, your target audience can learn about why you produce what you sell—and they’ll understand why it’s the right product for them.

Why should you always consider using branded content?

Any digital marketing professional can create native ads or sponsored content to boost your brand awareness. And yes, it’s important to put your logo and products in front of consumers. However, those are just sales pitches. Consumers want to buy things that they believe in—and branded content helps them to believe in your company.

You should always consider using content for your brand because it creates trust between you and your customers. So instead of just advertising what you sell, produce quality content that explains what you sell and how it can help your customers.

Where can you find this type of content?

Social media platforms and the internet are full of branded content. If you’re looking for examples of what to include in your content marketing strategy, start by researching current marketing trends to see what other companies are doing. Find out who is succeeding. And then examine their branded content efforts.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you check out other companies and look for ideas to boost your content marketing strategy:

• What social media platform do they rely on the most?
• What is their most successful social media post? This might be an Instagram story, a branded video on Facebook, or a poll on Twitter.
• Do they use influencer marketing?
• Are they using a variety of branded entertainment like videos, blogs, and infographics? Or do they concentrate on one method?

Once you’ve looked at what branded content marketing has worked for other successful companies, you can use that information to create your own high-quality brand-specific content marketing strategy.

What are the main reasons you should use branded content?

There are several main reasons you should use branded content. The first reason is similar to every marketing strategy: you can attract new customers by creating brand awareness.

The second reason to use branded content is to establish brand loyalty. When consumers are loyal to your products and services, they become repeat customers. And because people often talk about their positive experiences, happy customers lead to referral business.

In addition, branded content helps establish you as a legitimate business. Creating high-quality branded content isn’t easy. And when your target audience sees that you put time and resources into creating a variety of branded content, they see you as a company that they can trust.

What your brand’s content marketing can do

All marketing efforts aim to increase brand awareness and bring you more sales. A standard digital marketing strategy might include aspects like native advertising or paid ads on various websites and social media platforms.

However, when you put more resources into branded content instead of traditional advertising, you can establish a deeper connection with your customers. Consumers recognize and appreciate authentic branding over a run-of-the-mill sales pitch. So give the public what they want: branded content.

What can this content marketing do for your business?

Consumers can become tired of reading sales pitches about products. Instead, they want to know how your products and services can help them. And because branded content marketing focuses on the consumer instead of your company’s offerings, it attracts more attention.

In all your branded content marketing efforts—from social media posts to blogs to influencer marketing—speak directly to your target audience. You can explain your brand values and mission statement and how your products and services can improve their lives. When you respect and value your customers, your customers will respect and value you!

What kind of return on investment can you see when you start using branded content?

Return on investment (ROI) is a key metric for every marketing strategy. After all, the whole point of marketing is to spend money to make money. So when you invest in marketing, it’s important to track the ROI for every content tool for your brand that you use.

You can expect to see a different ROI depending on a few factors:

• How much money you allocate to digital marketing
• The strength and effectiveness of your content marketing efforts
• Whether you hit your target audience

When you invest in high-quality content marketing for your brand and produce strong and effective content, you will attract your target audience. And you’ll have an excellent ROI!

If you’re concerned about meeting your ROI goals, consider partnering with a content marketing agency to help out. These experts exist to help you identify and appeal to your target audience so that you can increase your sales.

How can branded content give you an edge over your competition?

Regardless of what industry you’re in, you have to gain an edge over your competition. And content tied to your brand can help! In addition to increasing your brand awareness, this content will begin a conversation with your customers. You can communicate how and why your products exist and explain why they should trust you more than your competitors.

So have some fun with your branded content! Create a content calendar to give your target audience a variety of media. Post an Instagram story. Make a fun TikTok or Facebook video. Write a series of blogs that discusses topics related to your product or service. And always remember to focus on your audience, not on your product.

Branded content vs. content marketing

Whether you’re a small business working to establish your brand identity or a large corporation trying to increase your brand awareness, you should include brand content in your overall marketing strategy.

Of course, all digital marketing is important. So you should invest in content marketing efforts like your website and sponsored content across the internet to capture as much attention and reach as wide an audience as possible. And you should also work to establish brand loyalty with your customers using branded content.

Before you can develop a marketing campaign that includes both strategies, though, you have to understand the difference between branded content and content marketing.

What are the main differences between branded content and content marketing?

The main difference between branded content marketing and traditional content marketing is simple:

• Traditional content marketing pitches a product or service.
• Branded content marketing tells a story.

In other words, traditional content marketing explains the what. Branded content marketing tells the why.

Because branded content marketing focuses on storytelling, it establishes a deeper connection with your target audience than traditional content marketing can. When your customers feel connected to your business, they trust your products and services. And that leads to more sales!

How do the purposes of your brand’s content and content marketing intersect?

In many ways, branded content and content marketing are similar. And although the main difference is brand storytelling, they both have the same goal—and they share several methods.

All your digital marketing efforts should be designed to work with current internet search algorithms. That means that both branded content and content marketing are aimed at high SEO results. This might include online advertising or a social media marketing campaign. Just remember that when you build your content marketing strategy, you have to focus on the consumer instead of the product that you’re selling to the consumer.

Why is it important to consider branded content in terms of your content marketing strategy?

Just about every industry includes multiple companies that sell similar products. And in order to succeed, you have to set yourself apart from your competitors. The best way to gain a competitive edge is to tell the story of your brand. Why does your company exist? What is your mission? And how can your products help your customers?

Branded content builds trust and loyalty and creates a conversation between you and your clients. Instead of buying something from a faceless business, your customers will feel like they are partnering with a company that they believe in. The more they know about you, the more products they’re inclined to purchase.

Create a marketing campaign to set yourself apart from the competition.

Anyone can advertise a product or service. It’s more difficult—and more lucrative—to create a content marketing strategy that boosts your brand and connects with your target audience on a deeper level.

Elite Editing wants to help you communicate your mission to the world so that you can reach more consumers and earn more business. Visit our website today to learn more!