We get it. Getting your message out there in the media, attracting new customers, bolstering your brand (or rebranding it), connecting with people, increasing sales — it’s the holy grail for marketers and PR pros. But when it comes to paid media, it can be confusing. Are you getting the most out of your content? Is it appearing exactly as you designed it? Where is it appearing? Buried deep within a site or on the front page? Is it credible?
This is where paid Brandpoint’s Guaranteed Media Placements come in. We take the guesswork out of paid media placements, so your message is getting out there how, when and where you want it to appear.
We specialize in paid media, with a twist. More on that later.
Why use paid placements?
First, the basics. Let’s define paid media. Paid media is any kind of marketing effort you pay for, like print and digital advertising, social media ads, native ads and branded content. Within a larger PR campaign, paid media is a great way to increase awareness and ultimately encourage sales.
Paid media is easy. Unlike endlessly pitching article ideas, paid media is easy to obtain. You just need the budget for it and the right provider, and you’re on your way. You can put it in place and focus on other aspects of your marketing or PR campaign.
Paid media is targeted. Say you’re interested in a paid social media campaign. You can target your audience based on a variety of filters, like location, age, gender and more. It reaches exactly who you want to reach.
Measurable ROI. Tracking? No problem. With digital paid media, you can track the performance of your content through clicks or views or any number of metrics. You’ll get hard numbers on the results of your efforts.
- Increases brand visibility. Paid media gets your brand out there, in exactly the way you want it to be.
Paid placements vs. earned media
What about earned media? Earned media is media coverage that occurs organically or via pitching stories to journalists. In other words, you’re “earning” that coverage because your product or brand got some buzz, made news, or otherwise interested a journalist enough to write about it.
Isn’t that an important part of a marketing or PR campaign? Yes and no. Paid and earned media can be used together to create an ideal outcome. Earned media, like a story about your brand in a respected publication, is worth its weight in gold because of the credibility it gives you. Also, aside from your time and effort to get it placed, it’s free. You’re not paying for the content itself, and that also boosts the credibility factor.
But, here’s the thing about that. As the name implies, you’ve gotta earn it. Coverage is in no way guaranteed. Striving for it can be a lot of work for no payoff if your content doesn’t get picked up. And, even if it does, you’re not in control of the content. Once a journalist picks up your story, it’s their ballgame. You don’t know how the story is going to read until it’s out there. That can backfire very quickly.
Paid media is guaranteed — you buy it and pay for it. Simple. And, it appears just as you want it to. You’re in complete control of the message. But, because it’s basically advertising, it simply doesn’t have the credibility of earned media content.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the easy, guaranteed and control aspects of paid media AND the credibility of earned media in one? That’s what we do. Remember when we said Brandpoint specializes in paid media, with a twist? That’s the twist.Â
At Brandpoint, the guaranteed media placements we provide (branded content articles in the most respected print and online publications in the country) work just like paid media, but look just like earned media.Â
It’s just as easy as buying an ad, but far more effective. We work with you to shine up your content to your exact specifications. You’re in control of what goes out the door. You’re not endlessly pitching articles with no payoff. Our unrivaled network of publishers runs our content, guaranteed. And we’re talking about publishers like Hearst, Tribune, Business Journals and more. Credibility? There’s your credibility.
But here’s the key. Our network of publishers runs our content alongside their own because they know our team of writers and editors are journalists. You may be paying for the content, but it’s not going to look like an advertorial. It’s going to look and read just like the other content in those publications because it is written and edited by journalists.
What types of paid placements should you use?
As we’ve noted, paid media placements are any type of media coverage you pay for, like print and digital advertising, social media ads, native ads and branded content. At Brandpoint, branded content is our specialty. But we’re not a one-size-fits-all shop.
With our wide variety of add-ons, you can customize your placement to meet your specific needs. You can choose our foundational offering alone (guaranteed media placement) and get powerful results, or drive even more engagement with one or more add-ons. Mix and match to create the perfect placement to fit with your topic, the audience you want to reach, and your message.
Section-front promotion:Â Place your headlines alongside local editorial content in the top media markets across the U.S.
Guaranteed traffic: Leverage interest in your content and generate clicks to a landing page where users can further engage and explore your brand’s site.
Guaranteed engagement: Drive engagement from your target audience with a native advertising campaign promoting the content on the publishers’ sites.Â
Social media promotion:Â Spread your message further with promotion of your content from social media channels.
Spanish placements:Â Make your content more accessible to the Hispanic/Latino market with translation services and distribution to Spanish-language publications.
- Business Journals:Â BizJournals covers 40+ cities across the country and boasts 10 million readers. Inclusion of your content in this highly respected publication lends credibility and importance.Â
How we reach target audiencesÂ
Targeting your message is one of the most important keys to engagement. With paid media, you can target audience by gender, interests, job title, income range, location and much more.Â
The idea is to build the perfect placement, a bundle specifically customized for your unique needs. Some ideas:
- Need to reach the growing Hispanic population? Add Spanish Translation and Distribution.
- Have a timely business topic? Add Business Section Front or Business Journals.
- Want to reach newspaper readers? Include Print.
- Want to target a specific region? Choose our Regional option.
- Looking to improve your content’s traffic and engagement? Explore our Guaranteed Traffic and Guaranteed Engagement options.
Not sure what’s best? That’s why we’re here. We’ve got you.
Track your paid placement’s performance with reporting and measurement tools
A key benefit to paid media is the ability to track and measure how it’s doing. That’s the whole point, right? Getting results. At Brandpoint, we provide up-to-the-minute intel about where your content is published, how many clicks it gets and so much more. Our deep reporting shows you exactly who, what, where, when and how, with hard numbers, links and metrics.
This way, you’re fully prepared to report back to your clients and stakeholders exactly how you performed and what these metrics mean for your campaign’s success.
Metrics that we provide include:
Content statistics:Â Title of your content, its distribution date, removal date, word count and print downloads, if applicable.
Placement metrics: Total site audience, number of placements for online and print, and the ROI you’ve earned.
Interactive distribution map:Â A breakdown of your placements by region, and more fun than that: each dot on the map is clickable, showing the name of the publication where your content appears and how many views it has, further broken down by the channel, either desktop or mobile.
Distribution highlights: Where our branded content was placed, how large an audience saw it, and the regions where it’s doing the best.
Online placements:Â A clickable list features a direct link to every publisher site where your content appears, along with info about where the publication is located, its total audience, desktop audience and mobile audience.Â
Print placements: If you’ve purchased print in addition to online distribution, you can see any actual clips of the article in the publication where it appears.Â
If you need to talk ROI to higher-ups, you’ve got it.
Intrigued? Contact us today to find out how we can put our Guaranteed Media Placements to work for you!Â
