What is OutBrain

In this blog about Outbrain, Predikkta briefly touched on the notion of content marketing amplification. But understanding that websites like Outbrain exist will only do someone so much good if they are unfamiliar with the concept of content marketing in the first place.

DEFINITION

Simply put, content marketing is when businesses offer and publish information that their customers would find useful. This can come in the form of blogs, white papers, news articles, info-graphics or any other form of publishable marketing that is designed to be shared amongst potential customers.

Outbrain is a content marketing amplification platform that lets you publish your website content on websites that you have no access to. For example in October 2015 Outbrain and Newscorp Australia formed a partnership where Outbrain content will be published across the Australian News Corp Network. Thus if you use Outbrain your article can appear on The Australian or News.com.au websites.

So how does Outbrain work? You paste the link of your article into Outbrain’s platform, set a budget (say 25 cents a click) and after approval of your article it is listed as a sponsored post at the bottom of relevant websites which could include the New York Times or any website Outbrain has partnered with. Outbrain has arrangements with websites around the world where your article can be published. Your article will appear as a sponsored link at the bottom of the website page in a category you are targeting.

To be clear Outbrain is an agent that takes a clip each time someone reads your published article on a website Outbrain has a commercial relationship with.

Why is content amplification important?  The overall idea behind content marketing amplification is to create brand awareness and loyalty – so your the one they turn to when they want information. Strong content marketing will, over a longer period than traditional advertising such as TV and radio, create a deeper connection and stronger relationship with the consumer.

It should be noted that the key to any successful content marketing campaign is topical, relevant, and valuable content. For example, our news or blog posts here at Predikkta, we research our content thoroughly to ensure that it is the latest and most reliable information out there.

IS IT ACTUALLY MARKETING?

An interesting description of the direction of marketing was that it was essentially becoming journalism. Content marketing is the perfect example of this – in order to create engaging and relevant, high quality content, the copywriters have to become investigators, seeking as well as creating high quality content where they can find it. Outbrain in May 2016 further expanded your ability to laser focus who reads the wonderful content you have created as your content can now be restricted or localized to a State rather than Country. We have clients without a National presence already benefiting and obtaining a significant advantage over competitors by strategic localized use of Outbrain as the conduit to publishing their content.

Content marketing is still marketing, despite shamelessly borrowing from other disciplines. And although it is not new (with variations being used as far back as the 19th Century), it has become an increasingly crucial element in modern marketing techniques.

WHY USE IT?

At first glance, content marketing may seem like a difficult component to budget for, since the monetary returns are a longer tail than traditional forms of advertising, like radio, billboards or TV.

But looks can be deceptive. The long term gain is not a monetary gain – at least not initially – but a perception one and branding. This is where content marketing and PR coincide; the two are designed to improve how a group or organisation is perceived. So, in the case of your brand, if you have really high quality content, people are going to want to share it with their friends, and link to it. As you can see, this leads to a positive perception of your brand.

Not only that, but with all those shares and links happening, there are definitely going to be improved rankings for your website on search engines. Especially when Google’s algorithms are focusing more on user experience. If customers are visiting your site and strongly interacting with your website then it is a valuable site and therefore should rank highly in search.

TRADITIONAL VS CONTENT:

There are a few key points of difference between traditional marketing and content marketing:

One important thing to note is that content marketing is usually much slower at encouraging individuals to buy than “traditional marketing”. That is because content marketing is designed to deal with different goals: that is, namely, to inform the consumer and, more importantly, to build brand awareness. This translates into sales over a longer term, and is much more often the case instead of creating an article that shatters a consumers world view and forces them to purchase whatever your website is promoting.

Content marketing also is very different in regards to what it is trying to do. Whereas traditional marketing, such as a banner ad, is primarily about highlighting information about a good or service to be sold on the marketplace, content marketing is more focused on providing information for potential customers.

Ultimately, it is patience that really differentiates the two. In most forms of traditional marketing you’re seeking the holy grail of turbo charged returns over a short time span, whereas content marketing, can take months for rewards to be captured – Content marketing works of that is no issue however it does require patience and skill to run a great content marketing campaign. Make sure you’re in it for the long haul and Outbrain offers guidance and is a simple intuitive platform which will help you on your way.

Please note we do not know anyone from Outbrain we simply believe it is an awesome tool in the marketing tool kit and there is a strong chance you should be aware of it or consider using it.