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Date of Publication: 12 April 2023
Sponsored Articles in India: Unlocking New Opportunities for Brands to Connect with Customers.
Sponsored articles, also known as sponsored content or native advertising, can help in creating brand awareness by providing businesses with an opportunity to reach out to consumers based on language and geography through reputable media platforms.
Sponsored articles have become a popular way for brands to reach a wider consumer base in a more subtle and effective way. Unlike traditional advertising, sponsored articles are designed to provide valuable information to the reader while also promoting the brand’s products or services. This makes them a more natural fit with the content and tone of the platform they are published on.
In India, there are many popular online portals and digital media platforms that offer sponsored content solutions to brands looking to reach their audience of news readers, business professionals, and tech enthusiasts. In this blog, we will explore the advantages of sponsored articles over other forms of advertising, its limitations, and highlight the top online portals in India to publish sponsored articles.
Anirban Guha
Digital Marketing Expert | Media Strategist | Entrepreneur
Table of Contents
How does Sponsored Articles Help Brands Connect with Customers?
High-quality content:
Sponsored articles on top news platforms are typically written by professional journalists or content creators and are designed to be engaging and informative. They are carefully written and optimized. These quality articles are subtle and adapt to the native environment of the webpage it features in.
Longer Exposure:
A display banner ad on publisher platforms (generally charged on impressions) may capture an audience’s attention for a second or two. Only about 0.75% to 1.7% result in clicks. On the other hand, sponsored articles dedicated to promoting a brand may take more than a minute to read from start to finish. If the content is engaging the audience wants more.
A potential customer is far more likely to remember a brand that they’ve read about for several minutes, as opposed to a brand they’ve caught a glimpse of when scrolling through social media or doing something else online.
Generate buzz:
A well-written sponsored article on a reputed platform can generate buzz and excitement around a brand or a particular product/service. This can lead to increased brand awareness and more interest from potential customers.
Increased credibility:
News and publisher portals with heavy traffic and high domain authority tend to be trusted sources of information. Regular sponsored articles when published on established media platforms, can lend credibility to the content and the brand that is being promoted. This can help brands build their own credibility by association.
Increase brand recognition:
By consistently publishing sponsored articles on reputable media platforms, businesses can increase their brand recognition and stay top-of-mind with the masses.
When other websites link back to your sponsored articles, it can help to improve your website’s search engine ranking. This is because search engines see backlinks as a sign of authority and credibility.
Increasing shareability:
When engaging and informative content is published on reputable websites, it can attract backlinks from other websites that want to share valuable information with their own audience. Helping your SEO efforts in the process.
Building relationships:
Sponsored articles can help businesses build relationships with other websites and content creators in their industry. This can lead to more opportunities for guest posting, collaboration, and backlinking in the future.
Social Bookmarking:
With ever-increasing social media users, the platforms become your own propaganda mouthpieces. A sponsored article say published in Daily Hunt is posted with the link on your handle and shared with your audience would help create more traffic sources, and more visitors, which intern will help you score on the quality ranking parameters of different search engines.
Sometimes as per your deal with the publisher your sponsored articles also get shared on their social channels and help you gain cross-platform traffic.
Sponsored Articles are More Than Advertisements
Perhaps the most significant benefit of sponsored articles is that they’re not the blatant, in-your-face advertisements that audiences are becoming more and more opposed to. A sponsored article can do much more than simply advertise a product or a service.
PPC ads can be disruptive and sometimes annoying to many users, especially if they are displayed in a way that interrupts their browsing experience. Sponsored articles, on the other hand, are less intrusive and provide a more natural user experience.
Depending on the content readers expect from the publisher itself, a sponsored article could inform, entertain, or encourage the reader to think deeply about a topic that mildly interests them at the very least. A display could never offer the same level of depth.
Additionally, while PPC ads typically provide short-term results, sponsored articles can provide long-term value. Because they are integrated into the editorial content of a site, they can continue to drive traffic and engagement long after the initial publication date.
Limitations of Sponsored Articles
Sponsored articles like all marketing tools have limitations. Success depends on how creatively one can use this strategy. Since I have taken you through the advantages, I should also make you aware of the limitation it possesses.
You need to be subtle:
Sponsored articles are created by the brand or advertiser, and it is understood, they are inherently biased towards the sponsor’s interests.
If not crafted well with subtlety this can lead to a lack of objectivity in the content, which can reduce its credibility and trustworthiness. The needs to be informative, problem-solving, or entertaining. ‘My brand does this’ does not work.
Creating Trust:
Consumers are becoming increasingly wary of sponsored content and may view it as deceptive or manipulative. Making your article trustworthy is the main task at hand. You need a professional who can craft engaging stories not for your brand but for your intended audiences and then draw them to your brand. You need to be very honest in whatever you intend to communicate.
Sponsored articles can be expensive:
Creating and publishing sponsored articles can be expensive, especially if the brand wants to work with a high-profile publisher or media platform. Top publishers attach a premium with publisher articles. But sometimes to build your reputation in the digital landscape as well as overall brand awareness it becomes very important.
Limited reach:
Like all publisher-specific strategies, sponsored articles too have targeting limitations. They are limited to language and geography. Most publishers are not equipped with interest and behavioral targeting options. Your brand may need to invest in additional marketing efforts to ensure that the sponsored articles are seen by your target audience.
You need to be regular with your sponsored articles and it involves cost and existing digital eco-system to leverage. It is not part of the first few steps you take for your initiation in the digital landscape. This strategy comes only after you have your eco-system in place.
Brands that can circumvent the limitations to create an engaging content idea and put a well-planned marketing strategy to back it will be able to taste success.
You can also try alternative strategies like blogs, article submissions, social media articles, influencer marketing, etc.
Top Platforms to Publish Sponsored Articles in India
DailyHunt is a mobile-first, app-based, Indian news and content aggregator platform that provides access to news articles, videos, and content from over 1000 content providers in various Indian languages. It offers sponsored articles for brands looking to reach its large user base. DailyHunt has a massive audience of over 300 million users across India. The platform allows brands to reach users with personalized content recommendations, making it easier to connect with the right audience.
YourStory offers sponsored article services to brands looking to reach its audience of startup founders, investors, and tech enthusiasts. Sponsored articles on YourStory are designed to blend seamlessly with the platform’s content and provide valuable insights and information to its readers. This makes YourStory an attractive platform for brands looking to reach a highly engaged and targeted audience in the startup and technology space in India.
It offers sponsored content solutions to brands looking to reach its audience of business professionals, investors, and tech enthusiasts. Sponsored articles on Business Insider India are designed to be informative and engaging, providing valuable insights and information to its readers while also promoting the brand’s products or services. This makes Business Insider India an attractive platform for brands looking to reach a highly engaged and targeted audience in the business and technology space in India.
OneIndia is a popular digital media platform that covers news and stories related to politics, business, sports, entertainment, and technology in India and around the world, in multiple languages. OneIndia also offers sponsored content solutions to brands looking to reach its audience of news readers, business professionals, and tech enthusiasts.
News18 is a leading news platform in India that covers news and analysis related to politics, business, sports, and entertainment. It offers sponsored content solutions to brands looking to reach its audience of news readers and business professionals.
The Quint is a digital news and information platform that covers news and analysis related to politics, business, sports, and entertainment. It offers sponsored content solutions to brands looking to reach its audience of young, educated, and engaged readers.
The India Today Group is a leading media conglomerate in India that owns several news and entertainment channels, websites, and publications. It offers sponsored content solutions to brands looking to reach its vast audience across multiple platforms.
Firstpost is a digital news platform that covers news and analysis related to politics, business, sports, and entertainment. It offers sponsored content solutions to brands looking to reach its audience of educated, urban, and tech-savvy readers.
NDTV:
As one of the most prominent English-language news networks in India, NDTV has a loyal following of news readers, business professionals, and tech enthusiasts. Sponsored articles on NDTV are designed to provide valuable information to its readers while promoting the brand’s products or services. This can be an effective way for brands to increase their visibility, promote their brand message, and reach a highly engaged and targeted audience.
Other portals include: TOI, ABP, Hindustan Times, ScoopWhoop, etc.
You have to understand the difference as to when we hold the phone vertically and then horizontally. Generally, when viewing websites, landing pages, images, emails, etc we hold the phone vertically. When we want to watch a video we change the orientation.
Use text overlay, include your brand logo up front, and reach the point immediately. Try keeping the logos in assurance area throughtout the video.
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About the Author - Anirban Guha
Anirban Guha is an MBA graduate from Amity University, Noida. Starting his career with The Times of India Group, he has spent over 16 years in advertising and has been the founder-director of an award-winning digital marketing agency, Tejom Digital for over 6 years. He has worked with some of the top brands in India and beyond. He is an expert in creative design and digital marketing. He is passionate about helping businesses reach their goals. Beside his professional life, Anirban is an avid reader, a movie buff, a passionate gardener, an art enthusiast, and a foodie.