» uk-netmarketing: roundup: 10-11-2000

Content as a Marketing Tool
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - November 10, 2000

Although you may not consider yourself a media owner, chances are you have some editorial or other content on your website, which could be useful either as a revenue stream or for marketing your site. The theory is simple: your content is valuable, leverage it for revenue or marketing value but there are many ways of structuring a deal. A bunch of new content syndication companies have sprung up to help in this field, but starting off can be daunting.

Alex Bainbridge sought some help from UKNM members, "Can someone give me some help [on] content swaps - and how these should be structured? We are a small adventure travel/backpacking tour operator - but have lots of good knowledge about travel - some of which we are slowly putting onto our website ... This is content that normally 'dotcoms' would die to get hold of - and pay good money for (I presume) - but we are doing all the articles ourselves... in the last few weeks we have been approached by a number of large sites ... What do we say exactly? They all seem to be under the impression that we will just give it away! Should we be grateful for these approaches? Should we give all our content away and then give no one a good reason to visit our site??? Anyone else seen this before? At the moment I am considering article swaps for links back - but I know that each article is "worth" XXX for a journalist to write - and we are not getting that benefit back from the link back...."

Amanda Quinn responded, "Syndicating content is normal practice to drive traffic to your site. This can take the form of anything from a headline to a whole article, in your case I would advocate a headline with about three lines for further info and pics they can click through to your site. Normally you would syndicate this level of content for free, in fact on some of the larger portals you would expect to pay to post it there."

Geoff Inns fleshed this out, writing "Content is the one asset that ISPs/Portals find very expensive to create - or create well. MSN was a notable failure of creating content. The knowledge and expertise required to create good content is a specialist industry itself, and is the reason behind the big access/content mergers that have dominated the headlines this year. You have several options:

• Syndicate it yourself - for example, charge £200/thousand words (NUJ minimum rates) - after all, you can ensure continuity and quality can't you?
• Use a third party syndicator - I have worked with I-Syndicate and Screaming Media and can recommend them both (negotiate those terms though). They'll do all the hard selling for you, for a commission. They will also spread it around lots and lots of sites for you, UK and overseas, reselling a resource that you only pay once for producing.
• Do not agree to any exclusive terms with access providers / sites. By all means, the odd column/article may be exclusive to an appropriately huge partner, but nothing more.
• Do not agree to receiving payment according to traffic - they either want it or they don't, and customer acquisition is their problem, and retention - well, that's why they want your content.
• Don't do content swaps - if it's good, let partners link to the full story on your site via a headline, or let them buy the content. Don't do halfway deals, you won't benefit."

Leslie Bunder emailed, focusing on the marketing benefits of syndicating content, adding, "first of all be aware of your market and who your competitors are and what they offer and on what terms. You'll find with travel, many of the existing sites will either offer 'lite' versions of their content e.g. a limited amount of information is provided and then you click on a link to get more information. With established brands to compete with you need to really make sure your content knocks them for six! Your competitors are able to giveaway their content because their upside is being able to sell printed books."

Leslie continued, "Personally ... I wouldn't get too obsessed with the charging for content model for a number of reasons - mainly if you charge and your well established rivals don't and can provide something similar, then people are likely to go for the free option. Your best bet is to go for a 'lite' model, ... offer some content for free ... and by having a 'powered by...' button, your name is getting around ... be aware that your competitors may have deep pockets which means they can also pay for distribution ... you have to make a tough decision between getting money and getting distribution (e.g. more eyeballs reading your content)."

receive uk-netmarketing-roundup by email, every week
Just pop your email address in the form below and receive the uk-netmarketing roundup via email each week. You'll receive an email with details on how to confirm your subscription.

return to top