How content sites became the profit engine of e-commerce - voila! Marketing and digital

Depositing cash in the bank (Photo: ShutterStock)

We don't know how 2023 will end, but for sure, the recession is already here and it affects everyone.

The current situation requires everyone to reduce advertising budgets on the one hand, and on the other hand to continue to meet the sales goals.

The model itself is not new and is known to many as "affiliate marketing" or partner marketing in Hebrew, but Content commerce is a current model with a turbo engine and an improved set of wheels, which helps create a stable revenue stream for content sites.

What is content marketing?

The turbo engine we talked about?

It is fueled by jet fuel and backed by the largest media organizations in the world. In fact, 84% of the largest content sites in the US operate in this arena, starting with the New York Times, which, according to publications, purchased the wirecutter for over 30 million dollars, the underlined CNN, USA-Today reviews, Yahoo Shopping and more.

To be honest, it is hard to find a large and respected group of content sites today in the US and UK that does not boast of marketing content type activity.

How does the Content Commerce model work?

A surfer enters an article and reads information about a product.

While reading, he will come across a link that leads to a page for the purchase of that product.

Once the surfer purchases the product, the publisher earns an average of 2-20 percent commission.

In recent years, marketing content has become a significant component of publishers' income.

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The anatomy of the affiliate marketing method - partner marketing. (Photo: affilimate.com)

Popular types of marketing content

• Product review

  - an in-depth opinion on a product along with key features, advantages and disadvantages and sometimes also questions and answers relevant to the product

• Leading product list

  - in articles of this type, the emphasis is on a variety of different models of the same product, for example the best mud boots for winter 2023

• Gift guide

  - in these lists we will get ideas that will suit a certain event, for example, 10 last minute gifts for Valentine's Day 2023

• List of deals

  - long lists full of hot facts from the net, for example the list of the most attractive discounts for January 2023

Examples of different types of marketing content on the largest content sites in the world. (Photo: screenshot, from around the internet)

The big opportunity for marketers

While the major content sites invest in the development of different types of marketing content, the retailers can enjoy the opportunity to market the products and only pay for actual sales.

Just at a time when advertising budgets are being cut and the pressure to deliver results is increasing, this method is a win-win for those retailers who can maintain advertising budgets alongside a secure return on investment.

As with everything, there are costs here too.

The marketers are required to maintain a presence in the affiliate world and manage an operation based on relationships that must be cultivated with the affiliate networks and content sites, but the price is small compared to the great potential, and the risk is low even in relation to models such as dropshipping and arbitrage.

Recommendations with certificates

It is important to remember that this model is based on a long-standing relationship between the content sites and their readers.

The average reader trusts the articles he reads on his favorite websites, certainly more than he trusts a random piece of content on the Internet, and therefore the marketing content also receives a quality and reliable volume that makes it easier to make a consumer decision.

Where there is trust, there is also a good infrastructure to create a profitable and sustainable model that serves everyone.

The golden triangle

Our model is based on a golden triangle:

• The content site (the publisher) that produces quality content regularly and thus builds a trust model with the readers,

• The retailer who packages the product into a complete set of values ​​and stimulates demand from customers.

• The readers who are on the consumer journey to locate the desired product.

When one of the sides of the triangle is missing, it is likely that no conversion (purchase) will take place, and this is the place to point out that the retailers still have the duty to use this model as a supplementary means to close the deal and God forbid not as the entire marketing strategy.

Marketing funnel and social proof

The stages that the consumer goes through from the moment he is first exposed to a certain product until the moment of purchase are called a marketing funnel, and the content-quorum model serves as a kind of catalyst for retailers in this funnel.

Just publishing a review article or a guide about a product turns the article into a type of social proof, meaning that this product is important enough for someone to be interested in it and write a review about it on a reputable content site.

Readers who interact with these articles are most likely in the final stages of the funnel and very close to making a purchase.

Imagine a customer walking around the store with a credit card in hand - this makes them a perfect target for marketers on their way to sell the product.

In conclusion

We are in a complex period of saving the budgets of both the retailers and the consumers, who are looking for more information that will help them make a smart and final decision when they come to purchase the product.

The content sites have learned to invest in the development of models that provide their readers with the appropriate solution on the one hand, and build a new revenue engine on the other.

All of this connects optimally to retailers who need an increase in sales alongside measured management of traditional marketing budgets.

Dror Bengal is a founding partner at Gizzmo.Ai, a commerce-content automation startup

• Marketing and digital

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Tags

• Marketing content

• Commercial content

• revenues

• Affiliate marketing

• Ecommerce