The Media Landscape is Changing, is your Company Changing with it?

16 Jul The Media Landscape is Changing, is your Company Changing with it?

Unless you were born yesterday you know that the media landscape is changing. TV commercials and billboards no longer have the same effect on people that they did 20 years ago. Studies have shown 70% of people would rather learn about a company through an article rather than an ad. Media formats are changing to fit the times and those that don’t shift with them, don’t survive.

Sure you can use newspaper and radio ads to get more people aware of your product, but are they interested? Have you engaged them? While you may be targeting a large amount of people, you could be shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for one day of exposure. And is that exposure focused on your target consumer? Most of the time, traditional media falls short of expectations.

The focus for brands nowadays has shifted to gaining quality traffic and engaging users that are actually interested in their products, services or business. Consumers are more likely to show positive engagement and purchase intent with brands they choose to engage with. This is because the content doesn’t feel like it’s being shoved in their face; they get to choose the content that they’re viewing and, thus, are more likely to read about it. Companies have jumped on this idea of putting out branded content that’s both useful for the user and satisfying to the brand’s bottom line.

Blogs are a very effective method at attracting quality traffic directed at brands. Bloggers already have followers in the tens and hundreds of thousands that read their posts daily. Followers are actively engaged in their topics, making them more likely to share and tweet about something they like. Bloggers also tell a story with the products and services they review. This approach is much more engaging than an ad in the newspaper or a tagline in a commercial as it allows the consumer to become more immersed in the brand.

Readers already show trust towards their favorite blogger and respect their opinions. They feel like they get a much more authentic review about a product or service from them than they would from a commercial or radio ad from the brand.

This results in positive exposure for the brands and more engagement from the reader. The opportunity for growth is huge since good pieces of digital content have the ability to become viral if they get enough shares and retweets. There are also armies of bloggers out there so brands can have an almost unlimited reach when deciding how big or small they want to market their product.

In today’s world, brands are no longer selling products; they’re producing, uncovering and dispensing information.

Social advertising has become the new Wild Wild West and blogs are helping to lead the way as a platform for brands to connect with customers on a deeper level. Blogs give brands a targeted audience that actively consumes their content. They give real, opinionated reviews, establishing trust between brand and consumer and have the viral ability to propel companies to new heights. In this new digital marketing frontier, those armed with quality content and engaged followers will end up on top.