Licensed content, also referred to as “syndicated content” or “content licensing,” is an effective, strategic tool for your content marketing program.
Our content Marketplace is a rich, diverse library of articles from authoritative publishers like Fast Company, CIO, Business Insider, Cleveland Clinic, Marketing Dive, Forbes, The Associated Press, and thousands more. The content is rights-cleared and ready to be published to your hub.
Here are five signs your marketing program would benefit from licensed content.
1: Your Content Marketing Program Needs More…Well, Content.
If you are only publishing a couple of articles a month, there’s little reason for someone to return to your hub and explore. A steady publishing cadence keeps your site fresh and can fuel all your distribution channels: newsletters, social media, and even your sales team’s touchpoints with prospects. Licensed content can be curated, approved, and published in hours — or even minutes — which is a welcome contrast to the development time required to pitch and create original content.
2: Your Content Hub is All About You.
If your content marketing is all “hard sell” and brand push, it will turn consumers at the top of their journey away. The solution is to bring in authoritative, unbiased content from respected publishers in your industry — whether it’s a trade publication discussing manufacturing trends, or a wire service reporting on shifts in your markets.
The publishers in Marketplace, our licensed content network, are experts in the areas they cover. Whether you’re licensing from Cleveland Clinic, FierceMedia, Food & Wine, Marketing Dive or Pipeline & Gas Journal, you can be confident their reporting will speak authoritatively to your niche. And by bringing their trusted voices and fresh perspectives into your content experience, you can effectively enhance consumer trust in your brand.
To take it a step further, you can even add editor’s notes to the top of licensed content. This allows you to weave in your brand’s unique perspective, effectively threading your brand narrative throughout the licensed articles you publish on your hub.
3: Your Engagement Rate is Sinking.
Across our network of clients, licensed content has a higher article engagement rate than original content (although a fully optimized program relies on both types of content to drive full-funnel, brand-to-demand conversions).
Users who touch licensed content spend more time on the hub and click through more pages per visit. Marketplace makes your site more sticky.
To test licensed content in action, we launched a two-month pilot with a customer who operated a rich, B2B site that only had original articles. When we introduced Marketplace content into the mix, users who visited a licensed content article had a dramatically improved experience:
- bounce rate was 76% (compared to 88% on the rest of the site)
- new visitors spent 4X on the site
- returning visitors spent 9X
- and KPIs were between 4X and 6X
4: You Need More Data About What Your Customers Want.
The more you publish, the more data you collect. What article length is most popular? What imagery is most effective? What tone are prospects and customers responding to? What level of expertise is resonating?
Use licensed content in combination with a metadata strategy to learn what your users respond to (and, more importantly, what is driving key conversions).
Then, fold those learnings into your original content production. That way, when you do dedicate resources to creating original content, you’ll have a clear roadmap of what works and a more accurate picture of your customer journey.
5: Your Top-of-Funnel Acquisition Strategies Are Missing the Mark.
Savvy marketers know that even in the B2B world, prospects are rarely scrolling social media looking for brand information. The top of the funnel (“awareness”) isn’t necessarily a place where customers already have their wallets in hand or even know they need a solution or product. Licensed content is an efficient, scalable way to join conversations, build authority, and compete for attention in this affinity stage. A strong conversion and nurture strategy then utilizes a combination of licensed and original content to pull potential customers down into your funnel.
John de Guzman ([email protected]) is the Director or Product Management, Marketplace at Industry Dive.
