Carl Thompson, Co-founder of Contento, explains why the traditional content placement is out-dated and how Contento aims to bring it into the future.

Over the past decade, the media landscape has changed significantly.

Gone are the days when a bottle of rosé and market fish with jus could swing you a full-page editorial or online article. The majority of media/blogs are now pay-to-play. Over the years I have marketed several businesses. From fashion labels; Crowded Elevator and Fitwear to SaaS; TradeGecko and Bronami.

Getting articles on other media/blogs has always been incredibly important for awareness, social proof, and SEO. Guest posting has always been an integral component of our marketing strategies. However, the finding, emailing, and dealing with blogs has always been soul-sucking, and incredibly time-consuming work.

I got frustrated with the outreach process. We tried press release syndication tools, but they either didn’t work, or the quality of the resulting articles was abysmal. There had to be a better way. So we got deep into customer discovery and engaged with over 30 media and brands to learn as much as we could.

What we found surprised us. Banner ad income has been driven down to $4USD per thousand impressions.

For most blogs, the cost of turning a press release into a meaningful article outweighs the advertising income. Editors are now looking for more content and more revenue, at less resource.

Enter, Contento

Contento allows brands, and agencies, to offer unique articles to media for native use. Publishers can view the full article and choose to take it, or not. Publishers on Contento have self-registered and are willing to accept articles from brands and agencies.

We are receiving registrations of new publishers daily; from niche titles to bigger broader blogs. The feedback we are getting from PR and content creation agencies is that they are looking for niche publications that have a high-quality, targeted audience.

Contento gives marketers direct access to media without the cold emails, back and forth comms, and relationship building lunches. I wish I had this when I was marketing previous companies. It would have saved us countless outreach hours.

We have used New Zealand as a test bed, and we are now ready to push wider into the NZ/AU market. We’re still working out exactly how to do that, but guest posting, like this one, is defiantly a pillar of our marketing strategy.

As technology and buying behaviours change so too does our media needs. Content will always be the foundation of most marketing plans, but I believe businesses need to allocate budget towards creation, distribution, and promotion.

I seem to have a passion for creating tools to make business easier. I know how hard growing a business is; I’ve been there, several times now. I’m also a sucker for a good story and love hearing about the passion that business owner put into their work. We want Contento to help facilitate and distribute meaningful stories.

For more, see: https://contento.marketing