How to advertise correctly on self-media?

One of the ways to monetize self-media is to post advertisements. In fact, how to advertise correctly is still a big art. You don’t have to accept the offer just because the advertiser comes to you. So how can you realize the monetization of self-media correctly? First, let the author teach you the correct way to advertise on your own media.

In the background of my WeChat public account, I receive advertising requests from some companies every week, most of which hope to advertise on my self-media platform (including WeChat, Toutiao, blogs, and Jianshu). So far, I have received dozens of such messages, but I rejected them all.

Why?

The advertising requests I received before can be divided into three categories. Let me share with you why I rejected these advertisers. Special note: the following content does not mean to blame the previous advertisers. Even if the cooperation failed, we can still be friends.

Category 1: Simple and rough type

Daibao, we have a product content. You just need to help us promote it on your platform. We will provide you with all the content.

As soon as I saw the pictures and texts sent to me, they were naked promotional leaflets. reject!

Reason for Rejection:

There have been a lot of "bloody lessons" that have proven that simply converting offline flyers directly into online pictures and texts and sending them to users is just "self-consolation" for business owners. Users don’t like it and won’t watch it, so it will be ineffective. It will also directly affect my fans’ feelings towards my platform and cause me to lose fans.

Category 2: I am not optimistic about the product itself

Daibao, we have a brand promotion. Can you help me put a promotional poster at the bottom of each article?

I was a little tempted and asked what product they were promoting. When they sent me an offer, I saw it was P2P financial management... I rejected it!

Reason for Rejection:

Two such companies approached me and offered high prices. But I have never heard of their products or company. Although they keep saying how safe their products are, I am not reassured at all.

I need to be responsible to my fans. If I recommend a product, it must be one that I would use myself. If I recommend a product that I don’t even use to my fans, I will be criticized by everyone. I have always been thin-skinned, so I don't do such things.

The third category: soft articles are too hard

Daibao, please write a soft article for us and then help us promote it on your platform.

After receiving the product, I studied and thought about it, and I think the product is really good. Okay, write one. Submit the manuscript in 2 days.

Daibao, the article is good, but why is our product a case in your soft article? Why did you mention so many other models and cases? Can you just write about our products?

Uh... rejected... are you just writing articles about your products or soft articles? Hasn't it become a hard advertisement?

Reason for Rejection:

Companies hope to promote their products as much as possible in each advertisement, but users are just the opposite. They don’t like watching advertisements. The role of soft articles is to resolve this contradictory relationship so that users do not feel that they are reading advertisements or do not feel disgusted by reading advertisements.

My understanding of soft articles is that they need to be fully integrated into the content of each article, without any "sense of abruptness" or "disobedience". Moreover, my articles have my own writing style, and I will not change my writing style for the sake of advertising. Otherwise, fans will find it weird.

Well, these are the advertisers that I have rejected these days. Again, no criticism intended.

Next, let me tell you about my understanding of self-media advertising. If you have friends who are running their own media and are also considering taking on advertising needs, you can refer to this.

First, fans are the most important

In self-media, fans are your real users and should always be put first. They can't be harmed for a little advertising revenue. Only with your fans' continued recognition of you can your self-media go higher and further. If your fans leave you because of taking an advertisement, it would be a waste of time.

If you want to do advertising, you must be responsible to your fans. Think about whether you would use this product yourself. Do not recommend products that you would not use to your fans. If possible, let the advertiser give you a trial of the product, and then decide whether to promote it after you use it yourself.

If it is an advertisement, I think it should be open and honest to tell users which company sponsored the article. This is also a way of being responsible to fans.

Second, the content of the advertisement is also important.

What we media does is content, and content is king. Advertising is also content. You cannot change the style of your article because of advertising, nor can you make your content lower quality because of advertising. I personally like reading "Weekend Pictorial". It's full of advertisements, but I think reading advertisements is also very enjoyable.

Therefore, everyone must pay attention to the content of advertisements. Many product contents provided by advertisers are prepared for traditional media and are generally hard advertisements. You must reprocess the product content yourself, and if necessary, even take the product pictures yourself.

For product advertising, I highly recommend using experience articles as the main content. Let the advertiser give you the product to try, and then you write an experience article for your fans. Remember to combine it with the scenario, that is, how you use the product yourself and what problems it solves in your life and work. In this way, fans can truly feel the value of this product.

For brand advertising, case articles can be used as the main content, telling fans the story of the advertiser's brand, or incorporating the brand's characteristics into a positive case analysis.

Third, the tone of the product should match the tone of the self-media itself

This point is easily overlooked. Self-media is not a TV station and can accept any advertising content. Every self-media has its own tuning just like people. Some products are suitable for them, while some are not.

For example, if I am a self-media person who talks about the Internet and marketing , I will definitely not take an advertisement for men's cosmetics. Because it doesn’t fit the tone of the article. Unless it can be packaged into a case and integrated into the article.

Therefore, not only advertisers look for self-media, but self-media also need to learn what products will be helpful to the tone of their own self-media. If the advertisements are chosen well, some of them can even enhance the quality of the self-media.

I know that it is difficult to run a self-media business, and most people don’t have much income (including me), but we cannot hurt our fans for the sake of a little money, because our fans are the ones who can sustain the self-media business in the long run.

Okay, that’s all I have to say this time. I hope it will be helpful to you.