It’s all very well generating online content, but getting people to see the stuff remains the real challenge for online publishers and content marketers. In an age where consumers have conditioned themselves to skip over traditional online promotional tactics, both publishers and content marketers need to devise strategies that embrace the content marketing strategy of “non-interruption”, and rather be perceived as providing additional value. Promoting branded content via editorial previews in a format that’s more appealing than mere hyperlinks but that consumers are already comfortable with can help to get the content seen, as well as actually enrich Internet users’ online experience.
One of the most familiar formats for users is the hyperlinked thumbnail image. A range of thumbnail images and descriptive headlines help users navigate and explore sites so that they can find more about the topics, people and products they’re interested in. Consumers know thumbnails, understand their function, and most importantly, they trust them. When consumers click on them, they are expecting to be taken to articles, rather than adverts, which compels them to invest their time, attention and their clicks. Using the thumbnail format to market content enables digital marketers and online publishers to communicate that what will be presented next is editorial rather than advert. Providing editorial previews of content via thumbnails avoids being identified by consumers as an advertising intrusion because of its placement, appearance, relevance and familiarity. Rather, a thumbnail preview enables content promotions to appear as an extension of the information consumers have already sought out, and thus of a higher quality than a mere ad.
Thumbnails are familiar to users, and carry perceived qualities of content that paid search hyperlinks, banners, MPUs or even direct emails and social media shares can’t match, as these are often dismissed as marketing pitches, and not valuable, related and relevant content. Moreover, thumbnails can sit comfortably in the ‘below the fold’ space of web pages – the areas underneath articles. This space effectively promotes related content, enriching consumers’ online experience as well as offering a new revenue stream for publishers.
Just as a movie trailer or a description on a book jacket does, good thumbnails provide an advanced, interesting and enticing look at content to come. The editorial preview and thumbnail marketing experts at MGID create thumbnails, editorial teasers and article snippets for thousands of websites, generating previews that consumers find compellingly clickable, whilst reflecting the content, services and products of their clients. This experience has shown that the key to effective thumbnail marketing strategies is to find images and headlines that stand out rather than fade into the scenery. Those that feature unusual, newsworthy or even controversial content work best. To infuse the thumbnail with those qualities marketers must ensure that both the image and the associated headline displayed with it are current, relevant and above all, interesting. Creating and distributing thumbnail previews around the web attracts consumers that are interested and open to interacting with related content, but can also net those casual browsers who might otherwise be indifferent or avoidant of advertising formats.
Thumbnails need to spark curiosity in users, but they also need to be both effectively and efficiently distributed. MGID has emerged as a thumbnail distribution leader thanks to its traffic generation network of thousands of publishers’ websites around the world, providing content providers with a reach of 120 million Internet users. The scale of the network enables MGID to place thumbnails in contextually relevant content around the world across channel specific online media titles covering news and current affairs, entertainment, health and fitness, technology and sports. Contextual relevancy is paramount to effective thumbnail marketing, but so is the ability to be succinct with messages. Content marketers need to concentrate on providing consumers with clarity of content in their thumbnail previews, and be interesting, engaging and enticing in just a few words without appearing to consumers to be blatant promotion. A great preview design not only teases the consumer by being elusive enough to pique curiosity, but is also specific and informative enough about the content behind the thumbnail to make the mechanic compellingly clickable. To ensure that thumbnail marketing strategies are able to get content consumed by internet users brands need to employ editorial expertise with experience in this format, because, to a consumer, a thumbnail is supposed offer much, much more than an advert does.
