Premium content: What it is and how you can leverage it in your marketing
If content is king, then what would premium content be?
Content marketing itself is increasingly important for businesses to embrace in a digital world. Think of your website (or even your social media accounts) as a planet. Your content is the gravitational pull that generates traffic and engagement.
Then, of course, we leverage that traffic and engagement to fuel conversions, which equates to sales and boosting our bottom line.
The most common types of content include:
- Blog articles
- Graphic illustrations
- Videos, including short-form clips under a minute
- Interactive content, such as quizzes and calculators
- GIFs
What is premium content?
Premium content then is original information that is valuable enough for website visitors (or social media users) to provide their contact information to get it.
To be more specific, premium content:
- Answers common questions you encounter in your industry
- Dives deeper into a topic to deliver knowledge
- Offers tips and advice that can be acted on
- Addresses challenges that your customers and potential customers face
- Is relevant to the needs and wants of your customers and potential customers
How you package your premium content can vary. The table below breaks down the most common formats and where each one tends to work best.
| Format | Typical length | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Webinar | 30 to 60 minutes, live or recorded | Explaining a service or process in depth |
| eBook | 10 to 30 visually designed pages | Broad topic overviews and brand building |
| White paper | 6 to 12 pages of research | In-depth industry analysis and B2B leads |
| Template | 1 to 2 pages, ready to use | Fast, practical value |
| Interactive tool | Built once, reused indefinitely | Personalized results and higher engagement |
| Short-form video series | Under 5 minutes per episode | Mobile-first audiences who want fast answers |
Of course, to access premium content, visitors should fill out a web form with their name and email address at the very least. But it's up to you if you'd like to collect more information up front, such as company name, profession, phone number, zip code, etc. DailyStory's drag-and-drop web forms make it easy to build and connect these forms directly into your automations.
RecommendedEvery extra field you add to a premium content form makes it less likely someone finishes it. Start by asking for a name and an email address or phone number, then use later interactions to learn more about the lead instead of front-loading every question.
After submitting the web form, users should immediately receive the premium content through a link or email, ideally followed by a quick automated sequence that keeps them engaged.
5 ways to leverage premium content in your marketing
Beyond the tips below that are specific to marketing your premium content, check out our seven tips to level up your content marketing as well.
On your website
The homepage of your website is prime real estate to promote your premium content and is often the most trafficked page of many websites.
You also can use pop-up or slide-in ads on your website. The advantage of these is that they can appear on any of your web pages after a set amount of time. See our eight tips to get more leads from lead capture popups for guidance on timing and design.
Plus, very simple in-line links within other content can also be helpful. You can highlight and feature selected portions of your premium content in blogs, for example.
No matter how you promote on your website, make sure that your call-to-action button is bold and attention-grabbing.
Email promotion
Depending on your goals, email promotion may or may not make sense. If lead generation is the goal, then you would be promoting your premium content to contacts you already have.
But if it makes sense to do so, you can share teasers of your premium content in your regular email newsletter and other marketing emails. Our 10 email capture tips to build a robust subscriber list and 12 strategies to capture more email leads can help you build that promotion without annoying your list.
Text message promotion
SMS is increasingly part of the promotion mix too. A short text with a direct link to your premium content works well for time-sensitive offers, since most people read and act on text messages within minutes. See DailyStory's SMS marketing features, our beginner's guide to text message marketing, and how to measure the success of your SMS campaigns for more.
Social media
Organic social media posts are a great way to promote your content to potential leads you've never come into contact with before. You can even encourage your staff to share the premium content link on their social media channels. And paid social media campaigns can help you target your ads even further to those who are most likely to engage with you. Since short-form video now drives a large share of engagement on social platforms, consider teasing premium content with a quick video clip rather than only a text post.
You can use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) to target the promotion of your content to internet users based on their search intent.
In addition, you can try Google Display Ads and YouTube ads, which let you target websites, apps, and videos across the Google Display Network with visual or video creative built from your premium content.
Print advertising
It may sound archaic, but there might be some print advertising opportunities to explore, depending on your target audience.
We recommend including a QR code in your print ad so that those interested can easily give you their contact information and download your content. DailyStory's dynamic QR codes let you update the destination even after the code is printed, and every scan is tracked.
Track what's working
Once your premium content is live across these channels, the real work is figuring out which ones are producing leads that turn into customers, not just downloads. Our guide to content marketing metrics you should track walks through the KPIs that separate content that performs from content that just exists.
What makes content "premium" instead of a regular blog post?
Premium content answers a specific question in more depth than a blog post can, and it's valuable enough that visitors will trade their contact information for it. A blog post is free and open; premium content is gated behind a form.
How much information should a premium content form ask for?
Start with just a name and an email address or phone number. Every additional field lowers your completion rate, so only add fields like company name or zip code if you have a specific use for that data.
Which promotion channel works best for premium content?
It depends on your goals and audience, but email and SMS to your existing contacts tend to convert the highest because those people already know your brand. Paid social and Google Ads are better for reaching people who haven't found you yet.
See DailyStory's full feature set for the web forms, QR codes, email, and SMS tools you'll need to build and promote premium content at scale.