Nice that you are interested in a guest article. I’m always looking forward to new topics, ideas and fresh wind as there are a lot of topics I can’t cover all.
- Find the German Version here!
- I also offer agile-companies.com as english version!
Contact: blogmarketing@agile-unternehmen.de
For companies and agencies in English and German
The following information is binding for each guest article and is accepted upon booking.
A guest article is a good opportunity to promote your company or to enhance your own domain with a backlink (do-follow). I have over 25,000 readers per month and the chance that you will gain new customers through the guest article is very high. The language is German and English.
Examples of guest articles can be found here!
For companies/freelancers I charge a fee for the guest article. You will get an individual offer after request, which depends on the article topic. There are no specifications for the guest article. You determine length and wording. I will give you helpful tips on content and format the article for my blog for you.
Write an email directly to blogmarketing@agile-unternehmen.de or use the contact form!
Terms and conditions for guest articles
You can find the terms and conditions for guest articles here. You accept them with your order. However, I will explicitly point this out to you in an email.
Information about the guest article
The following information is binding for every guest article and will be accepted when booking.
- are there any examples?
Of course. You can find them here. - is the article marked as advertising?
Normally not unless there is advertising in the article. According to the current jurisdiction, I will then discreetly but transparently mark the articles as advertising. If this is a problem, please write a message. - is the link Dofollow or Nofollow?
Dofollow. - how long will the article stay online (guaranteed duration)?
As long as my blog exists but at least 3 years. - is the article creation included or should we deliver the article (both possible)?
I can write the article for an extra charge of 50 Euro (400 words). - if we deliver the text, do you have any special requirements for the text writing (e.g. text length in words, language style, address)?
No. I am completely uncomplicated and flexible! - what is the approximate turnaround time (in working days)?
It takes maximum 48h - is it necessary to specify an author?
It can go online anonymously or with the indication of an author. No links are possible in the author box. Only in the text. - where can I insert links?
No links can be inserted in the author box. In the article text you can insert links at any place. - Do I have to provide an author text?
No. You are welcome to send the text to me without specifying the author. - how can I pay?
I accept only IBAN and Paypal (no fee). Other services are excluded or must be arranged with me beforehand. There is always an invoice. - is the article visible on the start page?
I decide this in each individual case. As a rule, it will not be visible on the home page. - will the article be in the Google index in any case?
I cannot guarantee this. I also take out articles if they are not indexed by Google. - what else do I need to know?
You can find the terms and conditions for the guest article here. You accept them with your order. However, I will explicitly point this out to you in an email.
Trust is the currency of online marketing
Successful companies and influencers agree: the most important thing for business success is – to build trust with the customer. The way to gain customer trust involves a lot of work and effort. If a company wants to increase its visibility in the social networks and at the same time place advertising in a resource-saving and efficient way, cooperation with experts is a good idea.
Trust can be built if the Sponsored Post is seen as credible. People with the same views and interests have the most credible effect on the customer target group. Therefore, companies should look for connoisseurs of the online matter and for people with whom the customer can identify. A company can break this closeness across the distance of digital boundaries if it hires experienced copywriters for online marketing.
Sponsored blog article – marketing through content
A Sponsored Post can be considered as editorially packaged marketing, a sponsored blog article looks like an editorial article, but they are paid articles. The editorial effect makes a Sponsored Post more credible than a classic advertisement. Content marketing is an online communication strategy. It provides the user with valuable input through added content value in the sponsored post.
Content marketing has many varieties, a sponsored blog article can be colorful, creative and at the same time flashy. Marketers of big and small brands worldwide are outdoing each other with creative ideas. Sponsored posts have the same goal; to build the online action radius, create trust and draw the potential users under the brand’s spell.
Examples of successful sponsored post and content marketing
The rituals of the doers – Hornbach
Hornbach is currently considered a top performer in content marketing throughout Germany. With such campaigns as „Herrenzimmer“ or the „Hammer made of armored steel“, the DIY store managed to attract potential customers and inspire existing customers with interesting and emotional content.
Sponsored blog article, the Styling Blog
The manufacturer of hair care products Schwarzkopf gives visitors to its homepage the feeling of being on a trend styling blog. From the looks of the stars to tips for the perfect hair care, you can find everything about hair. This Internet presence is remarkable, because the actually advertised articles fade completely into the background and only reappear at the end of the Sponsered Post as a footnote.
Sponsored Post – Whisky and Barbecue Recipes
The whiskey manufacturer Jack Daniels offers on its website, in addition to exciting and detailed history of the manufacturing process, delicious recipes for cooking and mixing with their whiskey. The recipes are mostly BBQ grill recipes that make you want to grill.
Sponsored blog article from travel happy customers
With Sponsored Post, Airbnb lets users have their say, describing selected places from their point of view. The travel-loving customers publish travel tips, places worth seeing, famous sights and detailed city maps for the respective destinations.
We see from the examples, a sponsored blog article with excellent content goes far beyond simple blog posts.
Choosing the right copywriter for outstanding sponsored post
The right content creator should attract those consumers who are really interested in the relevant topics. Look for a copywriter who comes from the consumer group you have in mind as consumers. If the product or service is in line with the copywriter’s interests and ideally he or she identifies with the product or service you are offering, you will get a boost of trust and attention from the potential customer.
Place value on a trusting, close collaboration with the blogger in order to achieve the marketing goals. Here, too, mutual trust creates added value for both sides.
In the first step, you should focus on producing fascinating content with added value. The placement of the product is the next step. Experience shows that if the content of the sponsored post gives the impression that the sponsored blog article was created only for promotional purposes, readers may quickly get bored and look for interesting content elsewhere.
How can I recognize a good sponsored post?
Content, content and again content, this is the only way a sponsored blog article can achieve promotional effectiveness. Even if the Sponsored Post has a correct labeling as advertising text, it should not give the appearance of a purely editorial article. Advertising must be marked as advertising, deceptive surreptitious advertising leaves a bitter aftertaste with the reader. Clear labeling as advertising generates more trust than an attempt at concealment. Honesty pays off – even with advertising messages.
A good sponsored post should have a meaningful headline that also attracts attention as an eye-catcher. The introduction, i.e. the teaser, must encourage the potential customer to read on. The body text should not contain too many obvious advertising messages. The product should not be too much in the foreground, rather the benefit of the product. What is the added value for the potential buyer to buy just this product instead of a competitor’s product?
Visual components, such as meaningful images or a video of the product, show their use in a simple and appealing way. Well-made videos that demonstrate the use of a new, innovative or complicated-to-use product can positively influence the potential customer. Bulleted lists and lists bring facts and figures clearly to the point.
No longer an insider tip – Storytelling
An entertaining text is read, a boring article is clicked away. Let’s start by explaining what storytelling is not. The opposite of storytelling is dull product advertising, the stringing together of pure facts, advertising that simply whizzes by. Was there something?
Studies show that we have an attention window of eight seconds. When we read an interesting story, we read for as long as the text interests us – ideally until the end of the text. The word storytelling is derived from English, so it has something to do with telling stories.
By the storytelling method, copywriters mean conveying information and values by telling a story. A well-written story can inspire, carry away and bind the reader, i.e. attract his attention.
The storytelling method is used in content marketing and advertising, just as journalists, educators or artists use this method. Storytelling can also be successfully applied in other areas, such as lectures, seminars and employee training. With the approach – to tell stories – the readers are drawn into the spell of the story. Storytelling conveys a feeling and does not consist of hard facts. In Sponsered Post, readers remember stories better than pure product descriptions.
The Storytelling Method – how it works
1. define the goal
The goal of the story should be summarized in just one sentence. A professional copywriter wants to know what the story is about in one sentence. If the answer is that it’s about cosmetics for women, the copywriter may turn up his nose. That is too terse for him. Perhaps he will remind you of the Dove brand. The Dove company is all about enhancing a woman’s own beauty, rather than following some unattainable beauty ideal. Successful is the one who tells stories in which potential customers recognize themselves.
2. find the „why?
If you’re working with a professional copywriter, you probably also have three questions to answer: Why? How? What? These considerations can be made on a variety of levels. It is imperative that the questions be answered at the company and product level.
The most important question is the one that asks, „Why?“ The answer brings out the core of the story. Once the core is defined, the message can be derived to then emotionally connect potential customers to a brand or product.
The example of Harley Davidson shows why the question „Why?“ is so important. The Why of the Harley Davidson brand is to fulfill dreams and longings of the very great freedom. The answer to the „Why?“ for the Harley Davidson product comes in several specific variations. Some motorcycles fulfill the rough dreams of freedom, others are softer on the road.
3. choose the plot and find the red thread
The red thread describes the plot of a story. Theoretically, there are an infinite number of possibilities; in practice, a few standard plots have become established. They are stored in the brain of a professional copywriter as sample templates.
The seven standard plots are:
- overcome the ghost
- from rags to riches
- Search
- Trip
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Rebirth
Two examples of the plot: overcoming the ghost
This – Overcoming the Ghost – is a classic campaign of the company Dove. At Dove, for example, the monster „beauty mania“ is fought. Potential female customers are to discover personal, natural beauty. A successful example of this is the marketing campaign „Real Beauty Sketches“, which stands out pleasantly from the competitor advertising, which is addicted to the ideal of beauty.
Red Bull sends its shining hero Felix Baumgartner on a quest for the great adventure to the extreme. The sight of Felix Baumgartner standing at the edge of a capsule, 39 kilometers above the earth, ready to jump, has long since become an unforgettable example of successful marketing. Even critics of the „Red Bull Stratos“ project were impressed by the media spectacle staged by the Red Bull company with the help of 35 cameras live and via social media.
Heroes wanted
Every story needs one or more heroes. And every hero needs an antagonist or a counterforce. Ordinary people or celebrities? This question was asked by a British agency in a survey. The answer was clear. The most interesting stories in marketing tell stories about real people who are part of a brand’s customer base.
Dove’s „Real Beauty Sketches“ campaign tells the stories of ordinary women. The Red Bull company acts differently with its Stratos campaign. Felix Baumgärtner represents a leading figure in an ancient manner, who achieves superhuman things.
This path is also possible, it catapults a marketing campaign into a completely different league in terms of the reach achieved, but also the enormous effort involved. It is important that the protagonist fits the brand, the product and the company, so that the campaign is perceived as coherent.
Sponsored blog article – advantages and disadvantages
The colorful, multi-faceted advertising world of the web overwhelms and annoys many users. Lay-overs and pop-ups are annoying for 64 percent of Internet users, as a study found out in 2017. That’s a good argument for using blog articles as promotional marketing tools. Sponsored posts, which do not interrupt the reading flow and thus promote the absorption of information, are fundamentally better received. A sponsored blog article is very well suited for marketing products that require special explanation or for new, innovative brands.
Regardless of the fact that followers follow the blogger because they trust him, sponsored posts about new articles offer even more benefits: If the posts are mentioned more often on the Internet, they are also found more quickly. If interesting content gets a lot of attention, it will rise in the ranking. Professional copywriters write unique texts on a specific topic, which in turn can attract new readers. This unique content on blogs as well as on cooperating blogs has a positive effect on the blog’s ranking. The more new interesting content is published and this also finds a wide readership, who read the texts to the end, i.e. remain on the page for a while, the more positively the ranking on Google is influenced and in turn has a lasting effect on the visibility.
The disadvantage of a sponsored post is the considerable effort involved. The creation and thematically appropriate placement requires a high degree of care and professionalism. High-quality content is just as important as embedding the advertising message in a thematically appropriate environment.
Sponsored Posts – legal framework
When creating and publishing advertising texts, the legal framework must be observed. German press law requires the strict separation of pure advertising and editorial content; surreptitious advertising is prohibited. Therefore, every article with advertising content must be clearly marked as advertising. This is done by means of notices such as ‚Advertisement‘, ‚Sponsored Link‘ or ‚Advertisement‘. The form of the labeling is not exactly defined. There are numerous judgments that can be used as a guide to create a flawless article with regard to the press code. A concise marking would be, for example, the watermark of the company in the photo.
Of course, the labeling obligation does not apply to every positive mention of a purchased product. These obligations exist only for articles in a business, promotional context. Purely private recommendations to friends on one’s own blog are not subject to labeling. Even the neutral independent evaluation, such as listing the advantages and disadvantages of the product, does not have to be labeled as advertising, even if there is a positive verdict at the end. The decisive factor is whether the content is of an advertising nature. The distinction between advertising and opinion or between business and private is not always easy to define. For professional copywriters, however, legally compliant marketing has long been a habit and business, even if or precisely because the content of professional texts does not suggest this.
In addition, online advertising must conform to Google Webmaster Guidelines. Sponsored posts that are not set to Nofollow status clearly violate these guidelines.
Sponsored Post – added value instead of advertising
Sponsored Post is and remains advertising that is not necessarily immediately recognizable as such, but must be labeled from a legal perspective. It is inconspicuously embedded in the context of a brand or a product.
Picture: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/bloggen-blogger-b%c3%bcro-gesch%c3%a4ft-336376/
Picture: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/gesch%c3%a4ft-arbeitsbereich-schreibtisch-1209705/