Do you know what native advertising is? Are you sure? There is not a clear consensus yet, but there are some aspects that most would probably agree about regarding native advertising:
- appears within the stream of the content
- conforms to the norms of the particular location
- seeks to be virally interesting rather than interruptive
How Native Advertising is Different
At one extreme, native advertising seeks to be part of the content and not advertising at all. Entertaining videos, beautiful photography, cute puppies and kittens – anything to get engagement.
There is no question that posting only feel-good content will get you more comments, interaction, and shares. But how do you turn those actions into income?That is the challenge.
Before we go any further, getting a strong understanding of what native advertising is and is not is essential. Gary Vaynerchuk’s agency specializes in this and his latest book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is what turned on the light bulb for me.
This video keynote from the Native Advertising Summit in 2013 has many strong examples, [Contains some use of adult language some may find offensive.]
Video highlights:- bring value
- storytelling
- escapism
- not intrusive
- give people what they want – not what they don’t want
- problem solve around content
- indirect (Guiness creating the Guiness Book of World Records or tire maker Michelin promoting travel)
So the premise of native advertising is to give people what they want in an entertaining manner. The question many businesses have is how does that increase your leads or sales?
Landing Pages Are Key
While the native portion must provide what the viewer wants and needs in a way that doesn’t bore them to tears, what that piece of content links to is where the conversions occur.
Learning to create, optimize and test landing pages is one of the greatest deficiencies in talent and greatest weakness I see today. Nothing is more important, yet few are proficient.
There are many solutions specifically for creating landing pages either as part of an email marketing solution, a marketing solution, or specifically just landing pages. If you do not have experience with any of them, you need to make a choice and start working.
I’ve been doing a lot of research recently, and GetResponse is at the top of the list of solutions I’ve been looking at since Tom Drake wrote Why Create Hype Switched from AWeber to GetResponse.
You need a fast, easy way to create mobile responsive landing pages. GetResponse recently upgraded and simplified their landing page creator. Find out more on SiteProNews in Convert Traffic to Sales Using Easier Landing Page Creator.
Without a separate custom landing page created for each native ad you run, you native advertising will not convert and you will not be able to measure results to find out why it isn’t working.
Native Advertising in Detail
Content creators, small businesses, and brands are all moving toward a major sea change where what used to be advertising is now native advertising. Those on the cutting edge have been focused on this long enough that they have developed more conclusive definitions of native advertising such as this [Report] Defining and Mapping the Native Advertising Landscape, by Rebecca Lieb:
Expertise Required
We have our work cut out for us. If your agency or business can support it, you need these skills:
- native advertising creators
- landing page creators
- copywriters who can increase conversions
- content optimization expertise (A/B and split testing)
- analytics analysis to gain actionable insights
Call to Join Us
There is too much for any one person to learn and stay on top of because everything changes quickly today. Eventually after decades one person may acquire all these skills. The short path to success is to collaborate. If you have any of these skills and are interested in collaborating, contact me by leaving a comment or using the contact tab at the top of this site.
Small business needs a group who can be the Neil Patel for very small businesses. If you want to be world class or believe you already are we want to hear from you.
