All About Native Advertising

On the top of many “digital predictions for 2013″ lists was the term native advertising. Sounds fancy or super high-tech, right?

What is native advertising?

According to Solve Media, native advertising is “refers to a specific mode of monetization that aims to augment user experience by providing value through relevant content delivered in-stream.”It’s basically implementing branded content written in your authentic voice. Sounds a lot like sponsored content, right? Well, it is a form of sponsored content and aims to share branded content organically and seamlessly. This kind of advertising isn’t robotic or automated – we’re not talking banner ads or pop-up ads. We’re talking articles and posts that promote another brand.


Why does native advertising matter?

It’s another way that you can monetize your blog’s content. Traditional sponsored content that is basically a copy-and-paste of a press release isn’t enough these days and your readers will be wanting more.  They can smell sponsored content that doesn’t ring authentic a mile away. You want your sponsored content to reach your readers, not push your readers away. It’s also a smart long-term strategy to think of when building out your blog’s marketing goals. If banner ads are a thing of the past, how can you monetize your blog? Native advertising.


How do you implement native advertising into your blog for sponsors?

First, prove the value of your blog. Native advertising lives on your blog, takes up valuable digital real estate, so it’s pretty important to be able to quantify your blog. How many pageviews does a post get? How many unique views does a post get? When sharing links, measure how many clicks the links get. Next, once you have all of this compiled (putting it into a case study is a smart idea), share this information with potential sponsors and validate why they should consider doing native advertising on your blog. See what happens, you never know until you try.

It’s easy – you write, you share, you measure. Simple but true. Native advertising is branded editorial content and anyone can do it. The trick to doing native advertising well is making sure it is native. It’s got to match your voice, your brand, your niche. Make sure the topic matches who your reader is or else it will come off as strange and awkward. (Case in point, the Atlantic and their attempt at native advertising.)

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Bright Advertising Future with Digital Billboards

Digital billboards are a popular type of advertising that are light years ahead of static billboards, and utilizing this top advertising trend can greatly increase the profile of any company. These billboards offer clear images that are controlled by a computer to change every few seconds. With a large variety of digital displays, this type of advertisement engages consumers and focuses their attention on the product or service.

By giving the public something interesting to see, advertising will have a much bigger impact on consumers. Ads that are capable of showing a countdown, having continual content such as a weather report or advertising a time-sensitive special event can change often enough to keep people watching.

A digital display can also target specific geographic locations and demographics, so the advertising appeals to the local people. It is a much more efficient way to spend marketing budgets for a better ROI, and the advertiser has control of the content from outdoor connections. The software enables the advertiser to modify the content at any time. There are also RSS feeds with automatic content updates that can be delivered from a webpage or HTML source.

The federal and state governments have introduced regulations that make this type of advertising safe for drivers. The display should not be too bright nor should it flash or have animation. They have light sensors that adjust for bright sunlight, overcast and night time. The time each message is shown is also fixed. These regulations make sure that drivers have time to see the message or messages without disturbing their driving. The messages last for eight seconds and change instantaneously, so there are no transition effects.

Traditional billboards tend to look dirty or get broken and that kind of disregard for maintenance can send a message about the company or product being advertised. The digital display doesn't have this problem. They always look neat and clean and send a clear message. However, the tried and true rules still apply. The text should be a minimum of 18 inches tall in a font that is easy to read, dynamic colors that contrast well and are attention-getting and the right location are all rules that still apply.

The best part about a digital display is the versatility. They have multiple presentations, and if one doesn't get the message across, another will. Different presentations can be tried on a temporary basis until the best combination is achieved.

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Role Of Print Services In New Marketing Equation

Print services are still incorporated into the modern marketing equation through flyers, posters and print advertisements. The question is, is this simply a matter of covering the bases or making sure that no pair of eyes escapes the message or is there a genuinely defined place for print marketing still?

There is a very strong sense in which printing services have something no online or broadcast media advertisement can ever achieve; direct confirmation that people are responding to an advertising message. That confirmation is not all-encompassing, in the sense that it is still not possible, except in certain defined circumstances, to know whether target audience members are actually spending money as a result of the advertisement. Where a person chooses to take a leaflet at a hand-out, though, the first step in the marketing equation by which the target audience member is known to have at least expressed interest is completed.

Printing services have a co-operative role to play with online presence. It is increasingly the case that the online hub for a brand is the location to which target audience members are directed, no matter where in the world they have come across marketing messages. From the codes and web addresses physically printed on the objects that the brand sells, to the contact details contained in print adverts or read out in broadcast adverts, the URL is the expected standard of communication for most public facing brands.

As a result, printing services must produce marketing messages that fit, thematically and visually, with the landing page they’re associated with on the site. The graphics, colours and logos used in the print communication must tie in precisely with the graphics and logos used in the other media through which the brand advertises as well.

As such, print services are not simply covering an extra base. They become an integral part of a cross-channel marketing mix that has no “weak link”, just a collection of variable ways in which messages are put across to the target market for which they are intended.

Demographic research continues to play a large role in the creation of all marketing messages. Designing a print advert, for example, isn’t only about finding the images and words that will get the message out in the most audience-appropriate fashion. It’s also about making sure that the publications in which it is printed or the locations at which it is disseminated, will be relevant to the audience being targeted.

Print services might form a smaller or larger part of the marketing mix for a specific client, dependent on the size and nature of the campaign. In some cases, for example, a promotion to encourage residents in a pizza delivery catchment area to order takeaway food, the advertising might be wholly done through print. A menu delivered through the door might be pinned to the fridge and used whenever the owner is hungry.

In others, the print part of the campaign might be specifically designed to get the target audience to connect with the brand message by going back to the website.

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Advertising Your Business with Proper Signage and Logos

Using business signs is a great way to give your premises some gloss and to help strengthen your brand. If you have an office or another building that operates as your headquarters, then leaving the walls bare will mean failing to take advantage of a huge canvas that could be used for marketing, for strengthening your brand and more.

But in order to make the very most of your business signs and logos it's important to design them correctly and that means thinking about the psychological impact that will have and how they will reflect your company. Here we will look at some tips concerning the kinds of logos and text that look good as signs.

Your Brand, As a Sign

The most obvious thing to brandish the side of one of your walls with when it comes to signs is your business logo or name. Depending on your logo though, you need to think carefully about how this will work best as a sign.

For instance if your logo has very narrow lines, or is very detailed then it might work better painted or embossed onto a flat surface rather than being cut out itself. If elements of your sign are too thin or narrow this can cause the logo not to have the impact it should, and this way giving it a flat backdrop can help.

The same goes for the colour of your logo. If you have a black logo then this isn't something that will be likely to show up against a dark wall particularly well at night. Here you can either consider using some kind of outline (as long as it won't ruin the impact of the logo), or again painting it onto a flat sign instead.

Better yet though is to consider the appearance of your logo while considering how it will work in situations such as this. A versatile logo is one that can work well in a range of different situations and ideally you should design something that will look good whether it's on a sign or printed at the bottom of a letter.

Elements to Consider

So what kind of branding works well for signs? Well large shapes work well such as Apple's apple or Nike's tick because these can be cut out easily and included alongside text. Circles work well too, as do stars and abstract polygons.

Picking bright colours is also a good strategy in order to ensure they attract as much attention as possible. This means colours that will contrast well against most walls and products, and colours that contrast in themselves. A red sign or a bright blue one will fit a number of situations because few surfaces are either of those colours.

Choosing whether or not to include your company name is another important decision. Whereas incorporating it into your logo makes it easier for people to recognize, it also means you'll need more space wherever you use it in signage or on a wall.

Your logo should also be easily recognizable and simple to replicate. This gives it more chance of spreading virally, and means you'll be able to more quickly build up an association between the experiences and products you provide and that symbol or text - so follow the 'KISS' rule and keep it simple, stupid.

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How to Reduce Advertising Costs

Advertising costs have a major role to play in the returns that a business gets on its investments. This is why managers need to be constantly aware of what the costs are and what they should be. They need to be careful of media prices that are being charged on the basis of cost per spot or the cost per advertisement.

Media cost efficiency is a measure of how many people in the target audience are expected to be reached for each dollar spent on a media advertising vehicle. In order to find this out certain formulas like cost per thousand or cost per point are used. The cost per thousand is calculated by dividing the cost of an advertising spot by the number of viewers. The cost per point is a measure of the advertising costs incurred to reach one percent of the target universe. For instance, if an online banner were to cost five hundred dollars to reach one percent of the target audience, then the cost per point would be $ 500. Some marketing managers use a measure known as cost per action. It measures the advertising costs per customer response or the cost per sale. All these costs are used by media planners and media buyers to evaluate the true cost of their advertising expenses.

Advertising prices are a result of the perceived demand and supply for media spots in the market. The higher the demand for a spot, the more its media rates will increase. Subsequently, if demand for an advertising spot were to decline then the spot will be sold at a lower rate. The social media provides some good opportunities for free advertising. Keeping all these factors in mind many firms put extensive efforts into creative strategies that will help them get low media rates.

A good media plan should make the best use of a firm's marketing budget. Media buying requires extensive and up-to-date knowledge of emerging trends in the media and the marketplace. Knowing how to utilize the latest trends and opportunities effectively is both a science and an art. That is why many buyers take the help of a media marketing guide. Most good guides contain population and marketing statistics, marketing forecasts, data on media audiences and their costs, information on traditional and nontraditional media and a market planner. These guides help buyers to save time and cost with a plan that not only works but can be implemented quickly as well.

Marketing managers need data on the projected rates in the traditional and nontraditional media. They need to know if the prices will go up or down and how they will vary for each medium. Firms need to have statistics like the cost of television spots in the top hundred markets. With the increasing use of social media channels for marketing, many buyers are also looking at the effectiveness of cost per click methods on various search engines. Using a guide that offers data and advice on all these factors can help firms get a competitive edge in the media by reducing their advertising costs.

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The Business Benefits Of Print Advertising

There is a kind of backwards idea that has developed that has lead people to believe that email is more “green” than print.  What these people fail to consider are the massive amounts of energy are consumed by each facility to cool and run their computers and servers.  62 trillion spam emails are sent each year, which produces the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as using 2 billion gallons of gas.  Despite this, businesses continue to move all of their business online as if it is synonymous with “green.” 

In reality, printing advertisements can often be far “greener” than emailing them.  Over the past 25 years energy consumption from the United States’ pulp and paper industry has decreased by 42%, despite an increase in demand.  The energy used by an average data center could power 25,000 households, and online newspapers produce 20% more CO2 than their printed counterparts.  Responsible forest management has made huge strides over the decades, and many experts believe it to be one of the best and least expensive ways to fight climate change.  Additionally, the pulp and paper industry has been aware of its environmental impact for far longer than email has even existed, which now accounts for 63% of all paper waste being recycled.  US mills generate two-thirds of their energy on site from renewable biomass, leading to 77% of the nation’s biomass being generated by the paper industry.   This means that the renewable energy created by the paper industry is greater than that of all of America’s solar and wind generators combined. 

Besides the environmental advantages, direct mail campaigns are downright more effective than email or online marketing.  Advertisers in the U.S. spend approximately $167 a person in direct mail, which yields them $2,095 in revenue (about 13 dollars made for every dollar spent).  Print ad inserts are so effective that they cause 52% of readers to visit the company’s website.  This is an incredibly high number, especially when compared against the number of emails that go directly to spam folders, and those that don’t are frequently deleted without ever being opened, meanwhile 8 out of 10 houses read or scan the mail sent to their home. Due to this, responses to email marketing have dropped 57%, while direct mail responses have increased by 14%.

Commercial printing companies should have some of these facts and statistics close at hand for the next time a client only wants a few copies of something because, “The majority of the campaign will be done online.”  By laying out the very practical benefits of print marketing, it should be easy for printing companies to sway their clients into purchasing larger orders.  Even family friendly companies that do not like up-selling should be able to comfortably talk to their clients when what they are offering will truly be of benefit to the client’s business. 

Forestry is viewed by experts as the most sustainable of all the primary industries that supply America’s energy and materials.  For many years chopping down trees was viewed as bad for the environment, but the high level of sustainability means that more wood should be chopped, not less, in order to truly affect climate change.

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