Let’s break this down: You’re doing native advertising – or thinking about doing it – because you know you have to capture the attention of your target audience in order to grow your business.
You realized a long time ago that blasting promotional messages out of the old megaphone doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s not about simply stating how great our products are and urging people to buy them. As consumers, ourselves, we know we expect much more from marketers.
The reason why content marketing is on everyone’s mind these days is that it’s among the best ways to provide value. Meaning, it can capture the attention of your target audience and deliver the information and experiences that make them happy and more loyal.
When your content entertains, informs or inspires, people will want it. If it does one of those things while delivering your core message or perspective, you’ve done your job right. This is arguably your biggest marketing opportunity. But if your content doesn’t check at least one of those boxes, you can’t expect it to move the needle.
Ask yourself: Why would my target audience want my content? How does it help them get closer to making the right kind of purchasing decision for them?
While it’s easy to say, delivering high-quality content that people want can be hard. We get that. A deep understanding of your customer and the most common paths they take when choosing to buy from you provides the best ideas. In fact, you most likely already have content that was created for natural search, social media or positive press mentions that can be utilized.
We frequently work with clients that think they don’t have content or that are overwhelmed by the idea of creating a comprehensive content strategy. Oftentimes, we’re able to help them realize that they already have the right core content; it just needs to be assembled the right way to be used for an effective native ad campaign.
But if your content is not quite there yet, it’s time to get to work. There are many people who can help: agencies, freelancers and even this cool company called Storygize. You just can’t make excuses because content is too important. And guess what, great content is completely within reach!
In the end, we believe the difference between winners and losers will be that the winners will stop using interruptive ad formats and start using content to add value to their customers’ buying experience instead of only selling.