Vast amounts of time, effort and planning go into designing a website. This is so that a high representation of your firm’s services are advertised to your potential clients. However, often times not much thought goes into the subject matter of the given website. What content does your website provide? Some questions that crop up after a website is launched is whether their content has to be detailed but informative or informative but quantitative. Which characteristic should my content possess? Quality or Quantity?

Introduction to Content Marketing
It is understood by some brands that old-school marketing, which use traditional channels of print and broadcasting to communicate with their market, doesn’t quite cut it in this new era of the market. New school marketing, however, relies on the consumer and how they consume information. Marketing has now become about the target market. Consumers will disregard brands that try to tell them, what they need rather than producing what the consumer wants to hear and see. Hence why content marketing is extremely important especially within the judicial sector.

The law firms that produce informative, entertaining and consistent content, (whether it be in the forms of audios, articles or blogs) will succeed in today’s marketplace. The best content marketing, however, will always focus on the demands of the consumer but not on the needs of the firm.

In order to create some sort of online brand presence, you will have to come up with a strategy that is best for your company and your consumers.

HOW CAN I USE BOTH CHARACTERISTICS IN MY CONTENT?
In order to create an online brand presence, you will have to focus on both the quality and the quantity of your content. You want your firm to create evergreen content, that always remains relevant and informative. Here are a few suggestions:

QUALITY
-Become a discovery hub for your clients
Via the content you provide, your job is to help your audience uncover new and interesting information. Your clients should be able to find answers to any queries, and your company should be able to predict upcoming trends within the given industry. Any law firm that does this will gain trust and will be viewed as a potential resource.

-Quality content then SEO
Over the years SEO has changed immensely. Since 2012 brands can no longer game the system through articles stuffed with keywords and strategies of backlinking. A law firm must use their SEO strategy to engage their clients with the content that they produce on their websites. First, you must answer the questions asked by your audience then deal with your SEO.

-Does your content tell a story?
The best engagement that a law firm can make to their audience is via telling a story. If you are able to tell a story through your content, you are connecting to your audience on an emotional and an informative level. This technique sets you apart from the other firms in the marketplace.

QUANTITY
-PUBLISH, PUBLISH, PUBLISH
Make sure that you have a consistent schedule. If you have both a high quality of content and high volumes of it you are bound to get traffic. You build trust with search engines, by producing content of the highest caliber, as this is what Google and its users are looking for. Google’s engineers have worked extremely hard on its algorithms to prevent poor \quality websites from appearing as the highest organic listings. Notwithstanding, in order to get more traffic you have to frequently publish content on your website either weekly, daily or monthly rather than annually.

-Organize and schedule your publishings
You can use an editorial calendar as the focal point of your entire marketing strategy. More importantly, using this tool you can hone in and directly focus on the management of your content so that it meets the needs of your clients. It allows you to plan for future content which makes it an extremely proactive and organized approach. This calendar can allow you to improve and edit future content.

Content Distribution
When you have published some quality content, you must be prepared to also advertise about it. Broadcasting your content is just as important as creating it. Here are a few ways that you could distribute your content:

-Find multiple avenues to advertise content
-Influencer outreach
-Owned Content Distribution (social media, landing pages)
-Paid Content Distribution (paid social media ads, paid Google Ads campaigns)
-Earned Content Distribution(distribution of content via a third party, tweets, retweets, shares, PR pieces, guest blog posts)

Content still prevails
Content marketing is a key tool that all law firms should seriously incorporate into their strategies. It is the most effective SEO tool for law firms. Now that you know the relationship between SEO and content marketing you can start investing your time into this particular field. St8 are experts in producing high-quality content for law firms.

The post Quality, Quantity or Both? appeared first on ST8.

SEM (search engine marketing) is a form of internet marketing which consists of two branches PPC (pay per click) and SEO (search engine optimization). It is one of the most effective ways of expanding a law firm that is within a competitive field. SEM is an extremely powerful marketing tool which allows the potential client to actively pursue the law firm. It is a form of inbound marketing which is customer-centric and is more convenient for both the law firms and your potential clients.

What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is the practice of maximizing the number of users to a particular website by guaranteeing that your firm’s’ website appears high on the first page of the search engines results.

A 2014 study from Advanced Web Rankings revealed that :
-Over 67% of clicks go to the top five listings of a search engine results page
-Whilst websites that appear on the first page receive nearly 95% of traffic
-The rest of the SERPs (search engine result pages) only receive 5% of traffic

These statistics just highlight how important it is to incorporate SEO into your business marketing plan. Is your law firm website one of the first results to show up? If not you need some SEO SOS.

How can SEO help your law firm?
SEO can help you improve your search engine rankings, which has the potential to improve your firm’s reputation and online presence. In order to appear among the first organic listings, you have to create content that both attracts Google’s algorithms and your users. You will have to invest a considerable amount of time and money in order to create high-quality content that is worthy of appearing on the top listings. However, in order to retain your position as the top ranking, you will have to maintain and invest time in producing new content that serves as tangible resources, so that you are constantly receiving new and more traffic.

When SEO is combined with PR you can truly maximize your results. An example of this is through link building. Once you have earned links from prestigious websites this will open the doors for publications and influencers to advertise and talk about your company. This is another effective way of distributing your content to potential victims and clients.

How can you compete for organic traffic?
It is evident that there are many challenges when trying to rank highly on a relevant industry search. Here are a few examples of SEO tools that could help your company:

–Search for long-tailed words
The lower the competition of the keyword the better. Make sure to find a keyword that is also specific to the type of service that you offer.

–What questions are your target market asking?
Recognize the most frequent questions that are asked and answer them through articles or blog posts on your website. This will build up the content of your website which makes it easier for your website to be recognized and therefore more accessible

–Rearrange or Rewrite title tags and meta descriptions
Make the preview of your website compelling so that you increase your chances of your CTR (click through rate).

–Make sure your website is properly set up
Organization of your website is extremely important. The presentation of your website will be the first impression that your user will get, which will give them an insight into the firm’s reputation and image.

What is PPC?
PPC stands for Pay Per Click. This is a non-organic form of internet marketing that allows the advertisers to pay every-time their ad is clicked on. It is non-organic because you are buying your traffic instead of earning it organically. Through PPC your firm can leverage search engine traffic by paying or bidding for keywords that are related to the niche of your firm. PPC’s true value lies in its expansiveness and speed. It is the most effective method to create exposure and to build brand awareness especially when you are starting up a new firm.

SEO and PPC
When done correctly both PPC and SEO can get your firm on the front pages of the search engine. However, it should be noted that PPC is more effective for products than it is for service companies and in this case for law firms. On the other hand, when it comes to a long-term lifespan of your internet marketing, SEO offers better value in search marketing. It is the most affordable and beneficial form of marketing for your law firm.

Which programme should I invest in?
Both programmes have shown how important it is for your company to invest in an effective marketing strategy. Here at St8, we are a company that strikes the balance and maximizes each programme. We can offer our services to provide your firm with a long-term effective marketing strategy, that will build your reputation and increase your online presence.

The post Understanding Search Engine Marketing for Law Firms appeared first on ST8.

You’re sitting at your desk (or maybe somewhere else – we don’t know), and you’re worried about how to best develop your identity online. Creating a digital brand is not easy, especially when consumers are the driving force behind it – along with their ever changing opinions. In today’s rapidly evolving market, you need a brand identity that speaks to your audience on a personal level, while also adhering to your company goals. It must define you. To know whether or not your branding is effective, creative solutions (along with quick feedback) are needed. This is where agile branding can be useful.

Agile branding does a few things:

Promotes Adaptability

Consumers expect the brands they endorse to be flexibly relevant to their needs. Because their needs are always shifting, brands also need to shift to stay relevant. Those that do not are left behind. Remember when Blockbuster was around? We don’t either.

Agile branding promotes this adaptability through quick feedback iterations. Because there are multiple, smaller-scale experiments, consumers give their feedback on the idea much quicker than on an annual large-scale campaign. Listening to the consumers more often allows companies to fine tune their message based on this communication. The back-and-forth interaction creates a personal connection with the audience, ensuring the brand remains a part of their daily lives no matter what channel it is viewed through. In the end, your brand is not for you; it’s for your consumers.

To further stress the need for adaptability, each brand is viewed on the global stage. Seeking out change in one area of the world will inevitably lead to innovation in another, providing the brand content is suited for it. Keeping in touch with your global audience on a regular basis gives the best chance at developing increasingly unique products or services. A good idea is a good idea, no matter where in the world it comes from; just remember to research cultural norms that may impact success in that market region and adapt to fit them.

Demands Consistency

While evolving with the needs of consumers is paramount, remaining true to the core values of the company is of equal importance. Consumers value transparency and firm promises; when brands can deliver on those promises in interesting ways, they are rewarded for it. All touch points must align with the core message, and consumers must be able to recognize that. The tricky part is finding a balance between being adaptable and remaining true to core principles. If a brand goes too far into evolving territory, it risks losing sight of the core message. If it sticks only to rigid rules, it loses out on staying relevant. In essence, this balance is the heart of agile branding.

Requires Authenticity

Many of the top agile brands today are viewed as good citizens. Consumers, especially millennials, deeply value honest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and will know if a business is faking it. Authenticity is extremely important. In order to be a consistent brand, CSR should be woven into the core values and goals of the company; it must clearly connect with the brand in a meaningful way. The best agile brands know this and are continually viewed in a positive light, even when headlines are against them.  

Relies on Metrics

Agile branding is not blindly picking straws: Each touch point in the process is backed by research and important metrics from interactions with consumers. All pertinent data from feedback loops are analyzed more frequently than traditional methods; as such, brands are able to update their metrics sooner for a perfect fit. Each brand will need different metrics based on their consumers, but all agile brands create a reliable process to measure relevant data and adapt through it. Because the digital space is always evolving, agile branding makes analyzing metrics a more efficient and useful process – especially since much of the data can change instantly.

Branding content is shaped by the environment it’s in. We can’t exactly predict future environments, but we can be in a position to respond to these changes. When markets change rapidly, an adaptable branding strategy is necessary for thriving. Good agile branding provides the framework to keep your brand relevant while remaining on point with your overall business goals.

If you’re interested in further developing your identity online, give us a call, and we’ll get you there.

The post The State of Agile Branding appeared first on ST8.

If you thought successful digital branding was all about coming up with a snazzy new logo or designing a flashy website, you’d be off to a good start, but the idea of successful digital branding goes much deeper than that. In many ways, the game of branding hasn’t changed a bit since 1955 when a young whippersnapper of a burger franchise hoisted a set of golden arches into the air and invented the fast food industry. What has changed is the medium where that brand-building takes place, which sort of changes the game completely. Why not grab a cup of coffee or your favorite cold beverage and let’s learn about branding in the Digital Age?

Digital is Different

One of the first things you should internalize as an online marketer in search of an awesome brand is that it doesn’t matter a bit what you say. The important thing is what “they” say. Who are they? Why the millions and billions of internet denizens, a portion of whom are likely to make or break your business aspirations. Let’s stay with this a moment because it’s an important idea.

Think about your own experiences as a consumer. Let’s use the ubiquitous McDonald’s for a quick example, even if you don’t like their food. Does the reason you decide whether or not to swing by on your lunch hour for a McRib lie in the glowing words crafted so eloquently for television commercials or the opinion already framed in your mind created by a lifetime of personal interaction and word-of-mouth? Probably the latter. It’ll be the same with your digital branding efforts.

The bottom line is that it’s not your job to blather endlessly about how great your business is. That’s a monologue and, outside the Tonight Show, isn’t effective. What is effective is to facilitate the online discussion wherever it may be taking place, not as an annoying or looming presence, but as a participant in the conversation.

Defining Digital Branding

First of all, when we’re talking about digital branding – hopefully obviously – we’re referring to all the brand-building activities that occur online in conjunction with different digital platforms. This isn’t paying some shady guy ten bucks an hour to stand out on the corner with a sandwich board and wave at passers-by. This is a more esoteric endeavor, because you can’t physically lay hands on it.

The potential audience who might be interested in your product or service has their attention scattered all over the internet, hopping amongst probably dozens of different platforms (blogs, social media, forums, websites) through the course of any given day. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to entice them into taking part in a conversation that builds and broadens your brand’s reach.

How to define the branding itself? That’s easy. Branding is the process of creating a positive presence in the digital space, one that tells the story and establishes an identity in a way that connects with the target audience. It’s about using what is unique about your company and differentiates it from the competition. There are two primary ways to establish your digital identity.

Content Marketing

The first way to build a brand and create a unique identity in the digital space is through content marketing. Perhaps a quick definition is in order.

Content Marketing: a type of marketing that includes the creation of various types of online material, including a blog or social media posts, video, etc. The point is not to engage in specific brand promotion but rather to stimulate a conversation about its products or services.

How should an online identity be established? Every process is different in the details, but the big picture would involve creating content related to your motivations and goals and how they eventually came to bear on the products or services you offer. For instance, to claim you make the best burger on earth is not only ineffective, but it’s boring. More interesting would be a tale of how you grew up hating square or flash frozen beef patties with every fiber of your being and were motivated to travel to Tibet and live in a high mountain monastery for seven years training the anger out of your system, then, at some point, received inspiration to return home and serve the freshest, roundest beef patties imaginable.

Now that’s a story and one likely to inspire a healthy discussion about bad burgers, long-distance trips, and the meaning of life. And, oh, by the way, there’s a good chance the conversation will also involve how tasty the burgers are at the new joint you just opened. See what you did there? Without actively promoting your business, you started a conversation that would inevitably lead to sneaky business promotion.

And Then There’s Social Media

More often than not, digital branding in today’s world means engaging in at least a few social media platforms. Some of the current hot options are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The great thing about social media – other than the fact that almost every human being in the galaxy uses it every day – is that it allows you to develop your brand’s voice. You get to decide whether you want to be serious, funny, sarcastic, silly, inscrutable.

Your social media presence is important, because, as opposed to a longer form blog post on your website, you can dip in and out of your favorite platform with shorter status updates, respond to questions, or take part in a conversation. Make sure you understand your audience before going too crazy though. If you want to build your brand and ultimately make more sales, the key is to talk to the target audience in the manner they want to be spoken to. Sarcastic comments might play well to one segment but not another. If you’re unsure about how to start, try being a listener first. Do this by dropping in on a competitor’s social media feeds to get a sense for what works and what doesn’t.

But don’t overlook the fact that uniqueness, done correctly, is an amazing way to build and develop a brand. If you’re still unsure about the first steps, it might make sense to consult a digital marketing agency. These days, almost every town has one. There’s a good chance the initial consultation won’t cost you anything, and it’s liable to blow your mind wide open. In a good way, of course.

Final Thoughts

Improving your digital branding means you must create credibility in the consumer mind. To do that, you need a brand. Take that to mean digital branding is not an optional activity unless your goal is to languish in obscurity and eventually die a lingering entrepreneurial death. Make this a priority. Go to the places where your potential customers hang out online and tell them about that time you road-tripped to Tibet and ended up with a new vision for burgers. Your business depends on it. Now get out there and build that brand.

The post The Secret Sauce Behind Digital Branding appeared first on ST8.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is probably one of the most commonly used terminologies when it comes to online marketing. While many of us know the benefits, we might not be using it effectively as a digital branding exercise. But before that, how many of us actually understand digital branding and how SEO impacts that?

Well, to better grasp this concept, let’s begin with a basic introduction to SEO and digital branding.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing a website or a web page through tools and best practices, in order to rank better organically in search results. There is a multitude of rewarding results to this process, including increased traffic, brand awareness, generating more leads and revenue, and so on.

How Does SEO Work?

There are various levels of optimization, but here’s the basis on which it works.

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use crawlers that index web pages. These crawlers use certain ranking signals to serve up the most relevant content for any given search or query. Some of the most important ranking signals include backlinks, keyword density, comprehensiveness, page speed, and mobile-friendliness, among other things.

SEO is all about optimizing web pages and working on making them show up in the top results of any relevant search string.

What Is Digital Branding?

Many a time, digital branding can be easily confused with digital marketing. In reality, digital marketing refers to what you do to promote your brand or business online. On the other hand, digital branding deals with consumer perception and your brand’s/business’ image in the digital space. In other words, it’s your brand’s online personality.

Why Is Digital Branding Important?

In today’s day and age, digital engagement has shot up exponentially. In an infographic on Social Media Today, it is observed that teenagers spend up to 9 hours a day on social media. Brands and businesses are taking advantage of this, introducing themselves to a huge audience through targeted ads.

This is where digital branding starts to make a difference. In an endless sea of marketing cliches, digital branding aims to convey a brand’s story in a unique way that resonates with its target audience. Consequently, this helps people form a positive notion about the brand, and that in turn nurtures engagement and loyalty towards it. In a nutshell, digital branding helps people feel good about a brand or a business before they even interact with it.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of SEO and digital branding, let’s move on to the more important question.

How Does SEO Impact Digital Branding?

SEO plays a significant role in how your business shapes its personality online, and how you understand and approach customers. Let’s take a look at some of the key areas of digital branding that are impacted by SEO.

• Social media SEO helps you analyze what’s trending in your industry, what people are saying about it, and how industry leaders are responding to it. You can use this data to spot trends and determine the needs of your target audience, which will help define your brand’s approach to digital branding.
• In the realm of search engine optimization, social proof is a significant contributing factor to a business’ digital brand. It mostly comprises of social signals such as likes, dislikes, shares, pins, views, followers, etc. The better the social signals, the more credible the social proof. Consequently, this affects the quality of your digital branding as well.
• Image SEO helps you convey your brand’s story better by making it visually engaging to an extent where it demands a response or an opinion.
• SEO helps your brand reach out to your target group better, leading to higher conversion rates and reduced marketing spends.
• It also helps your brand provide a better user experience across all digital platforms. This directly affects your brand’s image and also helps shape your digital branding.
• SEO also helps your brand’s digital branding by merely doing what it’s meant to, which is to enhance online visibility for your brand. This helps propagate your branding strategy better and maximize its impact.
• Local SEO aids discovery when it comes to localized searches, giving your brand a certain amount of leverage to form long-lasting customer relationships.

So, there you have it! We hope this helped refine your view of SEO, and why you should use it as a starting point to shape your digital branding.

The post How Does SEO Impact Digital Branding? appeared first on ST8.

Naturally, you want to make sure that the SEO agency you select

• Has a solid understanding of the basics of digital marketing.
• Is committed to employing only the “white hat” tactics that will keep your business safely within the acceptable guidelines set by the search engines and other marketing channels.
• Stays on top of the latest changes and developments across the digital landscape to help make sure that your marketing campaigns are as fresh, on target, and effective as possible.

Beyond all that, you need to feel comfortable working with your web design partner – confident in their good judgment as well as their commitment to keeping your best interests at heart throughout your relationship. These are the critically important traits so easily lost in a “big agency” environment yet so common to the smaller SEO agency.

Wouldn’t You Rather Be a Big Fish in a Small Pond?

Not so long ago, a senior executive was overheard asking the receptionist at a large marketing agency to “speak with my account representative.” Amazingly, no record could be found of his business. A fresh-faced junior account staffer eventually sauntered out, offered up a cup of coffee, and took notes as the executive related his marketing needs. While this level of “service” would astound many businesspeople, the executive took it all in stride – it had happened before.

The moral of this story is simple: smaller fish in a big agency pond rarely get the attention they deserve. If you want to reap the benefits from working with the very best agency people available, you need to seriously consider working with a smaller agency.

A Smaller Marketing Agency is More Focused on Your Goals and Needs

Every client is important to the smaller web design agency. Working with a small core team of dedicated marketing professionals means more attention can be focused on your unique set of needs and challenges. There’s less “passing of the buck” and more time and energy devoted to uncovering just the right approach to your company’s marketing campaigns.

Once a big agency assigns a team to handle your account, you’re pretty much stuck with that decision. You get the expertise and experience that the big agency “bean counters” feels your account requires without busting the overhead budget.

Contrast that with smaller marketing agencies – who are much more accustomed to bringing in expert outsourced talent as the need arises. What’s more, in most cases you’ll have direct access to the agencies’ chief executive or owner.

A Smaller Marketing Agency Relies on Unique Ideas – Not Cookie Cutter Templates

All too often, a large marketing agency will rely on templated solutions for their smaller clients’ campaigns. While it’s an easy and affordable solution for the agency, it may not always be in the best interests of their smaller clients – who lose the benefit of fresh creative ideas and solutions.

Smaller agencies, on the other hand, thrive on applying custom solutions and techniques. It’s their stock in trade, and one of the most important and valuable assets they can offer clients. They translate your company’s story into an effective and original solution that reflects your needs and resonates with your prospective customers.

A Smaller Marketing Agency is Nimble as Well as Flexible

Things move fast in the digital marketing space. Google updates its core search algorithm some 600 times each year, and Facebook seems to come out with changes to its advertising program every other day. Your company needs to be able to react quickly to adapt your marketing to these changes and to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.

Unlike the big marketing agencies who labor under layers of management and present
procedures and protocol, smaller web agencies thrive on flexibility. They can shift gears quickly and turn on a dime in order to keep your company’s marketing campaigns up to date and relevant with the latest events and developments breaking in the marketplace.

A Smaller Marketing Agency Might be a More Affordable Solution

Big agencies have big overhead – which all clients help to pay for regardless of whether they use or even need every offered service. One way or another, the client foots the bill.

Small agencies aren’t burdened with bloated overhead. They keep their operation lean and trim – which means you’ll pay only for what you really need and no more.

A Smaller Marketing Agency Will Make You Feel Like You’re the Most Important Client

As a client of a small agency, you’ll enjoy a direct and personal relationship with the members of your account team. They take your ideas and your problems to heart because that’s how they roll. You’re never just a number – you’re a valued member of the team and a major contributor to the success of the agency.

If you think working with a smaller agency might be the solution to your marketing challenges, please contact us for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation.

The post Why Your Company Should Be Working with a Small Digital Agency appeared first on ST8.

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Many companies are wondering how much to spend on digital marketing. There are varying competing theories. Companies can spend as much as 20% of their marketing budget on campaigns such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click and social media. Gartner, a leading information technology company conducted a study on how much businesses in different industries spend on digital marketing. The results are pictured in the graph below.

Each company spent an average of 2.5% of their annual revenue on digital marketing. At ST8, we believe this is an accurate measurement of how businesses should be spending their money on an integrated marketing strategy.
With this number comes awareness on how much to allocate toward marketing from your budget. Many people think that marketing is one channel such as PR, advertising or certain promotions. What they fail to realize that all of these, along with digital tools such as social media, e-mail marketing and PPC are different specialized tools that can be used as part of an overall strategy, and each deserves attention to garner success.

Businesses in any industry can benefit from an integrated marketing strategy as long as there are established goals. Goals can differ per industry from customer retention or acquisition, increasing direct sales, improving product awareness or brand management. Any of the marketing tools mentioned above can be used in a targeted way to achieve such goals.
Overwhelmed by the possibilities of integrated marketing? Wonder how it can help your business rise to the top? Contact our team at ST8creative today for a simple consultation!

The post Why Spend Money on Integrated Online Marketing? appeared first on ST8.

In this post, we are going to delve into how to interact with your audience using Organic Social Media in just a few simple steps.

1. BE INTERESTING

Make sure that your content engages your audience. No one is going to want to follow you if you’re not interesting. It is important that your content resonates with the user. What you post should be amusing, fascinating, and useful. Above all, don’t forget to be funny. If a post is found to be humorous, it will reverberate and be shared.

2. MAKING FRIENDS

Figure out which conversations to join. It may appear arduous, but this step isn’t as difficult as it sounds (make sure to use keyword research). The key to OSM success is being natural. Organically joining conversations with your target audience will give you the best results.

When conversing, it’s important not to force products on your customers. This will likely drive them away. Simply engaging with your audience will generate a buzz and accumulate brand recognition along with trust.

3. IF YOU CAN’T BEAT EM…

Look at your competitors and find what is working for them. Their success could be an insight into what works.

Don’t be afraid to jump in. Engage in conversation with competing companies (without belittling them) and allow the people to see that you are a legitimate alternative.

4. THE MORE THE MERRIER

When it comes to connecting with your target audience, don’t be afraid to talk to people. In fact, engage with whomever you can. The more people you can connect with, the more brand recognition you can build. If someone asks a question, give them a response. If they say “thank you,” tell them “you’re welcome.”  After all, building relationships and distinguishing your company is what Organic Social Media is all about.

The post Breaking Down Organic Social Media appeared first on ST8.

Here is the textbook definition:

na·tive ad·ver·tis·ing
n. Native advertising is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed.

Media where the ad follows natural form and function of where it is placed. So it is basically an ad…that doesn’t look like an ad? Sort of. Native advertising matches form and function, meaning it matches the visual design of the experience they live within, in both look and feel, with consistent behavior and the native user experience, functioning just like natural content. They integrate content into the organic experience of a platform. In simpler words, native ads act as part of the environment they are placed on – which can be a website, video, image, or any other platform – and even though they are sponsored content from a certain brand, they are not a clear banner ad trying to sell you something or get you to engage.

Native advertising feels like it was created for the digital age, but it actually dates from way back. Advertorials – which is when an advertisement meets an editorial – first appeared in the late 19th century, when brands started running ads with longform copy in newspapers and magazines, telling their brand’s story as an editorial. Native ads then evolved to branded radio, with sponsored radio programs, to branded TV through commercials, soap operas and pop culture, all the way to infomercials and search ads. In the 21st century, native ads evolved to sponsored content in social media, articles, and online videos. And they can come in all shapes and types of platforms. From a New York Times article about Women Inmates, advertising the popular Netflix show Orange is the New Black, to a BuzzFeed video about cats, featuring the brand Purina. They can have a more serious tone, or simply feel like a funny joke.

And they seem to be working. According to research from IPG media lab, consumers look at native ads 52% more frequently than regular banner ads and native advertisements registered an 18% higher lift for purchase intent responses than traditional ads. The click though rates are also much higher with 49x more clicks for native ads, according to MDG Advertising.
So why go Native? Some people tend to avoid display ads and native ads turn to a viable form of advertisement for many publishers who value user experience. And user experience matters…a lot. Brand loyalty also changes with 32% of users valuing native ads over other forms of advertisements. Also, consider that 70% of Internet users want to learn about products through content over ads. Nearly every social network has sponsored ads and many publishers offer some type of native advertising on their sites. Any brand can do content-based native ads, and the product does not have to be front and center. Native advertising can help in building brand reputation and is a very effective way to connect to your audience without being forceful.

The important thing to remember about native advertising is that it is not automated and it doesn’t come in ad boxes. Instead, native ads deliver high quality content integrated to a platform. They do not interrupt flow and are equal to user interaction, which is incredibly valuable to consumers. To learn more about native advertising and how it can work for your brand, contact us at ST8.

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