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Content Marketing vs Native Advertising.

2016-06-18 | 4110 Print PDF

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Content Marketing Vs Native Advertising: Which is Better?

I have written some topic on content marketing like B2B Content Marketing Services and Content Marketing Strategy which all center on the values of using quality contents in driving profitable customer action by changing or enhancing consumer behavior.

Content marketing is a strong referral tool built on a long term marketing strategy of owing the media, this have an overall long term cost effective merit, unlike native ads which are more focused on capturing your audience with a more sales pitch tone "less informative or educative insight " and more targeted on instant conversion or call to action goals.

In my previous post have defined what content marketing is all about...let's do a recap on it again.

Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers. Content marketing is also defined as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.The type of content businesses share is closely related to what they sell. However, the content's main focus is on the needs of the prospect. This information is consistently delivered and can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, email newsletters, case studies, podcasts, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, blogs etc.... As defined by wikipedia

So today I like to shed some insight on what Native Advertising is, as most digital marketers or content marketing agencies do misuse the term for each other.

What is native advertising?

Native advertising is another form of advertising, executed online, that matches the form and function of the platform used to reach it's target audience.

Native advertising can be in any form of promotion eg a promoted tweet on Twitter, a suggested post on Facebook etc, but more commonly it is about how brands now work with online publications to reach people.

There are many forms of Native advertising since their are many platforms used to reach target audience, if you are interested you can read Native advertising examples by copyblogger to get the concept.

 IPG media lab, did a study that shows native ads are viewed for the same amount of time as editorial content and is much more likely to be shared than a banner ad (32% versus 19% of respondents said they would do so).

It’s important to note that the goals for content marketing and native advertising are very different. While both want to increase brand awareness, content marketing is also intended to drive conversions. This bears out in the key performance metrics as well: The number one metric for content marketing is the number of leads generated, where native ads usually depend on engagement metrics and impressions.

The increase in quality and scalability of native advertising means it is filling the gap between brand publishing and banner adverts, as we tend to see more of sponsored ads on social networks and other platforms being sought after by brands...but despite the rise in native ads, content marketing is still more valuable to a brand or business (as an asset). Fractl and Moz used survey responses from more than 30 content marketing agencies and cost data from more than 600 digital publishers. They found that content marketing has a better overall return on investment.

Content Marketing vs Native Advertising : Differences

Content Marketing vs Native Advertising differences image credit:adweek.com

According to Kelsey Libert, of Fractl Readers are necessarily less engaged with advertising vs. editorial content, and metrics show lower share rates, lower engagement rates, lower view counts, etc. in most cases.

You can’t simply push through a mediocre, thinly veiled advertorial. Content marketing puts the brand and the consumer on equal footing, and in the process necessitates the brand elevate the content they are creating.  When done correctly, the result is a true match between brand and content consumer, where the content created has true value, and spreads based on the merit of the content. Through this, content can enjoy true virality in a way that is nearly impossible with Native ads.

However, native advertising is not without its strengths. While content has the potential for generating sustainable leads and organic reach, native wins when it comes to predictability and scale. Still, Kelsey Libert concluded on the note:

Content marketing impacts more KPIs than native advertising and it has a higher ROI overall, and with the new FTC guidelines it will only become more challenging for publishers to create share-worthy content on behalf of big brands.

So this beg the question as to why would you as a small business owner dive into content marketing or native adverting? obviously you will be more drawn to a scalable cost effective strategy  that offers a long term solution.

This is why we are providing our content marketing strategy with a mix of native advertising to small business owners with a minimum turn around of 3 months to set their enquiries and sales funnel working in a new different angle.

Similar to brand content marketing, you should study your service, provide contents that offer a balance between quality and informative that is best suitable for your target audience.

The rule of the game is telling your business product/service stories in a more conceptualize writing manner that is sort out in captivating your intended audience. "This is a great eye opener as to how valuable blogging can be seen has a content marketing tool".

You can work with some content marketing agencies that offer content marketing blog publications which are stream lined with your product/service deliverables or goals eg When a publication such as BuzzFeed works with a brand like Virgin Mobile it isn't just to create great native content ( aka content marketing) that its loyal readers see – it is with a view it will get more online reach and penetration. Display advertising could never do that. Or at least each time a banner is served, for example, there is an incremental cost to the advertiser.

Click on image to download infographic...

 

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