Blog

By Dale Lovell, Content and Publishing Direct, Adyoulike

Most brands, even if they are not already creating content themselves, will be surprised about how much content they actually already have at their disposal. Take another look at your organization’s resources and you’ll be surprised at what content you already have – content that can easily be transformed into native ready content by an experienced content marketer.

Areas to think about when you are looking to create branded content that can be used for a native advertising campaign include:

• Video – Whether seeding new online or TV ads, or perhaps distributing any additional video footage such as ‘the making-of’ videos, behind-the-scenes footage, company interviews, outtakes or concept packages; all can easily be edited into native advertising posts.
• News / Tips – Creating editorial or video that is timely and relevant can be a great way to position your brand via content as a leader and commentator in touch with your customer-base.
• Interviews /How-tos/ Guides – Bespoke content that has already been created for a brand, or is about to be created, can be promoted via native to give consumers access to the content they are looking for. Remember, give your customers something they want and you will more often than not be rewarded.
• Infographics – A popular way to visualize data, infographics are easily promoted via Native formats to generate significant reach. They are extremely shareable too, offering significant opportunities for earned media reach when promoted properly.
• Internal Staff – This will depend on your brand but if you work for a business that invests in training guides for internal staff, then this expert content can and does shine a light on the values behind a brand and what that brand is trying to achieve. It is content like this that your customers love to see. Why? Because it reveals something about the brand; it gives a behind-the-scenes look and often a human face to what can sometimes appear to be a super-slick faceless brand. Remember that it is experts that work for brands and are passionate about their jobs, which make for the best case studies, interviews and brand ambassadors that you can call upon to help create the expert content that works well as part of any content marketing and native campaign too. Everyone likes a story so get your passionate team to share it.
• Press releases/company news – There is no reason why a company announcement that you are keen to share with a relevant engaged audience, cannot be shared via native advertising. Remember, the content is clearly labelled as sponsored and can also easily be tagged to say it is a press release too.

These are just some examples of the types of content that can be promoted via native advertising.

Within specific native placements it is possible to include, when relevant, items such as user polls – looking for consumer engagement; discount vouchers, for direct response; white papers or guide downloads. The options are plentiful depending on your brand and your target audience.

Follow us for more on native advertising at: @adyoulikeuk and www.adyoulike.com

The full length version of this article was originally published on LinkedIn.

Dale Lovell
Dale Lovell is Content and Publishing Director at Adyoulike, the European leader in native advertising technology and native ad network. He has extensive experience in online content and online publishing, having previously worked for successful online publishing start-ups in the UK and the US. In a 15 year career working as a journalist, editor and online publisher, before more recently working with clients such as The National Geographic Channel, Asda Supermarket, Capita Resourcing, Fox International Channels and all the major advertising agency groups in London on content marketing campaigns. Find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.