How Melanie Deziel Uses Native Advertising to Reel In New Customers

It’s All About Context

Many of us think about content in terms of what lives on our site and our social media platforms. It’s not often you discuss your content on somebody else’s platform unless it’s a paid ad.
Melanie has found that native advertising, that is your longer-form content hosted on somebody else’s turf, can be the best way to get your product in front of fresh and eager eyes.
The trick to making native advertising work for both you and the host is to ensure you properly align with the hosted audience, you have reliable sources trusted by that audience to back you up, and the format of your content makes the most sense. The most successful content for this type of venture is often created after you’ve identified the outlet and thoroughly researched the audience.
A well-thought-out native advertising campaign has the potential to live beyond the campaign and become a trusted and an embraced piece of content for a newly identified pool of prospects.

In This Episode

• How outbound content leads to new customers in unlikely places
• Why becoming a customer’s natural choice means answering questions about your role and the emotions associated with it
• How approaching placement without a story pre-written leads to better, more engaging content
• Why finding the best placement means looking at your alignment, sources, and format

Quotes From This Episode

“A lot of the skills that we’re using are the same, whether it’s in a marketing context or the context of editorial journalism.” —@mdeziel
“If you stay true to the standards of the publication that’s hosting this brand content, then you’re able to see the same kind of performance they see editorially.” —@mdeziel
“If you’re investing the time and money, you want to make sure that you’re creating something that’s going to resonate with that audience.” —@mdeziel
What role do you play in your customer's life, and what emotions are associated with that interaction? Click To Tweet
“The real key with native advertising is to make sure it truly fits the context, both aesthetically and from a topic perspective.” —@mdeziel
We shouldn't feel like the only form is long form. Click To Tweet
“Reliable sources are key. They give you third-party credibility that you need when you’re a guest of some other environment.” —@mdeziel

Resources

• Melanie Deziel on Twitter: @mdeziel
• The Overlap League
• Women Inmates: Why the Male Model Doesn’t Work
• The Rise of Native Ads in Digital News Publications

Content Pros Lightning Round

Do you see a world where sponsored or native content is going to be creeping into Netflix?
I can very easily imagine an environment where a brand has created a mini-documentary, a miniseries, or a full-length film and placed it on Netflix as a means of distribution.
Tell us what you’re watching on Netflix right now.
I’m very interested in documentaries and understanding processes that I’m not familiar with.