The Keys To Success In Digital Advertising

Digital advertising can substantially affect the success of a brand on the web. But there are those who have experience and understand how to truly make it work and there are those that ‘think’ they know digital advertising but never actually bring about tangible results. As we move into the next year, Internet users will expect a custom, personalized and engaging experience in everything from websites and social media to how and what they are served when it comes to paid media.

Here are a few keys to success when it comes to digital advertising to the consumer of 2015 and beyond:

Speak In a Customer First Voice vs. A Brand First Voice

People don’t like being spoken to in the same way that they’re used to in other forms of advertising. Make it a conversation, not a campaign. Using the signals on social (I.e. what someone likes, where they check in) helps brands understand the identity of their customer. Use that data to better speak in a customer focused voice. Social media is made up of customers telling brands what they want more of when it comes to content. Brands can tap into that identity and spur emotion.

Stand Out by Fitting In

When it comes to branded content, the best advertising doesn’t look like advertising. Try to stand out by fitting in. Think about Facebook – you’re in your newsfeed and the most important things you see are your friends, your family, your life — it’s your personal newspaper. So, when a brand tries to get in there and advertise something, it can’t stand out like a sore thumb if you want someone really to welcome it. If you can stop people from scrolling for your content because it attracts and engages, you’ve succeed in advertising. When it comes to native advertising, a staggering amount of people don’t even notice when content is sponsored or paid for by a company – that is, when it’s done well.

Get In The Mindset of Telling Better & More Relevant Stories

It’s easy for people to get content from things to go viral, it’s harder for brands to share branded messaging that is highly shareable. There’s a fine line between what’s ‘likeable’ and ‘shareable’ and what drives brand objectives and sales. When you are creating a new campaign to speak to multiple audiences in a platform — have at least 10 pieces of content to tell an ongoing story. Then take your time and nurture it. Good content may take a month to take hold across the web of platforms. Don’t be afraid to slice and dice pieces of content to spin it and tweak to speak to different and new audiences.

Measure, Measure, Measure!

From day one, you MUST start by outlining how are you’re going to measure this! The top funnel metrics (likes, followers, impressions) are where you go when you don’t see the results you are looking for in the bottom funnel metrics (the conversions, sales) to see why.

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