The reason native advertising is such an effective marketing style is that it puts such a strong emphasis on the audience. By creating content that engages an audience, the most important step is finding that audience.

Swift Local Solutions specializes in serving communities with like-minded residents and visitors. For example, our resort markets in Colorado, Utah, California, and Nevada serve people who share a love for outdoor recreation, beautiful scenery, health, fitness, wellness and countless other common interests.

So while a native advertising article about chicken coops is no doubt interesting and engaging, our resort markets probably aren’t the right place for such a piece of content. Our agriculture markets, however, would be perfect.

Collaborating with a publisher who not only already has access to your target audience, but is also trusted by that audience, is an invaluable tool for your native advertising collaboration. We provide professional writers who speak the language of our markets. Combine that with the credibility of our media company, and your native advertising messaging has everything it needs.

Professional content producers with journalism backgrounds are masters at speaking to the right audiences at the right time. Our training has taught us how to cover the news and information that our communities seek. We know that when it’s mud season in our resort markets, our readers want information on things to do, road trips to take or indoor activities that aren’t dependent on good weather.

When you work with one of our writers, we will develop topic ideas for your native content that not only accomplish your goals as a business or brand but also meet the interests of our readers. If we don’t think a topic is going to perform well, we won’t do it. Presenting information that our audience isn’t interested in reading doesn’t serve you, the client, nor does it serve our audience.

Choosing the right publisher for your marketing message also helps you gain insights about what the audience is interested in, according to a recent post by the Native Advertising Institute, such as the media formats for which the audience interacts with most.

More from the Native Advertising Institute:

“When brands and publishers work together on a branded content program, they are able to achieve more than either could alone. Because as a brand you come in with resources and in a lot of publishing environments, they don’t always have the resources they need to tell great stories. And as a publisher, you have such a deep knowledge of your audience. When you put those two things together — the resources and the intent to tell stories from a brand and the storytelling expertise and deep knowledge of an audience that a publisher brings — you can create incredibly compelling stories that a publisher or a brand might not be able to create on their own and have the same level of impact.”

Digital Strategist Pontus Staunstrup shared the following on this subject from a Native Advertising DAYS 2017 panel discussion:

1. It’s important for brands and publishers to trust each other and share knowledge about best practices, such as which formats perform best on a publisher’s platform.
2. Publishers need to set the right expectations so brands do not unrealistically expect too much from one piece of native content. Brands, in turn, also must be upfront with publishers about their goals for the campaign. One piece of content, for example, can’t build brand awareness, drive sales and create a thought leadership (expert) presence for the brand. A longer native advertising campaign can accomplish this, but one piece of content cannot.
3. During the sale process, brands must understand what it is they’re buying, meaning account managers must be well versed in native advertising and its benefits, performance, value, etc.

When you’re thinking about native advertising as an effective advertising format for your business or brand, remember that collaborating with the right publisher is going to be just as important to your success as quality, engaging content. We’re here to help you accomplish these goals and deliver your message to our valued, loyal readers.