Design is an integral part of the marketing machine. People respond differently to specific colours, shapes and wording, so it is essential to ensure that all marketing communications have a well thought out design.
With the ever-changing world of marketing and the emergence of new channels, like social media, design has had to evolve as well. In the following paragraphs we’ll take a closer look at the importance of design in marketing and how native advertising is starting to take over.
Is banner advertising dead?
Banners have long been a popular piece of marketing material. Traditionally banner marketing referred to physical banners that would be displayed at events and on business premises, but with the emergence of Internet marketing channels, digital banners became increasingly popular.
However with marketing, digital marketing in particular, evolving at such a rapid pace, there are questions being asked as to whether or not digital banner advertising is dead.
From a design perspective banners are extremely restrictive. With limited sizing options, banner ads force publishers to rearrange their websites to fit around the ad, not vice versa. Consequently, this design restriction is leading more websites to move away from publishing banner advertisements.
Is native advertising the way forward?
The emergence of native advertising in recent years has also yielded a detrimental blow to banner advertising. Native advertising examples like infographics and sponsored articles provide a lot more value to an audience than a typical banner ad that is designed purely to communicate on marketing message.
As native advertising is far less restrictive in terms of sizing and layouts it’s the perfect chance for marketers and designers to get creative. Let’s face it, there is only so much you can do with a 250px X 250px rotating banner, however with an endless infographic there are literally hundreds of routes that you can take.
Due to the highly competitive nature of both online and offline marketing, businesses are constantly fighting for space in the minds of the consumer and a stunningly designed advertisement will certainly cement itself in a consumer’s memory.
On the whole native advertisements have a much more successful track record for cultivating brand awareness and generating leads than banner advertisements. As a result marketers are starting to take notice and have identified the immense value that native advertising offers.
If you are still getting to grips with native advertising these top 5 examples will help to inspire you to create your own native advertising piece.
How marketers can prepare for the native advertising shift
A key talent that any marketer needs to develop in the 21st century is how to adapt. Frankly what works today may not work tomorrow… a social media killer could be right around the corner for all we know.
As someone who is used to adapting you should be comfortable enough to learn the lingo of native advertising and test various designs and approaches to identify what works best for your brand. As with anything in marketing, native advertising offers a learning curve that you’ll need to ride.
The biggest hurdle you’ll need to get over is creating engaging content. Anyone can create an infographic or a top 10 roundup, but it takes someone special to create content that is highly engaging and worthy of being shared by thousands of people. Without relevant, reader driven content you can guarantee that your native advertising piece won’t generate substantial sales. You’ll need to be creative in both visual design and the substance of you content.
Native advertising is certainly starting to take over and it is well worth jumping on the band wagon to identify how you can yield it’s power to increase the fortunes of your business.