B2B Needs to Tap Growing Native Ad Trend

Native advertising may be a hot digital marketing tactic, with spending expected to hit $10.7 billion in 2015, but many marketers, especially business-to-business marketers, still haven't embraced its opportunities. Our thanks to Ash Nashed, founder and CEO of digital tech company Adiant, for his educational b2bmarketing.net post on native ads. Nashed especially speaks to B2B strategists, where only 34% of marketers have put native ads in the mix, he notes. Native ads, which are specifically created to organically fit within content, include search ads appearing alongside organic search results; social media ads resembling organic feed posts; promoted listings on e-commerce sites like Amazon, which appear next to algorithm-generated recommendations; video ads that entertain to promote brands; ads that appear within news articles targeted to specific interests; and advertorials offering educational editorial content. Per Nashed, the keys to success are what we'll call the four "T's": targeting (using data to select hypertargeted segments by demographics, intent, location and/or platform), testing and results tracking (marketing givens), and trust (qualified leads don't come through trickery; the audience must know they are clicking on an ad). For inspiration, Nashed holds up GE's award-winning efforts, including a blog on global innovation for The Economist magazine, a segment on "The Tonight Show," and in-stream ads on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest. For more: http://www.b2bmarketing.net/blog/posts/2015/06/24/win-over-decision-makers-smart-native-advertising

Brain Science Finds Mail Bests Digital With Buyers

The latest brain science explains why direct mail maintains its role as a multichannel marketing linchpin. In fact, direct mail beats or ties digital advertising in almost all the ways marketers seek to woo buyers, per a recent Temple University neuromarketing study sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General's office. As reported by Direct Marketing News, the study, which showed a mix of 40 e-mail ads and postcards to laboratory subjects, found that a digital approach bested snail mail in only one area: grabbing customer attention. However, postcards outperformed e-mail in five other areas: holding customer engagement longer, generating a greater emotional reaction, generating speedier recall, and creating subconscious desire and perceived value for a product or service. And the two methods tied in three categories: engagement in terms of the amount of information absorbed, memory accuracy, and willingness to purchase and pay. The Inspector General's office is hoping the findings will inspire marketers to make better use of mail's power to win customers. Among its suggestions are increased marketer testing of mail creative, sequencing, and digital print technology, such as augmented reality and QR codes. For more details, read http://www.dmnews.com/postal/direct-mail-has-a-greater-effect-on-purchase-than-digital-ads/article/423292/