The From Line

Native advertising is a tough nut to crack. It’s not just black and white. While it is one of the fastest growing advertising segments, a lot of publishers are still in the dark when it comes to the wide spectrum of native advertising. 

By definition, native advertising is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed. Native advertising is NOT content marketing. There’s a big difference. Content marketing is a type of advertising message while native advertising, is a type of distribution.

The buzz word of the year is most definitely automation. Everyone uses it, in almost every industry. Of course, I can only speak for the email technology industry where automation has reached new heights. Automation features in email are now available to even the smallest of publishers. The cost to automate email newsletters has dropped substantially, leaving no excuse NOT to automate.

As publishers, we’re obsessed with content relevance. However, with audience fragmentation it has become quite the challenge to remain relevant since multiple audiences often exist on a publisher’s list. Although there’s  a lot of interest overlap, it’s difficult to hold the interest of an entire audience without losing the attention of a few.

Everyone knows that the key to any successful email program is subscriber engagement. The same goes for email monetization. The challenge lies in training your subscribers to engage, not just "skim" through your emails without any action. Ensuring your subscribers click is paramount to your monetization success. Subscribers should know exactly where to locate value quickly and click on it. 

When you do not provide constant and multiple ways to engage, you are leaving money on the table. There are four main components required to train your subscriber's to engage. It's easy to remember them, D.A.R.T. 

Last week we talked about the Email Monetization Model as a whole. Now, let's look at the three Types of Monetization. 

First, we've got Display Advertising, the most basic and easiest way to monetize your email newsletters. Display ads are based on IAB standards and advertisers usually have ad units ready to go. The two best IAB banner ad sizes for design and performance in email are 300x250 and 728x90.