Every day, thousands of marketing and advertising conference graduates go back to their companies to deploy their newly-learned native advertising content strategies. In my opinion, never since “content marketing” hit the hype curve has a marketing term become so genericized as the words “native advertising” or “native content."

You can literally ask 10 people to define the term and get 15 different answers. I know this is true — I’ve done it. The answers range from digital banners with the words “sponsored content” embedded into newsletters to commercial content that was able to tunnel under the palace guard to appear within the sacred editorial environs of a media property.

I’ve told our clients and sales team that defining truly native advertising content is similar to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous ruling on pornography: “I can’t define pornography, but I know it when I see it."

In the same way, native content advertising needs to be seen to be fully understood.

I’m hoping what follows offers some strategic guidance on building compelling native advertising content that resonates with prospects. I'd like to shift the mindset away from the nebulous “native advertising” buzzword and suggest that content marketers begin thinking about this new format instead as “brand journalism."

When I use that term in the company of editors of media properties, I am immediately reminded that “brand and journalism” is oxymoronic from their church and state perspective. The journalist side of my brain doesn’t totally disagree.

But the global branding side of my brain tells me that the nuance of adding a serious journalistic element to marketing communications is the essence of native advertising content.

Keeping this in mind, even the most seasoned content marketers make a number of common mistakes when developing native content advertising.Keep these tips in mind for your next event!

8 Things to Keep in Mind for Effective Native Advertising Content

1. Native Content Advertising Is About More Than the "Container"

Native advertising is typically viewed as real estate on a web site, rather than a sponsored editorial contribution that happens to be in a rented container within the editorial environment. However, I would argue that the contents therein are much more important than the container itself.

2. To be most effective, native content advertising (brand journalism) must be created from scratch.

This does not mean that existing content can’t be incorporated or repurposed into the new and original content. But the tone and theme must be developed from the bottom up.

This also means that, if you find yourself trying to sanitize your commercial content or brochures to meet the editorial standards of your media partners, you don't have a brand journalism strategy.

3. Much of the best native advertising content aspires to surpass the quality of the editorial property where it is being placed.

This requires an in-depth study of the tones and themes of that editorial environment prior to the development of the native content.

4. While budgets rarely permit individual native content for each media property, every effort must be made to find the highest common denominator of the properties where the native units will be placed.

When it comes to video — and especially interactivity, more important production requirements can vary wildly across digital media properties. Using the media partner as a trusted brand journalism expert can save heartburn in the longer term.

5. The main purpose of native content is to reinforce thought leadership with only the most subliminal reference to the brands or products other than the “sponsored content flag” at the top and a “presented by” strip at the bottom.

If you’re becoming less anxious about your brand or product names not being prominent at all throughout the body of native content, you’ve just graduated to the world of brand-journalism-driven native content. The smaller the name of your brand or commercial messages, the better!

6. Despite its need to be squeaky clean, native content doesn't need to have the sterility of the editorial page of a newspaper.

Some of the best native content I’ve seen is much more creative and interactive than the editorial environment in which it appears.

7. If the purpose of native content is to generate leads, developing a “series” of shorter form editorial folios is much more effective than one epic native ad unit.

By doing so you can nurture and score leads based on the number of engagements with your series whether on the media property or as trigger content based on that media property engagement. Even more important, the content should be developed such that you know the emotional indices and business triggers that are baked into the piece — so that every engagement throws data exhaust and prospect insight into your CRM.

8. When it comes to native content advertising, the lines blur between ad agency responsibilities and in-house content marketing developers.

I typically ask clients where something called “brand journalism” would fit into their organizational structure. Answers range from the PR department, to marketing, to the advertising agency. This only reinforces my earlier point: An organization that only looks at native as a “media buy” as opposed to a very serious new content strategy cannot effectively guide your strategy.

Interested in kicking off your native content strategy the right way? HIMSS Media Lab can help. Contact us today to learn more.