Native content has become a popular and effective way for brands to engage with their target audiences. Unlike traditional advertising, paid editorial style or formatted native content is designed to blend seamlessly with the platform or channel it appears on, making it more appealing and less intrusive to consumers.

World Digital Foundation creates native content for its clients about the benefits of marketing and digital communications. This could include articles, videos, infographics, and other types of media that promote and educate a relevant audience, hopefully earning their attention, adding value, and driving customer intent.

In this article, we'll explore how World Digital Foundation used native content in partnership with Crowdfund Insider, to drive a pipeline of attendees to monthly investment webinars, creating additional audiences at their  online events, and for their advertisers and sponsors.

To achieve these goals, World Digital Foundation created a series of paid native content articles that appeared on various business, investment, and technology news websites, including Forbes, TechCrunch, and Business Insider itself.

These articles focused on topics related to data analysis and machine learning and provided insights and tips valuable to the target audience, using programmatic algorithms to ensure native content is reaching people likely to register for the Crowdfund Insider investment webinars.

Each piece of native content included a call-to-action encourage readers to learn more about equity crowdfunding, register for the Crowdfund Insider webinars, and hear from the panellists and sponsors.

The results were impressive. These paid-for native content articles generated significant traffic to the event landing page, and the call-to-action resulted in hundreds of attendees at the webinar for partners and sponsors.

But the benefits of native content didn't stop there. Sponsored articles also generated interest from potential business partners and clients, who saw the panelists and sponsors as thought leaders in the field of private securities and, in particular, equity crowdfunding and secondary trading.

This campaign led to several new business opportunities and partnerships for World Digital Foundation in relation to equity crowdfunding and investment clients, who saw the power of the audiences created from the Crowdfund Insider events, which have helped fuel future growth and clients in this space.

So why does World Digital Foundation's native content strategy work so well? There are a few key factors:

·       Relevance: World Digital Foundation sponsored articles were highly relevant to their target audience, providing valuable insights and tips of interest to anyone working or interested in the field of private securities, equity crowdfunding and secondary trading. 

·       Authenticity: the articles were written in a way that felt authentic and informative, rather than overly promotional or salesy. This made them more appealing to readers and helped to build trust and credibility for their business.

·       Variety: by using various platforms and channels for its sponsored content, World Digital Foundation could reach a wider target audience and engage with people in different ways. This helped build brand awareness, drive customer intent, and increase the visibility of the company and its product.

Paid native content (advertising) spending is increasing and reached $52.75 billion in the US alone last year which has grown tenfold in less than seven years according to a report by eMarketer. Native paid content is viewed 53% more frequently than paid banner display ads and purchasing habits were also increased by 18% using this form of paid content marketing. Consumers also said in a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau they were 25% more likely to interact with paid native content rather than paid traditional banner ads on news websites.

In conclusion, paid native content can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to generate leads, raise awareness, build their brand, and drive business intent as part of a multi-channel media campaign. By creating content that is relevant, authentic, and varied, companies can engage with their target audience and/or their partner company’s audience in more meaningful ways, thus driving business development and/or investment opportunities in the process.