While it's important to have a quality product and make smart financial decisions, a big mistake local digital companies make is thinking perception doesn't matter. In today's world, it's important for consumers to feel like they can trust your business, especially when you're a small or medium-sized business (SMB) serving a local community. This is where brand authenticity comes into play.

Though online marketing gets the lion's share of advertising dollars, if your company is still placing ads in newspapers, airing commercials on TV or radio, or even doing physical community outreach, you may wonder if there's a way to track offline promotions the same way you can with online. While it's true there's no central hub to track every person who converts as a result of offline marketing, there are ways to measure trends using tools you already have to see if offline marketing is having a noticeable effect on your business' bottom line.

Programmatic advertising allows marketers to identify and reach consumers more likely to have an interest in their brand. It has been in use for years as a way for marketers to get their messages noticed and found around products, services, and other promotions. Tuning it with native advertising can make beautiful music for your company. Here's why marketing conductors should pay attention.

Why Going Native Could Strike a Chord with Your Business

As Marketing Land reports, a study from Facebook and IHS shows that native in-stream ads will account for 63.2 percent of all mobile display advertising by 2020. Native advertising has become a highly effective and engaging ad format. It can typically be more expensive than other ad types since it needs to be custom-created for effective content integration. Adding programmatic is a simple execution creating an ideal multi-channel campaign that helps convert audiences toward your brand message.

Over-the-top (OTT) advertising is used for the delivery of film and TV content via the internet that's available to all users and doesn't require a subscription to cable service. In recent years, OTT services have seen large growth thanks to the popularity of streaming providers, while traditional cable subscriptions have been on the decline.

This change in consumer behavior has some interesting implications for marketers looking to harness the power of OTT advertising to reach so-called "cord-cutters" who have abandoned the traditional cable model and are increasingly looking to this type of service to get their media content.