Ad Sales Blog

You've been "optimized" off the schedule

Has this happened to you?

A digital ad agency representing a Fortune 500 corporation sends you an RFP for a two week online campaign. You respond professionally and promptly. Like a shock, word comes back, they are in! The news travels through your organization like wild fire, "We just broke into a Fortune 500 Corporation's digital ad budget!" As dozens of congratulatory e-mails surge through your company the future looks bright. The media runs. The media stops running. There is no follow up RFP. You can't get the media buyer on the phone and she does not respond to your emails. When you finally hear back, the response is one sentence apologizing for the delay in getting back and a mention that your media will not be considered for the future of the campaign. Ouch! What happened?

Here is how someone at the digital agency described the same process:
"We had a three month campaign to buy media for. In the first two weeks we ran three different versions of the creative in several size configurations. We ran ads in a wide range of websites to test the response.

We ran the two week test, then optimized the buy.

Of the three creative treatments, the one offering a free download performed best. Of the three ad sizes the leader board size performed best. We tried 30 different websites and found that eleven performed best so we continued with them and dropped the rest."

On your next call.

Don’t be discouraged by this process. On the surface it may look like media evaluation is out of your control. Not true. While results rule the day, PEOPLE still evaluate the results. Your job is to help your buyer understand why a response from your unique visitor is more valuable, or at least different, from any other. When your respond to an online RFP make sure the buyer understands what kind of response they can expect from your media AND why that response is important for the campaign. Do this at the time of the sale, not later. Selling media is still selling. To be successful, you need to sell the unique value of your visitor and his or her response BEFORE it runs.

Wisdom for free

Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired magazine in its early and truly great years wrote a book with a chapter I highly recommend to everyone in media. It's called, "Relationship Tech, Start With Technology End With Trust."

Kelly, being a "content should be free" Internet kind of guy has posted the entire contents of this book for free on the web. I recommend reading it. So many of the issues we face in media are touched by his vision.

The next time you have a dialogue with a client consider this from Kelly's book:

"Expertise now resides in fanatical customers. The world’s best experts on your product or service don’t work for your company. They are your customers, or a hobby tribe."

"Companies need user groups almost as much as users need them. User groups are better than advertising when customers are happy and worse than cancer when they are not. Used properly, aficionados can make or break products."

Good products and services are cocreated: The desires of customers grow out of what is possible, and what is possible is made real by companies following new customer desires. Because creation in a network is a cocreation, a prosumptive act, a multifaceted relationship must exist between the cocreators.

"...whoever has the smartest customers wins."

Read all of Chapter 9

Read the entire book on line for free

"My sales staff can't sell online"

For me, the scariest six words in media today are:

"My sales staff can't sell online."

When I hear these words I shudder. Somewhere behind the great walls and pleasant reception area of a media company a sales staff is in pain. 

If you know of an organization using these words please pass this post on to them. You will be doing a good deed helping those in need. 

If you work at a company using these scary words this unsolicited evaluation and advice is for you:

1. Your online products stink.

 When I meet a sales staff with a "low online sales IQ" I usually find a company that also has a "low online product development IQ." Unlike print, most online advertising is sold on renewals. If an online product does not generate results, it will generate little repeat business and sales will tank taking the enthusiasm of your sales staff with it. If you are not getting online renewals you probably have a product performance problem, not a sales problem. 

The most common misstep new online publishers make is to pin their hopes of online riches on selling banners on their newly launched website. But new websites typically take time to build an audience and rarely generate much traffic or results. As the goal of "immediately monetizing our website investment" fails frustration sets in. A better approach is to use the website as a base to build out products that can generate revenue that do not depend on robust website traffic; webcasts and newsletters. 

Need help? Read: Picking Your Next Web-Based Option in the Online Candy Shop

2. You are losing business to online objections.

 There are a lot of different online media products (newsletters, webcasts, e-blasts etc.), each with its own unique set of objections. As you move to digital media your sales staff is going to get hit with a lot of new objections. If they don't know how to respond, sales will fade. 

The most common objection, is, "Your media did not generate enough clicks." The number of clicks per dollar content oriented media, like yours, will never match number of clicks your advertisers will get by spending the same money on "search." This is where the "sales" part of "media sales" comes in. Are you salespeople really ready to overcome objections like, "I can get more clicks per dollar from search?"      

Need help? Download the 23 page "Online Objection Bible (Abridged)" for free   

3. You are loosing business to competitors you don't know

The largest largest online ad category, by far, is "search" which barely existed ten years ago. Most media buyers have a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude with sharing their search plans with media salespeople. But if you train your sales staff to ask about "search" on their calls you will start to hear the loud sucking sound of your ad dollars going elsewhere. Search gets more credit for selling products and services than it should. When your sales staff starts to ask about search on calls they will find it is getting credit for sales to your audience that your media is actually making.  

Need help? Read "Losing Money to Google? Try This."

In addition, online "pure play" companies are siphoning off money. Just because your page counting service does not track them does not mean they are not taking money away from you. Most importantly they are staking out online space you will desperately need to grow, and someday possibly need to survive.

Need help? Read "How to keep the 'Pure Plays' from cleaning your clock"

4. Your pricing needs revising       

Question:

Which takes more effort to sell, a $10,000 ad page or a $1,000 ad banner?

Answer:

It takes about the same amount of effort. 

If this is true, why waste the time selling banners?

 If this conversation sounds familiar you should revisit your pricing. Web products like newsletters and fixed banner positions are often best priced like annuities, not traditional media. The goal is to encourage long term media commitments by offering discounts. 

Is it really worth your salesperson's time to going back and forth fighting for premium pricing on a $1,000 banner? No. The annuity approach says; sell it for less but demand a 6 to 12 month commitment. Lock in the buy and then have your salespeople shift the time they would have spent fighting over a couple hundred bucks to launch another online product. The annuity approach advocates launching MANY online products priced to sell quickly with discounts for long term commitments. You make up for low prices with high volume. Your  salespeople make lots of money because each sale is easier to make and carries a long term commitment. If you doubt this approach works there are a lot of very rich insurance salespeople in this world who will tell you it does. 

Look, if your your salespeople "can't sell online" today something is getting away from you. Online ad sales nationwide are growing at a torrid rate, up 18.1% first quarter over last year. If you are not seeing significant growth in online advertising, don't blame your sales staff. 

Worst case; you have given your salespeople products that don't generate response, not trained them  to overcome the new objections they are hit with, not helped them identify their new competitors, and priced their products for short term selling.  

Now you say, "My salespeople just can't sell online." If the above describes their situation, you are probably right. 

You only get 5 words

 As you send your next email to a client consider that the most important words you write will be in the headline, also known as subject line. If these words motivate your client to open and read your message, then the other words you write will count as well.

When writing email headlines, shorter is better. If you can boil your message down to, say, 5 words that capture the full benefit of reading your message you are on your way to a sale.

An instructive lesson on how to use 5 words with impact is created every year at the Webby Awards. The Webbys, known as the "Oscars of the Internet" give out awards for the best Web sites and has a Web centric way of time managing its "You really like me...you really, really like me" moments; acceptance speeches are limited to 5 words.

Want help picking the next five words for your message line? Take a look at the artistry, brevity, and sheer cleverness as the top minds in the Web World accept their awards. Here are the five words media organizations used to accept their Webbys from last year:

Magazine
MediaStorm - Webby: Technology changes, stories are timeless.

Magazine
Salon.com - People's Voice: The Pulitzers are history.

Movie and Film
Pan's Labyrinth - Webby/People's Voice: Check Sabrina. Thank you.

News
BBC News - Webby/People's Voice: Alan, we're thinking of you.

Newspaper
NYTimes.com - People's Voice: Honor. Grateful. Thank you. Corny.

Newspaper
The Guardian - Webby: Please free Alan Johnston now.

Radio
BBC Radio 1 - Webby: Free the archives.

Radio
NPR.org - People's Voice: Thanks to the best audience.

Television
Current TV - Webby: Current, your TV doesn't suck.

Television
The Office - People's Voice: Join the Dwight Schrute army.

Read all the 5 word acceptance speechs since the Webbys began

Adriana Huffington asks for help with her 2008 five word accpetance speech

Become a marketing hero: talk about their web site

As more marketers see their website as the hub of their marketing efforts, reviewing that site before calling on them becomes essential. But you are not an expert on their business. What can you actually speak credibly about that a client will listen to? 

Simple. Talk about your readers, their site visitors. Look carefully at their home page and think about your magazine/brand's readers and how they would respond.

Never criticize your client’s website. The marketing manager you are calling on could be it's architect. But if you can engage your client in a dialog about trends effecting your readers and advocate prioritizing future content you can help advance their online marketing goals. 

 The sad truth is that many websites are not constructed with a company’s customers, your readers, in mind. Many websites first fulfill internal political goals, or are designed against the claims of competitors. Primary reader benefits can take a back seat. If you discover this sharing your readers point of view, in noncritical way by talking about future content, can make you a marketing hero.  

At the recent "Selling Online Subscriptions" conference put on by MarketingSherpa, Linda Ragano, from ThomasNet, shared this a piece of research that documented a disconnect between what manufacturers posted on their websites, versus what the targeted buyers actually wanted to see. 

On a call.

If you sense this kind of disconnect on your client's site use Linda's slide as a third party example to make the point in a noncritical way. Say, "In some industries (read: not yours) there is disconnect between what readers/visitors want to see on a web site and what gets posted. Show the chart. Then share insights you have about your readers/their site visitors might like to see in the future. Focusing on the future is a good way to share your knowledge without being critical of the present. Your client can then go to management and say, "Look what we can do to improve things in the future." Both you and your client become marketing heros.   

From the ThomasNet presentation at the Selling Online
Subscriptions Summit 2008:

Handy Web video guide for download

While making money on video is illusive for many of us, begining to post video is not. Early this year the IAB released a terrific basic guide to the emerging video ad market. While In stream linear video ads are the most common revenue generator this guide shows the amazing tech advancement that have created a wide variety of ways to deploy video advertising on the Web.  

There is also some advice on pricing:

"Prices in digital video suggest that the medium is quickly maturing. CPM-based pricing
is the predominant model for buyers, particularly the In-Stream, Linear Ad format (pre-rolls, post-rolls, etc). CPMs can span a wide range and are based on a number of factors including the quality of the site’s content and users, targeting capabilities, and individual programming."

Here is a chart from the report describing the different ways to add video ads to a Website:

 

Download the entire report

"The Online Objection Bible (abridged)" free for download

At the City and Regional Magazine Association's annual meeting I released the first edition of "The  Online Objection Bible(abridged)." This 23 page document shares specific strategies that integrated media salespeople can use to over come the following objections:

"All our online $ goes to search”
“Not enough clicks”
“Print is dead”
“We don’t buy integrated packages”

Download it for free:

Download online_objection_bible.doc

 

Seporate or integrated sales forces? The case for seporate

“Someone needs to wake up every morning and focus on the Internet,” he said, adding that this person has to always consider how to increase the value of the net."

So said Meredith’s chief development officer, John Zieser at the FIPP Worldwide Magazine Marketplace (WMM) conference held in the UK December last year. 

But Zieser also advocates integration, "However, to prevent net sales person and print sales persons from tripping over one another, there has to be one person overseeing everything in the brand, stewarding the brand across difference channels. For the brand’s biggest clients, though, there has to be 360 degree teams managing them across the media options, especially since most agencies today ask for print and multimedia “bundles”.

Here in the US I there is a trend toward staff integration so I thought it important to post a contrasting view. As with most things publishing, your clients should decide for you. If they are asking for integrated proposals, you need to integrate your staff.   

Read more of Zieser's comments on the FIPP website

 

Push vs. pull

As I enthusiastically pitched the latest, coolest, online marketing product my client cut me short, "I sell a dull product. Nobody will click on a banner to read more about it. People buy it because they need it, and when they don’t need it they don’t want to know anything more about it."
The core benefit on online media is engagement. But what happens when your client is selling a dull product and true engagement unlikely?

For many, there is another category of dull products getting a lot of attention these days, presidential candidates. With many contests extremely close it is often not the engaged, well informed voter who decides elections, rather the undecided, unengaged swing voter who might see all candidates as very dull.

That is why we see a curious pattern of media spending.  While all candidates are using the Internet to raise money and engage their base of voters, the vast bulk of the outgoing media spend is on television because it is a "push" media.

According to eMarketer on those undecided voters...

"Generally speaking these are the typical targets who are difficult to reach using the Internet. That’s why in this political season, 50-80% of ad budgets are going into television, whereas only 1-2% of political ad budgets are spent online. It’s not to say the candidates are not using the Internet to their huge advantage, Barack Obama’s amazing online funding machine has proved to be the key advantage to his success. But when it comes to reaching out towards the uninterested, the uninvolved, and the even bored participants, very often traditional media there’s a big advantage over the newer online ones.”

On a call.
If your advertiser’s product is very dull, put the  "engagement" talk on the back burner and talk about the virtues of “push” media. Push media succeeds in these situations because viewing the ads is not voluntary. When you are selling very dull products forget about "permission marketing" you need to recommend "push." Now share the story, stated above, about the presidential race. Now sell the push media you have, Print media, television, and radio are "push media." For online media sell e-blasts, which “push” a message to a target audience's inbox.  

Estimates as to how much has been spent so far this year online on political campaigns (not much):        

 

Engage or die

Denise Shiffman’s new book "Age of Engage" is insightful, illuminating, and potentially terrifying for media sales people. Shiffman lays bare what the marketers we sell our ads to will be expecting in the next 10 years and sees a future requiring different skill sets and media products. In this world media consumers demand total engagement and control over the content we now dispense at our discretion.

Although she offers little specific advice on transforming our current products into Web 2.0 versions she clearly describes what expectations of all Web products and services must be. Here is a handy chart from the book describing expectations of the old vs. new Web:  

According to Denise:

"The original, static Web drew millions of companies online to offer information about their products, and to sell their wares. The second coming of the Web has transformed the online marketplace into an interactive, personal, and communal space. Consumers have been transformed from passive viewers and choosers to active and powerful beacons collectively creating winners and losers. Breaking through the clutter of voices in this new marketplace is an audacious challenge for any marketer. E-mail, viral, search, social, widgets, avatars, authenticity,and story make up the new language. New media, tools, and technologies have to be mastered to remain in the game. In this reinvention
of marketing, it is the fast, the unique, the innovative and creative, the socially connected, and most importantly, those who engage their audience that will win."

How well will your next media products engage your community? Your future could depend on it. 

Download and read the first chapter of "Age of Engage" for free

Article in Chief Marketer on the book

Study: Branding wins proposals

One of the big challenges in selling advertising as a brand builder is that some respond, “But I don’t have time to build my brand, I need sales now!”

Here is a great study that can make the connection between brand building and immediate sales.

A member survey of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals, yes there really is an association for everything, discovered that when a proposal is accompanied by a strong brand that is consistently presented, it is simply more successful.

Use it on a sales call.

Brands sell. Doesn’t every client know this? While they may agree with it intellectually that does not always motivate them to shift dollars from their selling functions (sales staff, CRM solutions) to brand building tools (brand advertising). This study can make the the connection: a better brand consistently presented equals more accepted proposals.

From the study: 

"Considering the fact that branding can account for more than 30 percent of the value of a company, protecting the brand by sending a consistent message in presentation materials is critical."

"When prospective clients read proposals, they look for the brand to assure them that the company will stand behind the promises it makes in the proposal and that the quality of products and services specified are backed by the brand."

Download the study

Docs prefer print!

No matter what sector or industry you are in, this is a great study to sell the value of print advertising. The study released this March from consulting firm, "What Doctors Think" documents how physicians prefer to receive their professional information, and magazines top of their list. The study has implications beyond just medical  magazines because of the importance and prestige doctors have. The study, with 231 physicians responding, also covered a variety of other perceptions doctors have on the media that serve them.

Use it on a call.

Talk about the importance physicians play in our society. Talk about how, unlike almost any other profession, the information they receive will impact life or death decisions. Then show them the chart. When information absolutely must be accurate and trusted, magazines deliver.

There is another reason to use this study. On April 4th I posted on the just released MediaVest study that measured the amount of trust consumers felt for different media in four major categories. In the fashion, food, and entertainment fields, magazines were found to be most trusted, but in health and wellness onlline sources were tops. Michael Turro posted a comment raising the concern that had print fallen behind with readers in the only category, "that could kill them." Cheer up print reps! You can now use this study in conjunction with the MediaVest study. While consumers may find online media in the health and wellness field more trustworthy than pint, doctors do not agree.

Download the entire "What Doctors Think" study

My April 4th  post on the MediaVest study

Are you good looking enough to be a rep?

You might not like this.

A recent poll of Cafepharma visitors, a website for salespeople in the Pharmaceutical industry, asked how a salesperson's physical attractiveness effects their selling. The survey was posted with a big helping of skeptical humor with the only three possible answers to the question, "Which type of rep gets the best results?" being:

1. An average looking rep that knows their products and can sell.

2. Doesn't matter. Too many other factors come into play regarding sales.

3. A super attractive rep that is an idiot and can't sell.

A bit over 17%, about one in six, picked #3.

.

Some may find this funny, some not. But it raises a serious question of how we as individual salespeople differentiate ourselves in the field. If what we sell and how we sell it becomes a commodity...what's left? 

Do you have to be attractive to be a media sales rep? I don't think so. But many may disagree.

 

 

See the study on Cafepharma and read responses to it 

Recommend a URL in the next ad

One way to sell more print ad space is to encourage your advertisers to add a campaign and magazine specific URL to their next print ad. It is one extra step. But here is what happens; a readers sees the ad and is motivated to search the Internet for more information. By using a campaign and magazine specific URL the advertiser can track which campaign and which magazine drove the reader to their website.

A post on Clickz by James Hering offered tips on how to use campaign specific URLs. Hering references research that indicates many do not like to enter long URLs with a lot of extra slash marks. As result, some marketers now favor campaign specific URLs, often based on the the tag line of the campaign:

Examples include:

Burger King: haveityourway.com and subservientchicken.com

Mitsubishi: seewhathappens.com

Subaru: need-desire.com

Universal Studios: iwantmyvacation.com

Lincoln Mercury: oneandonlyclearance.com

Dish Network: stopfeedingthepig.com

Audi: neverfollow.com

Now add the magazine initials or just a number to designate a specific media and your client can have it all. Is it better to use a custom campaign URL or extensions of the brand URL? Using the brand URL, of course, reinforces the brand. Which approach is better? The answer: the one that gets your advertiser to include a magazine specific reference so your media gets tracked!

Read Hearing's column on Clickz

Keep the “pure plays” from cleaning your clock!

It is happening right now in many many industries and sectors. Web only competitors, "pure play" online publishers, are sneaking in and winning ad sales away from the online products of print publishers. How can they do this? Don’t we have an insurmountable advantage by having a print product continually advancing our brand in the physical world? How do the pure play Internet companies even stand a chance?

"Pure plays" routinely beat the products of print based publishers because they design a new newsletter, webinar, web section, or website, by starting with a clean sheet of paper. Since they have no print vehicle to get them started the "pure plays" design a media product desperate for attention. Every click through they get has is funneled from somewhere else so there has to be an amazingly good reason for a visit. This “clean sheet of paper” approach results in a high emphasis on focus and functionality. It takes an extremely sharp content focus to stand out against the millions of online destinations and when a visitor arrives there must be a high functionality that keeps visitors coming back.               

Print people are spoiled. Too often when a magazine launches a web product the editorial focus the same or similar to the positioning as the print product. As for functionality, too often the mission statement is, “To extend the magazine brand onto to the Internet.” Big mistake. Your website needs its own editorial focus, and mission. While it should compliment your print product it cannot just extend it.

To compete, pretend your print product does not exist, then ask, "Given all online destinations and content on the web, why should anyone visit my website?" To beat the pure play publishers, you have to think like one. You too have to start with that clean sheet of paper and work your way forward.