Ad Sales Blog

Magazine and search synergy

A study was released today from Jupiter Research sponsored by iProspect that examines the relationship between search and off line media.

This is an extremely valuable study. It proves that print (magazines and newspapers) is the top off line web traffic driver that results in a sale.

Key findings:

Chart #1: 57% of web users say search is more important than last year.

No surprise to see that search is of growing importance to on line users, but what may be surprising is the importance of off line media driving traffic.

Chart #2: Two thirds of the on line search user population has been driven to search by off line channels. Television and word of mouth lead with print as third.

Chart #3: But when Jupiter Research isolated just the searches that resulted in a sale, print and word of mouth clobbered the others.

On a call.

For media planners you might use a simple version of the study by printing the article from Direct magazine.

For marketing types download the entire study at the link below. I love the story the three graphs I posted here can make on a call. The first graph gets a positive response from marketers. Yep, everyone will agree that search is becoming more important. Nodding heads.

The second graph looks like to you are giving it up to television. You look very noble. Television is the top offline traffic builder.

Then, zing!, The third graph brings it home. Print drives the most off line traffic that results in a sale!

To make the point stick you can talk about how print is a more considered media that engages potential purchasers and provides a permanent record for reflection, evaluation, and holding in your hand while you type in a URL. 

If you work on a B-to-B publication you may choose to just use the first and third graphs as television is typically not part of your fight. Either way you can access the entire survey, including methodology through the link below:

Download the entire study

Video: iProspect CEO interviewed on the study

Thank you from 88 Noodle

In sales, our primary job is to build customer trust.

But there are often company policy and credit issues we are given that if shared without sensitivity can negate trust.

Most policies are are important and if explained that they are fair and applied to all customers evenly, are accepted without incident. Where this goes wrong is when salespeople get defensive and proactively aggressive.      

I took this photo of the door of  New York City restaurant. They do say "thank you" to their customers, but how many defensive, "I don't trust you" messages came before?

A study to move the online laggards along

Online advertising dollar is volume up 26% over last year, which was the year online ad spend surpassed magazines. Yet every media organization I work with reports many accounts that spend nothing  on online media.

Here is a great study that can help.

Most online laggards know that the world is changing around them, but typically had a bad online media buy they don't want repeated.

What is great about this study is that you can invite them to look at web advertising a second time by saying, "You may have been right in the past, but things are different now. Can we take another look?"

Here's what is different:

Starting back in 2003 the Online Line Publishers Association monitored why people use the web. At that time "Communications" (email, messaging etc.) topped the list taking 46% of online users time. Activities relating to "Content" was second with 35%.

But as the study progressed "Content" grew steadily until a year ago it accounted for 39% of users time, almost tying "Communications" which still lead with 39.6%.

But this past year there was a more significant shift, "Content" shot past "Communications" and now leads "Communications" 49.6% to 32%. The chart for last year:

Whoa.

This is actually huge news if you are in the business of selling ad products associated with the "Content" part of the Internet.

There has been a significant shift in the past year. People are simply using the web differently than they were a year ago and content, not communications, is king. Assuming you sell advertising on a content based website, newsletter, webinar, etc. what you sell is more valuable that it was a year ago.

In light this shift, this year, it's time to ask your web laggards to take another look.

Online Publishers Association Press release

All the details (too many for some) on the Online Publishers Association website including charts for a sales call

A "light" version, an explanation of the report posted at Online Media Daily report

Who still reads magazines? Everybody.

Conventional wisdom: "For older readers buy print, for younger readers buy online." NOT TRUE!

Prove it yourself. If you work at a magazine compare the age demographics of your online and print readers. If your publication is typical, the demographics will be similar.   

Now a study on national media consumption conducted by Deloitte has documented why this is true in a way that goes beyond the age cliches. Simply put, people of all ages like the magazine experience. Almost three-fourths of all consumers, including younger ones, choose to read magazines even if they can find the same information online. Also documented is a greater receptivity to print advertising, across all age groups, compared with Internet ads--another reason magazines will be around for years to come.

If you are trying to win over a print skeptic who thinks magazines are antiques for old people, this is a perfect response. Print out the Age Age article (link below) and share it to set the stage and establish credibility. Then download a big copy of the page from the survey and show the results. Close by saying that the unique appeal of any media is more important than age demographics.       

Read the Ad Age article on the study

Click on the graphic for a copy big enough for your next sales call:

Stupid Marketing Watch: A Newsletter for Toothpaste?

Just because your advertiser's message is delivered in digital does not mean it works. If your advertiser is about to do something really stupid it is your job to at least suggest another course. You are the local expert on your "Reader's Point of View." You need to know how they think, what they love, and what they will see as silly marketing hype.

It seems no one had that "Reader Point of View" talk with the marketing people at Colgate recently. Ken Magill, posting on the "Direct" website today described the unfortunate result:

SmileTalk arrived in my Gmail account last week. “You are receiving this e-mail because you have signed up for the Colgate SmileTalk e-newsletter as [me]@Gmail.com,” copy at the top of the message said.

Nonsense. It was unsolicited. I’m not sure where Colgate-Palmolive got my name and address, but I certainly did not knowingly register for SmileTalk.

Even if someone forge-subscribed my address or I gave “permission” at some third-party Web site by overlooking a pre-checked box, the marketing group at Colgate-Palmolive should know better than to think anyone would truly opt in to SmileTalk.

How do I know I simply didn’t forget opting in? Because it’s a newsletter about toothpaste, for &%@$#’s sakes.

Read all of Ken Mangill's rant

Here it...smile!  

Read an issue of SmileTalk..or send a subscription to someone deserving