Ad Sales Blog

To sell more print ads talk digital first

Many media reps who sell both print and on-line media lead their client conversations talking about print. Since it can take as much time to sell a $7,000 print ad as a $1,000 banner ad, this can look like the fastest way to meet quota...or is it?  

I have found the opposite is true. Starting with print can lead to lower print sales. Sound crazy? Here are three reasons why:

 

 

1. Advertisers would rather talk about digital options than talk about print. Digital media is new and more interesting for them. Honestly, what is there to say that is new and exciting about print advertising that can compare?

2. When calling on smaller and mid-sized accounts there is a very real opportunity to be a hero by helping them understand the chaos that is digital media today. Many of the organizations you call on don't have on-staff expertise who keep up with the changing digital marketplace. If you keep up, you can be of real service to them.

3. Finally, digital media is more strategic than print because of the metrics that show up after a campaign. When you can look at the results together, a great detailed conversation can result.

If you focus client time on where their interests are firrst, you will simply have a better conversation and make a better connection which will be more rewarding for both of you.

I find that by talking about digital options first I become far more valuable to my clients, find out more about their needs, and uncover far more opportunities.

When more client understanding, trust, and opportunities are developed far more productive ways to work print into the media budget will present themselves.  

The best way to sell more print advertising is to have client conversations directed by what is most interesting and useful for customers, not commissions. Most often, this means starting your conversation about digital.

 Read my article "Print Magazines Have Never Stopped Selling" from Foilo magazine

 

For publishers, digital dollars are about data not eyeballs

 Are you swapping analogue dollars for digital dimes? 

If you follow the traditional publishing business model in an ever more the digital world it is inevitable. The traditional magazine business model is based on creating content to attract eyeballs, and then to sell exposure (advertising) to them. This basic plan has kept magazine publishers profitable for over a hundred years. But this model faces harsh challenges in today's digital media world.  The problem is a far more efficient way to deliver eyeballs online, called "search." Every marketer knows that they can get far more eyeballs and clicks per dollar for their website buying “search” instead of digital media from traditional publishers. Why every publisher does not know this is a mystery to me. 
 
To understand the problem let's look a look at a rough example with the math:

Say you publish a magazine that charges $6,000 for a page of print advertising which gets $1,000 for a banner on it's website. What if running either a print or newsletter ad gains exposure to many eyeballs and results in 75 click thoughs to an advertiser’s website. Depending on the expense of appropriate keywords, a click through generated by Google, or another search engine, could cost as little as 20 cents or as much as $5. So, Google would charge between $15 to $375 for the same number of clicks you are asking advertisers to pay $1,000 or $5,000 for. Argue all you want about the quality of your clicks. With this big of a price difference it is going to be hard to make it stick. 
 
If you don’t think the online advertisers in your niche are impressed by this math,

IAB online ad revenue for 2011 shows the continued growth of search

think again. According to Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) almost half of all online ad dollars (46.5%) now go to search. A recent analysis of where Google gets its ad dollars shows penetration into niches traditionally held by publishers.       
 
 
 But there is a better way to compete. The core strength of digital media is not in its ability to deliver exposure to eyeballs, but in its ability to deliver interactive experiences. Why sell one way communication (eyeballs) for what is a fundamentally an interactive medium? With this in mind, a new model for publishers is emerging:
 
Use content to build data on potential customers. Use that data to build sponsorable interactive customer experiences.
 
In this contenxt, a piece of data is either the location of an individual (address, phone number, name, company name, e-mail address, zip code, etc.) or information about the individual that explains his or her behavior (buying intentions, current products owned, income, demographics, sex, ethnicity, political orientation, type of car owned, etc.).   
 
What can you do with this kind of data? Let’s look at a that rough magazine example where they are charging $5,000 for print ads and $1,000 for web banners. With the right data, what else could they  sell?          
 
Create targeted sponsored webinars.
Cost of sponsorship $7,500 to $15,000
 
Create live sponsored events. Cost
of live event sponsorships, $5,000 to $15,000
 
Create market research to sell.
Cost of market research, $2,000 to $15,000
 
Create market consulting opportunities.
$7,000 and up
 
Create highly focused direct
marketing based on opt in lists (e-blasts) $2,000 to $4,000
 
These are not digital dimes.

 

Download my white paper on how publishers can profit in a multi-screen world sponsored by Sheridan Press 

 

Dedicated digital media reps versus all reps sell digital: the numbers are in

Should you hire dedicated digital media salespeople or train your legacy reps to sell new online media? At least for local media, Gordon Borrell, President of Borrell Associates, has the data and the answers. His organization maintains a database that measures how well 5,200 local media companies are progressing with their digital revenue.

When he surveyed these organizations on the make up of their sales force and thier performance he discovered the following: 

• There are about 80,500 media sales reps selling local media (local radio, TV, yellow pages, newspapers etc.).
• About 51,000 of them are "digital ready", meaning they are expected to sell some amount of digital advertising.  

Here's the kicker:

• Organizations with dedicated digital reps average 2.5x more digital revenue than those who have their traditional reps selling digital. 

Another interesting finding was that the percent of reps who are "digital ready" varied significantly by industry:

• Newspapers: 85% digital ready
• TV: 50-60% digital ready
• Radio: 15% digital ready

That is not a typo, for radio, 15%.

All this is reported in a video created by media consultant Mark Ramsey, President of Mark Ramsey Media, in which he interviews Borrell.

If you want to hear both Ramsey and Borrell speculate on the near comical failure of radio to capitalize on digital media, play the video. If you have anything to do with radio, it's a real eye opener.