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

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:

RFPs from both sides now

RFPs are a game. As a best practice for buyers, RFPs simplify the buying process and weed out media that is off the mark allowing more time with more appropriate media. But with buyers under pressure to make decisions more quickly, RFPs get misused. When they become the primary tool of evaluation, insightful media buying sufferers.   

James Hering writing for The ClickZ Network back in 2003 posed this summation showing both sides of the sales desk.

From the seller side, we hear:

• "So I'm supposed to tell you why my site is better than the 180 other sites that received an RFP?"
• "Great, another 'we expect totally out-of-the-box thinking' proposal!"
• "Gee, we get a grand total of two hours to pull together a rock-solid proposal that nails the objective. How convenient."
• "We're honored to be invited to be a strategic partner and meet the client's long-term goals with the exciting test budget of $5,000?"

From the buyer side:

• "Why don't publishers respond to my requests in a timely manner?"
• "Ten seconds after emailing the RFP, I get a call with questions for the same information that's noted in it. Didn't he read it?"
• "I asked for a proposal with a limit of $20,000, yet I get a package for $50,000. What's up with that?"
• "I clearly asked for specific targeting criteria, yet 80 percent of what they're offering doesn't meet the stated objectives."

Hering makes the following suggestions for media sellers: 

Timing is key. Responding in a timely manner is fundamental to a buyer who is trying to wrangle several proposals. Always acknowledge when you get an RFP and note if you plan to participate. (Note to sales managers: Make sure you properly transition accounts. Nothing is more frustrating to a buyer than sending an important request to a dead email account or blank voicemail box.)

• Respond appropriately. If the RFP is not clear about where questions should be directed, find out how you can inquire, then provide questions in written form.
• Read the proposal from top to bottom at least twice before you ask your first question. You'll be amazed at how things can become clearer after a second reading.
• Meet the request. Sure, you've got sales goals, but be sure to totally address the request first. Then, provide additional options. Let's face it, almost everyone loves options. Still, we all get turned off if our initial request is overlooked. Nail the request (including the budget), then up-sell all you want.
• No rug-pulling, please. Make sure the inventory is there when you sell it. If it's perishable, just make sure the buyer knows the details and any corresponding restrictions. Nothing will drive a buyer insane faster than getting a client excited about an opportunity only to have to call back 10 minutes later with an "Oops, we didn't have all the details" apology.

Just keep in mind, every time you get an RFP someone is inviting you to do business with them!

Read Hering's post on Clickz

Why does your site exist?

Why does your site exist?

On a sales call, how do you answer this question? Many media reps jump into a canned pitch about the power of their print originated brand franchise and how their website extends the franchise online.

Baloney.

Media buyers, are driven by "What's in if it for me," and the best print brand does not guarantee online results.

The online word is results and measurement driven. You have to explain the functional benefit behind your online media first. Then go one to explain how this function can generate measurable results. Start with an explanation of what your website or online media DOES for it's visitors.

A great post on today's "Online Metrics Insider" lays out a guide for categorizing the functional benefit of a website for people who measure web performance. They need this as much as we do. If you can't functionally define a web visitor benefit you cannot evaluate a web sites result, nor can you explain the advertising benefit of that site to a media buyer.

From the post:

Your Web site exists for a purpose, perhaps multiple purposes, such as:

Providing information or data. Many sites entice people to visit for access to valuable, differentiated information or data. Traffic is then monetized primarily through site advertising. Many internal and external analytics packages will tell you where visitors come from and what they do on site, which, when combined with demographic information, can be used to qualify a specific audience to an advertiser.

Generating leads. A content asset is placed on a site and gated using a form. People fill out the form and download the asset. The information captured in the form is stored and used by the company that generated the leads or profitably sold to another company.

Selling products. The typical e-commerce model involves acquiring customers via some method or offer, providing a product catalog or landing page, and creating a strong call to action and funnel that persuades people to purchase a product.

Connecting people. The explosion of social networking sites where people connect to other people, interact with each other, and use widgets, apps, and data services, is a modern phenomenon in which many of us participate.

Read the entire post on the Media Post's "Online Metic Insider"

Beyond the buzz words of new media

I lost a sales media training program last week. The publisher hiring the sales trainer insisted his print centric staff was failing at online sales because they did not know the new media semantics. He told me, "They know the brand and how to sell, they just need to know the new buzz words."

I didn't agree. Assuming his sales staff had graduated high school, learning a few new word definitions should not hold anyone back.

When moving from selling print to integrated or interactive selling the deeper issue is understating the shift going on in marketing itself and how it impacts your advertisers. After you understand this shift the "buzz words" take care of themselves.

Media sellers are not the  only ones discussing this shift. Yesterday, Kevin Downey, a writer at Media Life articulated it for media buyers in way that sellers should hear as well:

"How people use media is changing dramatically, and the era of force-fed commercials is nearing an end.

What's taking its place--and has been for several years at least--is a dialog between advertiser and consumer, and more and more the consumer is in charge.

Media buying agencies need to become part of that dialog. They need to learn how to spark that exchange. Those that fail to do so will face extinction. Or that's the clear warning in a new study from Forrester."

Kim then shares from the Forrester study he based much of his column on:

“Today’s agencies fail to help marketers engage with consumers, who, as a result, are becoming less brand loyal,” writes Peter Kim, a senior analyst at Forrester and author of the report.

“To turn the tide, marketers will move to the connected agency, one that shifts from making messages to nurturing consumer connections.”

The forces killing off the old system are twofold, and one is the explosion of media options that make no one medium a must-have experience. It's the end of mass media in which advertisers could push out their message and consumers were forced to accept that message as the price of admission.

Nobody’s a captive audience anymore, argues Kim. Expensive ad campaigns across mass media no longer work in this new media landscape."

On your next call.

You need to stop thinking about how the media you are selling will "expose a message to a target audience" and start thinking about how the media you are selling will elicit a reaction, interaction, or ongoing relationship with a group of individuals. Stop thinking exposure and start thinking interaction. Now remind the members of your staff who can't sell the online piece that with it there is no feedback loop or interaction. Oops.

FYI, I wrote more about this in my February Folio column.

Read Kevin Downey's column in Media Life

Buy the Forrester Study

Folio Column: Managing the "Interactive Shift"

Usually I post a link to my Folio columns their website but a link has not been posted yet.

I think of this as my most important "sales transition" column as it maps the underlying issue that is driving the whole transition. It's not about new technology. It's not about adding the latest cool on line product to your sales offerings. It's not even about keeping up with the future.

It is about the fundamental shift in what marketing is, as we move from marketing that presents messages to a targeted audience, to marketing that engages individuals in interactive experiences.

If you develop your media products, promote your media, and manage your sales staff with this fundamental shift in mind you will be successful in the future.

Online media buyers are different

As we struggle to understand the differences between selling online and print media it is important to know that ad agencies are struggling to understand the differences between buying online and print.

The career advice column from Media Life, "Ask Rachel" laid out the differences while offering advice to a media buyer considering a move from buying traditional media to online media: 

"Given that digital planners generally earn more at the same title and experience levels that their general market counterparts, there is room to give a traditional person a raise but still bring them in and save money."

Online is very demanding, for one. You'd likely be working with multiple clients, many of them with misconceptions about the medium. So you would be teaching them as you learned, always a challenging endeavor.

Also, online undergoes constant change, day by day. You'd spend huge amounts of time simply staying up with the changes and weeding through the endless hype that comes with them.

You'd likely be doing it all, too. It's the nature of online that job functions tend to blur. You'd be strategist, planner, buyer, manager, and analyst of how the campaign served or did not serve the client's objectives.

You'd have to excel when it comes to attention to details. You’d have to have an open mind that's not afraid to undertake digesting a lot of new information very quickly. You'd have to be real good at numbers. And you'd have to be a solid communicator, explaining it all to clients and your supervisors--without a lot of wasted verbiage. You'd have to be a great negotiator.

The next time you call on an online media buyer, consider the different pressures he or she is under compared with the print people you call on right down the hall.

Read the whole column on the Media Life website

Digital media buyers want you to remember what business you are in

As media moves from being intangible to measured the details become more important, and lunch--the core tool of intangible sales-- less so. Along these lines, Ed Kelly executive vice president, digital media at KSL Media, offered sobering advice in a post last week on "Online Publishing Insider:"

"We're not in the lunch business. We're in the advertising business. The publishers that heed this charge will outrun their competitors every time, even if their sites aren't quite as robust."

Kelly offers these guidelines for reps wanting to make the most of the new sales environment:

Respond to the full RFP. This sounds a lot easier than many major publishers evidently find it. Publishers can't pick and choose which questions to answer; it's an all or nothing proposition. If you're not going to address an issue, you have to tell the agency why.

Take it to the top. Senior management involvement is always appreciated. RGM chief Kamran Razavi managed JustLuxe's response personally, and at one point he had us collaborating directly with the JustLuxe publisher.

Prove the numbers. RGM provided Media Metrix runs, site surveys and anecdotal information without being prompted. That might seem ordinary, but it's not. Far too many publishers either don't have audited audience breakouts or refuse to divulge them.

Weave a program, not a buy. RGM bested the competition in several areas: the number of travel packages, the robust content and functionality of the program micro site, the variety of high-impact ad units promoting the program, and pricing that was aggressive in light of the demonstrated value.

Make pricing simple. The more complex the program, the more important it is to have clear pricing guidelines for CPM-based, fixed-fee and value-add program elements. RGM actually provided rates and pricing for three scenarios, with clear rules on what was included in each. Just as important: All of the scenarios synced perfectly.

Sound advice. 

Read Kelly's entire post on Online Publishing Insider

Don't be an engagement dinosaur!

The buzz in marketing circles is about "customer engagement," ways of interacting with customers to advance marketing goals. cScape, a London based digital agency, has released a survey of

1000 "Customer experience professionals, showing the level of interest in programs that move customer engagement along. There is lots of it.

.

Here's the catch.

The creators of the study are not big on "traditional advertising" and have not included even interactive advertising as part of the the study.

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This is instructive for media sales people to see just how far this "engagement" concept can go without ever mentioning advertising.

From the study:      

"Traditional marketing communications is almost an “us and them” situation. The logic is that if we say it loud and often enough, some of our message will stick! Modern web-based businesses need to deploy a much more subtle of our message will stick! Modern web-based businesses need to deploy a much more subtle line of interactive communications. One that’s all about mutual interests. People coming to a site want it to work and to work well. A site that achieves this is one that gets the business and generates the kind of “feel-good” factor that brand marketers strive for."

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On your next call:

Don't bring this study. But do think about the part of the "non advertising" dialog our advertisers are having about engagement that this study represents, and think about the marketing dollars that will drain away if you cannot make the point stick that interactive and magazine advertising can be extremely engaging. We sell many media that engage customers in many ways. On your next call think about how you can bring that point foreword.   

Download the entire study (registration required) 

http://www.cscape.com/services/Pages/Customer-Engagement-2008-Highlights.aspx