Ad Sales Blog

Have publishers let competitors position their media?

Media buyers who buy the products publishers sell now divide the media they manage into three categories:

• Earned media, largely social media where organizations "earn" exposure by posting content on services like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
  
• Owned media, media a marketer owns like their company website, newsletter, or blog. 
• Paid media, third party media, which is most of what publishers sell to marketers. 

But consider the emotional message these labels send.

 "Owning" your own media makes marketers feel great and in control. Owning is good!

Everyone loves to "earn" free exposure on social media platforms.

But who really wants to "pay" for exposure they might be able to get for free through social media?  

Of the three media categories, only "paid media" is named for a negative characteristic.

 How did this happen? These category names came into common use around 2008 when social media was being added to media budgets. With the need to contrast social media with traditional media, the social media centric thinking of the time renamed traditional media as it contrasts to social, suddenly we became "paid media." This label casts a negative implication every time it is used. 

There is a fix. Publishers need to work to change the label from "paid media" to "third party media," which is more descriptive and offers a significant benefit. While earned and owned media are highly effective at reaching existing customers, third-party media is far more effective at reaching non-customers. Current customers are much more likely to visit a company website or subscribe to a company newsletter. Non-customers, less so. Current customers much more likely to participate with a company Facebook page or subscribe to a company Twitter feed. Non-customers, not so much. 

Third-party media, reaches customers and non-customers alike.

But it is no secret that marketing budgets have seen a big shift in the last few years. While marketing budgets have remained flat for the past few years dollars have moved out of  third-party media (paid media), and into owned and earned media. This trend may have gone too far.  

In a study my company did earlier earlier this year that measured the marketing effectiveness of 34 companies in a B2B market and found  that marketing was effective with an average of 55.6% of current customers, but only with 10.6% of non-customers.

There is a real case to be made for the benefits of third-party media. The more important winning new customers is for marketers, the more important third-party media becomes. I we can reposition what we sell from being "the media you have to pay for" to being "the media that best communicates with NEW customers" our media sales job will get easier.  

Download our study that shows how current B2B marketing is far more effective at reaching current customers that new ones.

 Blog post: Should your emphisis be on earned, owned, or paid media? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

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.      

 

Jaffe vs Joel: Should digital marketing or social media run maketing strategy?

Mitch Joel (left) is President of the “traditional” digital advertising agency, Twist Image. Joseph Jaffe (right) is the Chief Interruption Officer of Powered which bills itself as a social media agency. As the two debate over which kind of agency will best serve brands, the issue of how social media fits into the overall marketing plan comes into sharp focus. You can listen to their debate HERE

Throughout the debate Joel describes today's marketing challenge as managing a client's message through a variety of digital channels with social media providing some new ones. “At the end of the day where does the output of all of these social media activities happen to be? They are happening online. They are happening in the digital channel.”

In contrast, Jaffe sees social media as more than a source of new channels, he sees it as a new source of strategy, “This is a different way to market. This is a different way to do business. This is a different set of rules of engagement and terms and conditions and new metrics are going to be required.”

This contrast alone would not be that meaningful if the overall new strategies Jaffe advocates were not so provocative. During the debate Jaffe offered three hypotheses that contrast his vision:

“Three hypotheses; one retention becomes the new acquisition, two customer services becomes not just a but the key strategic device differentiator, and hypothesis number three the real role of social media is retention not acquisition.”

"Retention is the new acquisition?" This is a radical departure from most digital marketing strategy which is based on results, measurably, and ROI. But in a world where most clients can be easily identified  and their loyalty is worth far more than acquiring yet one more customer elsewhere, is Jaffe on to something?

For most companies, Joel’s approach will require fewer adjustments in the marketing plan as social media is simply blended into the existing marketing mix. Jaffe's approach requires a new way to look at the marketing equation.

But ultimately this debate will not be settled on how comfortable clients are made to feel, but  how successful these approaches are. Ultimately, the market will decide as consumers respond more to one or the other. I highly recommend listening to the debate, at the link I posted above, it's great fun. 

My eclectic summary of the great debate:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The revolution in magazines that will be here by June

By June of this year we will be having a very different discussion about interactive magazines. By then, the behind the scenes work going on in several areas will come together enabling the printed magazine to evolve into its inevitable digital form. Soon content publishers, content distribution companies, and hardware technology companies, working on different pieces of the puzzle, will have their pieces on the table. Once connected, a new way to look at magazine content and how it is delivered will emerge and the skeptics of digital magazines will need to reconsider their views.

The activity is everywhere; 

• Apple is quietly working behind the scene's to lineup publishers for rumored digital magazine distribution through iTunes alongside the release of an Apple tablet reader.
•  Hearst just announced an e-reader to support their magazine content at the Consumer Electronics show.
• Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation, and Time Inc. announced a "Hulu for magazines" to distribute their digital magazines.
• At the Consumer Electronics Show, which just ended, e-readers were so prominent some reporters to called it the year of the e-reader.

The pieces are coming together. Let's connect the dots:  

First: what the experience will look like

Two publishers have animated the concept on videos showing what interactive magazines will look like on the next generation of digital readers. The readers are responsive to the users touch, and highly interactive as they intuitively create a dynamic reader experience. The first video shows the anticipated edition of Sports Illustrated with a play by play of what that publication will look like in digital form:

The second is a concept video is from Bonnier Corp, the publisher of Popular Science, and offerers a detailed look at how content for interactive magazines will be created and delivered:

  

Science fiction? Nope. The digital Sports Illustrated edition will be out in June, and as for Popular Science, they have been publishing interactive editions of the PopSci Genius Guide since last year. In addition there are already dozens of interactive magazines published around the world.  What will be different six months from now is that the next generation of digital readers will be making their way into the hands of readers. Which brings us to the next piece of the puzzle... 

Second: the digital readers are coming:

Here is a video report from the recent Consumer Electronics Show where a wide variety of notebook computers with specialized e-reader features, as well as dedicated e-readers were shown. In this video Associate Press reporter Haven Daley predicts that 6 million notebook computer and e-readers will be sold in the US this year.

Third, digital distribution technology is moving ahead.

Several digital magazine service companies are not waiting for the digital readers, they have launched applications to deliver a magazine reading experience to smart phones that are available now. Look at these three videos:  

Zinio's CEO Rich Maggiotto explains how his organization's iPhone app delivers both a high end graphical experience and readability to a small screen:

Nxtbook Media's Marketing Director Marcus Grimm shows how his organization's smart phone app creates ad revenue opportunities for publishers:

Finally, a demonstration of Texterity's iPhone version of Elite Traveler magazine:

Magazine content, e-reader hardware, and distribution technology are all coming together. When the three are finally in place be prepared to rethink everything you know about magazines. 

How print ads help generate web leads

Let’s talk about yellow page advertising. Here’s a form of advertising designed to elicit a response. Telmetrics, an advertising call tracking company released data earlier this month demonstrating the power of a unique URL as part of a print ad.

Telmetrics measured how many solid sales leads came from yellow page ads and compared how many came from a reader picking up the phone, versus reading a URL on the ad and responding online. 

Company president Bill Dinan made the assumption that most survey respondents would say they picked up the phone to engage the advertiser. He was correct, but surprised at how close it was when only 56% of leads came in via phone calls, and 44% came through a direct response of the URL printed on the ad. The study also discovered that unique URLs like  CallFlorists2.com were more often visited than client specific domains with URL extensions like Publisher.com/florists. If you want your print ad to generate a response keep the URL in the ad and keep it unique and simple.

Read the Telmetrics report

Recession clients who most buy webinars, white papers, and social media

When selling media in a recession, results matter. So. sponsorships that generate sales leads can be among the most recession resistant you will sell. A new research report I did for the Customer Collective, “What is Your Recession Sales Strategy.” finds that different kinds of companies buy depending on the kind of company they are. 

According to the survey, which queried a national sample of sales and marketing managers, entrepreneurial companies have dramatically embraced the use of social media for sales prospecting, mid-sized companies and multinationals lead in the use of webinars, while mid-sized companies lead in the use of white papers. Here are the results in detail: 

 

Social media:

According the study, 74.1% of self described entrepreneurial companies report that as a result of the recession they will be using social media for prospecting more often. In addition, 67.3% of small businesses, 49.3% of mid-sized companies, while only 45.9% of multinational corporations will do the same.

 

Webinars:

 Mid-sized companies and multinational corporations lead in the use of webinars sales lead generation.

The study found that 38.8% of mid-sized companies and 36.1% of multinational corporations will use more webinars to generate sales leads because of the recession. Only 28.4% of entrepreneurial companies and 24.5% of small businesses will do the same.

 

White papers:

When it comes to using white papers, mid-sized companies lead the way.

38.8% of mid-sized companies report they will use white papers more often to generate sales leads as a result of a recession while only 24.5% of small businesses, 23.5% of entrepreneurial companies, and 19.7% of multinational corporations plan on doing the same.

 

 

The recession will mean a growth in the use of webinars by multinational corporations and mid-sized companies, growth in the use of social media for prospecting among entrepreneurial companies, and growth in the use of white papers for lead generation among mid-sized companies.

As you look to your own media territories to generate sales leads, factor this in!

More about the Free Customer Collective white paper/survey

Download the study for free 

Young Americans: business magazines #1, Wikipedia #2

Which news sources young Americans find most credible might surprise you. Buried on page 14 in the "Edelman Trust Barometer 2008", an annual survey of trust related issues conducted by international PR giant Edelman, is a tiny bombshell that every business magazine publisher needs to see. 

When Americans, ages 24 to 35, were asked "How credible is each source for information about a company?" Business magazines ranked #1, Wikipedia was #2.  

On your next call.

Obviously this is a great study to show if you are selling advertising in a business magazine, but it also documents that trust exists in both traditional and new media. If you are selling an integrated package this study documents that trust can come from a variety of online and offline sources.    

Download the entire Edelman study 

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:

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):