Nancy Obrien Ad Sales Blog

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE SELLING?

I am amazed at how many ad sales professionals I work with have only a vague idea of what sets their products apart from the competitors. “What makes your magazine unique”? is a question I regularly ask that is met with a bland explanation about how they are the bible of the industry or the premier publication. Really? What does that mean?

In order to position your publication for success in sales you need know, specifically, what you offer advertisers that no one else can. Not only do you need to know this but so does everyone in your organization. So how do you make this happen?

Unique Value Statement.

Creating a Unique Value Statement of each of your publications and offerings is essential in presenting a clear picture to advertisers about why yours is the best choice when doing a media plan. A UVS should be short and to the point and it must be backed up with data or research.

Some examples of great UVSs are,

1. “ShowTimes is the only publication written and printed onsite and distributed to all attendees at the tradeshow”

2. “Foglights.com delivers more impressions than any other website in the weather industry”

3. “Band Magazine has the lowest Cost Per Thousand of any publication serving the college marching band market”

4. “Cameras Expo has more attendees than any other tradeshow in the photography field”

5. “The Niche Magazine Conference is the only conference targeting small to mid-sized publishers with exclusive content on revenue generation.”

These Unique Value Statements all tell the advertiser that by buying advertisements or sponsorship with them, they are getting something that they can’t get anywhere else. Without a UVS, publishers all look the same which creates an environment where the media buyer makes decisions on price or circulation alone.

So how do you create a UVS for your products? First gather all of the sales and marketing staff at your company and work on it together. Determine three benefits that make your offerings the best of any of your competitors. Do you have data or research to back up these three benefits? If not, pick one that you can substantiate with data. You must be able to support your claims so if you have no data it is time to do some research. Types of data are circulation statements, rate cards, website metrics, tradeshow attendee numbers, in-house or readership research or any other data that helps support your claim. You must have this information on your publication as well as all of your competitors.

Once you had found ONE (or the best) unique benefit with data, then create your statement. It should start with the name of your publication and be concise as the examples above. Once you have a final UVS it should be used by every sales person on every call and in all marketing and promotion materials. Take the guess work out of buying advertising for your customers. Tell them why you are the best with a well written Unique Value Statement. If you want to learn first -hand how to create at UVS, attend my session at Camp Niche in Nashville, February 27-28,2012!

FACTS, JUST THE FACTS

Have you noticed that the business of selling advertising has changed? Teaching this old dog new tricks is nothing short of a miracle as I remember fondly the day when selling ads meant “print” ads and the most sophisticated question I got was how many readers do you have and what does it cost.

I am working with a client now who in a recent email said, “I want data driven understanding of the influence your readers have over the buying process”. Say what?

This customer doesn’t want to know how much it costs or how many impressions he’ll get. He is looking for a multi-media platform to promote to people who are proven to have influence to buy his product. He also wants to know what my readers consider to be the most reliable way to learn about his products and what convinces them to make that purchase. As I break down that request I realize that what I need to do is some research – fast.

In response, I launched a ten question survey on www.surveymonkey.com to 1,000 of my e-newsletter subscribers who fit the demographics of those most likely in need of his products. Some of the questions I asked were:

“What best describes your involvement in the purchase of products”?

A. Evaluate

B. Recommend

C. Approve

D. None of the above

“Where do you get your information on new products”?

A. Industry publications

B. Industry electronic newsletters & websites

C. Tradeshows

D. Visit with a sales rep

E. Personal recommendations

“What most influences your decision to buy a product”?

A. Industry publications

B. Industry electronic newsletters & websites

C. Visit with a sales rep

D. Personal recommendations

Interestingly, 70% of the respondents reported that they “approve” purchases for their company and 82% said they got their new product information from industry publications, e-newsletters and websites. Only 17% ranked a visit with a sales rep as a top category on either question. This not only illustrates that my readers have influence to buy products but that they are looking to publications and websites like mine to get the information they need to make those decisions.

I am going to follow-up with a focus group next month at an industry meeting to augment these results but I think that it is pretty clear that readers of our publications and electronic offerings still view us as the most reliable source of information when considering buying products. In this data driven world research is golden. Use it well. Good Selling!

CASH IN ON LEARNING

The only thing I love more than selling advertising is learning new ideas and techniques that I can take back to my customers to help them achieve their goals. I just returned from the Niche Magazine Conference in Austin where 200 publishing folks from small to mid-sized magazines gathered to listen to some of the smartest publishing experts alive gives us their thoughts and ideas on new ways to generate revenue in our publishing companies. I came back with so many good ideas to increase sales I could hardly wait to implement them but then I remembered Mike Bannan, a speaker presenting “20+ New Revenue Generating Ideas”, saying to pick just three good ideas and implement them well. Don’t try to do everything at once. So I’ve narrowed down my extensive list to my Top Three.

Ryan Dohrn, in his session “Extending Online Revenue” showed me how easy it is to make money on Facebook. By establishing a Facebook Fanpage and promoting your readers to “Like” it you are able to build an audience that you can talk to frequently and immediately. Once you have your audience built you can sell your advertisers a “post” on your page for a day which would promote a special they are offering. Ryan says a day is an eternity in Facebook time so one day is long enough. Charge $100 per post. Thirty posts a month – that’s $3,000 – or $36,000 per year!

Alan Zeichick opened my eyes to the world of “Lead Gen” – a term our advertisers always say they want – but the details of a successful program always eluded me. Alan filled in the blanks with many examples of Lead Gen programs but the one that seems easiest to implement in my market is the White Paper program. He says you get an advertiser to submit a White Paper on a subject of interest to your audience. You send an email to your readers telling them that a free White Paper is available for download by clicking on a link. In order to download the paper they have to give some basic demographic and contact information knowing that their information would be given to the paper’s author. Advertiser pays $30 for every lead generated. If one hundred people download the paper that’s $3,000 – or $36,000 per year if you only did one a month. Boom! I just sold $72,000 more per year with two ideas.

Finally, Mitch Rouda and Ward Downing inspired me in their session “Publishing Financials” by reminding me that the best way to sell more advertising is to be organized and have a plan. Their Sales Projection worksheet is such a great tool for sales people to organize their prospects, project revenue in the pipeline and know where they stand three months in advance. This tool is invaluable for Sales Managers and Publishers as well (email me if you’d like a copy). Mitch also encouraged us to create “buckets” of revenue and create a Top 50 list of prospects by bucket. For instance, who are the Top 50 Companies spending money online in my market? Create an online advertising bucket – it is the best way to focus to find the money you’re looking for.

Three ideas. Twenty more down the road. I love to learn!

IT’S A BRAND NEW YEAR!

The hangover is gone, holiday decorations put away and you are sitting at your desk staring at your computer. It must be the New Year! It is tempting to just pick up where you left off last year – but if you want to have a super sales year think about making some New Year’s Resolutions. Here are my Top 5 Ad Sales New Year’s promises to kick start your year.

Read more: It's A Brand New Year!