Just the Facts, Ma’am – Better Magazine Ad Sales Research with Surveys

May 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment


ID-10046440

Surveys are an important tool in your ad sales tool kit!

In case you haven’t noticed, the business of selling advertising has changed. I remember fondly the days when selling ads meant “print” ads and the most sophisticated question was, “How many readers do you have, and what does it cost?” Now clients say, “I want a data driven understanding of the influence your readers have over the buying process.” Huh? Say what?

In our data-driven world, surveys are a powerful way to gather information to make a successful sales pitch to today’s client. Your advertiser 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 wants to know what your readers consider to be the most reliable way to learn about his products and what convinces them to make that purchase.

First, choose a way to build and distribute your survey. I use Survey Monkey but there are many other services. You can even get add-ons for Facebook and other social media sites. Plumb your various email lists, distribute through your Facebook page, or use your website to reach the target the group for your survey. Keep them simple and short, and make sure to let participants know how much you appreciate their time! Here are some sample questions from a ten-question survey to select e-newsletter subscribers: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Featured Tagged With: , , , ,

Media Buyers are People Too! How to Sell More Magazine Advertising by Improving Relationships with Buyers

May 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment


ID-100132942

Follow these guidelines and media buyers will LOVE you!

Media Buyers.  For publishers, those two words stir up both good and bad memories; perhaps even terror!  But no matter if they are good, bad or ugly; buyers are the flame to illuminate the path to publishing success.  Use them right and they can be a great resource; use them wrong and you may get burned.  So what can publishers do proactively to improve their success in the media buyer relationship? We asked seasoned media buyer Ryan Keough to give niche magazine publishers some tips on how to make media buyers love ad sales reps. It isn’t as hard as you might think!

  1. Know YOUR readers and be prepared with the data to prove it.
    The days of buyers trusting anecdotal perceptions of who you think reads your publication are over.  Today’s media buyers use data more than ever to compare their options and make their purchasing decisions.  Luckily, technology has made it cheaper than ever for you to get it.  Survey your audience, gather both quantitative and qualitative data, and make it a regular part of your media kit.  If you have a web property, get an analytics product (Google Analytics is FREE!) and get the hard numbers the buyers NEED! [Read more...]
Filed Under: Ad Sales, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

How to Work a Trade Show to Get More Ad Sales Prospects

May 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment


The one thing that successfully working a trade show is NOT: Setting up a booth and sitting there, waiting for prospects to come by and talk with you. Find someone else for that job. To get the most out of your time as a sales person at a trade show, you need to be accessible, pro-active, and have a plan to renew contacts with clients and meet new prospects. Here’s how you do it:

ID-10088868

Turn working a trade show into big success with these three tips.

3 tips for getting the most out of working a trade show

1.  Pre-show planning:  Get a list of exhibits—most shows have this posted on their web sites far in advance.  Put them into a spreadsheet and sort by booth numbers.  Fill in a column for known contacts and leave a blank column for notes. Highlight accounts you really want to see (include new prospects). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Audience Development, Featured Tagged With: , , , ,

How the SF Giants and Baseball Can Make You A Better Niche Publisher

May 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment


Every other Friday the Niche Media HQ gods let me write about any random thing I want to write about.

Carl and Sophie at the game

Raving fans Grand Poobah Carl and daughter Sophie having fun at AT&T ballpark.

So today you are lucky I am NOT writing about my new clams and mussels with linguine recipe, which I am also very excited about.

I went to a San Francisco Giants game on Wednesday, as almost three years ago I swore I would pay attention to and adore this team as part of my wedding vows.

It has occurred to me that baseball could be like running a niche magazine. I know it sounds like I’ve been brainwashed by Carl B. Landau, but bear with me:

It’s about teamwork, accomplishing goals and ultimately being successful, right?

Here’s 7 things I learn at SF Giants’ baseball games that could apply to Niche Publishing:

  • Stop. Take a deep breath. Observe those around you, including your competition.
  • Be enthusiastic about your team—buy the hat, wear the t-shirt! (Being a raving fan is really fun, too.)
  • Continually evaluate, play by play, what you are about to do, what you can do, what you ended up doing and how you can do it better next time. (Or become a cool radio announcer like Kruk.)
  • Share a hot dog. Well, at least invite a prospect or colleague to lunch once in a while.
  • Make sure you have a Pablo and a Pence on your ad sales team.  That’s all I’m sayin’.
  • Don’t skip spring training! Dedicate time every year to building your team’s skills.
  • Celebrate the home runs. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Ad Sales, Audience Development, Featured, Publishing Management Tagged With: , ,

Clever Email Personalization Goes a Long Way in the Ad Sales Game

May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment


ID-10080897

Don’t hit “send” on that prospect email until you’ve taken time to research them!

Yesterday I got an email from a hotel salesperson who wanted us to use his resort for an upcoming niche event. His email subject line was “Free Burritos!” And he ended the email message with, “SMALL is the new big!”

Huh?

I totally got it—he had actually read our last blog post about using “Free Burritos” in an email subject line to catch prospects’ attention. And he pulled the “SMALL is the new big!” from our About Us page.

The sales dude actually read our blog and website. This catapulted him to the top of the list of salespeople because he did a little research—BEFORE contacting me—and he totally personalized the email. The difference between personalizing your message vs. sending a generic ad sales message is like Day and Night.

Here’s 3 ad sales personalization tips for more effective email messages: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Media Buyer Personalities: Dealing with “Too Busy Bob”

April 30, 2013 By 2 Comments


ID-10096265

Know this guy? Here are some savvy
ad sales tips to deal
with Too Busy Bob.

What fun! You never know who you are going to get on the other end of the phone in the magazine ad sales game.

I’ve found that a lot of media buyers tend to use a “quirky” personality type to get you off the phone pronto. In a previous post,  I wrote about dealing with Mr. Love.

Today let’s meet Too Busy Bob: You talk to Bob and he’s VERY busy. This prospect always seems to be right in the middle of something when you call or visit. He’s always in a HUGE hurry. Just has one minute for you and always wants to talk tomorrow.

Strategy for Too Busy Bob: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

How to Get Ad Sales Prospects to Respond to Your Emails – Free Burritos!

April 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment


Bean-Burrito

Get creative in your email subject lines to your ad sales prospects and they will be hungry to respond to you!

So how can you get your prospects to respond to YOUR email when they are scanning through hundreds in their inbox every day? Sometimes the most basic themes resonate most with busy customers. Plus, you have to be creative and original in your approach to catch eyes.

By now almost everyone, (well at least those who have attended ad sales training at Camp Niche), knows the story of how Carl Landau of Niche Media offered free cats in the mail as a (very) successful ad sales approach. PETA probably wouldn’t appreciate that so much these days. 

Here’s an example of how you can use creativity and touch on basic needs to get prospects to respond to your ad sales emails:

I tried putting “Free Burritos” in the subject line of my email to prospects. Here’s how a typical exchange went: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Audience Development, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

Let Your Audience Tell Your Media Company What to Do

April 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment


ID-100131020

Know the right new media for your magazine by asking your audience.

How do you determine which new media your magazine should jump into? Very often media companies venture into the vast unknown of the media frontier because they feel they have to or they will be seen as an Old Dog. (Shudder.) Or as a company that is not keeping up with the times.  (Wince.)

I often think that my clients launch out into new projects based on how they “feel” about it and NOT based on what the reader, viewer or listener is demanding.  For example, one of my B2B publishing clients  in the oil and gas sector launched out into Pinterest.  They were so proud.  They spent a ton of time (which means money) on the project.

They were in love with what they did.  So in love that when readers did not immediately begin pinning and purchasing, they were very hurt.  “What’s wrong with my readers?” the publisher said… “Pinterest is so cool!”  Yes, Pinterest is cool. And it works very well for some B2C, B2B and Association magazines.

But when I asked about the feedback from his most recent reader survey, he responded… “Those are too expensive.”  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Audience Development, Featured, Online Revenue, Publishing Management, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Ad Sales: The Science of Persuasion

April 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment


ID-10084289

What persuades us? Find out about the science behind it with these 6 shortcuts.

We just saw this Youtube video about the science behind persuasion and HAD to share with you.

It’s totally worth your time. You can apply these ideas to selling advertising in your magazine, increasing renewal and conversion rates, getting more sponsorships for events, and just about any other revenue area of your media company.

This excellent short video by Robert Cialdini and Steve Martin gives you the 6 universal principles of persuasion based on actual scientific research — with real world examples. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Audience Development, Featured, Online Revenue Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Engagement Rocks and Impression-Driven Marketing Sucks

April 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment


Media and technology advances change the sales landscape faster than most of us can fathom.  Salespeople may use the aforementioned as an excuse, but savvy sales pros leverage this phenomenon to their advantage, solidifying themselves as the “expert media guru” (Niche Media 101).

Real World Example: Seven weeks ago, a prospect asked us to help promote a football training camp that would be held during Spring Break, just five weeks away. Of course, they only had $500 in the budget. Yes, I thought what you’re thinking right now – Good luck.

After a quick review of the prospect’s social media profile, we developed a five-month engagement-based campaign using the upcoming camp as a launch event. Although the camp had few new sign-ups, the facility grew their weekly training from 40 to 110 in the weeks leading up to spring break. At the client’s request, we’re now preparing an annual comprehensive engagement-based marketing campaign. We sold services to the prospect and turned $500 into a nice 5-figure monthly agreement. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ad Sales, Audience Development, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,
« Older Posts

Switch to our mobile site