Finding Advertisers and Selling Ad Space
Remember that advertising is an industry with its own rules and jargon and you will
need to learn both to sell ad space successfully. This aspect of publishing requires
another unique set of skills that a successful e-zine publisher needs to acquire.
Step One: Research and Competitive Intelligence
1. Look at your competitors and identify who advertises in their publications.
2. Review the ad rates for your competitors' publications. Use the Directory of Ezines
from Lifestyles Publishing for the easiest and quickest way to gather this information.
http://www.lifestylespub.com
3. Determine how much money each of your potential advertisers is already
spending on advertising in your competitors' publications.
Step Two: Create Your Sales Budget
Selling advertising and developing solid relationships with your advertisers can be a
time consuming project. Your sales budget should reflect that fact.
1. How much time will you spend to support your advertising services? Consider the
following tasks when determining your time allocations.
- Receiving ad sales
- Processing financial transactions
- Follow-up: additional information, acknowledgment and receipt of ad
- Ad insertions
- Ad tracking
- Advertiser specials
2. How much money will you spend to support your advertising services?
Will you hire a
sales rep or outsource any of the sales?
If you are selling the
ad space yourself, remember that the revenue should justify the amount of time you spend
selling ads. Is your time worth $50 an hour? If you spend ten hours on ad sales, you want
to consider selling $500 worth of advertising to justify your time.
To increase your
efficiency and effectiveness, automate your sales process through online media kits and
online order forms.
3. Outsourcing your
advertising sales.
The folks at
List-Universe have an advertising network for email newsletter publishers. If you want to
outsource your advertising sales, contact them at Opt-Influence.
Step Three:
Develop a Potential Advertisers Database
Create a database of your potential advertising clients. Research all of your potential
advertisers before contacting them. Your database should include name, title, company
name, URL, email address, category, and where they are currently advertising.
Step Four:
Make Contact
Now, write to the
appropriate person at each company and introduce yourself. Give those advertisers reasons
to advertise in your publication instead of one of your competitor's e-zines. Remember,
you are trying to develop a relationship with your potential advertisers, so use their
names, mention their web site, let them know you know who they are.
Then, read and analyze
their responses.
Step Five: Prepare a Proposal and Close the Sale
Create an advertising
proposal for your prospects. The proposal should include the ad size, frequency of
publication and your price based on your rate card, plus any special offers you are making
to them, such as buy two get one free for new advertisers. If you listened to their
response and your e-zine addresses their target market, your proposal will probably meet
with success.
Step Six: Keep
Your Advertisers
Establish a
relationship with your key advertisers. If you have found an audience that your
advertisers want to reach, work to maintain a good relationship with your advertisers. It
is much easier to keep than to find new ones.
Establish a long-term
marketing plan to serve your customers and subsequently your advertising sales business
will grow.
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