A Lesson in Selling Advertising

Your list of leads is a great start to getting money in the door, but it's only the first step. From here, you'll want to qualify the list by focusing on those that have a marketing budget and are open to applying it to your site. Generally, this means calling, e-mailing, and being persistent. It may take several calls or e-mails just to reach the right person in the organization. This type of "cold calling" can be uncomfortable to do. However, the important thing to remember is that you are calling a potential advertiser with an opportunity that may potentially help them reach customers. 

When you’re out on the streets, physically visiting businesses, you most likely will not run across the actual authorized buyer the first visit. Do you best to obtain the name, number, or e-mail address of the buyer. When you have secured that information, then you can focus your presentation on the right individual.

A shortcut method of identifying advertisers is to simply look at who is advertising on web sites or in publications similar to yours. This group will be easiest to approach because they are pre-qualified. By advertising elsewhere, they've demonstrated that they understand the value of promotion, have a marketing budget and are open to using it on online media.

One pitfall to avoid is assuming that larger companies are the best targets. While they're likely to have larger budgets than small companies, they're also likely to require more levels of approval to buy an ad, and it’s likely that their marketing plans have been set a year in advance. Also, while there has been movement in some large companies to capture "niche" audiences, a large, national company usually wants to reach a large, national audience. Your audience will need to be of a certain scale to capture their attention.

The Presentation

Make some preparations before you make a sales presentation. Prepare:

• A brief recap of your client's goals.
• Statistics about your site's traffic, usually measured in terms of page views or unique visitors. This will come more into play with company growth.
• A screenshot showing where your client's ad will be placed.
• Some proposal of how often the ad will be displayed like "fixed placement".
• Bullet points on why your site is a great match to fulfill your client's goals.
• Pricing options.
• Presentation materials, like flyers, post cards, possibly a powerpoint.
• Response to any objection likely to come up.

Put yourself in the shoes of the buyer. What information would help convince you that this is a good advertising buy? What would you need to know about the site, its content, its audience and the value of the ad position before you committed funds to advertising on the site?

There will be more to follow on this topic. Bottom-line for all of us is stay on top of your game. Know your potential clients and provide solutions to problems all businesses encounter. Ask them about their advertising budget. You can reduce that budget with a value added package that no rival company can match. Ask them about their walk-in traffic. If you can increase that several times over for minimal ROI, would that not provide a solution to securing enough customers? And it goes on. Do your homework and use the vast resources available to all of us.