Media Planner/Buyer
Exeter, Devon, South West Eng
Dependant on experience
Head of Broadcast
London, SE1
£negotiable
Inside (telephone) Sales Associate
OK
OK
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Advertising
In many cases, advertising is the primary source of a magazine's revenue. If you are to be successful in selling advertising space in your magazine to prospective clients, you must understand their overall marketing objectives.
Whether your client is manufacturing a product or providing a service, he or she must give careful consideration to product policy, pricing, packaging, production and the method of sales and distribution before deciding on the form that the advertising campaign will take.
Although you are concerned with selling space in your magazine, remember that there are usually several media options open to the advertiser. Consider the whole range carefully, including and most importantly, competitive titles, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of each one. Your prospect may have more than one reason for advertising, so find out the purpose of his campaign. Who is he trying to reach and what does he hope to achieve?
Before the advertiser or his agency can begin to plan a campaign or before you can try to sell your magazine as part of it, it is essential to have as much background knowledge as possible on the following points:
- The company and its products
Some products will be more suitable than others to be advertised in your magazine. A company will often target different audience sectors and by knowing who they are trying to promote their products to, you will be better able to match features and benefits to their requirements.
- The market
Those concerned with advertising planning have long been used to looking at market segmentation. Some look at demographic differences (age, sex, income, socio-economic grades) between buyers and non-buyers. Others segment their markets in different ways, such as industrial or occupational classifications.
- Previous advertising
Check carefully the advertising which has appeared in the past and, if possible, what results it achieved. The advertiser and his agency will certainly be trying to see what lessons can be learned to increase the effectiveness of future campaigns.
- Competition
Who are the advertiser's competitors? You should familiarise yourself with as much information as possible.
Advertisement sales options
Should you decide to have your own ad sales team or to appoint a third party sales agency?
A few pros and cons to help you make up your mind:
- In-house sales team
- Advantages
- Fully dedicated to your company and its products.
- You have control of the ad selling operation.
- Product knowledge.
- Disadvantages
- High fixed cost.
- Are you confident that you can recruit the right person for the right job?
- More management time required.
- Third party sales agency
- Advantages
- Possible existing customer base.
- Possible much reduced overhead
- Resource to tap into when required
- Disadvantages
- Lack of control.
- Potential lack of commitment.
- Potential lack of product knowledge.
- Potential lack of continuity
When making this important decision, look at the cost benefits and be realistic with regard to your ad expectations.
As a guideline, you should expect 20 effective calls per sales person per day. Effective is defined as speaking to the decision maker - not leaving messages or speaking to a secretary.
It may be that you might use a third party agency at launch and move to an in-house team once the title is established.
Each magazine is different - be flexible, there is no 'one size' answer. A useful check list to consider:
- What is the size of your market?
- How many ad pages per issue per year are sold?
- What are the competition's ad rates?
- What is their market share?
- Understand the key players in the market. 80 per cent of your business will come from 20 per cent of your clients.
- Where do you fit in?
- What's special about you?
- How does the market see you?
- Have clear objectives and measure them.
- Involve staff in planning.
- Plan realistic timetables.
- Set bold confident targets.
- Conduct regular appraisals of staff and their progress.
- Identify training needs.
- Create list of standard objections so that staff can answer them.
- Reward success.
- Carry out a performance check every three months. The SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities) may seem like a cliché but is invaluable.
- What is your potential? More readers, more ads, new ad sections, higher yields. What more could you add to your proposition? NB sponsored supplements can be easier than you think.
PPA Training runs sales courses for staff with different levels of experience. Visit the training section of the website for more information. |
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