Best practices for promotion self serve advertising options

The “Amazonification” of local advertising is advancing as platforms like Google, Facebook have opened the door for small businesses to purchase advertising online. For local media embarking on adding self-serve options to products and verticals, her  are ten “best practices” from iPublih´s top customers with seven years or more experience with adding self-serve options.

1. Select an interface that simplifieds the  shopper’s user-experience

The single most important decision in your self-serve program is the platform.  Web design to facilitate the buyer - in this case an advertiser - is fundamentally different than one which is optimized for readers.

Uers prefer a simple decision tree with just a few choices, buttons located where they expect them, cut to the chase messaging and good looking visuals that explain what they are purchasing.

     2.  Build and segment the database of prospects 

A lot of attention has been given to collecting data on newspaper audiences, and their ARPU (Average Revenue Per User).  Theh same holds true for DIY advetisers. Rebuidling a current database in each vertical and tracking engaged users for special offers is a needed skill set. 

      3.  Focus on an ongoing promotional  strategy to drive sales

Don’t expect slef e-commerce  to simply take off without any promotion. The fact is that search results for the word “advertising” in any city are low to non-existent. That does not mean you can’t use search terms for, say, jobs, houses or cars, but newspapers need to readdress how they think about marketing.

Users do not know they can now buy ad mixes online, how low the cost is, or what the benefits are. It is a classic “reach and frequency” marketing problem!

Today is the time to put that big marketing engine - the high traffic volume, social media presence and email lists -  to work driving new e-commerce sales of advertising itself.

The results can be  impressive: Promoting private party sections alone can drive five times more revenue, and total $1 million a year at large chains.

       4. Sell print with self-serve, too 

Simple ads are built from templates, and can also  paginated automatically, so there is little or no production cost involved, opening up new possibilities for special sections. 

Sales to even very small advertisers or ones with very small budgets are profitable for the first time.

Here are just a few early examples: An  East Coast newspaper runs a half page of small community theater ads in print, most of which are sold online, three days a week.  Several newspapers reverse publish a quarterly special section of obituaries in print, adding $500,000 to just five Gatehouse markets in the first year. A west coast newspaper uses the same DIY process to let dealers place automotive ads on a single page.

      5. Put outside sales reps on the e-commerce team

The prospect of internal resistance can be a huge factor in deciding which accounts and verticals are right for e-commerce advertising.

Our best performing newspaper partners put their sales reps on the team by continuing to  pay commission on accounts that convert to self-serve ads from their lists or territories.  A good example is real estate, where reps form alliances with large brokerage clients and ask them to help “pitch” self-serve programs to listing agents.

Once your sales representatives trust that self-serve will add, not subtract from their personal income, they will be “on-board” with notifying clients of new options by email and in person.

      6. Redeploy inbound reps to outbound telesales

Newspapers can reduce FTE’s and many have, but others have gained revenues by re-deploying inbound reps to outbound sales. These reps are already trained, and ready to go into outbound sales.

       7. Develop a plan in stages

You don’t have to take on the world of e-commerce advertising sales all  at once.

Some newspapers start-out by adding self-serve as a backend order entry system that allows inbound customer service  reps to take orders faster and more easily, saving hours a day and facilitating upsells. This is especially effective in the recruitment category, where reps can place orders across networks, including Facebook, without changing platforms.

Later, they add the front end for direct DIY ads by customers, that allows inbound reps to make more outbound calls.  Start with the highest revenue option with the best chance of success.

        8. Use a single platform solution

Using one platform across multiple verticals has numerous advantages. First, a single source lowers cost of licensing agreements.  Second, once the platform is selected, there is no need to go through the vetting process, risk and training of adding additional platforms, all of which create organizational stress. iPublish’s AdPortal acts as a generic front-end that can add self-serve to almost any print/digital advertising mix, with six products specialized by vertical, and a the base software for private party ads and obituaries if needed.

    9.  Get Started

This may goes without saying,  but as  the advertising industry “Amazonifies,”  newspapers who have already started down the path to adding self-serve options are gaining  an advantage over the burgeoning number of online competitors and ad agencies.  Build capacity in stages by starting with an easy vertical like obituaries or real estate, depending on the market, and expand from there. 

    10   Brand your e-commerce brand

Use your own reach and frequency to take advantage of your community’s interest in the “buy local” movement,  in supporting access to local news. Gven equal pricing and results, SMB’s  prefer to do business with the local newspaper, according to Borrell Associates.

Every year there are more competitors selling mixed-ad packages,  such as Dan Ads and Exactdrive, which market directly to agencies and small businesses,  but newspapers have clear advantages including a wide array of admix products, and owned media. 

Self-serveis a fast moving train, and one, like other technologies, that has to be onboarded the right way with the right company. But it’s worth adding self-serve options as a key 2018 initiative.

The proof is in billions.