Selling advertisement.?
12.September, 2009
I am a college student who plans on starting a magazine sometime around next January.The magazine will deal with music and culture, specifically around my hometown in Pennsylvania, and to a lesser extent music and culture all around the whole state. I have already assembled a staff of writers and photographers. They are mainly my friends who know they may not be able to be compensated greatly but who are rather doing it to help me out. My question is how do I go about selling ads for the first issue. Should I just call local music stores and other businesses around the area and explain to them what I’m doing. And how to I find places to carry this magazine. It will be a free magazine with all profit coming from ad revenue. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve sold ads for a number of publications great and small, old and new. It might be smart to listen carefully.
Advertising can be a difficult sale, particularly in areas of slow economic activity (unless you’re a consummate expert.) Odds are very good that you just don’t know what you’re doing. No offense, it’s just the typical scenario; if your success is going to depend on selling advertising, though, you’d better regard it as the serious business it is.
If you hear nothing else, hear this: what you’re talking about is NOT a fun project. If you’re not careful, you’ll fall in love with it without knowing how to handle it, and lose every dollar you have trying to chase a dream without preparation to endure the run.
The first thing you will NEED to do is talk to someone who runs a similar publication in a different city, just tell them what you’re doing and ask with whom you can connect to talk about it a little (they’ll probably put you through to the owner or general manager.) This person knows firsthand EVERYTHING it takes to get off the ground. They will be overjoyed to talk with you for hours about every detail great and small. This guidance is priceless. Do everything you can to express your gratitude, how much they are helping, and what a difference their guidance makes.
The watchword is PREPARATION. With it, you will have ammunition to meet the challenges and questions that come your way, and possibly be able to do what you love for a living. Without it, you’re dead in the water. I cannot convey to you the severity of how hopeless you are if you don’t do your homework.
First, brainstorm at least two YEARS of thought-provoking content for your staff to write and cover. Doing so will give you credibility, establish the permanency of your operation, and show your professionalism. Not doing so will make you look like an unprepared clown who’s charging headlong into a daydream, and will leave your clients hanging. You’ll still cover timely things (remember to mention this, don’t leave it implicit) but when you’ve got something you can show people, you’ve got a future.
Record this content and sketch a brief outline, complete with tentative timeframe, and run copies of it (laid out nicely) as part of your selling proposition. The most important thing will be to look like you’re going to endure and you’ve got what it takes to back that commitment.
Dredge up some dog-and-pony presentation about readership. You will be AMAZED at how many ad buyers do not have an altruistic bone in their body when it comes to purchases. Pity will not get you far; you must deliver a really thrilling opportunity to advertisers or else you will get nowhere.
Speaking of advertisers, that’s the best place to start. More on that later. Step zero is, run through selling situations in your mind AND WITH PEOPLE- yes roleplay it, it sounds stupid but it *WORKS*- and develop twenty really smart questions to get people thinking about the future of their business and industry. Heck, if they seem smart, ASK about that future. This is a smarter move than you might think, for a number of psychological reasons. You don’t *need* to learn salesmanship to feed your publication, but someone on staff will need to. Run an ad on Craigslist for a salesperson, write about the PERSON you’re looking for, not the job, and good luck.
Also come up with twenty very smart, very thought-provoking, very non-argumentative answers to the "objections" you anticipate to buying ad space, and the objections you actually encounter versus the ones you anticipate. They will be two different populations; preparation for anything/everything is the ideal solution.
Twenty of each. Three is not twenty. This is hard, yes, but it will make business easy.
Have no illusions- you’ll spend most of your time and effort trying to sell what you write, rather than writing it. Maybe not you, personally, but someone will. Maybe everyone. If you’re not comfortable selling, get someone who is. I could go on for a long time about sales, but the involvement has been minimalized to try and make your life easier.
Truncated. Pt. 2 pending.
12.September, 2009 um 6:25 pm
That sounds like a fun project. What I would do first is research magazines and publications that you would like your publication to look like. Get their media kits and look at what they are charging for what size ads, color or black and white, etc. Keep in mind that because you have an untested publication, it will be hard to sell the ad space for anywhere near what an established publication is selling for, but it will give you a starting point. Then, look at the types of businesses in those magazines that are advertising, and put together a target list of local businesses that you think would fit into yours. Call them and offer them a very low cost advertising package which gives them the first several advertisements free if they commit to advertising for a set period of time. This will guarantee that you will have advertising content for future publications. The other thing you can offer to do is a free article on the companies that advertise with their paid spot.
To find places to carry the magazine, I would go to all the locally owned stores that cater to your type of readers. In San Diego, we find the San Diego Reader at all of the gyms (great place because people often forget their reading material), local deli’s, coffee shops, smoothie shops, 7-11’s and music stores. Go in and talk to the owner, offer them some type of free or super discounted advertising to allow you to leave a stack of your publication.
As your publication gains some traction and you have familiar companies in your publication and a few advertisers start to see results, then you will be able to sell your space for profit.
Good luck, and above all, have fun!
References :
12.September, 2009 um 6:38 pm
I’ve sold ads for a number of publications great and small, old and new. It might be smart to listen carefully.
Advertising can be a difficult sale, particularly in areas of slow economic activity (unless you’re a consummate expert.) Odds are very good that you just don’t know what you’re doing. No offense, it’s just the typical scenario; if your success is going to depend on selling advertising, though, you’d better regard it as the serious business it is.
If you hear nothing else, hear this: what you’re talking about is NOT a fun project. If you’re not careful, you’ll fall in love with it without knowing how to handle it, and lose every dollar you have trying to chase a dream without preparation to endure the run.
The first thing you will NEED to do is talk to someone who runs a similar publication in a different city, just tell them what you’re doing and ask with whom you can connect to talk about it a little (they’ll probably put you through to the owner or general manager.) This person knows firsthand EVERYTHING it takes to get off the ground. They will be overjoyed to talk with you for hours about every detail great and small. This guidance is priceless. Do everything you can to express your gratitude, how much they are helping, and what a difference their guidance makes.
The watchword is PREPARATION. With it, you will have ammunition to meet the challenges and questions that come your way, and possibly be able to do what you love for a living. Without it, you’re dead in the water. I cannot convey to you the severity of how hopeless you are if you don’t do your homework.
First, brainstorm at least two YEARS of thought-provoking content for your staff to write and cover. Doing so will give you credibility, establish the permanency of your operation, and show your professionalism. Not doing so will make you look like an unprepared clown who’s charging headlong into a daydream, and will leave your clients hanging. You’ll still cover timely things (remember to mention this, don’t leave it implicit) but when you’ve got something you can show people, you’ve got a future.
Record this content and sketch a brief outline, complete with tentative timeframe, and run copies of it (laid out nicely) as part of your selling proposition. The most important thing will be to look like you’re going to endure and you’ve got what it takes to back that commitment.
Dredge up some dog-and-pony presentation about readership. You will be AMAZED at how many ad buyers do not have an altruistic bone in their body when it comes to purchases. Pity will not get you far; you must deliver a really thrilling opportunity to advertisers or else you will get nowhere.
Speaking of advertisers, that’s the best place to start. More on that later. Step zero is, run through selling situations in your mind AND WITH PEOPLE- yes roleplay it, it sounds stupid but it *WORKS*- and develop twenty really smart questions to get people thinking about the future of their business and industry. Heck, if they seem smart, ASK about that future. This is a smarter move than you might think, for a number of psychological reasons. You don’t *need* to learn salesmanship to feed your publication, but someone on staff will need to. Run an ad on Craigslist for a salesperson, write about the PERSON you’re looking for, not the job, and good luck.
Also come up with twenty very smart, very thought-provoking, very non-argumentative answers to the "objections" you anticipate to buying ad space, and the objections you actually encounter versus the ones you anticipate. They will be two different populations; preparation for anything/everything is the ideal solution.
Twenty of each. Three is not twenty. This is hard, yes, but it will make business easy.
Have no illusions- you’ll spend most of your time and effort trying to sell what you write, rather than writing it. Maybe not you, personally, but someone will. Maybe everyone. If you’re not comfortable selling, get someone who is. I could go on for a long time about sales, but the involvement has been minimalized to try and make your life easier.
Truncated. Pt. 2 pending.
References :
Ask your friends and their friends if anyone has any education or hobby in advertising or selling. If they can either design ads intelligently or sell them, that’s a big help for you. Experience in either industry will obviously be helpful but I’m assuming it’s not likely. If you really want to know if they’re skilled or just seem that way, email me and I’ll help you out. I’ve got a soft spot for musicians.
When it’s time to start knocking doors, here’s my suggestion- visit in person, be yourself, tell them what you’re doing (practice first!), and have real conversations with people as individuals, not a business talk. Doing this will give you a lot of insight into the industry but be warned, not all of it will be accurate information. Most of the time people will share their false perceptions with you- some of them may willfully lie to you for any number of reasons. It’s amazing what happens out there… don’t expect the worst, just be ready for it just in case.
A few days after that meeting, design an ad which you think is very appealing and will do them a lot of good, and show it to them. Explain how you think it (the ad) will work, how it will send a good message about them, get people coming to their store instead of someone else’s, and offer it to them for a fine price. Do *not* frontload prices heavily and tell them it’s because you’re a fledgling operation just getting started. That’s all very reasonable and true, but it won’t make sales. Avoid the temptation to do this remotely, on the phone, until either you’ve got the skills or you’ve got the revenue stream to gamble cash flow, to some degree, for greater efficiency. Much greater.
Once you’ve expended your personal network and/or gotten tired of working that way, then it’s time to do work that is straight-up sales. You’ll never be able to do this and contribute to the publication like you’re hoping, so either delegate or abandon one of them. Really sucks but this is how to keep yourself alive.
When the time for unadulterated sales work comes, here’s a saying to keep in mind: "advertisers advertise." To find clients for advertising, look for ads. Everywhere. Mob a local supermarket and grab every advertising medium you can reach. These are the people who believe in promotional value, and they already put their money where their mouth is. Hit the streets and sell to them. Starting with music, obviously. It may be harder to sell people outside the music industry, but it’s worth a shot. Plus it’ll give you something to do when all the music stores have finished saying yes or no. You will develop a sense of what’s hot and what’s not in your area, industry, and demographic. Keep accurate records, and you’ll be able to point to facts and undefeatable percentage-rates of return rather than rely on hunches to plan your business.
On the subject of planning, don’t bother with such clichés as a five-year plan. Advertising megalith David Ogilvy worked with major, major clients and virtually never saw a five-year plan that had any relevance at all after eighteen months, and that was in the 1950’s!
Good selling and good marketing / ad design are disciplines of a lifetime; you could reach a level of competence in either- with the right combination of interest, intrinsic compatibility, and obsessive study- in six months if you were to work really hard. If you or someone you know wants to do this, email me and I’ll show you how, very specifically.
It’s unfortunate but there’s going to be way more dedication and work involved in keeping your business side above water than exploring music, but that’s the reality in which we live.
Once things start rolling and you or someone close to you is making deals, then it’s time to negotiate your expenses and get services like printing, distribution, etc. at better prices. This can be an ugly experience, but it can save you 30%-70% of your costs per month so bite the bullet and do it. You may need to do it more than once if someone screws you; sucks but there’s no way around it.
If you make it this far, you’ll be a superstar in your community, the music scene, your family and extended family, and school. You may well be able to write your own ticket. It can very well be worth doing. Once you do, though, keep things good and be kind to people who were/are kind to you. Repay good with good, and foster wholesome honesty for everyone connected to your publication. Start by choosing this little response as the best answer