Multi-channel outcome mapping leads to better media sales

Advertising sales are on the move.  Up, down, from one medium to another, the advertising sales landscape has become a challenge to predict and has certainly evolved from tactical buys to data driven proposals.  If your advertising sales teams feels more like statisticians than consultants, they are not alone, many sales teams are challenged to adapt to the new normal.  Where challenge exists, so does opportunity.

Sales teams can’t ignore the ongoing shift across mediums.  With niche audiences, associations and publishers have unique inroads to help advertisers reach their audiences through an evolving portfolio of options.  If your sales team is having trouble connecting the dots, a quick evaluation of what matters to your advertisers offers some unique lessons.

Instead of positioning your media like a menu, start with where your client wants to go with their program.  Adapt the language and offerings your team is presenting to help map the program and cross-sell your options.  Here are some examples:

Perhaps your portfolio includes:  Magazine ads, content marketing, website display, video, e-news, directory advertising, direct mail, events and webcasts.  We can certainly position these menu style, or help your client map your options to their desired outcomes.  Offer suggestions around what your portfolio can help your advertisers accomplish.  The end goal may involve further investment from the advertiser or perhaps offer another angle for them to consider, for certain, it offers your team the opportunity to consult while closing.  Here is a quick example using the same portfolio options above.

“Our” Portfolio can provide your sales and marketing team:

Objective:  Build visibility to gain competitive advantage:
Website:  “Our” display advertising programs provides the impressions you need to fulfill your goals
Video:  Whether you offer video placements or display ads that can share video content, video’s impact on your portfolio and their brand building is going to increase year after year

Objective:  Establish Thought Leadership:
Magazine:  Advertising in “Our” Magazine places your team in front of an engaged readership and share WHY that’s important.
Content Marketing:  Have a content marketing option, here is a great place to position it!

Objective: Convert Leads
E-News and Direct Mail:  Reaching mailboxes is still en vogue, but help your advertiser understand why visibility and thought leadership feed this outcome
Directory Advertising:  Qualified search (your audience searching for what they need) is a critical place for ad placement.  Sure, a potential customer of your advertiser can search the web, but with your directory, the advertiser gets a qualified search with implicit interest in the category of business they serve!

Objective:  Build Brand Advocacy
Webcasts:  Subject matter expertise mixed with customer story can provide powerful results.  Often 1 lead from a webcast, can help an advertiser gain ROI for their entire program

Helping your advertisers understand the eco-system of your portfolio is a great way to cross-sell into programs that they can use to stand out with your audience.  Help map their outcomes around your organization’s portfolio, and adapt as necessary.  Your audience matters, help them understand why!