Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Advertisers are looking for results. So, if you have examples of past advertisers who've made many sales because of their ad, write up the case study/testimonial.

Circulation demographics. How many people read your newspaper (and is that number audited)? Do you know the % by: gender, race, age, buying habits, location, net worth, etc.?

Whoa-- change the word pitch-- that is for baseball. And the whole term "what they stand to benefit from it" implies to me you don't believe in your product or that its existance benefits those it serves. Nor do you "make one up". You tell the truth, nothing "made up".

Now, if you are still reading: I coached a client who owned a local franchised magazine. Most free mag's are in a local area advertising local businesses. Besides what Jay said above, we framed our presentation around "buy local". We'd pick a theme, for example-- right now she's selling "back to school", with not only ads for school clothes and supplies-- but doctor visits for those check ups and to make sure vacinations are current. Some couldn't justify a whole ad, so we'd help them share an ad with another-- fusion marketing.

In working with her, I was surprised how many retailers told her stories about advertisers coming in, sold them an ad, took their cheque and never published. So we did a series of postcards, leave behinds-- so that every call had a reason. One side of the card was always consistant, raining money. The other side was informative-- such as stats on how people like to buy local. Or a guerrilla marketing tip. It assured those retailers that were ripped off, that she was going to be around. She kept coming back.

She joined the Chamber, rented a room there, emailed the membership offering a non-commercial presentation on advertising in general. She attended as many chamber functions as she could, networking.

She had many competitors who were cheaper, but her ciruculation was higher. So instead of selling her ad space by size, we broke it down by impressions. Hers was the better value.

One place my client had problem with was cost justification. She had a coffee shop say "how can I buy a $750 ad when I'm selling coffee @1.50? And I coached her on the lifetime value of the customer. She went back in and closed them.

I coached her over a year, and those are just a few of the common objections we continually had to overcome.

Sell Well and Prosper tm

What do they stand to gain -
Status - for the owner
New Customers -Added Business
Retain Existing Customers - Increased Visibility
A Voice in the Community - for Causes they support
A Reputation for Social Concious

Here's how you sell it....
Ask them what they feel their business is missing..
Then come back a few days later with a plan.
If they dont know what they want from their business...
"pitch" New Customers/Retain Customers

The biggest thing people think about is demographics AND what do you offer that they

1) Aren't getting elsewhere already
2) Lowers their cost to reach the same market (increased ROI)

Michael