Grass Valley (CA) "Wows" clients with new online advertising program--generating more than $70k from current print advertisers in just 3 days!
The Opportunity
Ask a local business owner how they feel about online advertising and you will get a myriad of responses:
"My Web site is horrible."
"I don't believe anyone looks at online advertising."
"I don't have the time or money to create an online marketing message."
"My nephew created my Web site and has us listed on one of those great search engines."
When a newspaper sales person walks into an advertiser and brings up the topic of online advertising, they are often hit with one of the above responses--responses that often lead to the advertiser tuning out any further discussions of online advertising opportunities. Salespeople are often left feeling discouraged and bring that feeling back to the office where they quickly write-off any new ideas involving "new media." The new media team, which has bombarded the sales team with online facts and technical statistics, gets discouraged when their programs aren't selling. The whole newspaper seems to get caught up in a tightly woven "Web" mess and is often unable to get themselves free.
Newspapers throughout the US get so caught up in new media lingo, technical applications and complicated selling strategies that they often fail to see what the advertiser really needs--more reach and frequency for their marketing messages. The staff of the Grass Valley (CA) Union, while working with The Blinder Group, decided to use their high-traffic Web site as a way to get their current print advertisers' messages out to a new audience (reach) and out for a longer period of time (frequency). The result was a multimedia advertising program that sold out within three days of introducing it to advertisers.
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Program Overview
The beauty of this program, which is called WOW Ads, was that the online team did not have to rush to create a new program--they simply needed to give their newspaper Web site a minor facelift. The newspaper re-designed their Web site to include an ad space located next to the news stories and features. Ads rotated throughout the entire site--giving advertisers maximum exposure for their advertising.
The advertising space could contain both graphics and text and was linked to an online version of the advertiser's print ad. As the message in the print ad changed, so did the message online. In addition, the online version of the advertiser's print ad could be linked to the advertiser's Web site and/or e-mail address at no additional cost.
More good news? The sales team didn't have to learn any new technical sales pitch. Since the online advertising space was simply an extension of what the advertiser was running in print, sales executives were left pitching the extended reach and frequency of and advertiser's marketing message. They were doing what they have always done best--selling advertising--not technology.
Sales Strategy
Advertisers were offered an online package that included a flat monthly rate for putting their print ad online. This was a program where quality of the advertising message outweighed quantity. To ensure that advertiser's would receive the maximum number of page views, the program was limited to a select group of advertisers. The staff of The Union called on The Blinder Group, to help them focus their selling strategies on the WOW Ad program and lock in the majority of advertisers within 4 days of selling.
The Blinder Group helped the newspaper create sales collateral materials that included a one-page multimedia sales sheet. This sales sheet showed advertisers exactly what their online advertising space would look like and how it would work with their current print advertising campaign. No new marketing strategies needed to be created. No new art needed to be created. No new Web sites needed to be created. This program was custom-made to work with the advertiser's current marketing campaign and if the advertiser was unhappy with their Web site or didn't have one--the program still worked.
Results
Four-days of selling with The Blinder Group and the newspaper had hoped to lock in most of their advertisers into 52-week contracts. Unfortunately, they had nothing to do by day four--the team had sold out all spots within just 3 days of selling--generating more than $70,000 in new revenue. "WOW!" said Bill LaVelle, advertising director for The Union. "The Blinder Group was fantastic! Not only did they help our team learn to sell this program to our advertisers, but motivated the team to sell it out in record time! We can't wait to do this again."
The minute a salesperson mentions the word "online", many local advertisers stop listening. When newspapers begin training their sales staffs to use words such as "reach" and "frequency" they will finally be able to get over the hurdles of the online sale. Keep the sales team selling advertising--not technology--and you will soon reap the benefits of online advertising success. Just like the folks in Grass Valley!
Contact Information
The Union is a 16,100 located in Grass Valley, California
For more information about this program, contact:
Bill Lavelle, Advertising Director
530-477-4202
blavelle@theunion.com
530-477-4265
resposito@theunion.com Mike Blinder, The Blinder Group
(917) 865-4827
mike@blindergroup.com
The Blinder Group
Tampa Offices: 6139 Fjord Way
New Port Richey, FL 34652 USA
(727) 847-2464 ~ (727) 847-5959 (fax)
profit@blindergroup.com
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