How do I convince my customers they should advertise on my website?
So i've been doing research on how to price advertising on my website. I have a nightlife guide website for a tourist destination where I highlight the most reccomended to go places, and I write articles on these places and make photoshoots as well... However I am finding it difficult on how to convince them to advertise on my website, as just the visits per month wont do. And I often get the "i'm already advertising on a website and i've seen no feedback"
How do I prove to them that its a win win situation and im not the only one gaining from it?
Pricing Customer Support Advertising Website
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If you're already writing about them and getting reviews written on your website, why would they pay to advertise? You're giving them free advertisement. You need to show them how paying to advertise on your website will generate increased profit. – Randy E 11 years ago
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At the moment I am only including a small intro on the places who are not paying to advertise with me and 1 main picture on top. What I write about is the events I attend and i link that to social media so people can post their comments on what they thought of the events. the idea is to get the local bars, clubs, restaurants to want to pay for that shoot, for the article, for the ad placements. I am finding it difficult to make them understand its beneficial for them because its bringing new clients, mainly international ones to their business because they are looking through my site. – Sergio 11 years ago
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Have them poll customers once a week or so for a month and see where they heard about them. It's simple and doesn't really cost them anything, you can even fund the "I found you by..." cards. Additionally, in your articles tell your readers to tell the businesses they heard about them from you. – Randy E 11 years ago
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Don't tell them, show them. Give them the full service free for a month or two, then you'll be able to prove that it works. Otherwise, they'll remain sceptical and you won't gain critical mass. You might also look into sponsoring local events, to raise awareness in your local area. – Steve Jones 11 years ago
2 Answers
Segmentation , high unique visitors in that segmentation , long avg time on page , and low bounce rates.
If you can segment your visitors into groupings that would attract specific advertisers, make sure you have high unique number of visitors , that spend a long time on each page then you can wrap all this up into info package for potential advertisers.
You might also want to profile each segment and create a page dedicated to explaining why each segment is of high value for X advertiser in this information package.
Also create a media package which will contain standard size examples for ads , some creatives they can use that has proven to work on your site for others, basically anything to help them do very little work to get on your site and start paying you.
I ran a business that published both print and online city guides, funded through advertising.
There are two things to know about classical advertising sales:
- the classic joke is 'half of my advertising is wasted, and I don't know which half'
- advertising is the most difficult thing to sell, because you can't prove it works
Why has Google done so well building a business on advertising? Because they have been able to prove it works: by only being paid based on click throughs. Why has Groupon done so well building a business on advertising? Because they have been able to prove it works, by only being paid for customers who buy the product/service (they are an aggressive couponing strategy).
So, your first option is to prepare really good materials, learn how to sell really well, and punch through the wall (and eventually you will get results) selling the 'trust me, this is a really great place to be: we're the 50% that works'. All sorts of things can help here, including showing the fact that other people are advertising: even offer a few months free to marquee advertisers, to leverage the 'everyone is doing it argument'. Share all your usage statistics and traffic. Tell them about yourself and spend time with them so they feel comfortable that you are believable and they can trust your statistics. It's all classic sales.
Your second option is to prove it works. A coupon is the classic way to do this. Something which says 'show this ad to the bartender and get 25% off your first drink'. It's a headache for the advertiser to deal with/execute. And it's a great way to prove you work.
