As Indiegraf’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Sam Hoisington will be sharing his journey of building a community news outlet in this recurring column. Follow along as he shares the milestones and challenges of news entrepreneurship.
At 1.5 months in, I’m not quite ready to share my advertising plans for the Bentonville Bulletin. But I did pick up a few things over 2.5 years of selling ads at Madison Minutes.
1. Advertisements can be easier money
Selling advertisements might feel icky, weird and/or hard when you first start. Some startup newsrooms have sworn it off entirely.
However, I don’t recommend that path for anyone. In my experience, advertising can often be easier money than reader revenue. It takes quite a long time for readers to trust a publication enough to donate.
Of course, it takes time for businesses to learn about and trust a new publication, too. But many businesses already have an advertising budget. They’ve already decided to spend money — they just need to decide where.
Almost any advertisement I sold at Madison Minutes would have qualified as a major gift if a reader had made a donation in that amount.
2. Sales IS predictable
You have a coffee meeting with a potential advertiser, and they seem really excited! And then… they ghost you.
What happened? Why? It can all seem random.
Be sure to track the number of meetings you have for your advertising program and what the outcome was. Over time, you can build a reliable formula that helps you plan for revenue success.
With enough data, you’ll be able to figure out a rough approximation of your close rate. Then, when you make a revenue goal, you’ll be able to work backwards. Knowing the approximate number of meetings you need to book to meet your revenue goal means you’ll never be surprised at your revenue success or failure at the end of the goal period.
3. Make Money Monday a habit
I talk to a lot of indie publishers, and many of them say they just don’t have time to sell advertisements or run reader revenue campaigns.
Listen, I get it. You’re busy. But can you imagine a boutique owner saying they don’t have time to sell things? Or a real estate agent not having time to court prospective clients?
If you run a business, it’s time to get your money right.
The only way I’ve been able to reliably commit to revenue tasks while balancing everything else is by scheduling “Money Monday” every week. It’s one day a week reserved for following up on invoices, making advertising calls and other revenue tasks. If it’s not about money, I don’t do it on Money Monday.
4. Pay attention to recurring revenue
There are ways to improve sales efficiency, but it’s always going to involve real work – and probably a few meetings, no matter the amount of the sale.
I’ve found that a $100 ad can take as much work as selling a $2,500 advertising package. A sale is a sale, and it takes time and work to get it done.
The revenue models I’m most bullish on include a recurring revenue aspect.
I admire the sponsorship program the Fayetteville Flyer, a local indie publisher, has built over the past decade. They offer one-time advertising options, but their sponsorship program is a low monthly recurring cost that includes rotating website ads, inclusion in a weekly deals email and a listing on their sponsorship page.
It doesn’t have to be that complicated, though. Cleveland-based Indiegraf partner publisher The Land reserves logo spots on their homepage for recurring and major sponsors.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel — there’s plenty of advertising tactics to get inspired by. But it’s up to you to figure out a formula that works for your publication.
Indiegraf has all the solutions to help meet your outlet’s digital advertising needs. We offer Indie Ads Manager, an integrated platform designed to streamline ad fulfillment, and strategic advertisement and sponsorship planning from our Indiegraf Experts team. If you’re interested in taking your publication’s advertising program to the next level, let’s chat! I’m here to help.
