Height Steps to Increase Your Newsletter Advertising Revenue
By Howard Minsky of TheAdStop.com
As the newsletter market becomes increasingly more
competitive, it's important to follow several key steps
in your pursuit of potential advertisers. Simple steps
such as providing basic information and practicing
timely follow-up can contribute to the success of your
overall advertising revenue.
Follow these tips to quickly boost your advertising
revenues.
1. Contact Information - Always place contact
information toward the bottom of your emails and articles.
Include Company Name, Contact Name, Tel, URL, Email,
Fax, and Address. Buyers prefer to purchase ad space
from companies and individuals that are easy to contact
and have a physical location. List an email address for
purchasing advertising.
2. Target market - List your target market and
demographics. If you have not yet performed a survey of
your subscribers, then list your perceived target
market. To gain actual demographics, email your
subscribers a simple survey. This allows you to not
only learn about your subscribers, but will also aid in
efforts to increase subscriber base. A survey will
also help you to develop editorial content geared
towards your readers main concerns or interests.
3. Subscriber Numbers - Numbers are important when
considering an ad purchase. Don't hesitate to list the
number of subscribers to your newsletter as well as the
average monthly percentage of growth rate.
4. Follow Up - This may be one of the most valuable
steps in increasing advertising revenue. After a sale,
be sure to communicate with your advertiser. It's a
lot easier to re-sell ad space than find a new ad
buyer. If the advertising run is a one-issue purchase,
email the advertiser the day before the newsletter goes
out to remind the advertiser when it's scheduled to
run. Then telephone or email the advertiser after the
ad run to learn of the effectiveness. If the
advertiser is happy, resell them on the spot for a
longer term. If the advertiser was unhappy with the
results, ask "why" and then encourage them to buy
another advertisement at a discounted rate. If the
advertiser decides to purchase another run, be sure
they make changes their ad copy. The effectiveness of
the ad often depends on the ad copy itself.
If Advertisement is run for multiple months or issues,
email the advertiser weekly asking their feedback.
Telephone your advertiser once per month. Also, you
should always email the advertiser to inform them of an
approaching renewal time and attempt to renew their
run. If there is no answer, call two or three days
later and try to sell over phone.
5. URL Tracking - Have advertisers create a tracking
URL to verify advertising was included and allowing
analysis of the gains achieved from ad placement.
6. Credit Cards - Allow advertisers to purchase ad
space with credit cards. It is inexpensive and
presents a very professional organization. Better yet,
it is easier to re-sell as the advertiser only needs to
say YES. The easier you make it to buy the more sales
you'll make.
7. Partnerships - Increase the size of your advertising
offerings by partnering advertising sales with similar
newsletters and Ezines. Partnering allows you and
partners to collectively sell advertising space. The
larger subscriber base will attract larger advertising
buyers. Provide a 15% commission to the selling party,
which could be you or your partner(s). This works well
for newsletters with under 10,000 subscribers.
8. Ad Networks - List your ad offerings with one or
more Ad Networks. Gain a professional sales force with
extensive resources to sell your space. Realize, you
will earn less per subscriber, but you will most likely
sell-out your advertising space. This also allows you
to concentrate on marketing and content which is
usually the main interest. Also, many Ad Networks do
not require exclusives, so you can continue to sell
your own space with an assurance that advertising sales
will occur for every issue.
Follow these eight easy steps and you'll quickly see an
increase in advertising revenue. Good Luck!
Article by Howard Minsky, co-founder of www.TheAdStop.com
helping tens of thousands of small business owners increase
their Internet advertising revenues. Howard Minsky can be
reached at Howard@TheAdStop.com.