Due to the fact that advertising goods and services over the internet can cost little or nothing, advertising in mediums like magazine can be quite a task.
The important thing is to carefully match your audience with your advertisers and make sure you’re creating a product that will generate a lot of demand. In other words, your magazine must be high quality and targeted. Just like television, magazines tend to be more visually focused.
The photos that are in the ad, the color choice, font type et al, can be just as important as the message which the advertiser wants to convey to the readers. A magazine advertising campaign has significant power to persuade people to buy products.
For instance, an ad on a newspaper does not have the same visual impact in the senses as it not as glossy, and it also exists alongside other distracting news articles or other ads. Television has an impact, but the visuals are gone in a fleeting second. They don’t hold attention like a magazine ad can.
In addition, a magazine reader especially a subscriber, will most likely flip through every page of an issue, unlike a newspaper reader who might toss aside entire sections. What this means is that magazine ads have a chance to be seen by all who subscribe to it or pick up a copy at the news stand.
Other benefits of magazine advertisement include the fact is that it is easier for a magazine to get to a niche audience. A newspaper caters for a wide variety of people with different needs and interest, but a magazine on the other hand is designed for people who have a shared interest or value.
It is critical that you have demographic information that you can show a potential ad buyer. For instance, while Good Housekeeping and Vogue are two magazines geared toward women, their audiences are very different. Know the average age and income of your readers, plus their typical interests beyond the magazine.
Again, magazines have a longer shelf life when compared to newspapers. Daily newspapers lose their relevance quickly but a magazine ad can have value for the length of a current issue, be it a week, a month, or even longer.
This means that you can tell your prospective customers that if they do not experience remarkable increase in volume of sales the moment the issue containing their ad is released, there’s no need to worry because more and more people will get to see the ad as time goes on.
How to Sell Advertising Space in a Magazine
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Assemble a media kit for your magazine
First, you have to create a media kit. This kit should contain some vital information such as who your customers are and what your competition in the publishing world is as well as what makes you unique. It should also have some sample pages to show what the magazine looks like.
Furthermore, it should contain how many times you intend to churn out issues and how you intend to get the magazine to stands. Finally, it should include information about advertising costs. For instance, how much a quarter-page ad , a half-page, and a full page will cost.
2. Identify companies that might be interested in advertising in your magazine
For instance, if you are creating a weight loss magazine for your city, fitness centers, gyms, fitness equipment retailers, health food stores and beauty products stores might all be enterprises that may be interested in purchasing an ad space from you. You can also peruse the publication of your competitor to see businesses that patronize them.
3. Call or email your prospective advertisers
If emails are your preferred choice of communicating with your prospective clients, you can ask them if you can send a digital copy of your media kit across to them. It goes without saying that you should not constitute a nuisance by repeatedly sending emails to people who have made it clear that they are not interested in what you have to offer.
This constitutes as spamming which can be bad for your brand. If you are a startup, you will need to use these interactions to establish trust and relationships with the prospective advertisers.
4. Offer deals
If you are the “new kid on the block”, you can offer special deals for people who commit to advertising right away or for long periods. You can give a discount of up to 25 percent for the first 25 companies to buy ads in your magazine. Give a discount for advertisers who commit to buying more than one ad.
The longer the contract, the bigger the discount. However, you should make sure that you do not set yourself up with months of discounted ad revenues that will put you in a hole you can’t climb out of.
Tips for Selling Magazine Advertising Space
- Look at businesses that would want to appeal to your readership and then try to market your services to them
- Make sure that your magazine has something unique to offer before you even try looking for business to advertise in your magazine.
- The more calls, emails and marketing you do, the more your chances of getting customers. Always strive to have people who will advertise their business in your publication and don’t be comfortable with the numbers you have already.
- If your get a reject (and you most probably will), don’t take it personally. Some companies may not have enough funds at the movement to spend on more ads. You can try some other time.
- Don’t just give up after the first try, make a point to call again
- Listen and establish what the potential customer wants to achieve with their marketing budget, then tailor the conversation to meet their needs and wants.
- Endeavor to build a relationship with businesses that could be your potential advertisers. If you are in good terms with them, even though they may not be willing to advertise with your magazine at the moment, you will be on top of the list of people to call when they are ready to advertise.
- A good reputation is priceless in all businesses. If you know that you may not be able to keep to a promise, then don’t make it in the first place. A bad reputation will definitely deny you of a lot of opportunities in the future. And with the advent of the internet, the post made by a disgruntled customer will always be available for all to read.
- Don’t undervalue your magazine. You don’t have to make your services dirt cheap or else you run a risk of not being able to recover your operating cost. If a client asks for a discount always ask for something in return, for example, customer referrals, block/series bookings, prompt payment.