Advertising for Advertisers & Sponsors

Ideas for filling Ad Spot Inventory

[affgirl]

We have a lot of inventory on our site. We are doing spots and not exactly the traditional banner impression and click charges, but more like a marketplace and ad rotation throughout the site plus in video commercial ads. More like a newspaper or mag.

So far we have got a sales manager who is going to be hiring other sales reps to come in and call companies to sell this inventory. However I was wondering what other online opportunities there are for advertising to find buyers direct? We have information and ads on our site about the advertising opportunities. However, are there good sites or resources to get the word out on other sites? Would it be worth it to advertise it on Google or other PPC's? Would companies ever even search there for sites and media to advertise on? Are there good agencies to work with who would represent you to sell your inventory to big companies? It would have to be one focused on the specific niche. Is it appropriate to email companies about it from their posted email addresses listed on their site? Is that even effective? Who knows who in the company would receive the email. I'm just looking for additional ways to get this moving fast beyond just cold calling. Thanks.

[skibum]

When we do media buys for clients, MediaMetrix is one of the main places we go for info and if a site turns up in there and has the desired demographics we'll often be in touch.

Sending out print media kits to online agencies would be a good way to go IMHO. Then have the sales people followup. Otherwise it's: You are who? What did you say you were offering? What's the domain name again? How do I navigate to the rate card?

If you send them something first via snail mail, there is at least a chance that they may already have something on hand to look at as you talk to them. It may help to go through the calling list more quickly as well. Oh yes, we have clients that may be interested in advertising there or nope not our market.

Look at the client lists of agencies and send the agencies some info, likewise to companies in the industry who may be interested in a buy. Look for some kind of media buyer title on the site and send to that person.

A lot of the sites we end up looking at for clients, often come up because the client got a call or received something from the media property.

It depends on the industry and the client but lots of em' look for a certain cost of marketing from any kind of buy now which is often unreasonably low IMHO but that's just the way it goes.

You could join aff programs, ad networks (probably don't pay that much but never used one on the pub side), AdSense or other contextual networks.