Strategies for getting Direct Advertising

How do you get direct advertising?

[Arkons]

So what are some good strategies for bringing Direct advertising to a site?

I've been cold calling, and getting a few contacts through LinkedIn. I've also been in touch with an Interactive Advertising Agency, but it is still in the works.

What are some ways that you guys have had success? Also, what is the going rate for really well-targeted advertising? (i.e. your site is a tennis content site, and your potential advertiser is a racket retailer)

[wfernley]

Pricing wise, every site is different. You should look at what your competitors are charging and how many visitors they get. That should help you figure out what to charge.

As for attracting, do cold calls, emails and if possible, sit down face to face and talk about how you can benefit their company on your site.

I have been trying to increase the number of advertisers I have. I'm not the greatest at it either but it's just a matter of learning from what you did wrong and what you did right.

[wfernley]

Thank you for the advice. I found that pricing with the competition is all across the board. It confused me more than it helped. The other problem was that they were lying about their stats....they used the good ol' hit system saying that they receive over 40 million hits a year when their site doesn't look to be ranked high in SE's so I don't know where they get all that traffic from. I'm sure some is direct or from word of mouth and print, but they were definately exagerating their stats.

I want to keep my site honest so my stats don't look like anything special compared to theirs.

I think I will have to start doing cold calls and sending out email newsletters regarding advertising on my site.

[Fish_Texas]

Unless you are a mega site on the web, advertisers will not call you.
You must pick up the phone and do the grunt work...
If you like talking to people you'll do fine. Remember it's all in the numbers...the more you call, the more advertising you sell.

email has a verrrry low return unless you have a verrry large list.
I'd "fa get about it"

One method (depending on your target prospects) is direct mail followed up with a phone call...

The mail piece should be an oversized post card (6X8) in 4 color gloss front and flat back. Regular sized post cards won't work.

IF...and I repeat "IF" you can get that post card into the decision makers hands...you've got your name in front of him/her.
It's like an introduction, nothing else. After that you must call.

Buy a book on Telemarketing and start dialing. It's the only way.

Waiting for advertisers to call you is like waiting to win the lottery without buying a ticket...ain't gonna happen!

Fish Texas

[Erku]

OK, You pick up the phone and call them.

Let's write here a little introduction. What to say and what not to say.

Please share your experience.

[dickbaker]

Erku, I didn't want to intrude on Arkons' thread. But now that you've invited other comments...;)

Once again, to briefly describe what my site does: I offer advertising for widget stores that sell widgets and widget-related accessories. The people who buy these widgets do so primarily for hobby reasons. It's a popular niche, but there's not a lot of profit in the widgets themselves.

After reading years of success stories in the Advertising and Affiliate forum, I decided that I should start making direct contact with the biggest advertisers I can find in the widget niche.

One widget manufacturer approached me over a year ago about running banner ads for his free catalog offer. We did two months of experimentation for his banner ads, until he was finally getting a 5% CTR. He's very happy with that. However, his banner ads only appear on 26 of the 1600+ pages on my site. He gets the 5% CTR, though, because the people who view the pages where his ads appear are particularly interested in his products. Plus, he offers a free catalog.

I have another advertiser on the site. This company sells customized, limited-edition widgets. The pages look like total content pages, until the visitor gets to the last paragraph, where they're invited to click on a link for further information and pricing. This advertiser gets as much as a 13% CTR. And they only have four pages on my site.

I approached a popular consumer widget magazine about running ads on the remaining pages. After two months of trial, the marketing guy and I agreed that it wasn't worth the effort. The CTR was just .03%.

So, here's where I'm going right now.

I've approached one of the major discount retail chains about advertising their stores on my site. They have 160+ stores in over 25 states. In an email today to the marketing manager, I pointed out that my site gets more visitors than theirs, that my site can be found in the top five results on the major SE's for just about every term I want, that I offer quality advertising at very low rates, and that my site would give them internet exposure that they don't have now.

I was polite in my email, thanked the marketing manager for his time, and said that I would contact him by phone in a week or two, giving him time to examine my site and decide whether it would benefit his company.

I also contacted the marketing director at a company--"cheaperwidgetstuff"--to introduce my site. Just like my current banner advertiser, they also offer a free catalog. And I was told by the assistant marketing director that the free catalogs generate profits.

Should be an easy decision on their part, right? I'm not betting on it.

Months ago, I signed on for an affiliate program with a widget retailer in another state. I ran banner ads for this retailer across most of the pages on my site. The problem I saw was that the design of the banner ads didn't appeal to the broad spectrum of widget buyers. Also, the payout on sales was ridiculously low. In one $300 or so sale, my commission was 64 cents.

If all else fails, I may approach this retailer again, but with a different offer: I have over 1,000 pages of content devoted to individual widget models from major manufacturers. At the bottom of each page is a sentence that reads, "to find Acme widget dealers in your area, select a state."

My offer to this retailer would be to add a sentence above that reading, "for some of the best internet deals on Acme widgets, click here."

And I would ask for 15 cents per click, not some vague percentage of profit from sales that I can't quantify.

Sorry for the long post, but these are my ideas right now. I'd be interested to hear what ideas others have regarding their sites.

[Erku]

dickbaker,

thanks a lot. your post was very interesting. so direct marketing even with larger organizations may work?

many thanks

[dickbaker]

Erku, I have no idea whether my efforts will succeed.

When I think about my approaches using my pea-sized brain, they make sense.

For the large national widget retail chain store, advertising on my site makes sense. If someone searches for "Acme widgets," or "[insert state here] widget stores," my site comes up in the top five results on Google. Their site is nowhere to be found. The only way to find their site is to search for their chain of stores by name. So, right now, when a potential customer is searching for "[state] widget stores," they're finding stores, but not the chain's stores.

For the "cheaperwidgetstuff" catalog company, I see it this way: they make a profit from distributing their free catalogs; and I'm offering them a month or two of free banner advertising on my site for their free catalogs as a test. If the test is successful, we can negotiate a price for the advertising that's mutually acceptable.

All of that having been said, I've been dealing with marketing directors for nearly 30 years, and have come to the conclusion that they got into marketing because they flunked math in high school and thus couldn't get a real job.