TRUST: The #1 Advantage Media Companies Have to Win in the Local SMB Advertising Game
The research matches what we already know on a gut level: Local media companies have a key advantage over “faceless” competitors for local ad dollars. In fact, a recent Kantar Millward Brown survey found, “Consumers are more receptive to traditional media than digital ads.” Local media advertising sales leaders who understand this and put together the right business models can effectively disrupt the disruptors!*
Local media companies have established brands and audience. The news is filled with stories about fake news and digital advertising fraud. Purchasing ads from a local media company gives the customer peace of mind that they are truly reaching the right audience with the right message, as “counseled” by people who know the local market.
The most important advantage is simply owning trusted local media channels and audiences.
These channels and audiences still provide the ability to compete on packaging in ways that are simply unavailable to digital only marketing companies and platforms. (Borrell data point #2 on 74% SMB prefer bundle of traditional with digital versus digital alone). And the barrier to entry remains nearly insurmountable.
In the hand-to-hand combat for the top advertisers in the market, sales people already understand this truth. In the field, they are reducing or eliminating the margins on large programmatic buys in order to retain a television schedule. They are bundling in an exclusive email to owned lists of events attendees. They are using these capabilities to effortlessly edge online-only agencies out of the buy.
The same is also true in the DIY advertising market using iPublish Media´s self-serve SMB platform. Local media companies can blend traditional media with social media and digital options, at reduced prices made possible by automation, and provide a bundle that cannot be matched by competitors.
Automated DIY front end sales with integrations that allow reverse pagination in print and auto-placement on Facebook and other digital platforms empowers media companies with opportunities to offer relevant audiences across the widest set of products ever allowed from a single advertising platform. These robust marketing packages are low cost for SMBs and high margin for local media companies. Digital agencies and other digital-only DIY marketing services simply cannot provide these options let alone at competitive prices and maintain profitability. By increasing revenue, reducing operating costs, and cost of sale iPublish empowers your media brand to be a profitable advertising partner to the small-to-medium businesses in your community.
The result is that local media companies are perfectly positioned to compete in the DIY space and take back market share for the first time in decades.
*(source: http://www.lsainsider.com/survey-consumers-more-receptive-to-traditional-media-ads-than-digital/archives and (Borrell))
