What if the contact page for advertising could simply complete the sale?
Newspaper websites often have contact pages that require visitors to fill out a form to talk to someone about advertising. Often these links are not easy to find or contain incomplete information on how to purchase advertising for that media outlet.
“The advertiser has gone to all the trouble to find this page, typically from a tiny link at the bottom of the home page,” Kim Safran, VP of Sales at iPublish Media Solutions, points out.
“So if I’m on your site and it has a beautiful media kit with audience data and detailed information about your product offerings, at the end of the day…I have to pick up the phone and call to talk to someone.”
One reason cited for doing this is newspapers don’t want to lose a lead. They want their qualified salespeople to reach out to every prospect. But what if the prospective advertiser doesn’t want to talk to anyone?
“With today’s technology, you no longer need to schedule a call or appointment. There is no reason the customer can’t just buy the basic ad campaign they are interested in while they are already on task and on your website.”
If you are concerned about “losing a lead,” don’t be. With software like, VistorTrack letting you know which companies are on specific pages of your website, you will know who is interested and can assign a sales rep to follow up. Even if the prospect starts to build an ad in the self-service system and then abandons the cart, you still have a record of the start of that transaction on which you can follow up.
Most newspapers have not caught up with the technology that is readily available to create this new stream of leads.
“90% of newspapers’ ‘Advertise’ pages I have seen are like this,” Safran said. “Guess who is not like this? Facebook. You can complete the transaction without having to postpone it. People are expressing a preference for the simplicity of online ordering across the board.”
iPublish Media’s ad design and online check-out tool lets newspapers sell ads directly on their websites. It was developed with years of experience creating leading DIY platforms for classifieds, obituaries and verticals like real estate and automotive.
By posting simple transaction forms on the advertising page the way you do for classified and obituaries, newspapers are able to both complete more transactions and increase their leads.
“Either way it is a win.” Safran said.
