Newscycle/Naviga recently recommended that their newspaper clients offer an advertising self-service portal and listed eight reasons why this gives newspapers an advantage.

In addition to the convenience for advertisers and labor savings for newspapers, they also highlighted increasing evidence that customers today expect to be able to buy and pay online for their advertising for a variety of reasons.

Eight Benefits of Self-Service

Here is how Newscycle/Naviga recommends their newspaper clients can benefit from a self-service advertising portal:

  1. Convenience for customers. There is a reason the majority of display advertising today—Google and Facebook—is bought online. 24/7 access to computers means that customers can work at all hours or even in different time zones to place orders.
  2. Easy access to information. With self-service, customers can edit and save all their ads, store payment information, and access it from anywhere in a single AdPortal platform. This information is also available to the newspaper’s production and billing teams, making it easy to flag missing graphics, errant details or verify that an invoice was sent. The audit trail is always there. Newscycle’s software also integrates material submission with their pre-flight software allowing instant feedback to customers on any artwork issues. iPublish Media Solutions integrates with ad order entry systems offered by Newscycle/Naviga, as well as other major front-end platforms from Brainworks, VisionData, and Miles 22, for seamless 360-degree print, digital, and social media advertising campaigns—from design to scheduling to payment.
  3. Convenience for the newspaper. Customers need less help from the newspaper staff than they used to. Since they can use the self-service portal to create ads, view orders, make payments, and renew campaigns, implementing self-serve gives your sales, production and billing teams more time for revenue-generating tasks like “pursuing opportunities, designing great campaigns, analyzing accounts and planning for the future.”
  4. Customize deals. With self-service, media companies can generate customized discounts for prepaying, early renewal and multi-media bundled packages.
  5. Online payments. Skip the process of getting contracts signed and sending invoices by allowing customers to be in charge and make payments any time of the day or night.
  6. Reduce friction. Anything that reduces the number of steps and interactions required to make a purchase, “cuts the processes that create barriers to signing.” If customers need help, they can still call local sales support; but eliminating the “back and forth” and allowing customers to buy from any device is powerful.
  7. Cost savings by removing the middleman. Local media companies can also become more competitive by removing the middleman from campaign packages and programs that don’t require negotiation—and pass on the savings to the customers or put it toward the bottom line.
  8. Stand out from the crowd. Not all local media companies offer self-serve as an option, simply allowing this convenience gives customers a choice and the local media organization an edge over the competition.

iPublish Media Solutions concurs with these findings and is proud to be a premier partner with Newscycle/Naviga. 70% of iPublish Media’s install base uses Naviga as their front-end advertising system.