Building relationships with advertisers can be a game-changer for growing your publication into a sustainable business. But where do you start? In this guide, we’ll walk you through practical strategies to find and approach potential advertisers, sell ad space, as well as tips on how to maintain lasting partnerships.
Start with Low-Hanging Fruit: Leverage Existing Connections
Before diving into cold outreach, tap into your existing network. Contact people you already know. This can be through local groups, nonprofits, or businesses you have worked with before. These groups are often more receptive and willing to support your efforts because of pre-established trust and mutual goals.
Look at the businesses and organizations that are already subscribed to your newsletter or following you on social media. It’s always easier to bring a sponsor onboard if they are already educated about what your publication is doing.
You can also find potential sponsors in a variety of places:
- Check out industry websites, magazines, newsletters, etc. to find who is advertising with similar publications
- Look at local events and see who their sponsors are
- Research local businesses
- Go to local networking events
Reach Out to Prospects You’re Genuinely Excited About
Don’t just go for any advertiser — choose businesses and organizations that align with your values and your audience’s interests. It will be much easier to craft a compelling pitch when you’re genuinely excited about the potential partnership. Plus, your enthusiasm will come through in your outreach, making you more persuasive.
READ MORE: Learn how to create a successful and sustainable sponsorship strategy for growing your ad revenue
Focus on Understanding Advertisers’ Needs
Before you pitch anything, take the time to understand your prospect’s needs. What goals are they trying to achieve? What challenges are they facing? Do they support specific community causes? Adapt your ask to be specific to their needs. Don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach.
By framing your pitch around their pain points and demonstrating how you can solve them, you’ll increase your chances of success. Personalize your pitch to show that you’ve done your homework.
Targeting Local Audiences for Better Advertiser Fit
When you’re targeting local advertisers, the key is to demonstrate the value of reaching a specific, localized audience. Highlight the geographic area your newsletter or website covers, and emphasize how advertising with you allows them to connect with people in their community. Local businesses often prefer working with hyper-targeted media outlets, so make sure you’re clear about the unique benefits you offer.
To further enhance targeting capabilities, ad management software like Indie Ads Manager allows publishers to refine their audience reach based on device, browser, geographic area, and keywords. Leveraging these tools can help you provide more value to advertisers while keeping your ad placements efficient and profitable in today’s competitive digital landscape.
Approaching Advertisers: What to Say and How to Say It
The First Contact: How to Make a Strong First Impression
The first contact with a potential advertiser is crucial. Be professional but also personable. Your first impression sets the tone for future interactions. Keep it short and sweet — introduce yourself clearly, highlight why you’re reaching out, and explain how you can help them achieve their goals. Keep it friendly, but don’t shy away from showing the value of your platform.
How to Handle Common Objections and Rejections
It’s natural to face objections or even rejections when selling ad space. Anticipate common concerns and prepare responses in advance. Have example scripts ready for different scenarios, like budget constraints or skepticism about the ROI of advertising. Rejections aren’t personal, so be prepared to handle them gracefully and move on to the next prospect. Not only are rejections not personal, they’re absolutely going to happen. You need to get comfortable with being told “no”. That’s all part of the sales process and it doesn’t mean they are failing.
READ MORE: The importance of collecting first-party data for publishers
Keep Your Initial Ask Small and Simple
When you first approach an advertiser, start small. With cold prospects, you can simply ask if they have heard of your publication and/or see if they want to get subscribed to the free newsletter. The smaller the ask, the more likely someone will agree. Pushing an immediate sale or a meeting is more likely to be rejected.
A small ad placement or a trial campaign are a fantastic way to bring on early adopters, but try to start with familiarizing them with the product first. This lowers the risk for the advertiser and makes it more likely that they’ll say yes. Once you’ve built that initial trust, you can scale up and discuss larger campaigns down the road.
Pro Tip: Don’t rely on a single type of sponsorship, and don’t rely on selling one-off advertising space. Focus on things like underwritten content first, then move onto longer term newsletter and display ads, then fill in the gaps with one-time ad buys.
The Best Outreach Emails Are Short and Sweet
In today’s fast-paced world, attention spans are shorter than ever. Keep your emails concise and to the point. Make sure they can be easily read on a mobile device without the recipient having to scroll. A brief, clear message with a direct call-to-action is your best bet for getting a response.
READ MORE: Increase your paid sponsorships revenue with more effective communication
Outreach Strategies for Newsletter and Website Placements
When crafting your outreach strategy, consider the type of placements you’re offering — whether it’s sponsored content, banner ads, or email newsletter spots. Tailor your pitch to show how your platform fits their advertising needs. For example, you might offer a newsletter ad spot as a more personal, targeted option for local businesses, while website placements may appeal to brands looking for broader exposure.
How to Find Advertisers for Your Newsletter
If you’re focused on newsletter advertising, start by targeting local businesses that align with your audience. Reach out to small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the budget for large-scale advertising campaigns but are eager to connect with a local audience. Offer them customized ad space options that fit their budget and objectives.
Building a Sustainable Advertising Strategy
Finding and keeping advertisers for your newsletter or website isn’t a one-time task — it’s an ongoing process of outreach, relationship-building, and continuous improvement. By starting small, understanding your advertisers’ needs, and maintaining strong communication, you can create a sustainable, long-term advertising strategy that benefits both you and your partners.
Maintaining Long-Term Relationships with Advertisers
Once you’ve secured advertisers, the real work begins. This is the stage where reporting is crucial to nurture relationships with advertisers. In the non-profit world, this step is called the Ask-Thank-Report-Repeat cycle. You make the ask (they say yes), you thank them and run the ads. After the ads run, you report back to the advertiser and use that report to repeat your ask. The goal is to turn one-time advertisers into repeat customers.
Maintaining relationships requires consistent communication, delivering on your promises, and offering them opportunities for continued growth. Regular updates, performance reports, and occasional feedback surveys will help you keep advertisers satisfied and more likely to renew their campaigns with you.
Don’t just aim for a one-off deal; look for opportunities to work together long-term. Keep the lines of communication open and offer value beyond just selling ad space. The more your advertisers see value in working with you, the longer they’ll stay.
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