brainworks: classified digital first: where is the new money?
TRANSCRIPT
Brainworks: Classified Digital First:
where is the new money?
Janet DeGeorge, President, [email protected]
janetdegeorge@classifiedexecutivetraining.comwww.ClassifiedExecutiveTraining.com
April, 2013
Note: There is no way to talk about online classifieds without mentioning our vendor partners
I am in no way affiliated with any online vendors nor do I get anything for talking about them.
But I will mention those whom my clients especially love…
AGENDA
Where’s the online revenue today? New revenue sources Online/print packages for Auto and
Employment How to train and motivate your staff
to sell online
I was fresh out of college in the early 1990’s when we first started talking about classifieds on the internet.
My first thought was…
“I HOPE I AM RETIRED BEFORE THE INTERNET STARTS…”
Janet DeGeorge circa late 1980’s official San Jose Mercury News Photo
Back to 2013….
Now there is more digital and online products than we ever thought possible
This is from Augusta Chronicles Media Kit found at www.AugustaChronicle.com
FROM QR CODES TO Search Engine Marketing, every newspaper seems to be at a different evolution
You say there is not enough revenue in online…
But you HAVE to sell more…so use the right LURES to sell online to customers in order to also sell more print…it is just REVERSE SELLING
Truth is…
Car dealers are being told by their corporate headquarters
MORE ON LINE Realtors are being told by NAR MORE ON LINE Even employers are being told MORE ON LINE Even if they don’t want to, they HAVE TO! If you don’t offer all the bells and whistles, someone
else will.
The right online LURE could get you so much more in print, so start fishing…
TO catch more BIG FISH Classified Revenue, use different online methods!
Who makes the REAL big bucks from online?
You hear of all the increases in online revenue, but in reality the majority or revenue is in the hands of just a few online companies.
April 16, 2013 Headline
Are newspapers online products growing at that rate?
In realty, who is making all the online revenue?30 websites that make most of the online revenues
From IAB 2012 Final Online Report
It’s not until #30 that a newspaper appears
And guess who that is…
The Top 50 companies make 89% of online revenue leaving 11% for the rest of us
So you may not be making that kid of online money, but you should still try for 15% growth each year.
And that means REAL growth, not just by switching revenue buckets
Follow the money…
Sell what advertisers are buying and remember RESULTS IS EVERYTHING
NAA.org Composite of Newspaper revenue 2012
More info from the IAB
Internet Advertising Bureau
IAB Revenue Report 2012
And it’s not growing…
Why is classified online revenue going down?
Why else, free classified websites. So we have to find other ways to make online money with our classified products!
Source: IAB 2012 Revenue Report
So we are all on the same page, lets quickly go over some definitions…
All the products to make more online money with Classifieds
If your Classified inside and outside reps are not selling banner ads, you are missing out on a lot of easy new revenue
Once trained, inside reps GET IT and very easily sell online banners if the process is EASY and ACCURATE
OR REAL ESTATE RUN OF SITE BANNER, CLASSIFIED REPS CAN SELL THIS!
And no matter who your vendor is, they can accommodate banner space
NEVER LEAVE BANNER SPACE EMPTY
It is SO HARD to sell an empty space!
You can sell almost any classified advertiser an online sponsorship if there is some sort of connection
Example, maybe you want to have GADZOO for your PETS online, but don’t have the money to pay for it….GET A SPONSOR
Your Top Vet or Vet Hospital would gladly sponsor GADZOO! Even having the right GOOGLE ads on the side would bring in enough money to pay for this site
Email marketing and Classified should go hand in hand.
You need EMAILS from every customerbroken into category.
You should email SPECIALS with links to PLACE YOUR AD CLICK HERE
Sending out PDF flyers for your Specials. Realtors should be getting DAILY DEALS
from YOU to place ads with discounts.
Don’t have an email blast product or more so you have to beg to use it?
Use the free MAILCHIMP.com It’s easy, fun and fast to learn. Just dig into it and start some direct mail campaigns! They will even walk you right through what a GOOD email campaign is all about…
So whether it’s a take off on Daily Deals or an Employment Newsletter advertising your new online features..
Email blasts are free, easy and product revenues…
REALTORS!
PREMIERE HOMES TODAY ONLY!
Mobile & Classified are a perfect match up
Photo from www.maboom.com mobile platform
What other ways to make some easy money from your online classifieds?
REALLY learn how to use Google Ad sense and watch the money roll in…SEARCH is the #1 Revenue Source.
And for Classifieds?
There are free classified sites pulling in $40,000 a month from GOOGLE AD SENSE!
You have to be willing to learn how it will work best for Classifieds…
And here is a source for you…
This site gives an entire HOW TO step by step to make more money with GOOGLE AD SENSE…
JUST DO IT!
Employment Online
The Recruitment Agency’s website tell it all…they know what is attracting new customers….
OLD FORMAT
Get on this, it is the best LURES for customers
And they will pay top price for you to do it for them so they don’t have to.
You should already have the basics… The Basics: Top Jobs Banner/Tower Ads on jobs page. Logo Button links
What lures you need…
Tweeting jobs Facebook job page Video Jobs (plenty of vendors available) Mobile jobs Linked in partnership Indeed partnership And all the vendor partnerships that make
sense for your customers
Indeed Partnership
It’s free It’s easy And it will help bulk up your
employment listing to attract more job seekers and more advertisers.
How can it work?
All you have to do is run their Google type ads to be a free partner
You can enhance your listings anyway you want, by city or by category.
This newspaper has chosen to list their sold ads in GRAY Screen and run Indeed ads after theirs.
Las Vegas Review Journal uses every resource to expand their employment upsells to employers
From Employment Manager GuruChelle Bize.
Celle Bize, Las Vegas Employment Manager Guru
“We use the following vendors but sell it all as "ours" branded to the marketplace:
SEM-Reach Local Retargeting-Reach Local ROS-Switching to DFP Mobile-APT or DFP Behavioral Targeted ROS-Yahoo Industry Specific Banners--Our site, lvrj.com Audience Extension-PaperG Line Ads+Networks are Adicio and Cross-post.com , we sell both”.
Cross-post.com automatically gets your job posting on appropriate job sites. So if your current vendor does not do this already, you can just look at this product.
These are just a few…
Email newsletter blast ….
Hmmm…could you get a SPONSOR for this as well, perhaps a TEMP Agency?
I LOVE VIRTUAL JOB FAIRS!
Look at demos from
www.AppVault.com
Brainerd Dispatch, Brainerd, MN
Circ 17K
Blended on online Virtual Job Fair with a print product just for Veterans!
Auto Online
Some papers are just way ahead…Morris Communications and Engine 212
Case Study: Augusta Chronicle who barely lost a page of Auto Ads all through the recession.
And they have over 13,800 car listings on their website, more than Craigslist, more than Auto Trader and more than Cars.com in their market.
Brett Miller, Major Account Manager Augusta Chronicle
“What dealers want, everything! Can we give it to them, in my world yes …
Everything will work as long as you build that audience and give the reader what they want… inventory.
If you can make it look like “this is the place to be” then not only the audience will follow but the advertising will as well.
I am a firm believer in order to get calls and feet on a dealers lot, create the market.
You do that by making it cheap and easy and get everyone to participate”…
The new Engine 212
How they put their AUTO DEALERS where everyone online is looking…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNk8iXv4rNc&feature=youtu.be
Get more info [email protected]
Watch this YOUTUBE.com video on this great product Engine212
GETTING YOUR SALES REPS TO START SELLING AUTO ONLINE PRODUCTS
ADVICE FROM THE STREET…
Advice from the street: A LONG TIME AUTO REP A top auto rep at the Arizona Republic has
this to say about and online when they first started selling multiple online products…
“What we did at azcentral.com and Arizona Republic is bundle it together, which is typical these days.
If they wanted to buy print a la carte, it would be a much higher print rate.
It was a win-win. They had presence in the #1 newspaper and local news website.
She went on to say… “The reason we did this… was that even though
many of the dealers claimed the paper was obsolete, they still were buying print over the newspaper website.
This package helped educate and train them in a different way of thinking of us as just a print media co.
I think some of the older GMs fear the internet while others had unrealistic expectations and hold digital advertising to a higher standard because it is somewhat track-able”.
Sales rep advice continued… “Another thing with the older GM’s is that they can
see their newspaper ad, but don't see their online and think it hasn't ran.
I was able to overcome this by taking screenshots of their ad and sending it to them.
I also would bring them reporting mid way during their campaign and show them how many times their ad was seen by our high quality audience.
We were trained to talk exposure rather then the click-thru rate.
They had exposure in front of our educated, affluent readers that can afford to buy their vehicles.
Advice continued…
Eventually they did start to see the value in the website and how it worked well with print.
For example, if they were having a big tent sale and had the same creative in print and online, this had a far greater impact and wide span reach.
Also, it is important that if a dealer is running special pricing in their online display ad for $179 mo, the consumer should be able to click on the ad and see the matching special of $179 mo on the dealer website, as opposed to just landing in the middle of their website.
Training
Without really understanding what they are selling, even your best reps are reluctant and not motivated to sell. Training changes everything!
Chelle Bize from Las Vegas Review Journal’s advice
Training is KEY: “Our digital division is constantly
training on the new products Plus all of us selling digital are
required to pass all the certification testing”
What tests are those?
LVRG Testing There are 8-10 tests on different
products. You start with Digital 101 SEM (Search engine marketing) Digital Couponing/Contests Digital Display Ads, Mobile etc. Many reps have to take the SEM test
several times before passing!
And when you can’t afford on onsite trainer…
You have to use all the online resources available…
OnlineMediaCampus.com
The have a “Certificate testing” for online media.
Cost
ONLY $79
Cost ONLY $99
Upcoming Webinar for Classifieds you should not miss
ONLY $35
Local Media Association also has many good webinar trainings
(Formerly Suburban Newspaper Association)
Free to members, only $39 non members.
If you’re not reading their reports, you don’t know what is REALLY going on in the CLASSIFIED ONLINE WORLD!
Your Ad Order Entry
Take an inventory snap shot of your classified on line marketplace. Here is how
Marketplace: How many online ads do you have in any one day in these categories?
Categories to measure Auto Employment Real Estate Rentals Merchandise Pets Service Directory
Measure your competitors
Your local Craigslist in all those categories.
Hint: To find total number, use the search word of your city.
What to measure continued: Employment
Measure Monster & Careerbuilder in a 25-30 mil radius last 7 days
Indeed & Simply Hired, 25 mile radius last 7 days (use advanced search).
Any other local major employment competitor.
What to measure Auto
Craigslist Auto. You can search by city and my make and also separate by owner from broker and see just how many of your brokers are using Craigslist
Auto Trader, 25 miles radius of your zip code
Cars.com, 25 mile radius of your zip code.
What to measure: Real Estate
The MLS, you can use Realtor.com Craigslist real estate for sale, you can see
by owner and by broker as well. YouTube: type in your city and real estate
and see how many videos come up.
What to measure RENTALS Craigslists Apartments.com Forrent.com Any other print/online big in your area.
What to measure Merchandise/Pets
Craigslist: Hint, it is time consuming but measure category by category under STUFF or you won’t get the true number. It is scary how much they have.
Your local shopper (American Classifieds, Thirty Nickel, Pennysaver)
Ebayclassifieds.com
What to measure SERVICE DIRECTORY Craigslist is enough to see what is out
there.
Why aren’t you getting a bigger piece of the pie
Ad Order Entry: people will pay a FAIR price for EASY online ad order entry.
How many of you have placed ads on your ad order entry?
Some are great and easy. Many are horrible, time consuming and
have confusing packages that turn off consumers.
TEST: Place a fast ad on Craigslist and then an ad on your site. Time them both.
Then decide, are you easier than Craigslist?
