Five tips to get more revenue from advertisers with online digital publishing

Today, companies are trending towards allocating more resources to online channels, where measuring ROI is far more precise than print advertising or other branding-related activities. When you publish an online version, this is the same move that your magazine will take. Your advertisers now need to look in their online budget instead of their printed ad budget.

Online magazine publishers offer something that Google doesn't ...

From a publisher’s standpoint, this means that you will be competing with guys like Google. With their Adwords program, Google has developed the most targeted advertising program in marketing history. Sound frightening? Perhaps, but you have something that Google does not – your magazine brand.

The brand of your magazine title and your knowledge about your audience are the main entry points necessary to really engage the advertisers and show why they need to dedicate online budget to this space. Advertisers know who you are, they know the quality of your content, and they know from the past that your title is a great channel to show off their brand, products or services. So entering the online magazine advertising space may not be that difficult. Just remember, you are working with a new kind of media that advertisers will need time to digest.

Here are five operational hints to ensure a successful online magazine advertising strategy:

• Expand your advertisers’ kit. The goal is to present a full package of advertising benefits to your business partners.
• Make sure your online offers get a place in the spotlight. Online advertising programs should rank as high as your traditional advertising programs.
• Delivery of content. Determine whether you need more in-house resources to utilize for your advertisers, or if you can rely on them to deliver finished video files for rich media advertising, for example.
• Train your sales team. Great initiatives pass out, if only single parts of the organization share the thoughts. Spending time on training the sales department can be key to turning on the online revenue streams. Don’t forget to give your sales team commission from online sales as well.
• Advertiser feedback. With online ads, you have the chance to provide your advertisers with accurate statistical feedback on particular ads’ performance, but the procedure for this need to be set.

Read more about what expands readership and generates revenue in the free eBook, Profitable Magazine Publishing.