How do you find advertisers for your website?

When you are selling advertising space, a mix of large and small advertisers can be an advantage. Well-known companies can give your website credibility, while smaller ones show other small businesses that there is room for them and their budgets too.

In the second episode of Thorborg’s Q&A from December 2008, I answer Morten’s question about Industribasen’s advertising sales and plans for 2009. My suggestions are based on the crisis and my experiences at Jubii.

Now questions can come in as audio

I would like to hear you explain your problem rather than just read your question aloud. So I have set up a Danish phone number with a digital answering machine.

The idea is simple: You call, listen to my message, record your question and hang up. If your question is chosen, I play it and give my take on how to solve the challenge.

It is an ordinary Danish number with no premium rate, as I explain in the video. I have only just set it up and do not know it by heart yet. I refer you to the number below the video.

Feel free to ask one or two questions. That makes it easier to give an answer that can help others too than if you ask ten questions at once.

Industribasen wants to sell more advertising space

Today’s question comes from Morten, who is customer service manager at Industribasen. As I understand the site, it is a marketplace for heavy industrial machinery.

If a company has a forklift it no longer needs, it can put it up for sale and another company can buy it. There may also be backhoe loaders and combine harvesters. It is a bit like Den Blå Avis for industrial machinery.

Morten writes that 2009 is to be the year Industribasen makes serious money. Among other things, they want to sell more advertising space to businesses, and they plan to send out 500 sales letters.

But before they do, they are considering bringing in a couple of well-known companies as advertisers at a low price. He mentions Kansas workwear and Sophus Berendsen, which provides laundry services for industry.

Will the familiar logos give them credibility? Or might a smaller business see them and think the site is only for big companies and that it cannot afford to join in?

Start by considering the strategy

My first question is what the strategy actually is. Do they mainly want to bring in large companies and get them to spend a lot of money? Or do they want to build something different kinds of businesses can take part in?

We are in a deep crisis, and I do not expect advertising to be easy to sell in 2009 and 2010. That does not mean it is impossible. But businesses are holding back, and you need to be careful not to set prices too high.

I would try to create a mix: It should be financially possible for smaller businesses to take part, while there are also some prominent advertising spaces for the larger ones.

One large sponsorship and smaller sponsorships

One option could be to offer Kansas a larger sponsorship. For example, you could present Industribasen as brought to you by Kansas workwear.

I use 250,000 kroner a year as an example price for such an agreement. In return, the logo could appear in the advertising and the site’s communications. This is a suggested model, not an established market price.

You could also sell sponsorships on individual sections. On a page with backhoe loaders, for example, the sponsor could be a business that wants to reach people interested in that kind of machinery.

I do not know exactly which businesses those should be. But the idea is to match the sponsor’s target audience with the site’s visitors.

At Jubii, the competitors followed

When we were building Jubii, we noticed something interesting. If we reached an agreement with Nordea and the bank started advertising with us, Danske Bank and Jyske Bank often followed shortly afterwards.

We found that bringing in a category leader on a cheap sponsorship could help. Other companies saw it and thought that if the site was interesting to Nordea, it might be interesting to them too.

That is exactly the effect Morten is hoping for. And yes, I have experienced it myself. So I think it is a good idea to bring in some well-known companies from the start. I share my own experiences of developing businesses in Iværksætter til jeg dør.

I would not settle for two big logos

What I do not quite understand is why they only want to choose two. I would explore whether more spaces could be created.

Perhaps you could bring in four or five larger companies and around ten to fifteen smaller ones. Kansas and Sophus Berendsen are possibilities, and perhaps ISS cleaning could be relevant too.

The smaller advertisers give other small businesses someone to identify with. A small tool company needs to see that it too can advertise on the site at a reasonable price.

At the same time, the big brands help boost credibility. Visitors and potential advertisers may think that if the site is good enough for the well-known companies, it is good enough for them too.

Show value for both big and small businesses

My advice is therefore to bring in both large and small advertisers before Industribasen presents itself to those 500 businesses.

Show that you can work with larger companies and create value for them. And show that smaller businesses can also benefit from advertising without an enormous budget.

The two do not have to be mutually exclusive. The combination can make it easier for more businesses to see themselves as your customers.

Should you give large advertisers a discount to get more advertising on your website? Remember to call 3696 4270 and tell me what challenges you are facing, and perhaps yours will be the question I answer. Best wishes, Martin