June 9, 1997 Volume 2, Number 7 Ann Handley, Editor Going Commercial: 10 Steps to Prepare Your Site to Sell Advertising and Sponsorships by Debbie A. Everson President Global Interactive Media You built a great web site. Your traffic is at critical mass: monthly page impressions of 500K or higher. And you are growing. You have a strategic niche carved out. You have an attractive audience for advertisers. All you have to do now is pick up the phone and call an Anderson-Lembke media planner and sell them some banner space, right? Wrong! It means you have a whole new set of action items to ready your site for a commercial launch. And because I deal with people like yourself on a daily basis and have covered these issues on more than one occasion, I will save you some time by offering you: Everson's Top Ten Things You Need to do to Prepare for a Commercial Launch. 1. Know Your Traffic, Part I: Analyze Server Log Files All Web site measurement is based on log files. Every time a Web server delivers a file, its name, the address it was delivered to, the time and other information is written into a file on the server. There are numerous public domain and commercial programs for analyzing Web site log files. These programs operate one of two ways: (1) they process the data and create a pre-formatted report, or (2) they put the information in a database and allow the webmaster to generate custom reports. Some software goes one step further in analyzing log files. I/Pro and others will analyze your log files for anomalies, such as large numbers of requests from single sites or accesses from within your domain. Choosing a Tool for Log Analysis Does the tool support your log files like extended log file, common log file, referral and agent log files? Determine who in your company needs log file reports and what they want to see on the reports. When do they want them and how do they want to access them? Will the tool support your registration or cookie feature? Will the tool support your web site for the long-term? What are others using in your industry? Is the tool automated and easy to use? Your log analysis tool must be able to provide you with summary information. Look at visits, average time spent on site, where people are coming from, domains e.g. com, GOV, EDU, date and time of request, browser-type, referring URL, path analysis, doorway and exit pages, how often information is requested and errors e.g. aborts and unsuccessful page transfers. Evaluate site traffic from server logs so that you will be able to measure advertising effectiveness, justify site expansion costs to senior management and improve web site navigation, design and content. Understand your audience and know their interests. Determine site objectives and criteria for measuring success. Compare results and objectives and develop a site action plan. 2. Know Your Traffic, Part II: Commission an Independent Site Audit Commission an independent site audit. Advertisers demand accountability on the web, just as they do in other media. An audit is a report produced by an independent third party using industry standard measures to verify the level of activity a site generates over a specific time period. Audit reports deliver the accountability advertisers need to make significant investments on the web. Credibility Increases Ad Sales Media buyers and advertisers are more likely to do business with sites that offer audit reports by recognized audit providers. Having a third party verify traffic and produce an audited report gives the media buyer confidence in an advertising vehicle, by removing any potential conflict of interest that the sites might have if they measure and report their own traffic. Many advertisers will not place ads on sites without first seeing an audit report. Comparability Shorten the Sales Cycle When selecting where to place their advertisements, media buyers often compare the traffic among several different sites. Sites that cannot provide media buyers with industry standard measurement of traffic will find many media buyers will not take the time to do research and are less likely to place ads on their site. When non-audited sites are able to attract media buyers, those sales are likely to have longer cycles, as the media buyers need to understand new and unfamiliar reporting methodology and terminology. Easy to Use Means Advertisers Come Back The Web can be a very unfriendly environment. The terminology can be confusing and many reports are difficult to read. Audits play an important part in clearing up this confusion. By providing a regular audit, which is easy to interpret, media buyers are more likely to have a good, fair business relationship with sites, and therefore will continue to advertise there. 3. Know Your Traffic, Part III: Conduct a Survey of Site Visitors It's one thing to tell a prospective advertiser that you get 1 million page impressions per month. But that's only marginally helpful. You can tell them where most of your site traffic is concentrated and where it is not. That's a bit more useful. Or you can take it to a different level and be able to tell them that 89% of your site's visitors are male, average age 39, married, 2 children, 68% hold professional level jobs where they influence or approve purchases of computer equipment and software. Do you think that the media planners at Anderson-Lembke might be just a bit more interested in placing a Microsoft ad buy with you if they had that kind of information to go on? One tool you need to have in your arsenal is a recent survey of a representative sample of your site visitors. You need to have the data that most matters to the kind of advertisers you are trying to attract. If your site caters to teenage girls, and you are courting Cover Girl, you need to have some proof that your site is regularly frequented by the crowd they are looking for. A survey will do that for you. You should probably review the end user surveys you see on major sites, and adapt their approach to your audience. Get a sample of a thousand visitors or so. And conduct the survey every 4-6 months to keep it current. Learn what you can about their surfing behaviour and what they do when they come to your site. At the end of the day, what an advertiser is really buying from you is the ability to get in front of your audience. If you can't present a compelling case that a) you understand your audience, and b) your audience is the kind of people who are likely to buy their product or service, you will have a tough time selling ad space. 4. Determine what you are selling and what you charge. Determining what you have to sell on your site is key to the type of advertisers you are likely to attract and the CPM you will be able to charge. Look at your site from an advertiser's point of view. Review all the major content areas, search results pages.Consistently talk to your visitors and get their opinions about subjects that interest them. Consider creating new content areas around specific topics that interest your audience. It is essential to potential advertisers that your site is rich in content, functional and easy to navigate. Create specific advertising packages on the most highly trafficked and targeted areas of your site. Develop specific sponsorships for your site that are priced differently from your regular advertising. You are more likely to be successful selling a targeted page than offering general rotations throughout the site. To determine CPMs and sponsor rates, research your industry to find out what other similar sites are charging. Offer flexible customizable sponsorship packages to larger advertisers. Develop a rate card and publish it on your web site. Be careful to use the correct online terminology. Never, ever use the word "hits". Discuss page views or page impressions, but never "hits". Develop a first class media kit and rate card which you can send upon request. Go ahead and spend a little more to put out a media kit that makes a strong first impression. Include your URL, average site traffic for the last 3 months, list content areas, sponsorship programs, audit statements, demographic surveys, your name and email address. 5. Plan for ad revenues After determining your CPM price and calculating how much ad inventory you have to sell, you will be able to realistically estimate what you can expect to receive in ad revenues. Determine the revenue you want to receive from your site and set monthly, quarterly and yearly goals. Create a spreadsheet to track ad revenues. Reinvest ad revenue into new content, better technology and advertising the site. The better job you do with the web site the more likely you are to attract major advertisers. 6. Signup in major Ad Registries As a web site content provider you will want to ensure that media buyers are aware of your site and have all relevant information at their fingertips to make the buy. One way to do this is to register your ad space, demographics, content areas, CPMs etc on site registries such as Focalink's MarketMatch and FlyCast's AdAgent. There are many others too. Make a list and register your site with all the ad registries you can find. This way the media buyer doesn't have take the time to call you and get your media kit. All the information is in front of the buyer and they can make faster decisions. Keep a list of where you have registered and update it monthly with new ad registries. Ensure that your information is correct and up to date. You never want to lose a sale because your information was incorrect. 7.Hire a Rep Firm It's important to determine how and who will sell your ad space. You have three choices. One, you can sell it yourself, using your inside sales force or perhaps you are a sales force of one. This means you will have to set aside time everyday to make calls and see advertisers. This is very time consuming, but you'll learn first hand what your advertisers want and you will be in a better position to implement what you learn. Second, you can join an ad network for which you will pay anywhere from 20-50% commissions. There are several ad networks which focus on particular areas such as music (Digital Music Network) and game sites (Unified Gamers Online). There are others which represent a wide variety of sites such as ADSmart.net, the DoubleClick Network and the Burst Network. Study their offers closely. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Most offer a nationwide network of sales offices. The tradeoff is that you as a site will not become known among the media planners. The network and their targetting capabilities is what is being sold. Nevertheless, it is one way of selling your ad inventory and should be considered. Third, you can hire an ad rep firm who will charge 30%-50% commission. First rate rep firms include Cybereps and WebRep, but there aren't too many others to choose from. The advantage is that they can position you well as a unique property among advertisers. The tradeoff is that rep firms require retainers up front, one year contracts and generous termination clauses. As more rep firms emerge over the coming years, these may soften a bit. For now, that is the price you must pay to get experienced sales reps with good contacts at the leading media planners' offices to sell your ad inventory for you. 8. Serving, Managing, Measuring and Reporting Ad Performance We all know how to put an ad banner at the top of any given page. If only that was all you needed to concern yourself with. Advertisers and media planners need information from you. They need a lot of it and they need it yesterday. So you need to be in a position to respond to them quickly and efficiently. That requires the right tools and the right people in place. When they place their insertion order with you (which needs its' own tracking system, by the way) you need to be able to place it in the frequency they request, in the area they want, and over the agreed upon time frame that provides exposure at a fairly even pace. They will want you to swap out creatives quickly. They will want standard reports on a regular basis. They will want online monitoring to get a snapshot view of your campaign at any given moment. That requires a solid ad server solution. Do your homework. Research ad server software and choose the software that offers the best features for your clientele. If you work with an ad network this won't be necessary, but it will be if you sell ad space on your own or hire a rep firm. Assign someone the responsibility of ensuring that advertiser ads are correctly placed and functional. This is more likely to require stronger administrative skills than technical, as there are a myriad of details to worry about. Your management of the ad serving, measuring and reporting process may spell the difference between success and failure. It's the details that make the difference. 9. Conduct Post Analysis It's important to measure your success each month, by looking at what ad revenues you have received. Set up a post analysis procedure that regularly tracks who your biggest advertisers are and how much they have spent with you and when. Review these reports regularly to see if you can offer advertisers more space or a more targeted buy. For this, you will probably be able to charge a higher CPM. Develop a consistent reporting system that can easily be passed around your organization. Decide specifically what to track and when. Create an ad program action plan from post analysis results and implement. Do this on a regular basis. 10. Re-evaluate the Ad Program on a Regular Basis Consistently re-evaluate your ad program to ensure that you are meeting the needs of your current and future advertisers. Document the ad programs so that new people coming on board will be able to see what has been accomplished and what can still be improved. Reevaluate the ad program every month, because trends change so fast on the web, you may be missing out on ad revenues. Always look for new opportunities, partnerships and sponsorships. Finally, continually make adjustments based on the previous months learning. Mastery of these 10 Action Items may not guarantee success, but it makes you a whole lot easier to do business with. And THAT can make the difference! Debbie Everson is the President of Global Interactive Media, an online media planning and buying company serving the software sales automation industry. Before forming the company, Debbie served as the Senior Interactive Account Executive at Popper Tyson where she oversaw multimedia web development strategies for Chrysler, The Whitehouse, Double-Click and Hyundai Electronics. Debbie gained extensive experience as a web strategist at J. Walter Thompson Interactive where she worked to bring web advertising solutions to Nortel, Sprint, HotWired and the Dallas Cowboys. Debbie is a graduate of both the University of London and Alliance Francaise, where she earned degrees in business and French. She is the author of numerous interactive and technical publications on interactive advertising web development, banner creation and push technology. Copyright© 1997 ClickZ Corporation. 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