360 Degree Inventory And Moving Beyond Banners

As an ad seller, what can you do in times like these to increase your sales and attract new buyers? What can you offer to local or small businesses who might be shrinking their ad budgets?

You often have more types of inventory to sell than just web banners. By offering different inventory, whether it’s unique and wacky or phsyical and offline, you’re able to cast a wider net in your sales efforts. And as more local and small ad buyers are moving online, combining those banners with other opportunities puts you in a great spot.

One of our beta testers, IndyMojo, has built a full time business around selling ads to local small business owners. IndyMojo is a local community website based in Indianapolis, Indiana that has about 7,000 members and quite impressive numbers for a local community portal. What’s even more impressive is how they’ve handled their ad sales.

The guys at Mojo have done a great job building a sales process. They also understand that selling an ad is no different than selling a physical piece of inventory. As such, they’re working hard to make it easier for buyers to find and buy their inventory. You can see their internal sales page here and their isocket brand page here.

Because of the nature of the IndyMojo brand and audience, IndyMojo sells ad opportunities that expand beyond banners. It makes sense for their business because they offer more than just a website – they offer conversations, real world events and the ability to reach a very targeted group. For example, they have created VIP cards that give card holders discounts at participating local businesses. Other examples:

• Email newsletter sponsorships

• Directory listings

• Network forums with discussion

• Classified ads

• Calendar listings

isocket helps IndyMojo runs the sales for all these different ads through one place, rather than managing 5 different types of services for each option they offer. This makes it easier for both buyer and seller – less overhead, less email tag, less checks to write, etc.

As we said in our last post, “Truly creative advertising engages people…”  Give your advertisers the opportunity to engage with your community in novel ways.  Whether it be via online discussion or an offline meetup in your most popular city, allow buyers to get creative and it will pay off for you.

Tagged as: ads, Community, direct sales, offline, sales, showcase