As social media perseveres toward evolving our culture, the breach between new and traditional media—print versus social media, for example—continues to be brought to the forefront of the sales process, and it’s important that publishers and their salespeople know how to educate business owners (their potential targets) on the importance and relevance of print.
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Here Shweiki Media Printing Company teams up with Ryan Dohrn–thefounder of Brain Swell Media and 360 Ad Sales and an international revenue coach and internet consultant who has worked with over 3,000 business owners—presents a webinar explaining how salespeople can convey to targets/potential clients the importance of not abandoning print and refraining from diving into solely digital waters.
One of the main reasons business owners flock to social media is because there is understandably a substantial amount of hype surrounding it, and they just don’t have sufficient reason for not trusting the quo. Fortunately for print publishers, any notion that print might be dead is false and there is adequate information supporting the medium.
A good way to view sales is with the concept that confusion equals a “no.” People don’t buy what they don’t understand, and a lack of education is often the biggest obstacle that salespeople are faced with in advertising. However, when one educates their target on the value of print, the key obstacle is removed and sales open up.
Target: Were moving all of our dollars to social media
Sales rep: Why? Be specific
Dohrn finds that when one asks for specifics, more often than not the decision maker will either talk themselves into faulty logic, or reveal an area of interest where the publisher can help their business. For instance, many decision makers believe that social media can help them reach their target audience in a cheap and engaging way. Social media is absolutely important, but when one takes the time to go through, say, actual Facebook data, the numbers seem shocking.
Facebook Facts
- 75% of Facebook users are non-residents of the USA
- The average age of a Facebook user is 31
- 69% of magazine readers have posted a magazine article on Facebook
- More than 6 in 10 readers have shared magazine content while on Facebook
Show your value
Rule of 7
The Rule of Seven is a marketing rule that states that on average it takes a prospect at least seven views of a particular message before they will take action (Dohrn claims that that number could potentially be even higher now). Either way, if the logic holds true (and many think it does) then one can see the obvious benefits towards marketing in a channel outside of one’s own.
There have been many studies done that show that supporters of traditional media are more likely to actively participate in new media as well. The final step in the digital debate education is relaying to the decision maker the wide array of possibilities most publications now offer. Many magazines have digital editions, webinars, mobile sites, and a large and valuable social following of their own. Sales-people need to convey that today’s publication isn’t an advertising forum as much as it’s a marketing tool. A well planned strategy mixed with the right publisher can make adequate use of all channels of interaction.
