The advertising industry isn’t as simple as it used to be. As publishers acquire additional holdings, business units, subsidiaries, syndications and publications, the need to streamline ad operations has become more critical than ever before.
This kind of digital transformation can be a benefit to businesses, improving revenue, bringing business units together, and aligning accounts, networks, and publishers, but one element often falls by the wayside: relationships.
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Consolidating the expansion of revenue streams for media operations isn’t necessarily easy. From understanding the merits of opportunities available in new products and services to managing customer relationships, the right support is essential. When publishers integrate their cross-media advertising sales with a popular CRM such as Salesforce®, it’s possible to take relationships off the list of pain points, providing media ad sales professionals with the required tools to stay on top of all kinds of customer connections.
Salesforce AppExchange® has become a hub of a diverse community of software solutions for sales teams and account managers that can integrate different features. It connects varying data points and communicates accounts, customers and opportunities to collaborate across various business units.
These tips can help you hit the ground running, ensuring you don’t miss a beat managing interactions with both clients and customers and ultimately transform your media ad sales processes.
1. Modernize Cross-Media Ad Sales
It is no surprise that the media industry is moving toward digital. With the increasing need to reduce sales cycles and stay on top of revenue for print units, publishers need to make publication planning as easy as possible using a magazine ad sales software.
In selling print advertising, sales representatives need to keep a thumb on the pulse, providing a real-time overview of the inventory available, meaning a seamless connection with print production planning software, including:
- Ad requirements
- Technical specifications
- Editorial elements
- Relevant positions
- Publication dates
When this information isn’t immediately available, you risk the outcome of a sale, potentially costing your business revenue. Even when these details are accessible but not properly categorized or accurate, the same challenges may apply.
A good ad booking software makes quick work of keeping inventory data organized and available within a media ad sales CRM. That way, sales reps can move quickly through the process of quoting and into the planning stages in a matter of minutes.
For clients who want their advertising brought to plan quickly without delay, it is necessary to have a CRM such as Salesforce®, that allows easy access to all essential data. That way, they can ensure their team can handle each stage in creative management according to schedule, regardless of any issues that may arise.
2. Connected Ad Servers & Exchanges
Keeping print operations organized is important, and is equally as important for digital ad sales. As digital operations include additional layers of complexity, keeping all of the details in line offers further challenges.
When you’re organizing multiple ad servers and exchanges across varying business units or products, a lot of data needs to be managed adequately. For publishers trying to move and organize high volumes of content from third-party data sources, this can be perilous without the right tools in place.
Regardless of the ad server or exchange, a media ad sales CRM can aid account managers immensely, providing tools that improve the use of client contract networks offering a number of benefits, including increased accuracy in communications with both leads and current customers.
The flow of information makes all the difference in ensuring ad sales take the right path. When information regarding available impressions or revenue forecasts isn’t available at the drop of a hat – or the information available is outdated or inaccurate – customer relationships become frayed.
One centralized tool can help alleviate this burden, connecting all necessary information to ensure all transaction details are at the ready, no matter the direction sales themselves take. With immediate answers to everything from pricing ad specs to placement, negotiations, and planning can go off without a hitch.
3. Synced Data for Media Companies
With the latest developments in programmatic advertising and digital transformation, ad sales have many new options to explore in terms of technology.
While customer relationship management tools are available in numerous shapes and sizes, developed in-house or customized for different industries, cutting corners preparing a CRM for the media industry means problems will occur down the line.
This is particularly true as consolidating and compiling ad operations may require more than a simple connection to a sophisticated Salesforce CRM to ensure a full-process integration with the rest of the advertising technologies publishers need.
To make the most of programmatic networks and servers, like Google Ad Manager, AppNexus, and Freewheel, it’s important to make sure CRM and ad booking software work in harmony.
An advanced, and scalable platform can ensure this happens, providing the ability to manage both client accounts and contracts while integrating them with sales forecasting and other analytics tools.
All-in-One Media Ad Sales CRM
Implementing tools such as Salesforce® to create a full-service integration of customer relationships, inventory management, quotations, and billing can offer complete visibility into projects. It secures process controls to ensure media advertising sales run smoothly and without error.
In addition, it can help companies view the same picture with regards to inventory and available line items in their different advertising formats and business units. Whether they’re websites, applications or digital out of home platforms, it is important to consolidate disparate operations into one cohesive picture that all parties in ad sales transactions can understand.
Relationships are at the heart of every move you make, and without actively managing your connections, you’re likely going to see your sales slide.
With the right use of a Salesforce® based media ad sales CRM, it’s possible to make the right choices in order to increase revenue in ad operations without compromising the flow of information.
*See our 5-star rated media ad sales solution on the Salesforce AppExchange®.
