While digital outdoor advertising speaks for itself, we’ve seen its potential continuing to be grossly underestimated. The result is that there is much to learn for prospective buyers of digital Out-of-Home advertising space. Providing this information to your potential clients can be of incredible value.
We’ve gathered a handful of important tips on this topic. They’re particularly important for anyone who is looking to start selling advertising space. In case you’re still uncertain if digital out-of-home advertising is for you, know that it’s a great way to diversify your campaigns. If the display in question is in a high-traffic location, or if you own multiple displays at different locations, capitalize on your advertising real estate. With that said, let’s take a look at several key argument points to bring up when talking to potential clients.
1. Understand your potential clients’ business needs
It is absolutely irrelevant if your potential client is a pro who knows what to expect from a well-placed advertisement, or an owner of a new business looking to buy advertising space for the first time. The first step on the rocky road to seal the deal is to understand your potential clients’ goals and expectations, as well as understanding and showing what you can do to help them achieve them.
Advertising is a different story for each business there is. Approach your potential clients as any marketing consultant would. It’s your job to recognize the marketing needs of your potential client and how you can serve them based on their market and target audience. While this is designed to inspire potential clients to sign on, it is also a critical component for ensuring long-term success for your current clients, as you’ll see later on.
Another important need to recognize is the content creation aspect. Depending on their preferences, your potential clients may value the fact that they can use your services to create content more easily via digital signage software. In case you currently don’t offer them this feature, don’t worry as we’ll cover that below as well.
2. Be conscious of what you can offer
In selling ad space, data is key. There are several questions you should be ready to see directed your way, most of them involving numbers. Questions regarding audience reach, daily/weekly foot traffic, as well as audience segments are very likely brought up when talking with a potential client. If for whatever reason they don’t, make it a point to raise these questions yourself! They’re excellent selling points as they can demonstrate the reach of your advertising space.
Being conscious of the advantages of certain locations over others is key especially when you have multiple ad spaces on offer. Knowing which location does better for which type of content/audience can ensure greater success for your whole clientele. Not having this knowledge can seriously harm you, as yielding less success with future ad campaigns will result in your clients taking their ad investments elsewhere. It’s never just about sealing the deal. It’s also about retaining your clients.
3. Show proof of success
Whether it’s through your own business story or a third-party case study, show your potential clients what success looks like. If available, use advertisements from a similar context as examples. By pinpointing how someone has used a similar ad and achieved or even surpassed their goals is a massive confidence boost that an ad investment will work out. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America has plenty of good case studies you could use as examples. You can also turn to the OnSign TV blog which regularly talks about the benefits of digital outdoor advertising in specific industries such as restaurants, hotels, public transportation, and many more!
It’s even better to have numbers of your own to show how your current clients are reaping the benefits of their investment in your particular ad space and how maybe your guidance played a key role. Data on which target audiences your ad spaces reach is particularly valuable when selling ad space. If you’re just starting out, take note for the future and highlight the success of each of your clients. In time, you can use the average percentage of return on investment your clients have achieved as a key selling point.
A good success story makes everyone in a similar situation look more positively to the future.
4. Brush up on OOH basics
The aforementioned points are key when selling ad space to someone who is mildly experienced in the field. If you’re approaching clients who have never invested in Out-of-Home of any kind and have relied solely on other media channels, learn how to bring them into the world of digital outdoor advertising.
Let them know what an highly underestimated industry OOH is. But don’t just make an advantage of bringing other media channels down. Instead, highlight OOH as an industry that is viewed favorably by its consumers. Out-of-Home, digital or traditional, can’t be ignored by its audiences, while at the same time not being a disruptive tool. In many ways OOH is more powerful than TV, radio, print, or online ads.
There are a great deal of benefits traditional Out-of-Home offers on its own. Adding digital to the mix expands them even further. Traditional posters can only display one message while digital signage can rotate many throughout the day. Also inform your clients on which brands and companies they’ll be sharing the advertising space with. This could represent a great opportunity for synergy as the products complement one another. Or, more importantly, you do not want to advertise two competitors on the same display on accident.
5. Prepare the technical part of your sales pitch
Although it usually comes after your client has shown high interest in investing, compile the technical aspect of your advertising space and sell it professionally. Prepare all the relevant data. This includes specifics on your hardware and covering any questions the client may have about it. Of course, also establish which technical requirements you have from your customer.
The spotlight is now on the features of your digital signage software. Depending on what’s in your offer, i.e. if the client is going to manage their assigned ad space themselves or—which is still the far more common case for bought ad space—you manage it for them, you can bring up the interface and plenty of features your software has. This should include how your client creates and shares their content with you. Ideally, a content management platform allows for different user groups with the option of editor-only roles and across different organizations. Then your client can create their campaign directly in your system. Make sure your platform is as intuitive as possible.
6. Offer your own digital signage software to potential clients
The features above, alongside plenty of others, is available through OnSign TV software. One really powerful feature is managing and controlling all content across all displays remotely, regardless of the current location of the user. The ease of use and accessibility goes without saying!
You can include OnSign TV into your pitch directly or, if you power above 500 screens, use its white label solution. Push your sales pitch further and show your potential clients they have a golden opportunity by accessing everything OnSign TV has to offer. You can sign up immediately for a free trial, no strings attached, and see what else OnSign TV has in store for you and your clients.