Selling third-party digital advertising is critical for media companies to keep revenues growing outside of linear inventory. As we learned in the Borrell/RAB Digital Benchmarking survey, stations saw a 33% increase in digital revenue, and 2022 numbers could reach nearly $2 billion. To capture all these dollars, you’ll need the right technology. Implementing third-party digital doesn’t have to be cumbersome or difficult to learn.
Let’s see what the process looks like and what features a cross-channel digital marketing solution should include.
The Challenges of Selling Digital Advertising Without a Cross-Channel Platform
If you’re currently selling third-party digital advertising, how easy is it for you to create proposals, enter orders, run reports on campaigns and bill? You may not even have the capabilities to do these things, which leads to inefficiencies and the risk of errors.
If you’re doing this ad hoc, efficiency and streamlining are a significant struggle. Alternatively, you may outsource this to an agency, which cuts your margins.
To grow your digital advertising opportunities, you need a solution that removes the pain points and simplifies the process.
Choosing a Third-Party Digital Platform: What Features Do You Need?
Providing a one-stop shop for your advertiser needs is easier when you can control their linear and digital buying. You are in a great position to offer them integrated campaigns. In looking at the options, these are the cross-channel advertising platform features to seek:
- Proposal builder: Tap into this functionality to quickly create proposals with all ad types.
- Order entry: Look for an intuitive user interface that makes this easy and has template duplication options for faster workflows.
- Built-in billing capabilities: Create, execute and bill media orders.
- Targeting capabilities: At a minimum, they should include location, demographics and interests.
- Reporting that’s simple: Opt for a platform with consolidated reporting to showcase campaign performance for your clients.
- Dashboard views: Keep up to date with your KPIs (key performance indicators) visually.
- Granular filtering and sorting: Find the data you need fast.
- Web-based platform: Users can access it from any internet-connected device.
Additionally, you’ll find that third-party digital platforms can integrate with your traffic systems. If they do, you’ll be able to manage linear and digital ads together.
You may find that features and benefits are similar when comparing your options. So, the next question to ask in the path to making a decision is this: How easy is implementation?
Implementing Third-Party Digital: What Can You Expect?
Deploying any new technology requires onboarding, training and technical setups. This process looks different for most providers. Some may offer minimal resources and support. Others go above and beyond. Our digital platforms take the form of the latter. They can be the catalyst to substantially increasing digital sales.
Here’s what you can expect from our team:
- A thorough evaluation of your digital profile, which indicates your needs and your team’s digital literacy
- Targeted digital success planning sessions and platform training to determine goals and ensure you’re ready to use our system
- Exclusive training on digital success planning, platform knowledge and digital selling
- A digital launch kit with white-labeled decks, one-sheets, templates and more
- Ongoing support from our team and easy-to-find resources in the Marketron Learning Center
- A client development manager to help you succeed
We also publish content on Aspire to support your digital sales efforts, and we host regular webinars on specific digital tactics and topics to empower your sales team.
Explore all our sales enablement content for broadcast and media sellers
Third-Party Digital with Marketron
Selling third-party digital should be seamless for your salespeople. With the right technology, it can be. Our solutions deliver all the features, training, resources and support you need for success. You can increase revenue, create efficiencies, win more and remove barriers with Marketron NXT.
See how it works today by requesting a demo!
