Help with Charity magazine wants paid advertising

HappySad

I’m volunteering for a small charity. My role is to get paid advertising for their quarterly paper magazine / newsletter. The charity wants to get organisations or companies to pay to advertise in their magazine / newsletter.


I’ve tried calling and email 40 companies and organisations that relate to the charity; but not got anywhere with it. No one has contacted me or shown interest.

I have not done this role before so would like to learn what are the right steps to get advertising in this magazine / newsletter.

All ideas, web links and advice most welcome.

Owain_Moneysaver

What's the circulation of this magazine and what's the cost of the advert?

Will I as a potential advertiser get any return if the conversion rate is 1% or lower?

HappySad

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

What's the circulation of this magazine and what's the cost of the advert?

Will I as a potential advertiser get any return if the conversion rate is 1% or lower?

Readership is 6000. Adverts cost £350 for 1/4 page to £1,000 for a full page.

To your second question I don’t know the answer? How can I work out the conversion rate?

lincroft1710

Is this a locally or nationally distributed magazine/newsletter?

Savvy_Sue

I think one problem you may be up against is a (rightly) suspicious market. I'm not suggesting you are anything but legitimate, but take a look at this thread (there are others, but it's the first one I found) and you'll see some of the reasons why you may struggle when cold calling. You'll also see some of the ways you can overcome the suspicion.

Has the charity been able to get paid advertising in the past, or is this a new venture? If it's not a new venture, then definitely worth going back to previous advertisers, having rehearsed reasons why it would be good to place a repeat.

Have you worked out what's in it for the advertisers? It's got to be a two way relationship.

Owain_Moneysaver

HappySad wrote: »

Readership is 6000. Adverts cost £350 for 1/4 page to £1,000 for a full page.

To your second question I don’t know the answer? How can I work out the conversion rate?

If the conversion or response rate is 1% that means 1% of readers will respond to the advert. So if 60 readers respond that costs the business £5.83 per response.

A suggested typical cost for Google Adwords is between £0.66 and £1.32, but the business doesn't have to pay anything if no-one clicks through.

You need to show your potential advertisers than you can deliver targeted and high-value responses to their adverts.

HappySad

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

If the conversion or response rate is 1% that means 1% of readers will respond to the advert. So if 60 readers respond that costs the business £5.83 per response.

A suggested typical cost for Google Adwords is between £0.66 and £1.32, but the business doesn't have to pay anything if no-one clicks through.

You need to show your potential advertisers than you can deliver targeted and high-value responses to their adverts.

How can I demonstrate targeted and high value responses to their advert? I can show that the readership are their potential customers because the charity distributed to their target customer.

HappySad

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I think one problem you may be up against is a (rightly) suspicious market. I'm not suggesting you are anything but legitimate, but take a look at this thread (there are others, but it's the first one I found) and you'll see some of the reasons why you may struggle when cold calling. You'll also see some of the ways you can overcome the suspicion.

Has the charity been able to get paid advertising in the past, or is this a new venture? If it's not a new venture, then definitely worth going back to previous advertisers, having rehearsed reasons why it would be good to place a repeat.

Have you worked out what's in it for the advertisers? It's got to be a two way relationship.

This totally explains why I was getting zero responces.

I was thinking on going along to large exhibitions that covers the charities supported health condition with loads of magazines and see if I can get some leads. Would this help? How am I best to approach these companies and organisations?l at the exhibition.

I already have a rate card. I can show them that along with a copy of the magazine.

HappySad

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Is this a locally or nationally distributed magazine/newsletter?

It’s nationally distributed.

martindow

Six thousand circulation could attract some people if it was local or regional but nationally this is spreading potential customers very thinly.

I've stopped entirely advertising in print as I found the response very poor even when I put ads is specialist publications at tens of Pounds let alone £100s. Your quarterly publication is going to cost a business over a thousand a year. Unless a business sees it as a donation to your charity I can't see this being easy.

Do you have any people who already support you who may be more open to advertising? Perhaps you could lower your rates to attract some more interest but I'm not convinced this would work either.

Sorry this sounds so negative and I hope you find a successful strategy.

Savvy_Sue

HappySad wrote: »

This totally explains why I was getting zero responces.

I was thinking on going along to large exhibitions that covers the charities supported health condition with loads of magazines and see if I can get some leads. Would this help? How am I best to approach these companies and organisations?l at the exhibition.

I already have a rate card. I can show them that along with a copy of the magazine.

Well, it might be worthwhile. Is this targeting companies who supply services of benefit to the magazine's readers? And I'm not sure, but you might need to check with exhibition organisers beforehand if it's OK for you to tout for business.

martindow wrote: »

Six thousand circulation could attract some people if it was local or regional but nationally this is spreading potential customers very thinly.

I agree, I feel that the advertisers would need to be offering their wares on a national level for this to be of any benefit to them.

You haven't said if this is a new venture, or something they've already been doing. if it's a new venture, it may be that it's one of those things which people THINK is a great idea but actually isn't ...

although one possibility might be to offer 'advertorials' alongside adverts, or interviews with suppliers who get the chance to explain why what they're offering might be of benefit to the readers.