Exclusivity Sales tactics from national Nitch Publisher of the Year
Traditionally, an exclusive might mean the back cover of a magazine on an annual contract with the first right of refusal from year to year.
But with so much distribution online, one publisher told Niche Media Conference attendees that he now uses exclusivity for every product, including digital services, by limiting the number of packages sold.
It may sound counter-intuitive to have “less to sell” but it also creates FOMO, obtains longer-term contracts and cuts down on time spent making the sale.
Mike Dragosavich, CEO of Spotlight Media Magazines and National NichMedia Publisher of the Year, knows a thing or too about selling niche media. Based in Fargo, ND, his company publishes Fargo Monthly Magazine, Bison Illustrated, Biz-man, Inc, and Trendsetters Magazine, as well as running a digital agency.
Dragosavich said he creates exclusivity for any media product and argued the tactic that can be applied by nearly any kind of niche publisher, whether B2B, B2C, or an association magazine.
There are a variety of ways to do it. Exclusivity can mean a 100% audience share of a key banner ad, or industry exclusivity within the magazine.
Industry exclusivity does not have to be overly broad; if the category is finance, for example, publishers can limit the inventory to one commercial bank, one consumer bank, one mortgage broker, and so on.
He also said he requires an annual contract for many of these sales.
“This fundamentally changes the sale dynamics from the model of unlimited inventory, when the publisher can always add another page,” he said.
“We can say that if you don’t buy it in a couple of days, we will sell it to x. We build our product offering around that, and 99% of the time, it just works,” Dragosavich said.
“We don’t want to meet with them 40 times to get a $7000 deal,” he told attendees.
He said that selling unlimited ads may add sales volume, but that potential is far outweighed by the ability to sell out most products on annual contracts, especially for niche media.
“We have seven digital ads. Each one includes industry exclusivity and has a one-year commitment. Their value is that no other banks are in it. You won’t have to rebook them for another 12 months. That’s what we all want, isn’t it?”
Even programmatic campaigns can be designed this way. The wealthiest people in the market could be sold to a limit of four banks and one financial planner.
Exclusivity doesn’t always have to mean one per category or one per product, just fewer than the market demand for that product.
MDExpos, for example, limits sales of spots in the reverse expo to fewer than the number of traditional booth sponsors. The event always sells out and delivers an extra $40,000 or so on top of other event revenues.
It’s a winning business model that takes the hassle out of doing business and creates value simultaneously.
