Good morning. Today’s Life of Scoop Plus is ugly (read: wordy with few images) but worth it’s weight in gold. Because today I’m talking about who you should target to advertise in your newsletter.
First, why I love ads
Many folks online crap on local newsletter ads. They say you can’t compete with Facebook, ads make for a bad reader experience, local businesses don’t have budgets, not everybody likes sales, and so on.
I don’t think all those folks are wrong. In fact I respect the heck out of many. But I personally love ads. Here’s why:
Readers are used to them. Ads have existed on free content websites since 1994. Their presence is commonly accepted as a part of using the Internet. I actually think it’s harder to look like a sell-out with ads than other monetization strategies.
Ads are easy to systematize. Naptown Scoop runs over a dozen ads per week every week and the process is almost entirely managed by a VA, one piece of software, and a little AI magic. We’re such a well-oiled ad machine that if someone reached out and wanted an ad right now (3:48 PM on Thursday), we could publish it in Friday’s 6 AM newsletter. Assuming we had the inventory.
Profit margin. We’re literally selling pixels on an email we were already going to send. We pay for beehiiv anyway. We already paid for the audience with Facebook ads. And I already pay the VA that manages the process. Other monetization channels can’t compete with ads on margin.
Bonus section: How to not sell out with ads
Banner ads suck. Sell native ads instead and write them in-house in the same tone as your newsletter. If you absolutely must sell banner ads, do not ever put more than one in a row.
Be choosy with partners. And I don’t mean for the reasons you read below. Meet with prospects. See if they have integrity. See if their website looks professional. See if they have good reviews on Google. Your ad partners shouldn’t just pay you money. They should elevate your brand.
Maintain a solid content-to-ad ratio (CA). CA = % of unpaid words/% of paid words. 50/50 is the absolute bare minimum. I prefer 75/25. That means 75% of every Naptown Scoop email is useful, informative, entertaining content. The rest is ads.
Even at this ratio, we still get complaints about too many ads. Annapolis doesn’t know how good they have it. I’ve seen local newsletters with 10/90 CA. And most local print publications are about 20/80.
Don’t get political. Naptown Scoop doesn’t allow political candidates to advertise. We probably lose $25k every election year because of this. I couldn’t care less. Pissing people off isn’t worth it.
On this note, it’s OK if the owner of a business is super political as long as the business itself isn’t. We advertise for two businesses like this. One’s a $50M company. The other does well over $100M annually. Everyone knows the owners are far right. But the businesses themselves are neutral.
Two kinds of partners
You’re going to sell two different kind of ads – awareness and direct response.
Awareness ads aren’t designed to drive immediate results. They keep clients top of mind so they think of your partners when they need a service. Success is typically measured in impressions against dollars spent.
Upsides: These folks are used to spending a lot and probably have an actual marketing budget.
Downsides: You have less differentiation from other local publications and also, almost everyone they want to reach is on Facebook, too.
Direct response ads are designed to drive immediate results. Call now. Get a quote. Book a consultation. That sort of thing. Success is measured in dollars earned against dollars spent.
Upsides: Easy to get renewals if you’re performing. Easier to justify sales.
Downsides: No renewals if you’re not performing. Partners get antsy if conversions aren’t happening.
Why this matters: Awareness partners only care about how many people are in your audience and who are they. This is why first-party data collection (usually gathered via welcome survey) is important.
Direct response ads can sell like hotcakes with two questions.
My ad sales secret sauce
I assume you’re highly intelligent but I’m going to explain something basic anyway.
When partners pay Naptown Scoop $1 for ads and get $3 back in new clients, that’s a positive return on investment (AKA ROI). Not accounting for profit margin, of course.
My secret sauce, if you want to call it something so crass, is based on Alex Hormozi’s idea of making an offer so good people feel stupid saying no. Say what you will about Hormozi. The guy’s good at making money.
I ask the same three questions to make every Naptown Scoop sale.
How much is your average customer worth?
So how many new customers would you need to get a positive ROI advertising with Naptown Scoop?
Do you think we can get you that many customers?
The key is, you should already know the answers.
Question 1 should be a very high number. Anything with a comma is great. High hundred dollars are OK, too.
Question 2 should be a very low number. Single digits is best. One is amazing.
Question 3 is yes. Sale made.
When those were the answers to my questions, I have never not made the sale.
Takeaway: the most important thing you can do is to make sure you pitch partners with a high lifetime customer value.
So, who exactly are those partners?
These are the actual categories Naptown Scoop advertises for. Awareness clients are marked with ^. Not recommended clients (for various reasons) are marked with *. And there are a few notes for some.
Nationwide building materials store^. We got lucky here. Someone from the C-suite lives in Annapolis and it came inbound.
1.5 million square foot Shopping mall^
Direct primary care doctor
Yoga studio*
Veterinarian
Dentist
Flooring sales (not installation)
Exterior home washing
Huge restaurant group^ (50 locations)
Festival host with 6 annual events and growing
Stretching studio
Hospital^
Charter boat company
Mortgage broker*
Luxury residential real estate. Every local newsletter needs a realtor partner. Pick one of the best in town.
Dermatologist/Medspa combo. Ideally make these two separate partners if you offer exclusivity above a certain annual spend, which you should.
Financial planner
Facial plastic surgeon
Lawn care (fertilizer, not moving)
Symphony orchestra*. Nonprofits are notoriously tough partners.
Private school
Moving company
Garden center
Insurance agency
Local boat shows
Women’s clothing boutique*
Painting company*
Notice anything? The vast majority of those categories generate hundreds if not thousands per customer. That’s what you want. It’s so much easier to get a positive ROI on $16k worth of local newsletter ads selling $4,500 house painting jobs than $7 ice cream cones.
In addition, I believe Naptown Scoop could also crush it for the following categories.
Custom home builder
Interior designer
Pool installer/service
Home automation & security
Wine cellar installation
Jewelry store
Luxury travel agent
Car dealership
Furniture store
Appliance store
Hair salon
IV therapy
Gym
Plastic surgeon
Kitchen and bath remodeler
Landscape architects
Home cleaning
Dog grooming, training, and boarding
Food delivery and private chef services
Pilates and barre studios
Roofers
Plumbers
HVAC contractors
Estate planning attorneys
Pest control
Septic tank services
Water softener and filtration services
Gutter cleaning
Tree removal and trimming
Handyman services
Hardware store
Auto repair shop
Car detailing (especially mobile)
RV and boat storage
In-home senior care
Tutoring and test prep
Swim lessons
Music lessons
Martial arts schools
Foundation repair
Basement waterproofing
Electrician
Fire and water damage restoration
Driveway repair
Fence installation and repair
Trash bin cleaning
Window replacement
Deck and patio builders
In-home physical therapy
Weight loss clinic
Mobile veterinarian service
Tax accountant
Garage door installation and repair
Appliance repair
One final thing here. Our best sales meetings always happen face to face. Get in the conference room. Ask my questions. And make the sale. I believe in you.
How can I help you?
I can get you 20% off beehiiv, my favorite place to send local newsletters