How Publishers Can Reclaim Lost Time

October 26, 2021

Sales. Marketing. Reporting. Editing. Designing. Developing. A digital publisher’s job is never complete. There’s always a new fire to put out, a new sales prospect to connect with, or a new employee that needs guidance. Whether you’re a solopreneur who does it all, or you’re managing a large editorial team, you probably wish there was a better way to accomplish a bit more in a 24 hour period.

Saving Time — A Publisher’s Guide

The key to reclaiming lost time as a digital publisher is to delegate, automate, or elevate. Each of the strategies outlined below falls into one or more of these three categories. In order to save time, you need to send a representative (delegate) or convert to more process-efficient software (automate) to lift the task up to a different position (elevate). Keep these three distinct categories in mind as you work your way through the strategies outlined below.

1. Automate Newsletters

Email newsletters are one of the biggest drivers of website traffic. Unfortunately, they’re also one of the biggest time sinks for publishers and editorial teams. If you are spending hours manually putting together your newsletters each week, you might want to take a closer look at the software you’re using.

While automating a newsletter is much easier said than done, there are certain cloud-based newsletter automation platforms that you can leverage to increase efficiency and help you save time. Mailchimp and Constant Contact are two of the most popular email automation platforms that we recommend. However, digital publishers have dozens of high-quality options to choose from.

Beyond that, consider whether you’re using your existing email marketing software to its full capability. Does your software include features or add-ons that could streamline your workflow when putting together newsletters? For example, RSS Merge is a feature commonly used with Mailchimp that publishers can take advantage of to place ads in email newsletters. Having an RSS merge in your Mailchimp template allows you to automatically switch out ads and prevents campaign duplication. For more information on how this feature works, click here.

2. Automate Advertising with an Ad Manager

A good ad manager is worth its weight in gold. With built-in ad creation capabilities and the ability to place and schedule ads quickly and easily, ad management solutions save publishers time and money. Thanks to fewer fixed ads and no more need to make manual changes to webpages, publishers cut down on the operational expenses involved in running an ad program.

Ad managers like Broadstreet provide publishers with access to reliable resources for quickly troubleshooting ad-related issues. Ad managers can also streamline workflows and make it easier to resolve ad-related problems. With more employees working in hybrid home/office environments, the ability to manage ads in a cloud-based environment is more critical than ever before. Also, with sales tools like a library of ad formats, publishers increase revenue at the same they’re saving time and money.

3. Use a CRM

Your publication’s ad sales strategy might be dated, slow, or just flat-out ineffective if you’re not using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Good CRM software has tools that are now critical for anyone running a successful in-house ad sales program. 

Digital publishers have hundreds of CRM options to choose from, each with its own features and capabilities. For the sake of time management, you’ll want to focus on CRM software with plenty of automation features. 

CRM software runs the gamut in terms of cost, but good software can be found at every price point. One option is Streak. Streak is a solid CRM for Gmail users that’s free to use. HubSpot is a comparatively expensive solution that also gets high marks from businesses. Ad Sales Genius is built specifically for publishers and has a strong backend integration with Broadstreet, making it popular with many media companies. For a complete list of the top CRMs for local digital ad sales, click here.

4. Get Payment Information on File

How much time do you spend waiting for your advertisers’ checks and payments to come through each month? Automating the billing process by getting advertisers’ payment information up front can eliminate this issue overnight. 

Your sales team should not be spending time waiting for payments and then dropping off checks at the bank or manually processing credit cards. Simply put, payment processing software is inexpensive and easy to implement. Your clients will appreciate having the ability to run auto-payments or pay their bills directly through a self-service portal, as well.

5. Hire an Assistant

Nobody can do it alone. If you’re struggling with time management, there’s no shame in bringing in outside support. That might mean hiring an assistant full-time, utilizing a virtual assistant, or bringing on an intern from a local college. Being able to delegate routine tasks to a reliable person will save time and allow you to spend more hours working on tasks that will grow your business and generate actual revenue. Going from working in the business, to working on the business, is an important step every business owner must take.

To learn even more about how to reclaim lost time and grow your publishing business, reach out to our team of experts at Broadstreet Ads.