3 Tips on Selling the Power of Digital Video Blog Feature
Molly D Protosow

By: Molly D Protosow on June 23rd, 2016

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3 Tips on Selling the Power of Digital Video

Digital Media Landscape | Sales Tips

The digital marketing and advertising ecosystem continues to expand at a rapid pace. It seems as though every day a new media company or marketing technology provider is popping up out of nowhere with bigger and better offerings including a growing list of targeting, testing, and tracking capabilities.

Here are 3 tips on how to sell digital video more effectively:

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Education

First and foremost, it’s your job as a salesperson to be knowledgeable so you can educate your buyers. You must help them understand and visualize how digital video will not only support but will enhance their current marketing strategy.

Many advertisers may be hesitant if they haven’t utilized digital video before and really don’t have a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities, performance benefits, or challenges.

For instance, with an increasingly mobile-first consumer, cross-platform measurement is a challenge as well as viewability, fraud, and ad blocking. It’s up to every seller to stay current and up-to-date on these issues in order to properly educate prospects and clients. You should be prepared to explain your company’s protocols and policies when it comes to video advertising fraud. Does your company offer refunds or credits if your reporting indicates fraudulent ad views?

Taking the time to really learn and know the answers to questions like this will enable you to change your sales conversations and strengthen your relationship with buyers by educating rather than selling.

Attribution

When it comes to visibility into attribution and reporting of digital video ads, the learning process can feel intimidating. Although we’ve been talking about attribution for years, 2016 has been labeled the year of attribution. So, let’s take a second to review: what is attribution?

Attribution is the process by which marketers quantify the contribution of various media in an ad campaign to the desired impact. Basically, it’s who gets credit for the sale or conversion.

There are many forms of attribution. Whether it’s measuring advertising served via a specific ad format or platform like desktop, mobile, TV, radio, print, outdoor, etc...it’s time to acknowledge the attribution maze is getting increasingly more complex due to the fragmentation of media consumption. For instance, mobile is changing the game by simply being another device in the mix as well as the introduction of mobile location data, not to mention the rise of automated ad buying and selling.

A recent study by Accenture Strategy focused on understanding the impact of video advertising given its increasingly prominent role in advertising budgets. The study reviewed cross-channel advertising attribution for two key categories: multiplatform TV (television-type programming consumed in various ways) and digital (search, display, and short-form video).

A key insight from Accenture’s research verifies what the industry has been talking about for a while but hasn’t fully implemented. Multiplatform TV advertising has a significant halo effect on digital advertising (search, display, and short-form video) within integrated campaigns. On average, 18% of the return on investment that’s typically attributed to these three channels actually should be credited to Multiplatform TV.

In your next sales meeting, encourage your buyer to consider the halo effects across all advertising channels—rather than siloed, channel-specific ROI—and then help them balance their media planning and budgeting accordingly.

Holistic Approach

It’s easy to fall into the trap of recommending the same old campaign strategy with the same old media mix. It’s convenient because you’ve used the strategy in the past and you’re comfortable suggesting it because you already know how to position and sell it. But will that be the most effective strategy for your customer? Probably not.

One size doesn’t fit all. Take a step back to truly understand what your prospect or client is trying to accomplish with their overall marketing strategy, then ask yourself: What advertising solutions would help this client achieve their ultimate marketing goal(s)?

While it’s important to know how to specifically position the most popular trends like buying ads programmatically or digital video advertising as a part of your client’s advertising approach, it’s even more important to consider the bigger picture by taking a holistic approach.

For instance, maybe you have a client who only invests in advertising on one platform but they are finally realizing they need to expand their reach to users across devices and channels. What do you do?

Start by asking our three favorite questions:

  • What are you trying to accomplish?
  • Who are you trying to reach?
  • How will you measure success?

Getting the answers to these simple, yet insightful questions will lead you to right combination of advertising formats and platforms.

Conclusion

What it comes down to is investing more time into your own knowledge and ongoing education. Making an effort to do this will not only help increase your confidence but will allow you to provide more thoughtful and effective guidance to your customers, which ultimately makes you a more successful salesperson. It’s a win-win!

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About Molly D Protosow

Molly Protosow is the COO and Training Strategist for DMTraining. She manages the day-to-day business and training operations while helping research and develop new training programs as well as refreshing signature programs to reflect the newest sales trends, technology, and best practices. Molly utilizes her wide-range of skills to create sales and marketing assets focused on delivering value to DMT’s clients. Molly has a passion for learning and leveraging new knowledge and experiences. Outside of DMTraining, Molly is a hard core Pittsburgh sports fan, enjoys staying active by running and golfing, and unwinds by reading and playing the piano.

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