Life comes at you fast—in no area is that truer than media sales. The last few decades have a been a roller coaster of disruption, and it doesn’t look like the industry will get a chance to catch its breath anytime soon.
As a guide to keep pace with this runaway train, CloudSense has assembled “The Modern Media Executive’s Playbook,” which lays out not only the fallout from fragmented media consumption but also strategies for grasping new revenue opportunities while streamlining operations.
Before our webinar on injecting agility into your revenue operations on Oct. 16 at 11 am EDT, I caught up with CloudSense VP of Media Solutions Stuart Schauman—himself a veteran of wild transformation during his 20 years at Advance Local. I got him to expand more on reducing tech-stack complexity, transforming the role of publishers in clients’ minds, and just what it means to give your revenue a shot of agility.
GAVIN DUNAWAY: I’m sure a lot of publishers would love to reduce the complexity of their tech stacks, but have a hard time determining just what’s expendable. What’s your advice on where to consider trimming?
STUART SCHAUMAN: It’s important that all platforms supported in the tech stack are clearly carrying their weight as either a revenue generator or a revenue support system. We would suggest looking at the tech stack from that perspective first. Can you clearly associate the benefits of the technology to the cost of supporting the technology?
It’s also worth exploring newer technologies that may perform multiple tasks that may currently be performed by two, or possibly even three, individual platforms. It’s all about efficiency and value proposition when it comes to the tech stack.
GD: AdMonsters has been a big advocate for revenue diversification—what areas do you think publishers should give more consideration?
SS: Revenue diversification is very much dependent on your customer base as well as your ability to sell and support the category. Publishers need to diversify and should be looking at selling search, enterprise search, social, extended reach, email, web development, sponsored content, targeting, events and more. Much of this is dependent on the size and operational capabilities of the publisher.
GD: AdMonsters also often talks about the importance of publishers becoming buying consultants for their advertiser clients. What do you think is key to being seen as a trusted adviser?
SS: The key to being a trusted adviser is product knowledge and support. Understanding the benefits of a well-run campaign using multiple products to ensure the expected outcome is core to becoming a trusted adviser.
Knowing how to properly gather customer KPIs and being able to translate those KPIs into the product suite is a must along with providing top-notch client services and support. Understanding the benefits of optimization along with a knowledge of successfully designed creative can also add significant value.
GD: Your Oct. 16 webinar on “Injecting Agility to Seize New Revenue Opportunities” sounds intriguing, but what do you mean by agility in this context?
SS: Agility in this context is referencing the systematic improvements that are required in order to have a successful end-to-end sales and support process. We will focus on automation that can provide more top-line growth as well as call out the challenges that are holding organizations back from improving either top line growth or reducing support costs. We will also take the audience through a recommended checklist for building the ROI necessary to support this effort.
Download “The Modern Media Executive’s Handbook” from CloudSense and sign up for “Injecting Agility to Seize New Revenue Opportunities” on Oct. 16 at 11 am EDT.