Selling media advertising is undeniably tougher than ever in an industry that has become cluttered and fragmented. Charlie Wannell, marketing manager at Mediamark ascribes this to the fiercer competition between a growing list of platforms, even as print, broadcast and other traditional media companies try to reinvent themselves for a new consumer and technology landscape.

Brands face shrinking marketing budgets as well as the need to stretch them further. Marketers need to spread their spend over a growing list of channels and markets to reach an increasingly fragmented customer base, even as management demands that they show tangible returns in the form of leads and conversion. Today’s media sales executives must be able to explain clearly the return on investment, basing themselves on sound numbers and analytic insight.

How to sell advertising creating a complete engagement solution.

• Tip #1: Embrace integrated marketing strategies. Today’s most successful campaigns integrate a number of platforms, media, and channels to maximise reach, frequency, engagement, and amplify messaging. Rather than allocating spend to different channels — print, PR, TV, digital, outdoor and radio — and measuring them separately, brands look at how they can be interconnected in order to offer a complete customer experience and to reach the target audience as effectively as possible.

• Tip #2: Watch out for new and developing platforms. Change is the new constant for marketers since mobile and social media have changed the consumer behaviour forever. We need to track how particular platforms are evolving and changing to meet these changes.On radio brands, for example, can be interesting to follow a digital-first strategy, meaning that social media and online content drive the on-air offering. This is a huge opportunity for advertisers to add a new dimension to their radio advertising. Another interesting hint is to focus on mobile engagement, incorporating gamification and content strategies to create extended, emotional customer engagements.The augmented and virtual reality is also beginning to move closer to mainstream adoption. And the Internet of Things and wearable computers are also on the rise. These new devices will bring with them new ways to consume and create content. Marketers need to be constantly looking at how consumer behaviour is changing as new technologies appear.

• Tip #3:  Focus and measurability make the difference. With today’s technology, creating an effective marketing campaign is about capturing the audience’s attention with an innovative, creative execution. Social media and other digital platforms can help us amplify, entertain, engage and educate relatively cost effectively. Programmatic solutions allow advertisers to access first-party data along to target specific segments with engaging advertising formats. Advertisers need to use data at their disposal to measure and optimise performance, as well as to benchmark ROI. Creativity and real consumer data are a powerful combination. Finding ways to measure the effectiveness of the campaigns through means ranging from guaranteed audience figures to cost per lead.

• Tip #4:  Relationships matter. Building genuine and long-term partnerships with media sales houses, media owners, and agencies that are based on sharing risk and reward is the key to success.Through these solid relationships, you can develop a deep understanding of each client’s business.

• Tip #5:  Personalization. Elements of personal identity – generation, home language, gender, ethnicity, etc should always impact marketing and communication strategies and media choices way beyond just basic demographics. We need to understand what moves people from different backgrounds and generations so that we can offer ways of building genuine relationships with them – because they are all valuable to advertisers. For sure, what we have always done in the past cannot be recreated for the future.

If you want to challenge your knowledge of how to sell advertising with a new job, or if you’re looking for someone who knows that good, to be your new media sales executive, browse our advertising sales jobs‎ now!