I spent the past two days in Chicago (ask me about my fear of revolving doors), attending the first ever NAA Online Sales Forum. The conference included panels and presentations aimed at newspaper sales staffs and managers interested in learning more about how to sell the newspaper’s digital media offerings.

Instead of posting my notes, I wanted to share some of the top take-aways from each session.

Though the panels (for me, at least) resulted in pages of scribbled notes of quotes, statistics, strategies and more, these take-aways are more to give a general sense of what transpired Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday afternoon started with a training session called iGeek from Raul Lopez, General Manager of MiamiHerald.com and ElNuevoHerald.com.

Lopez showed a video (available on YouTube here) with some mindblowing statistics:

• According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, the top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004.
• One in every eight couples that married last year met online.
• The average MySpace page is visited 30 times each day.

It was with that frame that Lopez backed up and made sure everyone was one the same page with terms and definitions from IP address to cookie, impression guarantees to under-delivery. He also talked about Web user habits (see Power Users 2006), ad types, sales models and more.  

Top Take-Aways from iGeek:

• “What’s your business?” and “Who are you trying to reach?” are important questions for print sales reps. They are no less important when selling online.
• “Share of voice” (the percentage of messaging an advertiser gets) can be a very, very powerful sales tool for online sales. Exclusivity sells.
• Print and online sales are very similar in many ways -- the main differences are just the different ad units and sizes, terminology and opportunity! 

Wednesdays sessions included discussion about the Online Value Proposition, what advertisers and agencies want from newspapers and much more. Here are take-aways from some of the Wednesday sessions:

NAA’s Online Value Proposition

• Newspaper digital media delivers four core values: Community connections (i.e. local information and connections), relevant and valuable content, customized ad targeting and consumer activation.
• If you’re a sales person, do not assume your advertising client is already familiar with your site; help them become familiar with it by showing them opportunities.
• Even though a lot of purchases actually occur in a physical store, the newspaper online audience shops online much more than the general Web surfing population. (See www.newspapermedia.com for more.) 

What Advertisers and Agencies Want from Newspapers

• Advertisers want personalization, customization, value, connection to the community, quality service and opportunities.
• Help advertisers plan: Know what’s coming up well in advance for your newspaper in terms of major events and special sections, and give this information to your advertisers so they can put some of their budget aside for those opportunities as they arise.
• Listen to what your clients need: Whether in print or online, “the better sales process is collaborative,” one panelist said, especially with the myriad opportunities offered in the digital sphere.
• Digital media allows your advertisers to be a part of their customers’ life. It allows advertisers to engage them in a one-on-one environment (few things come between a computer users’ eyeballs and the screen) and leverage their local interests.
  
  One panelist brought up Comcast SportsNet’s latest branding campaigns as an example of how to leverage local, loyalty and engagement. The campaign involved a bulldog wearing various local sports team apparel, creating a link between loyalty (dog symbolism) and local sports. Comcast SportsNet tied it all together with the tagline, “Fan’s Best Friend.” The response was overwhelming, with people sending Comcast photos and e-mails of their own pets and a contest to name the Comcast bulldog. In another local twist, the dog was named “Deep Dish,” a reference to Chicago pizza. Of course, it included newspaper ads (print and online) in addition to other media.

 Small Advertisers: Finding Prospects, Closing Deals

• Mike Blinder (of The Blinder Group) said part of training a print newspaper sales staff is “demystifying” and “de-geeking” the medium, focusing on the eyeballs instead of the medium. For some smaller advertisers who may be wary of the medium, this is also a good tactic.
• Again, exclusivity sells: Limit inventory in areas where exclusivity will work for the advertiser, such as in “top jobs” categories, “top of search results” agreements, etc.
• Understand your metrics and understand your rates – and make sure you can explain it clearly and make it seem easy for your advertiser.