Smile and call? That’s not how you’ll sell advertising in 2024. According to Borrell Associates, only one in ten local advertisers surveyed prefer to buy via phone call. Their preferred method: an email to a sales representative. Small and medium-sized businesses say they prefer this to a face-to-face meeting.
In his latest Chart of the Week series, Borrell says 38% of local advertisers prefer buying via email, while 30% prefer face-to-face interaction. Both methods are far more optimal for local buyers than a DIY website, preferred by 12%, or a phone call, the preferred method of 10% of respondents.
“Personal interaction is used much more frequently and is generally preferred over a DIY platform,” said Elizabeth Bernberg, senior director of business development at AdCellerant. “About 62% of advertisers have phone conversations with representatives, but 90% of advertisers would prefer something else, namely a face-to-face interaction with the representative or an email exchange. So this is fantastic news for the tens of thousands of sellers out there – their interaction is preferred.”
Bernberg points out that the survey shows that only 13% of advertisers prefer to buy their advertising without interacting with a sales representative, such as through a mobile app or DIY web portal.
“The big message here is again that you have to be smart about email communication,” she says in a video presenting the results. This includes making emails short and concise, more like a text message, so that the customer can read a message more quickly in real time rather than saving it for later.
“The message is clear,” says Bernberg. “We have to be incredibly specific about the best time of day to send an email, the best subject line and, most importantly, what to say in those incredibly important five seconds, and then someone has to decide whether to respond to your email or delete it.”
