By Josh Dunn
There’s a new-media-buying trend that seems to signal an important change in buying behavior. Over the last several years, I’ve noticed that new-media buyers—whether in a corporate marketing department or an agency—are likely to spend less time in relationship-building and seek more of a transactional engagement during the buying experience.
For many of us who thrive on building relationships, so important in the traditional-media era, this trend presents its challenges. And then you add in a global pandemic and the myriad digital platforms……oh boy.
Premier Media Group decided in early 2020 to engage and support this new buying approach (which I believe is embraced by about 20% of the buyers) by offering a “buy now” option. In essence, we simplified the sales process and made it easier to execute a buying opportunity and receive a prompt response. Our approach works this way:
- When a client places an order online, our client concierge follows up to confirm the order and processes the artwork.
- If we see an order come in that one of our account managers was actively engaged in, we still offer the commission to our team.
- Rates: We offer 1-2x rates
- We also offer an array of other “buy now” services.
However, the majority of our partnership engagements still are crafted via relational meet-ups. But for the sake of efficiency and addressing this new-media buying behavior, we want to offer an array of quality services to our market.
I’m thrilled to report that the new approach is working and will continue to be offered on all of our platforms for our partners who wish to engage promptly and efficiently in today’s marketplace.
Josh Dunn is the president of Tacoma-based Premier Media Group, whose titles include 425 and South Sound magazines and 425 and South Sound Business magazines.