Brain Swell Media founder Ryan Dohrn will return to the 2019 HSPA Advertising Conference to offer practical, innovative and inspirational ad sales advice.
Dohrn will be offering two sessions, “Creating Newspaper Proposals that Close Deals!” and “7 Ways to Sell Newspaper Ads and Digital Like a Boss!”
For the session on proposals, Dohrn said people are in an unproductive, vicious cycle that needs to be broken.
“If we keep selling traditional media in traditional ways we’re going to get traditional results,” he said.
“It’s the classic definition of insanity that has been around for years. And for some reason we’ve allowed it to become the new normal — and we have to break that cycle if we’re going to become successful.”
“It’s going to be a game changer for some people.”
Dohrn said some papers utilizing the ideas from the session have grown revenue by 400 percent.
“In my opinion, it is a must-attend event for anyone in the newspaper business,” Dohrn said.
“If there was one class that I’ve taught, this is the one that people need to see. They need to be a part of this,” he said.
The session will included sharing examples from other mid-sized to smaller community papers across the country, examples of what they’re doing and how they’re presenting their proposals to close deals.
“It’s going to be a game changer for some people,” he said.
Dohrn describes the second session — “7 Ways to Sell Newspaper Ads and Digital Like a Boss!” — as fun and fast-paced.
The essence of this session is how to create compelling conversations with your advertisers to sell print and digital, he said.
Dohrn said media companies need to adopt a print-plus mentality.
“We going to talk about digital as being a part of the marketing plan. It’s not the entire marketing plan.”
Educating advertisers is an important part of the process. An educated buyer typically buys more and a confused buyer always says no, Dohrn said.
“I try to see myself as more of a bit of an adviser to them than a sales person,” he said.
But the sales come. Dohrn said last month he passed the $500,000,000 mark in sales he’s been a part of — mostly in newspapers and magazines.
Dohrn’s sessions and the Advertising Conference will take place before the annual awards gala Sept. 13 at The Nest Event Center.
Registration deadline is Sept. 4. For information and to register visit,https://www.hspa.com/events-and-deadlines/.
