We all try to sell as many print/online bundles as possible, especially for our smallest B2B advertisers. But the forced bundle is not in fashion, and it is not the best way to go. There are many reasons for this and rightly so.

Every advertiser, regardless of size and digital budget, should be treated as a partner at eye level and not forced into a bundle package. Yet, publishers have a tradition of forcing advertisers into bundles that we couldn’t sell otherwise — meaning without force and aggressive bundling.

On the other hand, “voluntary upselling” usually is more difficult with advertisers. It is especially difficult with sales reps who just don’t offer those “options” and go for the quick print-only sell.

The question now is if there is anything that guarantees high upselling rates but is less forced and aggressive than making the bundle mandatory?

Choice and recommendations

We all learned from tons of digital offerings that being able to choose among the gold, silver, and bronze packages gives us freedom. Yet, at the same time, we are thankful for the “recommended” badge on the silver package, which tells us we are making the right decision based on what the majority of customers also choose.

The same goes for your digital bundles: Recommend the digital extension as a “standard option,” but give the advertiser the chance to opt out. It’s chosen by default and actively has to be not chosen, yet it still leaves a choice.

Telling the story about the 80% of customers who choose this option also makes it easier for advertisers to go with this standard, as it is the “proven path of success.”

Storytelling and ease of sales

Yes, there’s a choice, but this is not a new sales process. Bundles are bundles because they need to be upsold in less than a minute. Don’t fall for the trap of selling the digital offering from scratch after successfully selling the print ad.

Make the initial pitch for the print ad within a cross-media pitch: “We serve all our local ads in print and online to make sure we reach the full potential of the local target group for our advertisers. It is our service to make sure all print ads become great banners and landing pages. This is already included in our price of XYZ.”

Product and ease of use

Buying the product needs to be easy, and so does the operations process for the advertiser. They are used to sending you the .pdf or .jpg of the print ad, and everything else is done by the publisher.

That is also the secret sauce for the print-digital bundle. This should be a no-tour process for the advertiser as services like Smartico produce banner ads plus landing pages based on print ads at scale and in time. This is done using the data from the print ad, but it is also enriched with all the information from the Web about this specific advertiser.

There should be additional hurdles after the advertiser says yes to the “feel-good bundle.” Everything is taken care of: The ad is served and a visual reporting is created.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .