Attract more advertisers to your association with an advertising sales kit

Attract more advertisers to your association with an advertising sales kit

Ready to drive more non-dues revenue for your association? Here’s how an advertising sales kit can help you attract more advertisers.

Are you growing tired of advertisers knocking on your association’s door, asking you to take their money? Of course not! What association couldn’t use more revenue? Selling advertising is a powerful way to increase your association’s non-dues revenue stream. But to sell more advertising, you need to attract more advertisers.

That’s where an advertising sales kit comes in.

Let’s take a look at:

• What an advertising sales kit is
• Why every association (even an association with a small staff!) needs one
• What you can (and should!) promote in your advertising sales kit

What is an advertising sales kit for associations?

Simply put, an advertising sales kit is a pre-packaged set of materials for potential advertisers. It can be presented on a microsite and/or in a PDF format that you can also print to make available to advertisers in a variety of ways.

The kit sets the stage for why your association is the ideal place for companies to spend their advertising budget. It’s also a one-stop place for potential advertisers to learn everything they need to know about getting their products or services in front of your members via advertising.

Why does your association need an advertising sales kit? 

If your association is like many with small staffs, advertising is a leading source of your non-dues revenue. In fact, a study of small-staff associations by Community Brands indicates that advertising is among the top five sources of non-dues revenue.

It follows that selling more advertising can help your association generate more non-dues revenue.

But even though your association’s membership is a perfect audience for businesses in your industry or profession, those companies have many other possible places to spend their advertising dollars. They need to know more before they spend money with your organization, including:

• Your association’s purpose
• Why your membership base is an attractive audience for their business
• What advertising opportunities you offer and how much they cost
• How to sign up for advertising opportunities

When you have a small staff, you don’t have extra time to visit potential advertisers, make the case for why your association’s members are a great audience for them, showcase your advertising opportunities, and answer advertisers’ questions. An advertising sales kit makes it much easier to sell advertising. Once you have one in place, all you need to do is get the word out about your advertising opportunities and point businesses to your advertising sales kit for more details.

What advertising opportunities can your association promote? 

There are many types of advertising opportunities you can offer to drive non-dues revenue for your association. For example, you can offer banner ad placements on your association’s website, email newsletter, membership directory, and online member community. You can also allow companies to purchase ads that are displayed via your webinars, events, publications, and social media channels.

If you aren’t sure what advertising opportunities will appeal to potential advertisers, ask your top sponsors what advertising opportunities they want. And keep in mind that you don’t have to sell only one-off advertising opportunities. Get creative with a variety of advertising packages that allow advertisers to mix and match different types of ads or take out the same type of ad for multiple months in a row.

Learn more

Your association’s advertising sales kit doesn’t have to be complicated. But if you put it together in a thoughtful way, it will help your association grab potential advertisers’ attention and convince them that your membership base is where they want to spend their advertising budget.

Learn more tips and insights for creating an advertising sales kit for your association: Read the guide, How to Build an Advertising Sales Kit to Drive More Revenue for Your Association.