How much time does your sales team spend chasing brand-new advertisers?
Now ask yourself this. How many businesses that advertised with you 12, 18 or 24 months ago have not heard from you recently?
For many newspapers, the fastest route to new revenue is not finding new prospects. It's reconnecting with advertisers who already know who you are, understand your audience and have trusted you with their marketing budget before.
They bought from you once, disappeared for a while, and may be much closer to returning than you think.
When an advertiser stops spending, it is easy to assume the relationship has run its course.
Maybe they were unhappy or found a better deal elsewhere.
Sometimes that's true. But there’s tons of reasons why an advertiser might leave that have nothing to do with your newspaper.
A marketing manager leaves. A budget gets frozen. The business changes ownership. Priorities shift. The economy wobbles.
Whatever the reason, the point is this: if a business advertised with you before, they trusted you enough to spend money with you.
That puts them in a very different category from a cold prospect who has never taken your call.
Most newspaper sales teams have spent years building relationships with local businesses. The problem is that many of those relationships disappear into the archives once an account goes quiet.
Cue ... CRM.
A bad CRM will hold you back from seeing those relationships so it's easy for valuable advertisers to quietly fall off the radar.
A good CRM doesn’t just store contact details. It records every advertiser relationship your organization has built over time. It includes businesses that:
So, they’re pretty different from cold leads. They’re actually dormant relationships which are a lot easier to revive.
Not every former advertiser is worth pursuing, so how do you identify the ones that would want to come back?
1. It has been around a year since their last campaign
Many businesses work to annual planning and budgeting cycles.
If they stopped advertising 12 months ago, they may be entering a new planning period right now. Timing matters more than most sales teams realize.
2. The business has new decision-makers
A new marketing manager or business owner often reviews existing suppliers and past partnerships.
Someone who was not around for the original decision may be perfectly open to restarting the conversation.
3. They are still engaging with your organization
Maybe they open your emails, attend your events or still interact with your content.
It’s good news if they do — they've not cut ties. Their actions suggest the relationship never completely disappeared. They simply stopped buying.
4. Their industry is picking up again
When local economic conditions improve, marketing budgets tend to follow.
A contractor, retailer, healthcare provider or real estate business that paused spending last year may be actively looking for growth opportunities today.
5. They renewed multiple times in the past
Past behavior remains one of the strongest indicators of future behavior.
A business that renewed campaigns repeatedly has already demonstrated that they saw value in the relationship.
No one likes a pushy approach, so don’t waste the opportunity by calling someone out of the blue and asking whether they want to place another ad.
Instead, lead with the value. You could say:
"We've introduced several new ways local businesses are reaching audiences since we last worked together. I'd love to share what's been working and learn more about your goals this year."
You don’t need sophisticated technology or a big project team.
Start by creating a list of advertisers who have been inactive for 12 to 24 months.
Then:
Even a modest win-back rate can have a meaningful impact on revenue.
After all, recovering 10 former advertisers is usually faster, cheaper and less frustrating than finding 10 completely new ones.
Every newspaper is sitting on years of advertiser relationships which are active, thriving or have gone quiet.
The question is whether your team can find and act on those opportunities before they're forgotten for another year. The most successful sales teams aren't necessarily building more relationships; they're simply better at identifying and reactivating the ones they already have. To do that, you need a CRM you can rely on.
Once your CRM is sorted, you can easily uncover which advertisers are ready to talk.
So, the next time your team starts talking about where new business will come from, it might be worth looking backwards before looking forwards.
Can’t rely on your CRM? Check out Workbooks
Ken Campbell is business development director with Workbooks. Connect with him at ken.campbell@workbooks.com.
