At the beginning of the training, the commercial director Nata Levițchi reported on the methods, procedures and rules applied by Interakt Media/Agora to sell advertising more efficiently. “What can we sell? Banners, articles, congratulation notes that the customers offer us, but also self-made products, including with the media outlet’s logo. Organize events, for a fee, summer is coming, vaccination is coming, why not tell people about it? Sales must be very well planned and targeted by certain periods as well as by different customer categories. Pay close attention to the type of customers, the quality of the offer, and calculate the income you want to get. Do not forget to prepare a sales tracking report and discuss it with your team to see how things are evolving and in which direction you are going," Nata said.

The Sales Manager Valeria Harti came with additions, sharing with the participants how to approach the customers and how to object to their objections: “There are two types of customers – ‘cold’ and ‘warm’. The hardest is to work with the first category who do not know the offer yet. They usually say, it's expensive, others have it cheaper, we don't have money, send us the offer to think some more etc. There are also those who say they had promoted themselves via media before and it is not effective for their field. Our task is to come up with arguments to every objection." Irina Ghelbur, Media Management and Advertising Consultant at the API Consulting and Support Center, added, "We should not forget about the ‘warm’ clients either. No customer should be neglected, we go back to them not once as they already know about us. It is very important to have a calendar where you can enter dates and events: 8 March, for instance, jewelry and flowers sell well; Easter – the Easter sweet bread sells, and in summer – touristic vouchers sold well before the pandemic.”

Tudor Iașcenco, director of the newspaper Cuvântul (Rezina) and of the portal Cuvântul.md, mentioned that the number of potential advertising suppliers had drastically decreased in his region. “Until recently, state organizations were required to publish official information in newspapers, now they no longer do so, and banks go to advertising agencies that post for them as they wish. Unfortunately, businesses in the region have their own financial problems and rarely place advertising. We have been left with congratulation notes on various occasions and that's it." In her turn, the director of the newspaper Observatorul de Nord (Soroca) and of the portal Observatorul.md Elena Cobasneanu, noted that, although there were prosperous businesses ready to buy advertising in the district and town of Soroca, her newsroom was not very successful in convincing them. "We have enough theoretical knowledge, in practice, however, things are difficult to move. Businesses do not know well the advantages the online environment offers, and we fail to show them these advantages, to be convincing. Just a few days ago, we missed a business company that clearly told us they preferred to promote themselves on Facebook because it was simpler for them and they could target their desired audiences. Likewise, we fail to create attractive offers, to develop fair prices so that to cover our costs but that would be advantageous to the customers as well.”

Answering the questions and reacting to the challenges conveyed by the participants, Nata Levițchi said, “the media market is changing, customers are changing, and that means we must also change. It is true that some customers migrate to the social media, so let us be there, too! Why not make, for example, live posts with certain customers about their work? Even if they prefer Facebook, some customers can be persuaded to come to you. Tell them that it is one thing for Facebook to talk about them, and another – for a fair and quality media outlet to do so, which is much more prestigious. On the media market, apart from Facebook, there are enough competitors who ‘steal’ your advertising. You must identify your advantages very clearly and go with them to your customers – this is the only way for you to surpass your competitors.”

The webinar recording is available HERE.

In February 2021, at the Consulting and Assistance Center, API also held a webinar for directors and persons responsible for updating websites/portals on the topic of paid media product promotion on Facebook, streamlining websites for search engines, etc. Other eight thematic webinars took place between August 2020 and January 2021. In February 2021, the services of the Consulting and Assistance Center were used by a total of 62 employees of 25 newsrooms and media outlets, and in the seven months since the reactivation of the Center – by 358 media professionals.

The Consulting and Assistance Centre for regional independent media outlets will operate until June 2021, and newsrooms are urged to use the services of consultants whenever needed, by accessing the application on the website Api.md.

The project ”Program of Assistance for Independent Regional Media Outlets” is implemented by the Association of Independent Press Association (API) and funded by the US Embassy in the Republic of Moldova. The opinions expressed within the project belong to the authors of the project and do not necessarily correspond to those of the US Embassy.