Optimize your core content for additional revenue.

Given the current economic climate, the move towards online dissemination of information and the drive for open access and free information, commercial sales is becoming an increasingly attractive revenue-generating proposition for publishers.

Unlike  most traditional advertising and sponsorships, the online medium offers much more variety and flexibility. It is possible to devise programs that help commercial partners with exposure, brand awareness, lead generation and education of the market in a non-intrusive way that can be welcomed by the audience as genuinely beneficial.

What is Commercial Sales?

‘Commercial sales’ describes the revenue that a publisher generates from sources other than content sales. The revenue normally comes from a commercial third party that has a target audience of the readership of a particular publisher’s content.

What Forms can Commercial Sales Take?

The most traditional commercial sales take the form of advertising/sponsorship and the publishing of third party content under an existing brand. However, the trend towards the flexibility of online dissemination of information has led to a new avenues for lead generation and relationship building.

  • Advertising – Independent exposure within an existing content stream.
  • Online advertising and microsites that feature content from a sponsor or link to a site.
  • Sponsorship – Association with a specific piece of content or brand.
  • Special Issue/Supplemental Issue – Presentation of new content (sometimes supplied by the commercial partner) or relevant re-purposed content, funded by the commercial partner, either within or without the existing schedule respectively.
  • Webinar – An online, audio-visual seminar.

Virtual Conference – An online conference featuring audio-visual presentations, file downloads, live communication, both editorially selected and commercially supplied.

Enhanced targeting with emerging technologies.

Technology is rapidly changing the precision with which potential buyers can be reached. Platforms like Google and Facebook offer advertising tools that enable you to use contextual or behavioral targeting. Maverick can help you navigate the many standards, best practices, payment methods, terminology, and other complexities of this new frontier.

What are the required considerations when planning a commercial sales?

Before embarking on any commercial sales efforts, it is important carefully assess your objectives and impact on other areas of the organization.

  • What objectives is the commercial partner trying to achieve? (e.g. education of the market, lead generation, brand exposure, market research)?
  • What would be the impact on any associated brands or content (is the editorial integrity maintained, are guidelines for medical education or ethics followed, will impact factor be affected)?
  • Are there guidelines in place regarding editorial review/approval, placement of ads, ratio of ads and editorial?
  • What are the associated revenue and costs involved?
  • What is the effect on the audience (for example, will they consider any commercial content as informative of intrusive)? And will the audience’s perception enhance or damage their acceptance of any future products and events?