TLL Staff
The Licensing Letter has seen a massive uptick in both reader and advertising engagement, according to the company’s head of advertising sales, Ingrid Dilschneider.
“The growth our platforms have seen with open and click-through rates has been nothing short of phenomenal,” Dilschneider said. “I’ve been in the marketing industry for a long time, and I haven’t really seen anything like these numbers. It’s clear we have a highly engaged and qualified database who are interactive with the information they are reading.”
In particular, Dilschneider says the TLL daily newsletter has been posting huge numbers, both for news stories and for banner ads. The upward trend began just over three years ago when TLL first launched a change in its editorial direction, which included a major increase in the number of stories; themed magazine editions; an increase in in-depth features; launch of the Guide to Licensing Agencies; and more interviews with industry leaders.
“Currently, we are seeing an average of 58% open rates with our ezine or newsletter, which is 33% higher than industry standard,” she said, adding the monthly magazine has also shown high levels of engagement.
“Our magazine, depending on the content focus for the month, ranges from 45% to 95% open rates, which is 20% to 70% higher than industry standards,” Dilschneider revealed. “In some cases we have seen open rates of more than 100%, because readers have come back to download the magazine multiple times, likely to go over one of the in-depth features.
The highest was 110% for our Licensing Expo issue,” she added. “The content is very relevant and timely for what many would say is the most important week in the licensing calendar, and the news is very current for those attending the largest licensing show in North America.
As well, the shelf life for the magazine is longer, so we see continued high open rates over time.”
Dilschneider says a lot of that engagement may be due to the fact that people working in the licensing industry are constantly looking for the next hot trend or qualified licensing partner, in an extremely competitive industry.
“When I first went to Licensing Expo, I was amazed at how tuned in people are to every shift in this industry, and it seems that success is based on being very aware of where the industry’s going,” Dilschneider said. “As Wayne Gretzky once said, you don’t go where the puck is, you go where the puck is going to be. I think that’s very true of the licensing industry in general.”
That engagement with editorial also extends to advertising on TLL platforms, particularly for two types of advertising, those being banner ads in the regular TLL newsletter or Deal Sheet, or dedicated e-blasts from an advertiser.
“TLL ezines are by far the highest amongst our platforms and client e-blasts are very high too,” Dilschneider said. “People like getting the in-depth information from key companies in the licensing industry, so telling your story just works in this industry. It’s something people want.
“Depending on their message, the minimum open rates are 48%, which is 23% higher than industry standard,” she added. “On average, we are consistently 20% to 50% higher than the industry average for open rates, which is 25%.”
Just as importantly, people who read TLL newsletters also click through to the ads at a higher rate than industry standards.
“Click-throughs are another success story,” Dilschneider said. “The industry average is 2% to 5%, but our typical numbers run 3% to 14%, depending on the message.
“That’s something I can’t stress enough,” she adds. “We have great open rates, but the click-through is also very dependent on the story you’re telling, and whether it’s compelling for the reason. That’s one reason that at TLL we work on bespoke campaigns, and try our best to help tell the client’s story in a way that is compelling, and if I can use the phrase, ‘click worthy’.
“When we get it right, the results can be quite amazing. We have sometimes seen click-through impressions as high as 27%, which is just remarkable, and not something I’ve seen before in my career.”
For advertisers considering a new campaign, Dilschneider says two things have done very well in terms of initial click-through rates, those being banner ads in the ezine, followed by client-branded e-blasts. As well, sponsored articles do well, and have an added benefit that they have a longer tail. People come back to the website to read them over a period of days or weeks.
TLL improves the chances of people seeing a sponsored article by adding links within news stories for at least a week, and sometimes for multiple weeks.
Dilschneider also says the numbers are consistent over time, having changed very little over the past two years.
“These are not cherry picked numbers,” she adds. “The fact is, we just have a highly engaged database seeking information they need for their jobs. Additionally, we constantly clean out our mailing list. We know people change their positions over time, and since we also own the Licensing Sourcebook, the largest source of licensing contacts in the world, we often know when someone has moved on from an older email address, and we constantly update that list.
As a result, our newsletter goes out six days a week, and our open rates never waiver.”
That consistently high engagement is the single most important thing for advertisers in trying to reach a core market demographic,” Dilschneider said.
“It is one of the strongest ways to build awareness for what they are advertising,” she explained. “The ROI for their investment is very high if we measure in open and click-through rates. In addition, we are able to get our clients’ message out there in a clear and concise manner.
“The TLL Brand carries validity and authenticity, which any client would want to piggyback on.”
That said, Dilschneider says placement in the TLL newsletter is only half the battle. The other half is being thoughtful about what the readers want to know. For that reason, Dilschneider engages the editorial team at TLL to help consult on marketing and storytelling.
“I love this question because it’s different for every client depending on what they are trying to achieve,” she said. “Here at TLL we are always looking at innovative and impactful ways to assist our clients with their message. A successful example is the live animation that we introduced for advertisers across our website. That one feature consistently gets over 500 views a day!
“There is never a one-size-fits-all template, as each of our clients have different needs; hence the birth of our TLL Signature Campaigns,” Dilschneider adds. “I design value-driven campaigns that will make a difference for our clients. They are willing to make this investment with TLL and trust me, so I am going to work hard to get them the ROI.
“I like to think of myself as an extension of our client’s team. I always try to put myself in their position and ask, ‘what would I do if I owned this company’, or if I had to promote a specific IP, how would I do it or how would I approach this if I needed a master toy partner, etcetera.”
Companies interested in discussing advertising and marketing campaigns can reach Ingrid Dilschneider by email at ingrid@thelicensingletter.com.
It’s also not to early to think about marketing campaigns for the 2025 Licensing Expo edition.
“The show runs May 20 to May 22 next year, which is not that far away,” Dilschneider says. “Campaigns that have done really well for Expo have typically been planned months in advance, and the best have been signature campaigns that impact the reader in a number of different ways, both before the Expo, and also in the weeks just following the event.”