TLL Staff
Everyone in licensing knows the importance of marketing, but the ability to market is also tied to your marketing budget.
It’s also true that marketing is most important during tougher economic times, which is when budgets get squeezed.
The Licensing Letter has come up with a solution that literally won’t cost our members a cent, offering free advertising for all of its Prime members.
TLL’s Membership & Advertising Manager Andrea Stowe says every Prime subscriber will receive three free banner ads that will run in TLL’s Deal Sheet, going out every Thursday. Each ad runs for two weeks, so that’s six weeks of advertising, absolutely free. TLL is also running those banner ads in its popular digital magazine, increasing exposure for its clients.
If space in the Deal Sheet runs out, advertisers can have their ads placed in the daily TLL newsletter, which boasts similarly high open and click-through rates, or the Weekly Wrap Up, which often has even better rates.
“Our goal is to support the companies and the people who are supporting us,” said Stowe, “We believe that if our clients do well, then we’ll do well, and so our focus is in providing real value that helps boost our subscribers’ bottom line.”
Prime members receive access to the Licensing Sourcebook, the industry’s only searchable database of licensing contacts, as well as our Deals and Data service, historical Deal Sheet records, and access to TLL Magazine.
The combination of access to the Deal Sheet and the Licensing Sourcebook allows Prime members to not only see available and recently granted licenses, but to also find and contact the appropriate licensing contacts at thousands of companies around the world.
Those valuable services together are priced at just $1,197 annually, and Stowe points out that the new advertising component more than doubles the value.
“Banner ads in the Deal Sheet and the newsletter have been selling for $500 each, so providing three free ads to our Prime members is an additional $1,500 value every year,” Stowe explains. “When it comes to marketing costs, you don’t get much better than free.”
TLL’s Business Manager Jim Pearmain notes that advertisers have seen great value in their paid advertisements, which include banner ads, sponsorships, and sponsored feature articles or profiles.
“We even had one advertiser tell us that literally half of their business at the last Licensing Expo came from ads in TLL,” Pearmain said. “The Licensing Letter is a very widely read publication for licensing executives, so advertisers have been getting some great results.”
The Licensing Letter currently has a subscriber list of more than 26,000 readers, all of them directly involved in the licensing industry.
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The Deal Sheet has seen an open rate of 28% over the past month, but that number varies, and in previous months has soared to more than 70%. Pearmain says that typically happens around periods of major activity in the market, such as before, during and after events like the Licensing Expo, Brand Licensing Europe, and Spielwarenmesse, just for example.
The Deal Sheet also boasts a 9% click-through rate, much higher than the industry average. In general, TLL’s open and click-through rates have been leading the industry.
“Part of the reason for that is our investment in editorial content and data acquisition,” Pearmain said. “Another major reason is that we keep our mailing list very clean.
“It’s a common problem that open and click rates decline for many publications because they don’t remove the free subscribers who haven’t opened the email for a long time,” Pearmain added. “We go through our entire list on a monthly basis, and remove anyone who has not opened the newsletter in six months.”
TLL also has a ‘core list’ of readers, totalling more than 17,000, who typically open the Deal Sheet or the newsletters multiple times a week, which is a key reason open and click-through rates remain consistently high.
That’s equally true of the daily TLL newsletter and the Weekly Wrap Up which goes out every Saturday. Over the past month, the daily has seen a 27% open rate and 4% click-through, while the Weekly Wrap Up has enjoyed a stunning 41% open rate and 5% click-through.
“Most months our weekly newsletter tends to get the most readers,” Pearmain says. “But the Deal Sheet tends to see really big numbers as our readers are preparing for major trade shows and other similar events that drive traffic.”
Stowe also stresses that this offer is not just open to new subscribers, but to anyone who currently has a Prime membership.
“A lot of people are unaware that this benefit exists,” Stowe said. “But, if you got a Prime membership a year ago and your subscription is current, then you’re eligible for our free banner ads. Just send me an email to get started, and we’ll arrange for your advertising at no charge.”
Interested parties can reach Andrea Stowe by email at this address: Andrea@thelicensingletter.com