What to Say When an Advertiser Emails Asking for Rates
The enquiry arrives, you reply with a number, and often you never hear back. The reply is usually the problem.
The short version
- Answer the question completely, then give one thing to do.
- Presenting prices as facts removes the negotiation a private quote invites.
- Pre-empt the five questions that always follow.
- Do not discount in the first reply. Offer a smaller placement instead.
- The email exchange is the symptom. The missing portal is the cause.
What most publishers send
A typical reply reads: "Thanks for reaching out! Our rates start at $500 per month depending on placement. Let me know what you had in mind and we can put something together."
It seems reasonable and it converts badly, for three reasons. It asks the buyer to do work. It signals the price is negotiable, which invites negotiation. And it ends with a request for another email rather than an action.
What to send instead
Answer the question completely, then give them one thing to do. Something closer to:
"Thanks for asking. We have three placements: a leaderboard above the article, a sidebar unit and an in-content rectangle. Our floor is X, Y and Z per thousand views. You can sign up, add funds and get a campaign running on any of them here: [link]. Happy to answer anything before you do."
That version answers the question, removes negotiation by presenting the floor as a fact, and ends with a link rather than a request.
Put in the first reply, every time
- The specific placement, with size and position
- The floor price, and what a thousand views of it costs
- When you could have it live
- A link where they can sign up and start the campaign themselves
- A question back that delays the answer another day
- A discount nobody asked for
Answer before you are asked
The follow-up questions are always the same. What are the sizes. How many people will see it. Can I change the creative mid-flight. What happens if it underperforms. Do you take card.
Put those answers where the buyer can find them without a second email. Every question you pre-empt is a day you do not lose.
Do not discount on the first reply
If your very first message contains a discount, you have told the buyer the price is fiction and that patience will be rewarded. Hold the number. If they say it is too expensive, that is information, and the response is a smaller placement rather than the same placement for less.
A discount in the first reply does not close the deal. It reopens the price.
Follow up once, then stop
One follow-up after roughly four days, short, referencing the specific thing they asked about. If nothing comes back, leave it. Chasing further costs more goodwill than the deal is worth, and people who go quiet after a clear answer were usually price shopping.
The structural fix
All of this is damage limitation around a process that should not require you at all. If the buyer could have signed up, funded an account and started a campaign without emailing you, none of these messages would need writing. The email exchange is the symptom; the missing portal is the cause.
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