How many advertisers can a local newsletter realistically sell?

A sold-out local newsletter has about ten advertisers. That surprises people who imagine pages of ads.

My target is eight to ten advertising partners per newsletter, one from each high-value category: a realtor, an insurance agent, a roofer, a med spa and so on.

What does a sold-out newsletter look like?

From guests on my podcast:

• One had ten annual advertisers against twelve sends a month. That's near capacity.
• Another sells three-month deals, one sponsorship per month across eight or nine sends.
• A third has a primary sponsor with a clickable logo, 50 to 100 words and an image, plus two or three secondary sponsors filling gaps. He fills out the year with recurring sponsors, and there are always about 15 conversations in progress, so he's careful not to oversell.

How many ad slots do I actually have?

Fewer than you'd think, so do the math before you sell. Say the most you send is three times a week, with two main ads in each issue. That's about 24 main ad slots a month, not counting the "powered by" spot or featured events.

Give each sponsor two of those a month, one primary and one secondary, and you can work with 12 businesses. At $500 a month each, that's $6,000 a month. Not earth-shattering, but pretty good for something like this.

How do I price the slots as they fill?

Don't sell all 12 at the same price. Start at $500, or wherever you want. After two or three people sign, raise it $100. The next one is $600. By the time you get to sponsors 10, 11 and 12, you're charging $1,000 or more. That's how it scales.

"If somebody is willing to lock in with you for a year right now, I mean, obviously just don't do it for super cheap. Don't lock somebody in at $200 a month or something."

Long contracts are good because they cut your risk. Someone signing for $500 a month for a year is $6,000, and that's pretty killer. Just don't lock in a cheap rate if you expect to grow fast.

How should I structure ten sponsors?

A guest pitched an idea I liked: eight to ten permanent monthly sponsors, with one featured at the top each week. My partner on one of my newsletters, which had just crossed 10,000 subscribers, had the exact same idea: what if they're permanently at the bottom once we get our eight.

• Annual or monthly sponsors: permanent spots, rotating through the top feature.
• Inbound one-offs: secondary slots.
• Bigger businesses: want the top placement and should pay for it.

The permanent spots can be small. Businesses featured at the bottom, really small, not an ad taking up a bunch of space. Or move them higher up: "this issue is brought to you by" with all eight logos near the top. Either way, the pitch changes from once a month to visible in every single issue.

Geoff of North Shore Now told me on my podcast that he offers a permanent-sponsor option, but nobody had bought it yet. So treat it as a good idea, not a proven seller.

I also like being open with readers about it. The newsletter is free, it takes real time and effort, and ads are how it gets paid for. That's why TV was free forever.

Sell tiers and permanent placement rather than one-off sends.

Why can't I just raise prices instead?

With small businesses, the budget is the ceiling. One guest said even if you reach 50,000 people, local advertisers might only have $400 or $500 to spend. The lever there is more advertisers.

Small businesses are also just hard to sell. Most owners have no idea what a local newsletter is. They're used to magazines. Once they start paying attention, I think they buy, but getting that attention is the work.

Can I add capacity without cluttering the issue?

• Sponsored sections. A restaurant deals section I planned at $1,000 a year per restaurant, one deal a month, with room for about 20 restaurants.
• Segmented slots. Sell one position to two advertisers by audience. See selling one slot twice.

One guest also made his own coffee shop the title sponsor. If you own a business, your own newsletter is a great place to advertise it.