How CRE Daily Saves 15+ Hours Per Week While Managing Daily Sponsorships

CRE Daily is one of the fastest-growing commercial real estate media companies in the United States, reaching more than 65,000 professionals through its daily newsletter. Beyond its flagship newsletter, the company operates as a full-scale media business, producing original editorial content, sponsored articles, podcasts, and live events.

By using Sponsy as the backbone of its sponsorship operations, CRE Daily centralized inventory management, sponsor communication, approvals, and reporting into a single system. The result is a streamlined workflow that saves time every week, reduces operational risk, and delivers a more professional advertiser experience.

Operating Daily Sponsorships at Scale

CRE Daily's newsletter reaches more than 65,000 engaged professionals, delivering curated insights to a highly targeted audience of commercial real estate decision-makers.

Each weekday newsletter can include up to four sponsored placements, all of which must be delivered accurately and on time.

For media companies operating at this cadence, sponsorship operations are unforgiving. A missed creative, a double-booked slot, or delayed reporting can quickly erode advertiser trust.

"We send a daily newsletter Monday through Friday, and each day can have multiple sponsored placements. Everything has to run smoothly."

Scale Sponsorship Operations Without Adding Headcount

The challenge was not simply execution. It was repeatable execution at scale.

CRE Daily needed to:

• Maintain accurate sponsorship inventory across daily sends
• Reduce manual sponsor communication and follow-ups
• Give sales real-time visibility into available inventory
• Deliver a polished, professional advertising experience
• Do all of this without hiring additional staff

We're a very small, lean team. If we didn't have systems in place to make this efficient, we'd probably need to hire more people.

Centralizing Sponsorship Operations in Sponsy

CRE Daily uses Sponsy as the central system for all sponsorship operations, replacing fragmented tools with a single source of truth.

Nina Dale, Head of Operations, oversees day-to-day execution across CRE Daily's newsletter, website, podcast, and sponsorship programmes, relying on Sponsy daily to keep execution running smoothly.

From Nina's first day in the role, Sponsy was already embedded in the workflow. The platform's usability meant there was no lengthy onboarding period — a critical advantage for a team with limited time.

"It was really easy to use from the beginning. I didn't have to spend time figuring things out."

A Single System for Daily Sponsorships

Today, CRE Daily runs all newsletter sponsorship placements through Sponsy. Each daily send — with up to four sponsored placements — is managed inside one platform.

Sponsy supports the full sponsorship lifecycle, including:

• Inventory scheduling and availability management
• Creative asset collection
• Sponsor approvals via the client portal
• Automated reminders and follow-ups
• Performance reporting and post-campaign metrics

By centralising these workflows, CRE Daily reduces operational risk while increasing consistency.

Why Inventory Visibility Matters for Lean Teams

One of the most impactful capabilities for CRE Daily is Sponsy's calendar view, which provides an immediate snapshot of sponsorship inventory across days, weeks, and months.

For a team managing daily sponsorships, having a clear, real-time view of inventory is essential.

Operations: The calendar view gives operations an instant snapshot of what's booked and what's coming up, making it easier to manage daily sends without relying on spreadsheets or email threads.

Sales: With visibility into available inventory, sales can confidently check what's open and sell sponsorships without needing constant confirmation from operations.

Team: This shared visibility reduces internal back-and-forth and helps the team move faster day to day.

5+ Hours Saved Per Week Through Self-Serve Workflows

One of the most measurable gains came from self-serve ad previews inside the customer portal.

Previously, sponsors frequently requested previews of how their ads would appear in the newsletter. Providing those previews required manual work — creating screenshots, sending emails, and managing revisions.

With Sponsy, sponsors can preview placements directly in their portal.

Automation extends these savings further. Sponsy automatically reminds sponsors to upload creatives and delivers reporting after campaigns run.

"I'm still sometimes chasing sponsors, but not nearly as much. The automations save a lot of time."

A More Professional Advertiser Experience

Efficiency is only part of the equation. Sponsy also helps CRE Daily deliver a more polished, professional experience for advertisers.

Through the client portal, sponsors can:

• Upload creatives
• Approve placements
• View previews
• Access reporting

This reduces email clutter and creates clarity throughout the campaign lifecycle.

When issues arise — such as upload errors — Nina highlights the responsiveness of the Sponsy support team, helping CRE Daily maintain advertiser trust.

Supporting Sales Without Disrupting Operations

CRE Daily uses HubSpot as its primary CRM to manage deals beyond newsletter sponsorships. Sponsy integrates with HubSpot to synchronize customer records while remaining focused on ad operations.

Sales teams use Sponsy to:

• Review available inventory
• Understand upcoming bookings
• Identify what can be sold immediately

As a result, sales gain visibility without relying on operations, resulting in fewer interruptions and faster decision-making.

Results and Ongoing Impact

Rather than a one-time improvement, Sponsy delivers continuous operational value for CRE Daily.

Key outcomes include:

• ~5+ hours saved per week through automation and self-serve sponsor workflows
• Centralised sponsorship operations across daily sends
• Improved visibility for operations and sales
• A professional, scalable advertiser experience
• Reduced operational risk as sponsorship volume scales

For a growing media company with a small team, these benefits are essential.

Client Perspective

From Nina's perspective, Sponsy keeps CRE Daily's sponsorships running smoothly. By providing a single platform for inventory, approvals, and reporting, the lean team can manage daily newsletter placements efficiently — without adding extra overhead.

I'd absolutely recommend Sponsy to other media companies selling ads. It's a necessary tool.