How Demand Curve Reduced Weekly Ad Ops Time by 2 Hours

Demand Curve is an online community of 80k+ founders learning how to grow their businesses more efficiently.

Every week, their Growth Newsletter equips them with the top strategies and tactics used by fast-growing startups.

Demand Curve's founder Neal O'Grady understands the needs of entrepreneurs - as well as the challenges they face while scaling.

Neal had a vision. To develop his newsletter into a growth marketing community, supported by multiple newsletters and podcasts.

However, Neal, who looks after every aspect of publishing, was short on time.

The problem with DIY solutions

Clients completed a form within the platform, but we still needed to look out for and chase responses.

Every month, the Growth Newsletter offers 12 sponsorship slots.

While tracking and managing these relationships is crucial, it's not quick or easy without the right tool. Neal spent more than a couple of hours a week handling a range of administrative tasks - no easy feat when publishing a weekly newsletter.

While Neal had a custom system in ClickUp, he found it “janky” and “headache-inducing”.

Generating reports, for example, required him to create specific client views, while collecting ad copy was time-intensive, too.

He explains: “Clients completed a form within the platform, but we still needed to look out for and chase responses.”

Neal knew there must be a more efficient way of managing these processes.

Why Demand Curve chose Sponsy

Demand Curve first heard about Sponsy in February 2023.

Sponsy is a platform streamlining ad operations for media companies. Designed to help lean teams efficiently scale up ad operations, Sponsy supports publishers manage newsletters, podcasts and social media sponsorships with ease.

Sponsy's powerful capabilities track and manage team efforts from booking ad space right through to post-campaign reporting.

Seamless sponsorship flow

Sponsy triggers reminders for everything, such as welcome messages and requests for copy.

As the modern, all-in-one sponsorship manager for publications, Sponsy is equipped with automated workflows that make repetitive tasks, such as reminders, a thing of the past for Neal and his team.

“I am impressed by the Automations,” enthuses Neal. “Sponsy triggers reminders for everything, such as welcome messages and requests for copy."

“It also automatically asks for approvals and keeps everyone informed when stats become available.”

As well as ensuring no step is overlooked, advanced workflows save significant time for the founder - allowing Neal and his team to focus on growing their business, rather than servicing it.

Improved advertiser experience

Sponsy's Customer Portal provides a central location for the publisher and advertisers to communicate. Neal's clients no longer have to dig through emails to find requirements or stats - and it's delivering them with a better customer experience.

Neal explains: “Sponsy has a nice customer portal where they can put their ad copy and we can communicate with them right there.”

The Customer Portal is built around the needs of users. For example, once an asset, such as a logo or image, is uploaded, it can be reused - reducing the hassle for advertisers.

Clients can also view information such as previous customer placements, advertising guidelines and stats in the Customer Portal, reducing the need of back-and-forth communication for each ad.

Scaling up for success

Sponsy plays a fundamental role in Demand Curve's future plans for expansion.

Sponsy keeps this important information in a central location.

The team behind the scenes may be small, but the founder knows that won't always be the case.

“As the company grows, there will be more and more people involved,” says Neal. “Sponsy keeps this important information in a central location.”

When issues arise, Sponsy makes it easy for teams to browse the history of any ad - including copy changes - ensuring any customer service inquiry or doubt can be resolved quickly.

Sponsy also makes it easy to manage multi-slot (and channel) campaigns, thanks to bulk creation and update capabilities.

Responsive support

Often I'll email a request, within a day or two Sponsy's team will confirm that it's done.

Like Sponsy, Neal understands that a platform is only as good as the support behind it. That's why he's most impressed with their responsiveness to feedback and willingness to incorporate updates.

"Often I'll email a request, within a day or two Sponsy's team will confirm that it's done."

While Sponsy works quickly, delivering powerful capabilities takes time. To stay ahead of the curve, Sponsy engineers are always looking for ways to help users work that bit faster, easier and better.

Results

I would absolutely recommend Sponsy to other people...

And I already have!

Introducing Sponsy 6 months ago has transformed operations for Demand Curve.

The team has celebrated many achievements in that short time, including:

• Saving 2+ hours per week
• Increased focus on developing customer relationships
• Creating new newsletter and podcast channels for launch in 2024

Neal recalls life before Sponsy: “Every couple of weeks I'd find myself saying: "Why hasn't someone built a good sponsorship manager yet?"

“When I found Sponsy I felt like shouting FINALLY!!! Has been a huge help in reducing headaches and replaced a very hacky and janky system.”

He concludes: “It’s really helped us out. I would absolutely recommend Sponsy to other people...And I already have!”