How Around Town Media saves 10+ hours newsletter admin weekly

Around Town Media is a group of local email newsletters run by locals for locals. Sharing positive and meaningful news helps reconnect readers with the magic and charm of their hometowns. 

Around Town Media showcases events, local heroes, and heartwarming tales. These keep the publisher’s audiences in Northwest Arkansas, Kansas City, and Little Rock updated on their town’s best offers.  

Every day, Around Town Media delivers news directly to more than 85K subscribers and 50K social media followers. 

“Not enough time”

As director for Northwest Arkansas, Tad Moore singlehandedly manages all operations for the daily newsletter, including content production and handling all advertising relationships.

Much of his day is spent curating information and content for the newsletter. He is directly responsible for copywriting, editing, and design. 

That focus doesn’t leave much time for keeping things organized, growing our subscribers, looking at inventory or exploring new opportunities for advertisers to sponsor us.

While he recognizes these tasks ensure readers come back for more, Tad is aware that it can come at a heavy cost. 

Tad shared, "That focus doesn’t leave much time for keeping things organized, growing our subscribers, looking at inventory or exploring new opportunities for advertisers to sponsor us."

Every day, Tad has five sponsorship slots to fill. The resulting admin - including content management and billing - is particularly labor intensive due to the use of multiple platforms. 

His biggest challenge? Finding time to equip advertisers with accurate metrics as he explains.

"Producing these monthly ad reports was super time-consuming and prone to errors. Often it just didn’t get done unless someone specifically asked for it." 

Trial and error

With so much to manage early on, Tad began using Notion, a generic tool that can be adapted as a CRM. He recalls it requiring a lot of manual effort from him to do things like adding dates to the publishing calendar.  

It didn’t help us manage ad inventory any better. It remained a very manual process.

In the beginning, the system “worked really well”. As the number of advertisers grew, however, so did the problems with “stuff falling through the cracks”.

Soon after, following a colleague’s suggestion, Tad began using FollowUp Boss. 

"He set us up there, and it worked awesomely as far as connecting with new inquiries and automating cold outreach. But it didn’t help us manage ad inventory any better. It remained a very manual process."

Why Around Town Media partnered with Sponsy

That’s when Tad discovered Sponsy, the purpose-built platform for media companies wanting to streamline ad operations across newsletters, digital, social, and more.

After reading about it on Revenews, he was intrigued by Sponsy’s Deals, Storefront, and Ad Inventory features.  

I liked the ad calendar and how the deals pipeline connected to it.

It was that integration that sealed the deal for me.

Around Town Media looked at Sponsy alongside several CRMs, including Passionfroot, as he needed something capable of connecting with his publishing calendar.

Despite spending time setting up Passionfroot and sharing it, he was disappointed that no orders ever came through. 

Weighing up options, Tad chose Sponsy. He recalls, "I liked the ad calendar and how the deals pipeline connected to it. It was that integration that sealed the deal for me."

“Super-easy” migration 

Tad found Sponsy’s efforts to make migration “super easy” for him from the outset very impressive. 

He recalls how the team did its homework beforehand - even building out several of the publisher’s advertising placement types so Tad could see how it could work for Around Town Media.  

"We barely spoke on the call because the team was able to show me - pretty tangibly - how it all worked - including publications and ad inventory."

In all, Tad spent around a week getting everything up and running for the organization. He is especially grateful for the support he received from Sponsy’s team throughout migration and beyond.

“Really easy” onboarding

The free trial that followed allowed Tad to introduce some colleagues to Sponsy. The response was positive, with all seeing how it could help them manage their titles more effectively.  

We treated it as though we were training advertisers on a new way of working.

We sent each a link to the customer-facing portal and explained exactly how they can use it to approve or make edits to content.

“It made onboarding really easy,” enthuses Tad.

Advertisers were equally excited by the rollout of Sponsy and its quick and easy approach to managing content. 

"We treated it as though we were training them on a new way of working. We sent each a link to the customer-facing portal and explained exactly how they can use it to approve or make edits to content. Some require more hand-holding, but it’s a much better situation than it was."

Efficient deals pipeline

One of Tad’s favorite aspects of Sponsy is how it keeps his orders moving almost effortlessly.

Sponsy’s Deals pipeline allows Tad and his teammates to see - at a glance - the information they need to maximize booking success. 

It automatically aggregates ad operations data to help organizations like Around Town Media build more attractive deals for advertisers. 

Bringing together information such as total campaign values and global campaign metrics enhances negotiation power for Tad and his colleagues, while improving each title’s performance.  

Tad finds it particularly useful seeing everything in one place - without needing to switch between systems.  

Now, when a new order comes through, he can automatically add it to the publication calendar via the Deals pipeline. 

Self-service Storefront

Since Around Town Media began working with Sponsy, the organization has opened the gates to inbound deals with a Storefront feature that facilitates easy transactions and boosts business efficiency. 

Storefront has created a faster way for us to get orders from clients who would prefer not to email back and forth.

While the team was initially “nervous to ship” at first, Tad feels that it seems to be working very well for him.  

Every month, Tad and his teammates email a list of past advertisers and previous inquirers with deals they can book easily and quickly themselves - with no need to email the team. 

He particularly likes how Sponsy allows him to create custom storefronts with set times, price and inventory constraints. This allows him to target specific groups, like start up incubators or clients with agreed pricing.

"Storefront has created a faster way for us to get orders from clients who would prefer not to email back and forth. Advertisers with bigger campaigns, for example, like the way it gives them a customized plan with a unique pricing structure if they’re ordering in bulk."

For the organization, Tad feels working this way is particularly advantageous as it means receiving content “from the get-go” - allowing them to forward plan. 

While Kansas City is still a pretty new market for us, Storefront has connected us with totally new advertisers.

The Storefront feature has also proved to be a faster and more effective way of promoting remnant ads for Tad.  

In Kansas City, Tad’s colleague Nick has launched an open storefront for ad-booking.

"While Kansas City is still a pretty new market for us, Nick has found that Storefront has connected him with totally new advertisers. That’s great because they’ve opted for the fastest and easiest way of booking. Now we just create a new deal, select all the dates and then check whether we have their assets. If so, then we are good to go."

Visualized ad inventory 

Sponsy’s calendar lets me quickly and clearly see - at a glance - our availability by visualizing my ad inventory.

It’s a big thing that helps us land deals.

From the start, Tad recognized a need for a publishing calendar capable of providing him details of inventory, dates and availability quickly. 

“I’m often asked about upcoming availability,” he explains. 

"Sponsy’s calendar lets me quickly and clearly see - at a glance - our availability by visualizing my ad inventory. It’s a big thing that helps us land deals."

“Awesome metrics”

One of Tad’s biggest wins can be found in the new reporting capabilities he has unlocked since migrating to Sponsy. 

Several of our advertisers have said they appreciate receiving reports routinely throughout their campaigns.

It’s a huge win for us.

Alongside the platform’s metrics, Sponsy easily integrates with Around Town Media’s beehiiv account - automatically pulls metrics from beehiiv into Sponsy. 

Tad has set it up to automatically issue a report after each placement runs - removing the stress and time required to produce monthly reports by hand. 

"Ad performance reporting is something we and advertisers know is important. It allows them to see their ad’s success. Several of our advertisers have said they appreciate receiving them routinely throughout campaigns. It’s a huge win for us.

Results 

Not only is Sponsy huge in terms of what it allows you to do within your own organization...

It allows you to add people with expertise who are willing to explore different avenues based on your pain points.

Since Around Town Media transitioned to Sponsy, Tad and his colleagues haven’t looked back with developments such as: 

• Gained 10-15 extra hours weekly to focus on growing advertisers, subscribers and content
• Fewer booking vacancies (from 25% to under 20%)
• Stronger inventory management
• Greater organization throughout the process
• Faster and more accurate reporting
• Increased adoption of self-service advertising bookings

None of this would be possible without support from Sponsy and the team behind the platform, according to Tad. 

"I’ve been super-impressed with how quickly the team responds to my problems and fixes them. I don’t know how many clients they’re working with, but they make me feel like I’m their only concern. Sponsy meets our needs and our clients’ in so many ways. It’s super easy to work with! And it’s nice to think, ‘Hey, there’s revenue coming through and it feels like much less work to make it happen!”

The director concludes, "Not only is Sponsy huge in terms of what it allows you to do within your own organization, it allows you to add people with expertise who are willing to explore different avenues based on your pain points. Having a vendor who operates more like a department in your own organization is a huge benefit - especially when so many media organizations are young startups that require specialist help. Expert support like this is important for success."