How DTC created $48K in additional monthly ad space

DTC Media has been helping marketers to market better since its inception in 2009. Its newsletters provide businesses with the sharable knowledge and actionable advice they need to grow.

The focus? Connecting brands with their customers. That's why DTC's channels explain just how the world's leading direct-to-consumer brands do it (so readers can, too).

Alongside this, DTC's two newsletters and a podcast offer insights into the latest trends, platforms, and partners.

Creating a brand like this is only possible with the support of its advertisers. DTC client success manager Freeman Beals ensures this following the signing of an ad placement.

I handle everything from the onboarding to the delivery of the actual ad in the newsletter.

Freeman explains: "After they have signed their official order, the sales team hands the client over to me. I then handle everything from the onboarding to the delivery of the actual ad in the newsletter."

"Awkward" administrative solutions

GatherContent is a very powerful piece of software, but it certainly wasn’t engineered to our client and sponsor relationships.

Handling the full aftersales process for clients required Freeman to manage several Google spreadsheets, as well GatherContent, a content operations platform.

It wasn't an ideal solution, according to Freeman: "In itself, GatherContent is a very powerful piece of software, but it certainly wasn’t engineered to our client and sponsor relationships. It’s great for content development and planning and stuff like that, but it falls really short with client/sponsor communication."

He continues: "It was a bit time-consuming for sure and it wasn't easy to actually see what was going on - where there's urgency. So I had to do a lot of that separately on a spreadsheet"

He recalls the problems really came to a head during onboarding, explaining: "It was awkward because the advertiser had to accept an invite before we could actually attach them to every single one of their placements. It was a pain!"

Why DTC partnered with Sponsy

The onboarding went super easy - even for some of our clients - because Sponsy is fairly intuitive.

Freeman first learned about Sponsy from a colleague and hasn't looked back since.

Sponsy is the platform streamlining ad operations for media companies.

Designed to help lean teams efficiently scale up operations, Sponsy helps publishers manage sponsorships across a range of channels, such as newsletters, podcasts, and social media.

Implementing Sponsy was straightforward, according to Freeman. "It was a pretty easy integration," he recalls. "The onboarding went super easy - even for some of our clients - because Sponsy is fairly intuitive."

"We spent about a month doing it in total. We had content in two places to be sure we didn’t miss anything," he explains.

Easy client support

Since implementing Sponsy, Freeman is able to perform his job in a way that's "significantly faster" than it was with their previous system.

It probably takes me just 10 to 20% of the time it used to.

Onboarding, for example, used to involve a lot of back and forth with clients and sales but Sponsy has changed all that, according to the client success manager: "Nowadays, it feels so quick. It probably takes me just 10 to 20% of the time it used to."

He adds: "And that’s just the onboarding. Imagine the savings when you consider what the data integrations achieve…"

Advanced, automated metrics

Sponsy lets me see our ad performance taken directly from our ESPs.

It's by far my favorite thing!

Of all of Sponsy's features, Freeman enthusiastically places its automated metrics at the top of his list of favorites.

"Every morning I go through and look at these," he adds. "Sponsy lets me see our ad performance taken directly from our ESPs. It’s by far my favorite thing!"

The system's easy access to data has transformed reporting for Freeman, too.

Prior to Sponsy, client reports required him to copy and paste information from Campaign Monitor into multiple spreadsheets - before sharing them with the client.

It was a time-consuming process for Freeman. He explains: "It all needed to be done manually. There was no way to automatically pull in that information. And then we had to send that to our clients."

He used to send the data in an email following the first ad placement - usually after a 24-hour delay - before rushing off to set up the client’s next ads.

"Sponsy allowed me to automate this process. I literally never have to do this again. It just happens automatically and that’s huge! From 100% effort on my part to none!"

Intelligent inventory management

With our old approach, I had to be really on top of everything that was happening.

While Freeman describes himself as being possessed with "an insane level of organization", he's relieved that Sponsy keeps him in the know.

"With our old approach, I had to be really on top of everything that was happening," he explains. "Now I don't need to spend as much mental energy on the placements."

Sponsy provides Freeman and his colleagues with an easy-to-understand overview of sponsorships and advertising.

"Sponsy is visual - making it easier to see and find information, such as which spots are going out on what day for the content team," adds Freeman. "I think that helps them a lot. There aren’t any awkward naming formats and a list. It’s easy to see ‘Oh, that’s Tuesday."

And the positive feedback for Sponsy isn’t just within its team, as Freeman explains: "Our clients told us it was easy to work in GatherContent before we transferred to Sponsy. Since transitioning, however, our clients find it’s an even easier service for them to work with."

Results

We can handle more at once now: we can sell more ad placements and gain easier revenue.

Introducing Sponsy has transformed operations at DTC in many ways in a very short time, resulting in its small team's ability to:

• Scale its flagship DTC newsletter from 3 to 5x weekly
• Create $48K in potential additional revenue from DTC newsletter
• Reduce time required for advertising operations by 40%
• Cut new campaign creation time by 80%
• Plan and launch a new daily newsletter: SimplifyAI

Sponsy's time-saving features have encouraged DTC's development into a much larger ecosystem. Alongside increasing its flagship newsletter to five editions per week and managing a podcast, the team has successfully launched a new newsletter (Simplify AI) and opened an academy offering courses and mentoring.

"I could not imagine trying to do this without Sponsy," adds Freeman. "We can handle more at once now: we can sell more ad placements and gain easier revenue."

Looking back on his achievements, he comments: "It's been a great experience working with Sponsy. Getting it running when I first started was one of my highlights working with DTC Media. I remember thinking ‘These are all the things that we should be able to automate and this is how it should function’.

"And now it does all that," he continues. "I feel like I’ve succeeded in accomplishing all those things because of Sponsy. Thank you so much!"