Laredo's Advice on Site Design to Raise Ad Sales

Not a paid commercial announcement: I've been a big admirer of Leslie Laredo of Laredo Group for some time now. She's one of the top ad sales consultants in the online content industry. (Folks such as Variety.com bring her in for occasional 1-2 day training sessions for their sales team and then they all go forth and sell heaps more).

Anyway Leslie just posted a fabulous note on the Online- Advertising discussion group, in which she talks about what she learned hosting the online ad sales panel discussion at NYC's Internet World this week. Best quote:

"One of the most important issues that is not often discussed is how media companies design their sites. Most sales professionals/executives I speak with have sites designed without their input. I continue to ask, 'How many site designers have ever sold an ad, went into a sales meeting with clients/agencies?'

"From my small and unscientific survey, the answer is none and the fact is most designers come out of editorial, technical, graphics fields....which is not bad, nor my complaint. But if site designers and UI specialists continue to do their work without the understanding what the media issues are or what the media buying community is concerned about, we will continue to aim the gun at the banner and not at the site."


To read the rest of her post you'll need to go to the link below and type "Laredo" into the search box:

http://www.o-a.com/archives-frame.html