For local media sales teams, closing an advertising sale may not be the hardest part of the process. The greater challenge is often getting a qualified business decision-maker into the conversation.
Calls go unanswered. Emails remain unopened. The owner of a growing HVAC, healthcare, legal or home-services business is rarely sitting behind a desk waiting for an advertising representative to make contact.
“Getting in the door has become the toughest part of the media sales process,” said Mike Blinder, publisher of Editor & Publisher Magazine and a longtime media sales consultant. “Salespeople can perfect how to present, overcome objections and close. But none of those skills matter until they reach someone with the authority and interest to have the conversation.”
Broadstreet has spent more than a decade building advertising technology for independent news, magazine and B2B publishers. They created Daybreak to address one of the most persistent sales problems in publishing: identifying business owners and decision-makers already engaging with their content—and turning that anonymous traffic into actionable advertising leads.
Daybreak runs in place of an advertisement on a publisher’s website and invites business owners and managers to identify themselves. Its message is simple: “Your business has a story.” When an interested visitor responds, the publisher receives the contact information along with research about the business.
Instead of beginning with an unsolicited call, the salesperson is responding to someone who has already visited the publication and raised a hand.
Daybreak is completely free to publishers. Broadstreet requires no credit card, contract or commitment, and its team handles the setup.
Community Impact turns readership into opportunity
Community Impact CEO John Garrett said reaching the proper decision-maker is now the hardest part of local media prospecting—even for an organization with a sophisticated sales operation and distribution to more than two million households.
Daybreak allows Community Impact to use its readership to help identify those decision-makers. “It’s an easy way to filter in who is a business decision-maker and who is actually interested in advertising right now,” said Garrett
Garrett said Community Impact has received hundreds of Daybreak leads. According to Garrett, four contracts have produced more than approximately $40,000 in documented sales, while many other prospects remain in the discovery, proposal or follow-up stages. “The leads themselves have been really solid,” Garrett said. “They demonstrate that they’re a business owner. They give us their contact information.”
Daybreak does not replace Community Impact’s sales operation. It feeds opportunities into the company’s existing process, where representatives qualify prospects, develop proposals and build campaigns.
That distinction is important. Daybreak can identify interest, but the publisher’s people turn that interest into a relationship and, ultimately, revenue.
Garrett also praised the simplicity of the installation and presentation. The invitation does not feel like a conventional advertisement, he said. Instead, it creates a sense that a local business should be part of the community represented by the publication. “There is not a single downside to implementing this product and program for your sales team,” Garrett said. “The only downside is to wait. Why would you let tomorrow go by without getting free leads?”
Publishers describe the Daybreak experience
In this accompanying video, Stephanie from Collinsville Daily News, Lisa LaGrou from Oakland County Moms and Tess Coverman from Community Impact discuss the frustration of cold outreach and the value of receiving inbound interest.
They describe unanswered calls, unopened emails and the repetitive work of trying to reach business owners. Daybreak changes that dynamic by operating passively on the publisher’s website.
Coverman says Community Impact experienced weeks when its leads doubled or tripled. The video also captures the surprise of discovering a prospect the sales team had unsuccessfully attempted to reach for years.
The publishers’ advice is direct: try it. Daybreak is free, requires little ongoing work and can create opportunities that otherwise might remain invisible.
Turn today’s readers into tomorrow’s advertisers
Business owners and decision-makers are already visiting your publication. Daybreak gives them a simple way to raise their hands—and gives your sales team a warmer place to begin.
Daybreak is completely free, with no credit card, contract or commitment required. Broadstreet’s team will help install it on your site, and the tool can begin generating opportunities without adding another prospecting task to your team’s workload.
There is no obligation and little downside. One qualified lead could become your next lasting advertiser.
Get your free Daybreak setup and start discovering the businesses already reading you.
About Broadstreet and Daybreak
Broadstreet provides advertising technology designed specifically for independent news, magazine and B2B publishers. Its platform helps publishers create, manage and report on digital advertising while offering local businesses more creative and visible ways to reach trusted audiences.
Daybreak is Broadstreet 's completely free lead-generation tool. It identifies business owners and decision-makers already visiting a publisher’s website and gives them a simple way to express interest in advertising. The publisher receives the prospect’s contact information and a customized business report to help begin the sales conversation.
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