How do you know exactly who is visiting your media’s “Advertise” page?

Most local media do not understand that inexpensive technology makes it possible to track names and contacts of companies visiting the advertise page. 

In the past, the only way to find this data was to ask visitors to call and use a call-tracker, or post an email form and hope they use it. But what about the visitors who do not self-declare? 

No problem. You can find the names of most companies and appropriate contacts using tools from companies like VistorTrack and VisualVistor. 

VisitorTrack for example, claims it can identify 85% of visiting companies who do not self-declare and supply a list of company contacts - including name, phone number and email. 

Here’s how it works:

Newspapers put a piece of java on pages they want to track - in this case, the “Advertise” page or a blog on digital services. 

While consumer information is protected by server encryption, company information is not, and the platform can pull the company name from the IP address.  

It then organizes Google analytics to show each company’s behavior on the site, including total page views, time on site and pages looked at, so in addition to the company name, you have additional intelligence on interest. 

The platform also shows information on each company, including a list of contacts with job title, email and phone number, via an integration with ZoomInfo. 

Part of the secret sauce is simply revisualizing Google analytics data to make it user-friendly for sellers, said Cathy Falkner, VP of national sales for VisitorTrack. 

“We want our customers to understand, not replace Google Analytics. We are a web-based lead generation tool,” she said. 

“The platform provides intelligence around the customer journey: Who the company is and what they are looking at. It’s a pretty good place to start to have a conversation.”

Sales administrators can use tags to create prospect lists or mark as disregard to slim down the list for a more focused report of the best leads. 

So while they still don’t know exactly who in each company searched the advertise page, in most cases they can identify the top executive who may be in the decision-making loop. 

“We are creepy but not that creepy. Sometimes we wish we were creepier,” Falkner said. 

How good is the Zoominfo database? We checked out mattress stores in Pocatello, Idaho and were able to find both small and large company contacts. In general, if it was on the Google map, it was there. 

For newspapers and agencies running large B2B AdWords campaigns, another useful function is the ability to see companies that clicked but may not be a fit.  Blocking those addresses can save money on the campaign. 

Finally, teams can type any company name into Zoominfo to look up contact information for any business in the area. 

So what does it cost? For less than 1,000 unique visitors to whichever page is tracked, the cost is $199 per month. That seems ideal for the Advertise page at the majority of local media companies. 

Other companies also provide this service including VisualVisitor, which offers a similar service for $59 a month with no contract fee and matches contacts from its own proprietary database rather than through integration with Zoom. VisualVisitor also provides a white label option based on wholesale/retail pricing. Either way, this is an affordable option for newspapers to obtain more qualified leads in real-time.