Let’s tackle the first steps of the sales process – targeting the right advertisers, determining their goals, and choosing the best promotion. It’s all about asking the right questions and knowing what promotions can deliver on each goal!

Current Trends In Local Advertising Spending

As a reminder, these are the top advertiser categories you should be focusing on:

However, there are also a few trends you should be aware of when determining the best advertisers to target:

• New businesses are growing rapidly
• Businesses are spending more in digital and less in traditional
• Advertisers constantly need to fill their pipeline and are focused on lead generation
• Advertisers need to stand out from the competition now more than ever

According to Borrell & Associates, businesses are cutting spending on traditional media like radio, magazines, and newspapers, and are increasing their spending on website ads and events/sponsorships.

But this is still an opportunity for media companies! In fact, businesses are currently spending almost 70% more on local promotions/marketing than local advertising, and the gap is forecasted to continue widening.

At the same time, we’ve seen an explosion of new businesses, and according to Borrell & Associates, these younger businesses have less marketing experience, are planning on spending more, and two of they main areas in which they’ll be spending are content marketing and events/sponsorships. Comparatively, new businesses are 271% more likely to buy sponsorships and 218% more likely to buy content marketing than established businesses.

So what’s the takeaway? Your promotions program is now more valuable than ever, and new businesses are where you’ll be able to exhibit your expertise and drive success.

Determining the Goals

In order to determine the goals of your advertiser and how they define success, you’ll need to make sure you’re asking the right questions. Focus on these main areas:

• Company (Main goals in the next 6-12 months, which service/product is highest priority/most profitable)
• Customer (Ideal target audience, 3-5 data points needed on customers)
• Marketing (Is there an email program already in place,
  upcoming marketing campaigns)
• Metrics (Average customer spend, leads needed to convert customer, how do they define success)

Check out our Seller’s Guide that will have sample CNA questions for each category separated out by advertiser category!

And what happens if you don’t have time for a CNA to ask these questions? Everyone’s time is valuable, and your advertiser may not have the time to sit down and run through a full, formal CNA. In those cases, make sure you do your research. Look up the company and do your own analysis to determine what you believe are their goals. Look at other, comparable clients you’ve worked with in the past – their goals will most likely be similar to this new client.

After speaking with your advertiser or researching their company, you’ll find that their needs will always lead back to these main goals:

• Leads
• Database Growth
• Education
• Community Involvement
• Capturing Social Audience
• Audience Data

Picking the Right Promotion

Now let’s break down which promotion types will help achieve success for each of our main goals.

Leads

The right promotion should:

• Attract and engage their target audience
• Capturing relevant data that will qualify leads

The best promotion types are:

• Sweepstakes
• Photo Contests

Database Growth

The right promotions should:

• Appeal to the audience(s) the client wants to build
• Captivate that audience
• Offer enough value for the user to want to opt-in

The best promotion types are:

• Sweepstakes
• Quizzes
• Ballots
• Brackets

Education

The right promotions should:

• Inform your target audience
• Create an opportunity to learn in a fun and engaging way

The best promotion type is:

• Quizzes

Capture Social Audience

The right promotions should:

• Be sharable
• Drive participation (and be FUN)
• Offer an experience

The best promotion types are:

• Sweepstakes
• Photo/Video Contests
• Brackets
• Ballots
• Quizzes

Community Involvement

The right promotions should:

• Create and experience filled with interactions and entertainment
• Capture your audiences’ thoughts, feelings, and opinions

The best promotion types are:

• Photo Contests
• Photo Galleries
• Brackets
• Ballots
• Polls

Audience Data

The right promotions should:

• Gather customer interests and feedback
• Offer value to the audience

The best promotion types are:

• All of them!!!

All promotions allow you to capture user data while driving a fun and engaging experience!