Once the sale is made, the work has just begun! Now that you’ve managed to persuade your advertiser to make an investment in your promotions program, your next goal will be to prove the success of that investment through reporting, following along, and following up!

Reporting

Sharing the stats of the promotions is necessary both during the promotion and once the promotion has concluded. It provides proof of success by displaying the building audience interactions and increasing number of leads. It also helps to train your clients in knowing what stats are actually valuable to them.

Utilize the Dashboard of the promotion. It will provide you with a summary of all important stats at a glance, and they are sharable. Customize the color, logo, and data to send a clean and concise snapshot of the progress of the promotion. You also have the ability to send a notification email to your clients that includes the sharable dashboard. You can schedule the email to send on a specific date and to send as soon as the promotion ends.

Be sure to explain the importance of certain stats when you share promotional reporting with your advertisers. For example, focus on more than the number of entries and votes within the promotion. A contest can generate lower entries compared to another contest, but still have great, actionable leads. This means you should display the stats with a story in mind – the leads, opt-ins, and audience data that is captured is what is truly valuable to your client.

Also, make sure you are sharing more than just the promotion stats. You are conducting a multi-media strategy, so share those stats as well! This could be the number of emails that have been sent, ad impressions, number of spots, social media impressions, etc.

Following Along

Following along as the promotion is in progress, rather than just following up at the conclusion of the promotion, establishes you as a partner to your advertiser. You are showing that you are invested in their success even after the sale is solidified. Following along also helps to foster continued excitement with your advertiser throughout the campaign, allowing them to see the growing engagement.

One way to take a bit of the ‘following along’ legwork off your plate is to enable notify & share for your advertiser’s opt-ins. This will deliver hot leads to your advertiser without you having to lift a finger. It also allows for a touch-point – you can check in to see if the current notification schedule works, let them know it’s adjustable, and also ask if they’d like a follow-up email containing all of their leads at the end of the promotion.

Pivoting

Following along keeps you informed on the promotion’s progress, and in turn, gives you to ability to pivot if things aren’t going to plan. Remember, you can’t change the prize or the rules once the contest has begun, so focus on what you can change – increasing exposure!

• Send another invite email (excluding participants)
• Add the promotion to a newsletter (or multiple newsletters)
• Look at unsold inventory – add the promotion to unsold spots
• Promote the contest on-air
• Add it to print
• Do an app push
• Craft more social media posts
• Start an SMS campaign

Following Up

The main goal of the follow-up is to provide a full synopsis of the success of the promotion. Focus on leads and the specific goals the advertiser communicated to you during the sales process.

Be sure to ask the advertiser for any success they saw that you cannot measure internally. How many jobs/estimates/reservations were booked? How many tickets/products were sold? Anything quantifiable that stemmed from leads gathered from the promotion.

Following up can also lead to uncovering new opportunities. Communicating the success could spur the advertiser to want to continue the promotion or plan the next promotion! For example, you may have run a quiz about oral health for a dentist. During that quiz, you found that your audience has an interest in clear aligners. This now provides the opportunity to gather more leads and drive more sales for your client through a clear aligner sweepstakes! Or you could pitch other easy solutions like the National Sweepstakes, advertising spots in your upcoming Best Of, or a recurring promotion like Athlete/Teacher of the Month!

Finally, don’t forget to document your successful campaigns through case studies. These will help to provide proof of concept, drive future sales, and also help your team come up with ideas for potential clients!