A successful Best Of is a product of a prepared team and great planning!

Your Best Of Team

No matter the size of your team, you NEED a leader in order to drive the vision and success of your Best Of program. Your Best Of team should include

• Team Lead: The project manager – they make sure everyone is trained, sees the vision, and completes their tasks.
• Sales & Marketing: They handle the sales collateral, sales kickoff, email & social marketing campaigns, and your winners event.
• Fulfillment: This team handles the ballot admin, moderating, and ad operations.

Another idea that some teams have had success with is hiring a temporary sales manager for 2-3 months or part-time to run the sales team and Best Of program. If this new role brings in enough revenue, then it could turn into a full-time position!

Your Best Of Plan

As you begin to plan your Best Of program, remember these best practices:

• Start planning 6 months prior to the beginning of your Nomination Phase
• Running a 3-phase ballot maximizes revenue opportunities
• Sell all 3 phases

We’ve crafted a full plan itemized out for your entire Best Of timeline, starting with what to begin with 6 months in advance. It will break down month-by-month what you should be working on and about how much time your team should allot.

6 Months Before Nominations Launch​

Finalize Best Of Dates: Make sure you’ve selected dates for your nomination, voting, and winner announcement dates.

Name & Branding/Graphics Finalized: Curate the name of your Best Of (if this is your first year) and craft your logo. Changing your logo to match a certain theme year-over-year can be a fun way to keep your audience engaged! Also, be creative with your logo. The blue ribbon is no longer exciting! Make it clean and relevant – something that will draw in your audience.

Audit Your Ballot: If this is your first year running your Best Of, this is when you should finalize the groups and categories that will be highlighted in your Best Of. If this is not your first year, this is when you need to audit your ballot from last year to decide what categories you’ll be using this year. Keep these 3 questions top of mind when auditing your categories:

• Did it generate revenue?
• Did it generate engagement?
• Will it generate future revenue/engagement?

3 Months Before Nominations Launch​

Finalize Ballot Design Setup: Go into the platform and create your ballot. Upload your groups/categories, add your eye-catching graphics, add e-commerce callouts, include links to your promotional kits, import group graphics, etc.

Complete Sales Packages: At 3 months before launch, your sales packages should be finalized. Remember to create packages for all 3 phases. Consider creating packages promoting early-bird pricing! Check out our kit with our full samples sales packages to get rolling.

Complete eCommerce Site Setup: You’ll want to have your eCommerce site setup completed because you can include the link to your eCommerce site in your outreach to local businesses! Your eCommerce site can go live prior to your ballot nomination phase launching so you’re able to sell packages and ad spaces prior.

2 Months Before Nominations Launch​

Complete Media Kit & Landing Page: These items will take a bit of time to create, so you’ll want to begin them ahead of time, and have them completed 2 months before nominations begin.

Your Media Kit is your ‘pitch deck’ for local businesses. It should be gated behind a form – so you’re collecting passive leads – and include your mission statement, audience stats, dates, sales packages, ad placement examples, and special section/online directory examples.

Your landing page is a one-stop-shop that includes everything your audience and local businesses need to know about your Best Of. Include promotional graphics, an email sign-up widget, media kit, marketing tips​, FAQ’s, rules, category list, and past winners.

Nomination Phase B2B Marketing Campaign: Your B2B marketing campaign are the emails you’ll be sending to your list of local businesses announcing the the dates of your Best Of this year, and also providing links to your sales packages and eCommerce site.

Sales Kickoff: Host a sales kickoff party where you educate your team on your Best Of program and answer any questions they have. Make it fun! Add a theme and prizes. Make sure to cover categories in the ballot, the timeline, your prospecting plan, packages & pitches, audience stats, and your goals.

Week of Nominations Launch

Finalize Ballot Registration Form & Emails: This is when you want to make sure your registration form is ready to go and your Invite/Thank You emails are all set up. On your registration form, only ask for the information you need – like email, first/last name, and postal code. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with required fields when nominating for voting.

Also remember to include your opt-in! Your Best Of is when you’ll be in front of your largest audience, so use that to your advantage! When writing your opt-in text (if it is for a newsletter), include the name of your newsletter, what topics it will cover, and when it will be sent.

Nomination Phase B2C Marketing Campaign: Your B2C marketing campaign is the communication you will be sending to your audience inviting them to come participate in your ballot. Include digital and core advertising, social media posts, and invitation emails. Send your invite emails the day the nomination phase launches, 1 week before nominations close, and the last day of the nomination phase.

Fulfillment of eCommerce Purchases: Upload ads for all businesses who purchased packages or ad slots.

Transition Period

The transition period is the time after the nomination phase ends and the voting phase begins. You should plan for about 4 weeks in your transition period.

Nominations tallied and top 5 picked: During the transition period, moderate your entries to tally all of the nominations received. Set the ballot to allow the top 5-7 businesses to move on to the voting phase.

Update Media Kit & Landing Page: Make sure to update your landing page and media kit to reflect voting phase wording.

Voting Phase B2B Marketing Campaign: This is the campaign you will be sending to all businesses who made it into the voting phase, promoting your sales packages. Send at least 3 emails in this campaign; as soon as you confirm all nominees, 1 week before voting starts, and 2 days before voting starts.

Update Thank You Emails: Make sure your emails now contain language pertaining to the voting phase i.e. Thank you for voting!

Voting Phase B2C Marketing Campaign: This is the communication you will send to your audience engaging them to come vote in your ballot. Use your core media, social media, digital (ads, homepage takeover, pop-ups, pencil pushdown), and email. Send your invite emails the day the voting phase launches, ½ way into the voting phase, and 1 week before voting closes.

Fulfillment of eCommerce Purchases: Upload ads for all businesses who purchased packages, featured listings, or ad slots.

Winners Phase Transition Period

Once the voting phase has ended, it is time for you to get ready to announce your winners! We’ve suggested an 8 week timeline from when the voting phase ends and winners are announced.

Votes Tallied & Winners/Finalists Selected: Verify all votes collected and the winners/finalists in each category.

Winners Phase B2B Marketing Campaign: This is the campaign you will be sending to all businesses who were selected as winners/finalists, promoting your sales packages. Send a minimum of 3 emails to your winners with your sales packages.

Create & Finalize Special Issue Layout: Finalize your special issue, or whatever avenue you are publishing your winners.

Now it’s time to celebrate! Your winners are announced!

• Create and publish ‘winners have been chosen’ ads
• Announce your winners to your audience
• Publish your special issue

And also make sure to set aside time to celebrate with your internal team. It is a HUGE task taking on planning and running a Best Of, and it can feel like the to-do list is never ending. Host a party with your team to celebrate another amazing year of your Best Of program!

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