Text-to-Vote: The Best Of Revenue Opportunity You Can’t Afford to Miss

Text-to-Vote gives Best Of programs an additional participation channel that connects advertisers and audiences in a very simple to use format. Instead of asking users to navigate to an online ballot, you can instead allow them submit nominations or votes from their phones using an advertiser-specific keyword.

How it Works

The setup process is straightforward:

• We assist you in acquiring a 10DLC (or a 10-digit number) you can use to collect nominations/votes
• You can assign unique keywords to entrants in your ballot
• Include keywords in your sales packages and help advertisers get the word out with QR codes and/or digital ads
• Users text to submit nominations/votes from anywhere within seconds

Each keyword created will be specific each entrant, and votes/nominations will be tallied within the ballot, just like online nominations/votes.

The keyword and phone number will be displayed as a clickable callout on the ballot entrant that opens a pre-populated text message on a mobile device. You can also create QR codes that open the same pre-populated message when scanned, making nominating/voting a literal breeze for your audience.

Why You Should Sell Text-to-Vote

Text-to-Vote offers more than convenience. It gives you an extremely valuable opportunity to add to you program, and your sales teams an easy pitch to advertisers.

Here’s how your sales team can position Text-to-Vote to your advertisers:

• Convenient for voters
• Encourages increased engagement
• Provides advertisers with a competitive advantage
• Offers an increased marketing reach

Keywords are perfect for marketing opportunities like:

• Social media posts
• In-store signage
• Email marketing
• Menus/receipts
• Checkout reminders

Advertisers can easily include the keywords in these areas with a quick call-to-action, and users will simply have to scan a QR code or type a quick text to submit.

When creating your sales collateral, make sure to include keywords in all sales package levels. This provides you with a new offering for your advertisers, and an opportunity to increase the investment cost of your packages.

You can also include opportunities to add more keywords to your packages, for example offering pricing of $300 to add a keyword, or implementing a volume discount of $250 per keyword for 3 or more.

If you need help getting started, or just want to see an example, check out our sample sales packages here!

Real-World Results

We don’t want you to just take our word for it, because proof matters. Here are companies that are already achieving remarkable results by adding Text-to-Vote to their programs, turning simple texts into greater engagement, audience growth, and incremental revenue.

• The Pilot’s Best of the Pines increased nomination sales by 26%, collected 3,696 nominations and more than 10,000 votes through SMS, and reported an 80% increase in vote sales. The program generated a reported $50,000 increase in revenue.

• The Post and Courier’s Charleston’s Choice sold 123 keywords during the nomination phase. Text-to-Vote accounted for 18% of nomination-phase revenue, while votes increased 161% year over year. The program sold keywords as part of a package at $300 each.

• The Clinton Herald’s River Cities Choice Awards included keywords in all packages and saw an 84% year-over-year increase in total revenue. 22% of votes came through keywords, contributing $9,000 in keyword sales. The publisher noted that the text-to-vote option helped attract buyers who typically would not have purchased packages from them.

• Grand Junction Media’s Best of the West introduced Text-to-Vote after the nomination phase had already begun. Despite the limited sales window, they sold 68 codes in four weeks, described the product as an “easy sell,” and generated $12,300. They plan incorporate Text-to-Vote directly into future packages and continue offering an a la carte option.

• Trib Total Media’s Best of the Best included keywords in its Mega Packages and also priced them as a $250 package add-ons or $300 a la carte, and this generated $21,500 during the nomination phase alone. They stated that the inclusion of Text-to-Vote helped the team exceed their stretch sales goal by $8,400.

The Impact of Text-to-Vote

The case studies tell a powerful story, but the broader data delivers the clearest message: Text-to-Vote is far more than a fun new feature. It’s a proven catalyst for increasing participation, growing audiences, and taking your Best Of program to the next level. Across all ballots using Text-to-Vote, there was:

• 18% increase in participation
• 3% increase in voting activity
• 17% increase in opt-in acquisition

And perhaps most compelling of all, organizations are seeing an average year-over-year revenue increase of $14,000 per market using Text-to-Vote, which equates to a 471% return on investment.

All of this shows that Text-to-Vote is more than a new way to collect votes. It is a bridge between advertiser promotion, audience participation, and new revenue.

Ready to make Text-to-Vote part of your next Best Of success story?