How to Drive Big Dollars from Big Advertisers

Create a Plan

It will be easier for you to drive more revenue from advertisers you are already working with versus starting brand new relationships from scratch. Look at the advertisers who are already spending with you, and work to grow those investments.

First, look at the initiatives in your company that already have focused resources dedicated to them. Then take a look at the creative initiatives that you’ve launched given your community, your market, and the state of everything right now. Lastly, look for the things people are missing out on right now and see how can you create an opportunity to fill that need.

Five Big Ideas

1. Weather Opportunities
We all have it and talk about it, but how can you take what you’re already doing and take it a step further? Look for places to add in a sponsorship element. Consider ideas such as a backyard weather photo contest or severe weather trivia quizzes.

2. Recognize Local Heroes
This is going to continue to be a major initiative for a while. Think about your local healthcare heroes, hometown heroes, first responders, teachers, veterans – all of these groups of people need to be recognized because they’re doing amazing things. And there are a lot of advertisers who want to align themselves with those campaigns.

3. High School Sports & Back-to-School
This year will look a lot different for everybody, but it is still happening. Back-to-School photo galleries are always popular, but this year’s photos may be filled with pajamas and in-home classrooms. And while sports may have more limitations this year, Student of the Week contests are always a win for your audience and with advertisers.

4. Home Improvement
This continues to be a huge opportunity – even more so now as we’re all staring at areas of our houses we want to fix up. You can drive big dollars by creating a home improvement showcase combining multiple sponsors with their own sweepstakes into one campaign. But you don’t need a lot of advertisers to bring in a lot of money. The lead-gen data these single campaigns bring makes them worthy of big sponsorship investments.

5. ‘Custom’ Solutions
Think about the big advertisers you want to tap into. What are they trying to accomplish? What are they trying to tell your community? An annual, monthly quiz campaign is perfect for a hospital wanting to spread knowledge and awareness about relevant health topics. An annual , monthly sweepstakes campaign would be ideal for your local grocery stores.

It’s Time to Sell Solutions

You know your advertisers need you – now more than ever. Having a conversation with your advertisers is key. And while having these conversations may seem scary at first, it’s these conversations that enable you to develop the right solution.

You need to give them the right ideas and the right solution, right now. This isn’t about handing your prospects a one-sheet. This is about you understanding what they need and having the necessary tools that will provide the solution they’re looking for.