Plan
Planning is extremely important. After all, you can generate more revenue if you have more lead time to prospect and sell to advertisers. The first step to a successful, revenue-generating promotions and interactive content program is a Calendar that will enable you to plan and sell ahead. You can also use this calendar as a place to identify advertiser relationships you want to grow, track your progress throughout the year and align with existing initiatives more effeciently. Download your own copy of our Planning Calendar and Revenue Tracker. This is the perfect way to organize your calendar and make sure you achieve your ambitious revenue goals.
Package
Create an attractive sponsorship package that encompasses all of your channels: online, social media, email, and your core product. You can also plan to sell bundled promotions and interactive content for all kind of campaign types that a combination of sports contests, sweepstakes, photo contests and interactive content like quizzes and ballots. Download our pricing and and packaging guides for newspapers, magazines, radio, and tv to use as a guideline when developing your own sales packages.
Prospect
Before you send your reps out to sell, identify which advertisers would benefit the most from being involved in a particular promotion or interactive content (these Prospecting Worksheets and lists of advertisers to target can help you out). You can also have a needs analysis conversation with advertisers in order determine their goals, and then design a sponsorship package that meets their specific needs.
Promote
In order to drive results for your advertisers that will keep them coming back for more, you need to promote your promotions and interactive content heavily. Send a dedicated email, post to your social media accounts, run banner ads on your website, link to the it from related content, target specific audiences that make sense, and just generally show your advertiser that you are doing your part to drive results. Plus, the more you promote, the more you can charge for the sponsorship. Check out this checklist to get even more ideas for how to promote your sponsored contests.
Want to improve your contests even more? Check out the 3 factors that are critical to contest success, and keep them in mind when you are designing any contest.
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Julie is the Senior Customer Success Manager at Second Street and a former client in local media. Her best advice for driving the most success with your revenue and audience engagement strategy is to include promotions in every business initiative.