How Print Can Drive Revenue with Readers’ Choice Ballots
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Discover how print publications stations of all types and sizes are finding success with Readers’ Choice ballots – and how you can too – in the How Print Can Drive Revenue with Readers’ Choice Ballots webinar. We were joined by Blair Barna, the Advertising Director & Co-Owner at Charleston City Paper, Alesia Humphries, the Chief of Digital Sales for The Signal, and Bonnie Markham, the Advertising Manager for the Alton Telegraph.
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How Print Can Drive Revenue with Readers’ Choice Ballots
- 1. #PromotionsLab D R I V I N G R E V E N U E | B U I L D I N G D A T A B A S E | G R O W I N G A U D I E N C E How Print Can Drive Revenue With Reader’s Choice Ballots January 2015
- 2. #PromotionsLab Matt Chaney Affiliate Success | Second Street | @MattChaney | chaney@secondstreet.com Moderator
- 3. #PromotionsLab Questions and Recording Note: We are recording this webinar and you will receive an email with links to the recording and slide deck.
- 4. #PromotionsLab Follow us @secondstreetlab Want to win an exclusive prize? Top Tweet wins! #PromotionsLab
- 7. #PromotionsLab WHY YOU NEED TO RUN BALLOTS
- 8. #PromotionsLab Engage Your Audience Engage Your Audience
- 9. #PromotionsLab Grow Your Database Grow Your Database
- 10. #PromotionsLab Drive Significant Revenue Drive Significant Revenue
- 11. #PromotionsLab Gather Audience Data Gather Audience Insights & Data
- 14. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: $170K Ballot 900,000 Votes 8,000 New Opt-ins Blair Barna Advertising Director | Charleston City Paper | Charleston, SC | Circ. – 40K
- 15. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: 2014 $86K Ballot 38% Growth in 2 years Successful Niche Ballot Alesia Humphries Chief of Digital Sales | The Signal | Santa Clarita, CA | Circ. – 29K
- 16. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: 39% YOY Growth 1st Year Digital Ballot Ballot Counting i80% Bonnie Markham Business Development Mgr. | Alton Telegraph | Alton, IL | Circ. – 17K
- 18. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: $170K Ballot 900,000 Votes 8,000 New Opt-ins Blair Barna Advertising Director | Charleston City Paper | Charleston, SC | Circ. – 40K
- 19. #PromotionsLab Nomination + Voting Periods
- 20. #PromotionsLab Growth in Users Previous Years 10,000 Users 2014 20,000 Users
- 22. #PromotionsLab Database Growth 8,000+ New Emails Doubled Over Previous Years
- 23. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: 2014 $86K Ballot 38% Growth in 2 years Successful Niche Ballot Alesia Humphries Chief of Digital Sales | The Signal | Santa Clarita, CA | Circ. – 29K
- 24. #PromotionsLab Exponential Engagement Growth 2014 17K Users 179K Votes 2013 10K Users 115K Votes 2012 2K Votes (Print Only)
- 26. #PromotionsLab Recap - Engagement Putting ballot on the right digital platform is an explosive engagement opportunity Engagement is growing YOY – beyond just first year More engagement + more participation = greater revenue opportunities
- 29. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: 39% YOY Growth 1st Year Digital Ballot Ballot Counting i80% Bonnie Markham Business Development Mgr. | Alton Telegraph | Alton, IL | Circ. – 17K
- 30. #PromotionsLab Increased Revenue Growth 10% YOY Growth 38% YOY Growth Goal Actual 39%
- 31. #PromotionsLab New Digital Offerings • Online Only Package • Online + Print Package All Incremental Revenue!
- 32. #PromotionsLab Sales Blitz Run a Sales Blitz
- 33. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: 2014 $86K Ballot 38% Growth in 2 years Successful Niche Ballot Alesia Humphries Chief of Digital Sales | The Signal | Santa Clarita, CA | Circ. – 29K
- 35. #PromotionsLab Seek Out New Business
- 36. #PromotionsLab Build on Success from Last Year Create Appealing Ad Packages
- 37. #PromotionsLab Enhanced Listings are Your Foundation
- 38. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: $170K Ballot 900,000 Votes 8,000 New Opt-ins Blair Barna Advertising Director | Charleston City Paper | Charleston, SC | Circ. – 40K
- 39. #PromotionsLab Continued Digital Revenue Growth 2013 vs. 2014 vs (growth in 2015) 2015 (projected) $50-$60K 2014 $30K 2013 $15K
- 41. #PromotionsLab “Vote for Me” Ads
- 44. #PromotionsLab Recap – Drive Revenue Growth Partners who’ve made this transition are seeing substantial revenue growth New digital opportunities are driving much of this growth – find the right combination that works in your market Your Reader’s Choice brand & franchise increases in value and reach when you layer in digital & events Generate incremental revenue by targeting non- traditional advertisers
- 46. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: 39% YOY Growth 1st Year Digital Ballot Ballot Counting i80% Bonnie Markham Business Development Mgr. | Alton Telegraph | Alton, IL | Circ. – 17K
- 47. #PromotionsLab Save Time & Work Smarter
- 48. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: $170K Ballot 900,000 Votes 8,000 New Opt-ins Blair Barna Advertising Director | Charleston City Paper | Charleston, SC | Circ. – 40K
- 51. #PromotionsLab Recap – Be More Efficient Save time Save money Save resources Huge ROI just in time-saving alone!
- 53. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: 2014 $86K Ballot 38% Growth in 2 years Successful Niche Ballot Alesia Humphries Chief of Digital Sales | The Signal | Santa Clarita, CA | Circ. – 29K
- 54. #PromotionsLab Niche Ballot: Prep Football Fans Choice Awards Offer unique solution for new advertiser Engage target demographic & local community Goals
- 55. #PromotionsLab IMAGES OF SIGNAL PREP BALLOT
- 57. secondstreetlab.com/ballot Niche Ballot: Prep Football Fans Choice Awards $4K in new revenue 1,000 new email opt-ins 20K votes Advertiser was thrilled with results Results
- 58. #PromotionsLab Panelists Ballot Boasts: $170K Ballot 900,000 Votes 8,000 New Opt-ins Blair Barna Advertising Director | Charleston City Paper | Charleston, SC | Circ. – 40K
- 59. #PromotionsLab Niche Ballot: Charleston's Hottest Bartenders Drive website traffic & engagement Use as promotional tie-in with new issue Incremental digital revenue Goals
- 60. #PromotionsLab Charleston’s Hottest Bartenders Execution: • 10/22 – 11/11 • Voting launched with event • On-site voting • Seeded ballot • Aligned with magazine release
- 61. #PromotionsLab $15K in digital revenue Title & secondary sponsors Location sponsor “Vote for our bartender” ads Niche Ballot: Charleston's Hottest Bartenders Results
- 62. #PromotionsLab Recap – Niche Ballots Leverage metro ballot success and expand ballot program throughout the year Engage more targeted audiences and advertisers Align with other niche initiatives and generate even more revenue
- 64. #PromotionsLab Ballot Planning Ballot Sales Ballot Admin (Coming in Feb.)
- 65. #PromotionsLab
- 66. #PromotionsLab
- 69. #PromotionsLab Engage Your Audience Engage Your Audience
- 70. #PromotionsLab Grow Your Database Grow Your Database
- 71. #PromotionsLab Drive Significant Revenue Drive Significant Revenue
- 72. #PromotionsLab Gather Audience Data Gather Audience Insights & Data
- 76. secondstreetlab.com/ballot Panelists Ballot Boasts: 2014 $86K Ballot 38% Growth in 2 years Successful Niche Ballot Alesia Humphries Chief of Digital Sales | The Signal | Santa Clarita, CA | Circ. – 29K
- 77. secondstreetlab.com/ballot The Pitch Internally Less manual tabulation Quicken the counting process
- 78. secondstreetlab.com/ballot The Pitch to Advertisers
- 80. secondstreetlab.com/ballot Tool • Show example of efficiency • Merging • Spelling
Editor's Notes
- Welcome Happy for you to be here Today we are going to discuss how print media can drive big revenue with reader’s choice ballots
- Name A part of our Affiliate Success Team here at Second Street Moderator Super excited about our rock star panel today who’s going to share their insights into how their having some tremendous success with ballots First a couple of housekeeping
- We are recording this webinar, so anyone who registered will automatically receiving an email with links to that and our key takeaways We also encourage you to ask questions throughout the webinar. Just post those questions into the chat box of the GTW panel on the left of your screen We will have staff members monitoring that. And we’ll also save some time at the end to answer a couple with our panel.
- You can also make comments and asks questions via Twitter. Just use the hashtag #promotionslab, as you seen the on the screen. This will also be on each of the slides in the bottom left And we’re going to be giving away a prize to our top tweeter, so fire up your Twitter accounts and get ready. We also encourage you to follow us @secondstreetlab www.secondstreetlab.com Twitter: @secondstreetlab www.facebook.com/secondstreetmedia We can answer questions on Twitter if we don’t get to them on the webinar. Julie
- At little bit about Second Street. We are a software and technology company working with local and national media companies around the country to help increase ROI by Building & Engaging their audiences through our suite of products Our focus today, though, is on Voter’s Choice our balloting software
- And we are proud to work with our 3,000+ media partners spanning all mediums and representing both markets large and small. And everything in between. I see that several of you on the call are current Voters Choice partners and I know you will learn some things from our panel today that will help you increase your readers choice revenue even more, and I know just as many of you out there are considering Voter’s Choice and I hope you will hear today about how your colleagues in the industry are seeing phenomenal growth by taking advantage of Voter’s Choice. Just wait and see what our panelists are doing with ballots. Its phenomenal! I’m so excited. Let’s jump on in.
- To kick us off, I wanted to review a couple of key points about why ballots should be a part of your digital strategy They’re ripe for many reasons, let’s take a closer look
- They’re huge for engagement. Putting your print ballot online is like adding gas to the flame. Ballots are naturally viral. The engagement level goes through the roof when you unleash your ballot online. This helps you reach a broader audience and makes even easier to interact and participate in the ballot. This engagement helps leads right into the next point…. maximizes audience engagement and participation, which builds your email database and creates a list of leads for your advertisers.
- Which is your ability to grow your email database. For many of our partners, reader’s choice ballots are their biggest promotions of the year, so by adding a simple opt-in, you can build your databases in a significant way
- Vote and write-in style ballots have been around for decades and they’ve been big moneymakers, but what we’re seeing is when those print ballots get put online using our software, that the returns are even more impactful. By running a reader’s Choice, you can target new and existing advertisers with new opportunities not to mention layering in revenue from online display ads, email and events, etc.
- A reader’s choice ballot gives you a chance to learn even more about your audience – their likes and interests, what businesses they support and what categories are of most interest to them. This data is invaluable for future promotions and campaigns and is a treasure trove of insights into your local market. ------------------------- When you run a ballot promotion you will gather the opinions of your audience on a variety of topics. This valuable crowd-sourced content can be helpful for selling advertising or and can be left a destination on your site year round. People Like to Share Their Views Ballots have been around for a long time Trend Feeds into social nature of our lives See more lists in News Editorial approach
- And ultimately do all of these things more efficiently than ever before. Though ballots have been huge revenue drivers, historically, they’ve also been huge resource drains. Whether you’re talking about counting paper ballots or being stuck in Excel hell by using tools that aren’t designed specifically for voting, there’s an easier way and one that gets you greater returns by automating and enhancing that process. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avoid Excel hell…if you’re using surveys or CMSs Here’s a way to normalize your ballot more easily and get through the tabulation in a 1/3 of the time Merging data Smart and automatic
- Matt Now let’s get to the main event and meet our panel
- Name Title Property City (if necessary) Outstanding results from his ballots Seeing some of the biggest growth in the country
- Name Title Property City (if necessary) Alesia and the Signal has turned their ballot into a major local event and has seen sustained growth over the last two years
- Name Title Property City (if necessary) Bonnie has been with the Telegraph for 18 years and recently helped spearhead their transition to having a digital ballot, so she comes to this with fresh eyes and a great perspective on how impactful a digital ballot can be
- Matt First up is engagement and how digital ballots are helping engagement your audiences in new and exciting ways.
- We’re going to kick off with Blair who is going to share how a change in format to his ballot really had a tremendous impact on all facets of this promotion Blair…
- Motivation for going to this format How it gave your voting period more momentum How it expanded your audience How it was a game changer for your ballot – subsequent slides will show actual numbers
- Talk about the growth in participation you’ve see What contributes to this growth – online opens the platform up to many more people to participate
- What contributed this huge growth? Tie it back to the nomination + voting periods Discuss how average number categories voted upon went up
- As you shared with me, your best of Ballot is the biggest driver of email opt-ins Having an opt-in is an absolute must – put it on every promotion and ballot you run Talk about other newsletters and lists you’ve been able to grow as a result of your ballot success
- Let’s get another perspective from Alesia who’s also seen compounding growth over the last three years for her ballot in term of audience engagement and participation
- Putting our ballot online took things to a whole new level of engagement and user interaction We saw immediate growth in the first year, which is to be expected, but that growth just continued for us as our audience and advertisers completely embraced the online ballot 2014 vs 2013 65% increase in registered users 56% increase in votes
- One of the big drivers of increased engagement for us was social media What you all did you all do to promote on social media? What activity did you see from advertisers? Talk about your branded #hashtag – How it was used and the impact it had.
- Point to actual engagement stats as an indicator of social growth and activity Ballots are social in nature; people like to share their opinions and what a better way than by voting on local businesses
- Ballots are perfect for online – social sharing creates exponential growth Consistent audience growth and increase engagement Growing participation allows you to grow your local franchise and brand
- Matt Everyone on this panel had a great 2014s – their ballot revenue was ALL up significantly across the board Let’s take a quick look at the ways you can generate revenue with ballots!
- WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WITH VOTER’S CHOICE • Enhanced Listings • Ballot Sponsorships • Print Issue or On-Air Special • Live Event ★ Remember - these models can also be combined to maximize your revenue. You can choose and do the combination that works best for your market. A single ballot could incorporate upgraded listings, category sponsorships, and winners special sections -
- Now we’re going to turn to Bonnie who did her first digital ballot last year and saw some wonderful results from it. Bonnie
- We were thrilled with the results we got with our 2014 ballot This was our first time doing it digitally and the growth exceeded our expectations We have been doing our ballot for decades and this one was the biggest year yet
- All of that new revenue growth came directly from including new digital offerings We expect to grow our revenue even more in 2015 by selling even more digital listings Elaborate on any other new plans you have 2015 to grow more digital revenue – perhaps adding ad positions around the ballot Story of landscaper (immediate impact) – the digital listing helped a new landscaper earn the top spot because voting was so easy
- All retail reps involved This made for an efficient way of selling that helped us close deals quickly One of the easiest sales you’ll make all year.
- Great. Thanks Bonnie! Let’s hand It over to Alesia to share some insights into the growth trends she’s seeing in her market and how their continuing to make that happen.
- We have only seen the momentum build in terms of revenue We expect this trend to continue Elaborate on any plans you have to ensure continued growth What else to contribute your revenue growth to?
- One of the key ways we’ve built our revenue is by pushing beyond on our regular advertisers when it comes to ballots Anyone under the sun is a prospective for this You’re really missing the boat if you don’t participate because this is a COMMUNITY EVENT Get in front of advertisers you don’t normally get money from How are you incentivizing your reps to go after new business?
- Talk about reach and how those conversations go with advertisers Give an overview of the three packages and what the response was to them from advertiser Was one really popular? Any insights into pricing and packaging that you share? Things to do, things to avoid.
- Enhanced listings are a no-brainer They should be included in your ad package no matter what They’re an easy sell Benefits of enhanced listings: We keep the ballot up year along, so they benefit from that ongoing exposure Social buttons to help promote their businesses social media presence Map to their location Link to their website Logo/image HELPS THEM STANDOUT FROM THE CROWD
- Great stuff, Alesia To wrap up our revenue section, Blair going to share how he’s been able to combine all of those different revenue drivers into a money making machine that just keeps growing. Blair
- This is reflecting just digital revenue from our ballots In the last couple of years, this has been doubling each year, which is wonderful We expect that to continue this year – we are in the midst of our 2015 ballot All online ad positions are sold out at this point Let’s talk about the specific areas where we generate digital revenue
- Benefits of a category sponsorship to the advertiser Placement Fixed position Generous ad size Why advertisers like them How much do you typically sell these for?
- Discuss the ad package and placement of these When do these run? Talk about how easy of a sale these are How do they complement the ballot?
- Discuss the importance of the print publication to the overall promotion and revenue associated with it
- How best to wrap up this kind of promotion than with a party Event Details Who attends? Revenue - $15K Ideas for future growth? Such a platform for them; turn it into an event; thinking of going public
- 10, 20, 30% revenue growth And not only in year one but beyond that Overall, Reader’s Choice franchise is becoming more valuable when you layer in digital and events on top of print
- Matt Any one who’s been involved with ballots over the years are aware of the pain points and the time involved. These are big endeavors, but there’s a path to simplifying that; a path that allows you to focus more on the areas of engagement, revenue growth and audience insights. Hitting a finite audience Lots of work handling ballots Counting paper ballots isn’t fun
- Bonnie just late last year went through this transition. Bonnie can you share with us the digital ballot helped you all.
- Share how counting of votes was done in the past with everyone taking home ballots to count them Emphasize the amount of time it saved your team Discuss how you can’t imagine go back to this way of doing it – digital is the way to go Talk about how it was an easy sell internally – knowing the digital ballot would only enhance the product and modernized it Businesses really liked that going digital broadened the audience and made voting easier
- Let’s bring Blair back to shed some light on how he’s been able to more efficiently manage his ballot by using the Voter’s Choice platfrom
- Normalization of entries Misspellings Multiple spellings Simplified process for us and saved us a huge amount of time – Any sense of how much? Hours? Days? Made the entire process better for us – elaborate on that
- Normalization of entries Misspellings Multiple spellings Simplified process for us and saved us a huge amount of time – Any sense of how much? Hours? Days? Made the entire process better for us – elaborate on that
- We really emphasize mobile voting and promote it to users – as you see from this image Having a responsive site makes mobile voting so much easier We believe that this helped us expand our reach and audience in a very big way – big part of our increase in voting and active users Mobile made it more relevant to our audience
- Matt So far, we’ve been primarily talking about city-wide or metro ballots. Our partners are having so much success with those that they’ve been inspired to look for other opportunities to run throughout the year, and we’ve got Alesia and Blair lined to talk about two very different approaches to ballots that are easily replicable in any market. These examples are also a testament to diversity of options you have when it comes to niche ballots.
- Alesia – why don’t you kick it off with your Prep Football Fan’s Choice Awards
- Focus on how this was built for the advertiser and who the advertiser was Explain the target demo – families, parents of athlete – and how the ballot was able to reach them Talk a little bit about the community itself – very passionate about football, lots of local players have gone on to the pros
- Execution Ballot had 30 categories – from best quarterback to best band to best student section and best place to go before a game Ran from 11/1 – 12/18 Our community was already familiar with the ballot format from our Best OF, so it was easy for them to participate This was a write-in ballot and nominees were added to the ballot daily
- Promotion Given the audience, we promoted this heavily online and in social media Ballot was branded for the advertiser The title sponsorship package also include recognition of the sponsor on the awards given to players logo on all branding for the ballot in print and online exclusive ad positions email Expand upon any other unique aspects of the promotion
- Focus on the reaction of the advertiser -How did they feel about the exposure? -Did they feel they captured the attention of their target demo? -Did they see any specific impact from the promotion – like new patients or visits to their website/social media presence?
- High school football is huge in local markets, so I could see a ballot like that work just about anywhere. Next we have Blair who’s going to give us his take on a recent niche ballot that they ran – Chareston’s Hottest Bartenders. I know this had to be a fun one to work on, so Blair tell us how it went.
- Discuss how it came to be and the motivation behind it How much planning was involved? When did you start planning for it?
- Elaborate on how sponsors were involved Discuss how it was such a well aligned promotion and how the voting fit in How big was the party? How did you promote this beyond the magazine?
- Expand upon where you could see doing something similar for other events – best dish at food and wine festival, etc. What was the feedback from the participating sponsors including the bar where the event was held
- Build out a new local franchise Examples: If you have a wedding guide, run a wedding ballot that covers all of the aspects of planning for that: best caterer, best jeweler, best location, etc. We’ve got a great case study in the lab about a very successful wedding ballot, so be sure to check that out
- Matt Now I just want to highlight a couple of resources that we make available to our partners to help ensure that they are as successful as possible with their ballots
- Sales kit Sample ads you can customize for both print and online Pitch deck Ballot template for uploaded categories and subcategories Exclusively available to our partners
- Matt Your metro Voter’s Choice is more than just another ballot – it should be an event that your audience looks forward to each year.
- They’re huge for engagement. Putting your print ballot online is like adding gas to the flame. Ballots are naturally viral. The engagement level goes through the roof when you unleash your ballot online. This helps you reach a broader audience and makes even easier to interact and participate in the ballot. This engagement helps leads right into the next point…. maximizes audience engagement and participation, which builds your email database and creates a list of leads for your advertisers.
- Which is your ability to grow your email database. For many of our partners, reader’s choice ballots are their biggest promotions of the year, so by adding a simple opt-in, you can build your databases in a significant way
- Vote and write-in style ballots have been around for decades and they’ve been big moneymakers, but what we’re seeing is when those print ballots get put online using our software, that the returns are even more impactful. By running a reader’s Choice, you can target new and existing advertisers with new opportunities not to mention layering in revenue from online display ads, email and events, etc.
- A reader’s choice ballot gives you a chance to learn even more about your audience – their likes and interests, what businesses they support and what categories are of most interest to them. This data is invaluable for future promotions and campaigns and is a treasure trove of insights into your local market. ------------------------- When you run a ballot promotion you will gather the opinions of your audience on a variety of topics. This valuable crowd-sourced content can be helpful for selling advertising or and can be left a destination on your site year round. People Like to Share Their Views Ballots have been around for a long time Trend Feeds into social nature of our lives See more lists in News Editorial approach
- And ultimately do all of these things more efficiently than ever before. Though ballots have been huge revenue drivers, historically, they’ve also been huge resource drains. Whether you’re talking about counting paper ballots or being stuck in Excel hell by using tools that aren’t designed specifically for voting, there’s an easier way and one that gets you greater returns by automating and enhancing that process. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avoid Excel hell…if you’re using surveys or CMSs Here’s a way to normalize your ballot more easily and get through the tabulation in a 1/3 of the time Merging data Smart and automatic
- Matt
- Process for doing digital ballot so much easier No more counting Been doing it the same way for a long time – change was hard Way to control the cheating and copying of print ballot
- Ability to share and encourage voting much more easily Been doing it same way for so long Advertisers didn’t get it – took some education about the mechanic of the how the ballot would work