At one point or another, every deals site has struggled to maintain high deal quality. Bad or mediocre deals inevitably creep into the lineup.

One of the most valuable approaches to getting to the best deal possible is forming a deals committee. Not only do deal committees give you the ability to get multiple perspectives on a deal, but the process of evaluating deals is the best way to understand what makes a great deal.

Let’s look at how to structure and run your own deals committee to maximize your revenue and find top deals.

The Dream Team

Having a good mix of people on your deal committee is the key. Look around your organization and think about who is selling to current customers, who is marketing to new customers, and who is providing customer service. Here’s who should be on your deal committee:

• Sales Director or Manager
• Top Sales Rep
• Marketing or Community Relations Professional
• Customer Service Manager

Your sales rep is your direct connection to the front line from a merchant perspective. They’ll tell you what’s working and not working, as well as who’s responding to the deal pitch and who’s not. They’ll address the challenges merchants face when it comes to deals and will have the clearest understanding of the merchant’s perspective, which will help when you’re trying to refine a deal that’s challenged by restrictions, price point, or level of discount.

The marketing professional is your link to the public. This person will understand what attracts customers to click on a deal. A marketing perspective will provide insight into what approach is needed to engage the public and maintain their interest. Moreover, while one half of the deal success equation is having great deals, the rest is marketing and promotions to keep the momentum going and your list growing. Knowing your audience well will also help you zero in on deals that will most appeal to them.

Rounding out the group is a customer service manager. This person will help you understand your audience’s pain points, challenges, needs, and wants, since they actually hear what those who buy the deals have to say. Finally, if your customer service team is expected to solve problems on the back-end of a deal, their spot in the committee is essential since they can anticipate potential problems before they arise.

Functions of the Deals Committee

The main goal of a deal committee is to identify and approve great deals, but success does not end there. Other key functions include calendar management, review of past deals to gain understanding of what worked and what didn’t, and relaying best practices and deal expectations to the entire sales team.

Calendar management involves knowing the best days to run a deal, ensuring a pipeline of deals is ready well in advance, and strategically balancing the deals you have.

Sometimes bad deals slip through, even on the best sites. Reviewing these mistakes with the deal committee in an effort to understand the what made the deal unsuccessful will help you avoid similar problem deals in the future. The same goes for top-notch deals. The deal committee should make an effort to learn from both the worst and the best deals to grow their expertise.

A deal committee guides you through the murky waters of finding and identifying the very best deals. It also serves as a sales tool to train your reps on “deal appeal,” so that over time they learn to only bring their strongest deals to the committee.

What are you waiting for? It’s time to put together a deal committee and get the conversation started!

The post Deal Quality: Having a Deals Committee Is Essential Deal Quality appeared first on Second Street Lab.

Football fans are incredibly passionate about their sport and their teams.

There are only four sports nationwide that can boast over 100 million fans, and two of the top three include pro football and college football (the other is the Olympics). Even high school football has a significant fan base, as 28% of American adults identify as high school football fans, and nearly 1 out of 5 (19%) of American adults over the age of 18 has attended a high school sporting event in the past year.

In many homes, Friday nights are for high school football, Saturday evenings for college, and Sundays for pro football.

People throw parties every week to watch these games. They paint their faces. They spend hours outside in the sweltering heat or frigid cold tailgating before a game. In fact, 240 MILLION people regularly tailgate – that’s 80% of the US population! Of these, 41% tailgate more than 8 times in a season, spending more than $500 each on food and other supplies in the process.

All of this means that the opportunity around football promotions is immense.

There are a number of different promotions that you can run during the football season. Here’s an overview of some of the options. To learn more about these opportunities, join us for one of our How to Sell Football Promotions webinars – reserve your spot now!

• Pro Football Contest. This is a pick’em contest that runs the full length of the 21-week pro football season. Each week, players pick who will win each game.




• Big Game Challenge. This contest may last only one day, but it still has a lot of revenue potential. To play, players predict various happenings before pro football’s season-ending Big Game.




• College Football Contest. This contest runs for the 13 weeks, although the promotion can be extended by combining the regular season college football contest with a bowl games contest. Like a pro football contest, the regular season college football contest is a pick’em where players pick who they think all the winning teams will be each week.




• Bowl Games Contest. This contest can be either run alone or in conjunction with the regular season college football contest. It runs for 3 weeks, and players pick who they think will win each bowl game for the season.




• High School Football Contest. A high school football contest is essentially a scaled-down version of a pro or college football contest, where players pick who they think the winning high school teams will be each week. This contest would last the length of your local high school football season.




• Custom Football Contests. Custom football contests can be anything from a custom pick’em showcasing local teams to a fan fanatic photo contest. Here are a few other ideas:
  • Team Trivia
  • Fan Rivalry pitting the fans of two teams against each other
  • Ticket Giveaway
  • Ultimate Tailgate Photos or Recipes
  • School Spirit




• Football Deals Store. Create a deals store to run alongside your football contests full of deals that will appeal to football fans.




• Football-Themed Ballot. There are so many possibilities for football-themed ballot promotions, from MVP of the Week to Pick Your All-Star Team to Best Spots for Sports Fans.

As you can see, there is no shortage of options when it comes to running football promotions. To learn more about these opportunities, join us for one of our How to Sell Football Promotions webinars – sign up now!

Sources: Dialog by Scarborough, Zero to 60 Times

The post A Rundown of the Opportunities Around Football Promotions appeared first on Second Street Lab.

You’ve run some promotions and dramatically increased your Facebook Likes. So what now?

It’s just as important to retain your current followers as it is to gain new ones. Here are a few ways that you can do just that.

Crafting the Perfect Post

If you want to retain Facebook fans and encourage engagement with your content, the structure of your posts is nearly as important as the content itself. The Facebook algorithm known as EdgeRank determines what is displayed on a given user’s News Feed, and a post’s rank is determined in part by assigning it a weight by type (learn more about EdgeRank and why it matters for contests).

Since EdgeRank assigns more weight to visual content than textual content, it’s a good idea to include images in your posts as much as possible. Here are a few more best practices you want to follow when crafting the perfect Facebook post:

• Include a shortlink (use a service like bit.ly to shorten the links, so you can tracks your clicks over time)
• Write succinctly and with personality (simple imagery and short copy make for a better mobile experience, and you don’t want to bury your link)
• Make sure your image is high-resolution (images should be NO SMALLER than 403px x 403px)
• Increase engagement by asking a question
• Include a clear call to action to inspire link-clicking, commenting, and Liking. It’s always a good idea to specifically request feedback and opinions. Here are a few ideas for calls to action to get you started:
  • Fill in the blank
  • Click “Like” to agree
  • Share this if _______
  • This or That? Item vs Item?
  • What’s your favorite?
  • Agree or disagree? Yes or no? Like or dislike?
  • Caption this!
  • Can you answer this trivia question?

Sharing the Right Content

Now you know how to format the perfect post. But you need substance as well as style if you want to keep your Facebook fans happy. So what to share?

Here are a few pro tips for keeping the content on your Facebook page – and, more importantly, in your followers’ News Feeds – fresh, relevant, and exciting.

• Post at optimal times and consider your frequency. Once a day may not be enough, but 100 times a day is probably too many. It’s important to figure out a frequency that works for you and your followers.




• Be responsive. ALWAYS respond to comments. If you can’t think of anything to say in reply at least Like what your followers say to you. Finally, never ever EVER ignore a complaint or a request for customer service. If you want to move the conversation to a less public forum, respond to the comment and say so.




• Run contests. Contests are more than just a fun way to encourage interaction with your page – people expect them. This is because your followers expect to receive consistent value in exchange for their Like. So contests are not only a way to keep your Facebook fans happy, but also a means for you to gather more information about your fans for your email database that you own. Permanent ownership of your followers’ data? Now that’s a big win.





• Highlight your product. As a media company, you deal in current events, community news, and local entertainment. You’re involved in your community and a trusted source of news. So highlight that! Also, your promotional and news content don’t always need to live separately. Don’t be afraid to newsjack (inject fresh news content into your brand messages), like Oreo did with this cute post celebrating the birth of a baby panda at the Tokyo Zoo.If you do decide to newsjack, stick to positive news and be sure that nothing you post could be construed as offensive, or the publicity you receive will not be the kind of hoped for.





• Spotlight your employees. People like to connect with other people, not nameless, faceless logos. The presence of human faces makes your page seem more personal and, well, humanizes your brand. Check out this example from KKWF-FM:

The key with Facebook is to continually produce and publish compelling content that will encourage your fans to interact with your brand. Don’t be afraid to experiment until you find what works best for you!

The post Strategies for Writing Engaging Facebook Posts for Promotions appeared first on Second Street Lab.

Below you’ll find tons of revenue-generating deal ideas from our 2nd annual 30 Deal Ideas in 30 Minutes webinar. This year, we presented our two 30 in 30 webinars as a double feature. Be sure to check out our top contest takeaways as well!

We have also broken down and analyzed all of the deal subcategories by deal mix, average revenue, and price point. Take a look!

To discover how to fill up your deals calendar and supercharge your promotions strategy, as well as find inspiration in a variety of success stories, watch a recording of the webinar, flip through the slide deck, or read on for our top takeaways.

The webinar was interactive, and the conversation on Twitter was centered around the hashtag #PromotionsLab. So don’t just take it from us – interspersed with the takeaways are some tweets from our attendees that provide additional perspective. So without further ado, here are a few highlights from the 30 Deal Ideas in 30 Minutes presentation.

1. Feature a diverse mix of deals. While there’s nothing wrong with featuring the same type of deal on your site again and again, especially if it has proven a success with your audience, it’s important to feature a variety of deals over the course of the year. Doing so will help you reach different segments of your audience.




2. Focus on how to maximize your per deal revenue. Calculating a per deal revenue goal is a great way to keep your program on track to reach your annual deals revenue goal. This list is a great cheat sheet to make sure you’re focused on the right deals – the ones that will help you achieve these goals.




3. Design win-win-win deals. When you feature a deal, you want it to be a success for you, your merchant, AND your customers. All of your deals should be designed to generate significant revenue, drive foot traffic and allow merchant upsell opportunities, and provide value without significant restrictions.




4. Target advertisers months in advance. Targeting advertisers early makes it easier to secure the best offers. You should always be working at least two months ahead to ensure that you always have quality deals in the pipeline. Working ahead also gives you increased flexibility with scheduling deals.




5. Mix seasonal deals with evergreen deals. Including both seasonal deals and evergreen deals in your deal mix helps to keep your deals site fresh and relevant throughout the year.




6. Take advantage of perishable inventory. Some businesses – like theaters and golf courses – are going to be up and running whether they have customers or not, so for these merchants deals can be a great way to get people in the door.

Best deals are for businesses where lights are on whether you have customers or not. #promotionslab

— Aaron Wood (@AaronJoelWood) June 13, 2013




7. Deal quality, deal quality, deal quality. One of the most important aspects of any successful deals program is deal quality. To make your program the best that it can be, stay focused on getting the best deals you possibly can to feature on your site. High quality deals…
   …are unique to your site.
   …are priced appropriately.
   …have few to no restrictions.
   …have a reasonable expiration date.
   …run in the right season.
   …grow your database.
   …encourage social sharing.
   …are over $10.




8. Focus on the categories discussed in this webinar. One way to get a head start on deals success is to feature deals from the top-performing subcategories included in the webinar recording and slide deck above. These deal subcategories have proven successes, and there’s still plenty of room for variety in the list.

For even more promotions inspiration, check out our 30 Contest Ideas in 30 Minutes webinar recording and takeaways.

The post 30 in 30 Top Takeaways: 8 Tips to Fire Up Your Deals Program appeared first on Second Street Lab.

Below you’ll find tons of revenue-generating and database-building contest ideas from our 4th annual 30 Contest Ideas in 30 Minutes webinar. This year, we presented our two 30 in 30 webinars as a double feature. Be sure to check out our top deal takeaways as well!

To discover how to fill up your contest calendar and supercharge your promotions strategy, as well as find inspiration in a variety of success stories, watch a recording of the webinar, flip through the slide deck, or read on for our top takeaways.

The webinar was interactive, and the conversation on Twitter was centered around the hashtag #PromotionsLab. So don’t just take it from us – interspersed with the takeaways are some tweets from our attendees that provide additional perspective. So without further ado, here are a few highlights from the 30 Contest Ideas in 30 Minutes presentation.

1. Capitalize on what makes your market unique. When you are planning your contest calendar, consider what makes your market unique. Do you have extreme weather during a certain season? Are there any special events that your audience will be excited for? If so, consider running custom contests to capitalize on what makes your market unique.




2. Combine seasonal contests with evergreen contests. Mix seasonal contests, such as those in the Holiday, Halloween, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, or even Awards Show categories, with evergreen contests that you can run at any time of year, like those in the Kids, Pets, Nature, and Sweepstakes categories. This will help ensure that you have a full calendar of relevant content throughout the year.




3. Run a cutest kid contest. No matter what else you do, run a cutest kid contest. In addition to having been in the top 5 contest categories every year, cutest kid contests are incredibly popular and appeal to a wide audience, meaning that you can leverage that engagement for larger buys from sponsors and generate significant amounts of revenue. While you’re at it, why not make a cutest baby contest an annual tradition that your audience will look forward to?




4. Woo new or infrequent advertisers with a contest. Go to advertisers you haven’t worked with in a while and offer them a promotion as a fresh and engaging alternative to traditional advertising. You could even create agency model Facebook contests for your advertisers to help them reach a wider audience (and increase their Likes in the process).

Love the direct results of advertiser contests. Great for grocery stores and garden centers. #promotionslab

— Aaron Wood (@AaronJoelWood) June 13, 2013




5. Consider your format and your audience. Think about your format and your audience and what contest categories would be a good fit for each. For example, a television station could create a watch & win code word contest to integrate an online promotion with traditional media.

How about a second screen contest during a newscast? This could be innovative. #promotionslab

— Aaron Wood (@AaronJoelWood) June 13, 2013




6. Tap into pride & passion. Try contests that encourage people to tell a story (like their first date stories), share something they’re proud of (like their tattoos or classic cars), or something they already have photos of (like their kids and pets).




7. Focus on revenue AND database growth. When you are planning and selling contests, focus on revenue, but also focus on growing your database. A strong email database is crucial to long term success with promotions, and will eventually help you sell even more valuable sponsorship packages.




8. Appeal to a specific demographic. Is there a specific demographic you would like to target? Design a contest to appeal to that niche audience (and attract niche advertisers in the process).




9. Integrate your promotional efforts. When you are planning your promotions, look for ways to integrate contests with other efforts in order to increase their impact. A biggest fan contest would be the perfect complement to a football pick’em, and it’s a great idea to run custom bracket contests alongside your college basketball bracket in March. While you’re at it, look for ways to combine contests with any existing special sections, issues, or broadcasts. Do you sponsor a wedding expo or create an annual bridal special section? Run a wedding contest to generate even more excitement.

Brackets don't have to be for sports only! #promotionslab

— Stephanie Carey (@SCareyonline) June 13, 2013




10. Combine contests & deals stores. When you are looking for ways to integrate your contests with other promotions, don’t forget about deals stores. Running a contest alongside a deals store is a great way to boost your revenue, and you can even offer credits to your deals store as simple sweepstakes prizes! For even more ideas, check out our 30 Deal Ideas in 30 Minutes webinar recording and takeaways.

The post 30 in 30 Top Takeaways: 10 Tips for Killer Contests appeared first on Second Street Lab.

We’re all tired of hearing about “tectonic shifts” and “fundamental changes” in the media world. But something truly remarkable did indeed occur a few years ago – something that signaled the end of a century-long Era of Advertising.

The marker appeared in 2007 as the economy was running on fumes and getting shakier by the day. That year, local businesses did something they had never done before. They began spending more on promotions and “owned media” — marketing channels that they control — than on classic advertising. And as the economy started to recover, they began spending a lot more. Promotions budgets, once relegated to things like coupons, windshield flyers and contests, were a lot bigger than ad budgets. They swelled to include things like website development, deal-of-the-day programs, loyalty clubs, and an array of techno-tasks that pushed SMBs into that vast digital cocktail party called social media.

While local marketers have fallen in love with promotions, it’s not sudden infatuation. The wheels were set in motion a few decades ago as advertising channels became overcrowded. Daily and weekly newspapers and local rack publications grew into the tens of thousands, swarming local communities. Newsstands exploded with magazines on golf, gardening, cigars, hunting, muscles, fitness, business, politics, and cooking. Ads appeared in cabs, elevators, convenience store checkout lines, on the back of grocery receipts, at gas pumps, in stadiums and even in bathroom stalls. Estimates now put the number of messages pummeling an individual every day at 5,000. How many are typically noticed? About a half-dozen.

The proof of what’s happening is in the numbers: Six years ago, local businesses spent 10% more on advertising than they did on promotions. Last year, they spent a stunning 81% more on promotions. Even as local advertising bounces back at a rate of 8% this year, the $101 billion they’re likely to spend will still be 16% less than what it was in 2007. Meanwhile, local promotions is forecast to be 33% more than it was in 2007, reaching $176 billion this year.

Is advertising dead? Hardly. Advertising can be a turbo jet on the flames of store promotions. Without advertising, contests don’t get very many entries, coupons don’t get redeemed and nobody shows up to get a free Independence Day hot dog at the local car dealership.

The money being plowed into promotions isn’t entirely coming from trimmed-down advertising budgets. It’s also coming from things like slimmer profit margins (taken through steeper discounting), the salaries of former workers who used to handle marketing tasks, and from agency fees, printing budgets and postage.

How can you take advantage of this trend? First off, realize that it is, indeed, a big deal. Local media companies that ignore the trend probably won’t die. But they won’t thrive, either. They are more or less the blacksmiths of 100 years ago who steadfastly refused to convert to auto-repair shops, thinking that horses, which still far outnumbered cars, would always be around.

I’d also suggest the following:

• Adopt a formal plan to train your sales staff to employ a consultative sales approach. Advertisers are more confused than ever. The marketing world has become very complex to them. They need a marketing partner, not a salesperson.




• Get proof that your sales staff knows their stuff. The world has changed, and good reps can become mediocre fast if they aren’t well educated. Consider a certification program like that offered by the Local Media Association.




• Form a promotions team that meets once a quarter. Include some of your most creative people, as well as a leader and some do-ers. Work at least two quarters ahead on ideas to help local businesses market themselves around events and holidays. Right now, the team should be finishing up back-to-school promotions planning and starting on Halloween or fall weekend getaways.




• Consider creating a digital agency like many other media companies are doing. This is a natural reaction to the marketplace demand for “services” type programs like social media management, app development, email management, etc.

I doubt we’ll ever see a return to the Era of Advertising we once knew, when a few TV commercials for Purell or Tide or a full-page newspaper ad for Sears were all it took to drive sales. But I am certain that someone who understands how to build a powerful promotional campaign fueled by the right kind of advertising will have local businesses beating a path to the door.