How to generate revenue with holiday promotions

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The winter holidays are by far the biggest spending season, and Cyber Monday – the Monday after Thanksgiving Day – is the top spending day of the year.

Media companies have the opportunity to generate TONS of revenue, engagement and new email opt-ins in November and December. Here's some advice on how you can make the most of this opportunity:

1. Start planning early. When you are creating your holiday promotional campaign, you should be taking three months to plan, two months to sell and one month to promote before you launch. Here's a sample calendar of promotions for the holiday season to help you see what yours might look like:

2. Run ecommerce promotions. Nine of the top 10 spending days of the year are in December (and the other one is Black Friday), so the opportunity to generate revenue with holiday ecommerce promotions is immense. Even if you don't have a regular deals program, standalone promotions like cards and holiday stores – think 12 Days of Deals – can be incredibly successful. When you are targeting merchants for holiday ecommerce promotions, focus on quality and make sure everything you offer is giftable.

3. Run holiday contests. From holiday lights and Scared of Santa photo contests to 31 Days of Christmas sweepstakes, there are plenty of holiday contest themes that will generate revenue and collect email opt-ins for you and your advertisers.

4. Run niche ballots. A Best of Holiday Shopping ballot is perfect for the holiday season, and advertisers love to be a part of this kind of promotion. In 2013, The Roanoke Times was incredibly successful with a Holiday Shopping ballot, bringing in more than $70,000 in revenue and providing lots of crowd sourced content for its Holiday Shopping Guide print special section.

5. Align with existing initiatives. Are you already running special sections or programming around the holidays? Integrate this content with a promotion. Plus, as you are looking for ways to align promotions with existing initiatives, be sure to consider digital campaigns and live events as well as your traditional media offerings.

Matt Coen is the president and co-founder of Second Street, a leading provider of private-label online promotions platforms and partner success services for media companies based in St. Louis, Mo. He can be reached at (314) 880-4902 or matt@secondstreet.com.

Coen, promotions, holidays, email marketing
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