Niche Ballots Can Help You Reach New Advertisers and Audiences

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Niche BallotsBattles of the bands, favorite cupcake flavors, cutest babies…

No matter the theme, niche ballots are by nature incredibly focused, and it’s this specificity that makes the niche ballot the perfect promotion type to help one reach both new advertisers and new audiences. Here Shweiki Media teams up with Matt Coen of Second Street to present an explanation of how niche ballots can help one widen their reach and increase revenue, and tips and tricks for utilizing them effectively.

Niche Ballots Help Reach New Advertisers

Niche ballots can increase revenue and even open up new revenue streams by helping one reach new advertisers that one hasn’t worked with in the past—particularly small local business owners who don’t believe they have the budget for traditional media advertising. One can consider, for instance, a niche ballot focused on the local arts scene, with categories like Best Local Art Event, Best Gallery, Best Photographer, and so on. Local galleries are usually unlikely to purchase traditional media advertising because they have small budgets. However, if the ballot theme is relevant to their industry, they know that the audience they will reach with category ads, expanded listings, and even traditional media advertising will be highly desirable for their business. Here are a few other ideas for niche ballot themes, along with the advertisers they’ll appeal to:

  • High School Football Awards: sporting good retailers
  • Best of Weddings: relevant vendors like venues, bakeries, florists and more
  • Battle of the Bands: music stores and concert venues
  • Best Places to Eat: local restaurants (or, for example, one could consider being more specific and targeting only local pizzerias for a Best Pizza ballot)
  • Top Doctors: hospitals and medical groups
  • Best Local Events: real estate agents

By running niche ballots, one enables their company to work more closely with small local businesses that one may not have been able to reach otherwise.

Niche Ballots Help Reach New Audiences

Certain demographics that don’t traditionally engage with local media can be pulled in with a niche ballot promotion focused on a topic they are interested in. For example, one can think about young students voting in a High School Football Awards ballot, or local musicians promoting a Battle of the Bands ballot on their Facebook pages. Younger audiences who may not read the newspaper or watch the news on a regular basis are more likely to pay attention to a promotion relevant to them, providing one with the opportunity to capture their email addresses with an opt-in and continue to market to them in the future. Furthermore, advertisers featured on a ballot are likely to reach out to their own client bases to promote (especially if one encourages them by providing merchant marketing materials), and when advertisers involved in a targeted niche ballot do so, it will help one reach an audience they may not have had access to before.

Click here for more information on how to expand reach and grow profits with reader’s choice ballots.

 

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Matt Coen

Matt Coen is the Co-founder and President of Second Street, the leading provider of online promotions platforms and partner success services for the media industry. Coen also teaches entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2006, Coen Co-Wrote and Produced the award winning documentary Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? Coen began his career in media technology at Pulitzer Technologies as Director of New Business and Product Development. Coen is a native of Rhode Island who loves spending time with his family, sports, politics, travel, and serving on a number of community boards.
Click here to view all of Matt's presentations.
To learn more visit:
www.secondstreet.com
www.secondstreetlab.com
Matt on LinkedIn

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