Special promos boost ad teams and clients

Katelyn Mary Skaggs

May 1, 2026

A recent way we have found some new revenue is by offering special deals to our clients.

The idea itself is not new. Sales promotions have been around forever. People love a good deal, and sometimes your sales team needs a little spark, just as much as your clients do.

We started this in January, which is typically a slower revenue month for us. To kick off 2026, we offered 26% off ads as a limited time promotion. It felt fun, it tied into the new year and it gave our team something fresh to talk about on calls.

Clients responded well, but what stood out to me even more was how much my sales team enjoyed selling it. It made picking up the phone a little more exciting. That alone made it worth it.

During the second quarter, we ran into a week that did not have a special section tied to it. We could already see it shaping up to be a lower revenue week, so instead of just accepting that, we decided to try another deal.

This time, I involved the sales team. I asked them what kind of promotion they thought would work, within reason. They came back with an idea to offer bottom-of-the-rate pricing and free color for any new ad that was a half-page or smaller.

The team and clients jumped on it. In just a few days, we had doubled the projected revenue for that week. We even had a client ask if they could take advantage of the deal with a full-page ad instead of a half page; we made that exception.

The team was excited and having a bit of fun. After that week, my team asked if we could start doing a quarterly deal. That was an easy yes.

Now the plan is to look at each quarter, identify a week that could use a boost, and build a promotion around it. It does not have to be complicated. Maybe it is a buy one, get one half off offer. Maybe it is a follow-up deal for clients who just ran in a strong special section. Maybe it is a way to bring back clients who have not advertised in a while.

We are going to start to tie digital into these promotions in a more strategic way. For example, we typically offer a Facebook ad post on the Leader’s page for $150. With certain special sections, we are now offering that same product for $100 as part of a package.

The goal is to lower the barrier just enough to get clients to try something new.

That said, we are not giving digital away for free. I feel strongly about not giving any digital offering away for free, just because they placed a print ad. When you give something away, you tell your client it has no value. If you have trained your clients to expect digital for free, it becomes very difficult to ever charge for it.

Print is not going anywhere, but we all know the conversation around digital. If those predictions ever come true, you need your clients to understand that digital products have real value and real cost.

At the end of the day, sales sprints, spiffs, promotions — whatever you want to call them — are not a new concept. But they can feel new again. A little creativity and a little planning can go a long way.

If you have not done something like this in a while, it might be time to look at your calendar. Find a week that looks a little light, and come up with a simple offer.
You might be surprised at how quickly it can turn things around.

Katelyn Mary Skaggs is the sales manager and part owner of Leader Publications, a group of four papers based in Festus, Missouri. Skaggs, a Southeast Missouri State University graduate, stated at the publishing group as an intern and then as a full-time reporter in January 2019.