Three simple ways to get people to come to your fundraising event
Discipline in messaging to your audiences can make all the difference for the success of your event. Read our summary of tips and resources from this free Brown Paper Tickets workshop.
This morning I attended a free workshop offered by Brown Paper Tickets, along with about 50 attendees from nonprofits with varied missions (I recognized colleagues from Alliance for Nonprofits, Seattle Works, Explorations in Math, and Bike Works.)
Kudos to BPT for offering workshops (and for free!) to spark new thinking and spread best practices. The first thing I noticed was the postcard on the table announcing, “It all comes down to Love. We love ticketing for you.” That, plus the overall messaging from presenters that “we are one of you, you are our neighbors” had me feeling pretty warm and fuzzy towards BPT right off the bat.
To do my part to spread the word on event promotion that gets results, here’s my summary from today’s workshop. Enjoy! You can find out more about upcoming free workshops directly from BPT , and request help and advice for your event promotion at promo@brownpapertickets.com
Strategy Matters
The workshop kicked off with a section by Cal on how to woo the press. Which turned out to really be about how to use our limited time and resources to best promote our events to audiences that matter, using all forms of "media". Cal observed that pure PR is time consuming and not easy. Publicists invest lots of time gathering info and making friends. If you really want to woo the media, Cal’s advice is to hire a publicists or agency, both of which are expensive. So what can we do to focus our time and resources for the biggest impact?
1) Develop a strategy
Start with a simple grid like this, and use it to guide your work. Tip: Keep your grid simple and clear, focused on your event and not overall communications.
| Audience | Message |
Channel | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Primary Major Donors
Title Sponsors
Staff |
It’s important and you’re important to us: Good investment, thank you, catalyst for our work, fun and engaging
Worthwhile
Care |
Invitations, talk in person, smaller event leading up, specific/unique interactions (email, website)
Cultivate (coffee. Lunch, calls) In person. Staff meetings, plus offsite or lunch? |
TechFlash
Neighborhood blogs
NPR or Classic KING
Seattle Times
Invest most of your time here because payoff is higher |
|
Secondary Friends of the org (smaller donors, volunteers, community partners, vendors, in-kind or smaller sponsors) |
We need you. You are important to this event | Email, phone, newsletter, Facebook, twitter followers, other social media |
Neighborhood blogs
RealChange
weeklies
Blogs in our content area |
|
3rd tier The people who don’t know about us and are likely to come (NOT “everyone else”) |
Come to the event | Community partners |
People who need news (corporate or union or schol newsletters)
BLOGS - with newspapers dying, this is where it's at in media |
2) Build a Social Network
Like wooing the press, social media is a time investment, but you can do it alongside your other work.
What kinds of social media posts get the best response? Ask a question, foster conversations.
Sarah from the BPT event promotion team recommends keeping a focus on 1st and 2nd tier audiences from the grid above. From there you will also reach the 3rd tier.
- Think about how “your” people use social media and tailor your strategy to their interests.
- Facilitate discussions on your social media platform about topics “off platform” on other sites. For example, bring in concrete statements reflecting current events and tie to news sites.
- Relationship building is key. Make it a goal for your organization to become an integral part of your audiences’ online ID.
Building a loyal online audience makes event promotion easier. Promotion becomes part of the conversation and not just a one-off request.
- Use social tools for what their best at: Facebook is like a 24-hour cocktail party conversation. Engage in the conversations ongoing and organically, then the event flows naturally. Play around a little at first to build community and engage. Then do a mix of engagement and calls to action. Twitter is a different animal - more about broad reach than a cozy chat with friends.
Bold statements get a lot of response. Just make sure it's on message, in context and at the right time. It's not a good idea to provoke just to get attention.
3) Try some "guerilla marketing" tactics
Jimmy from BPT advises mixing in some guerilla tactics to reach 3rd tier audiences who haven't heard of you. For example, handing out fliers at events or at locations frequented by the type of person who responds to your mission is a great way to make a personal connection. Posting poll fliers with a good eye-grabbing design can be effective too. Some tips for fliers:
- Don't skimp on design. Hire a pro, or get some probono help. Artwork can transform your message and will encourage people to hang on to your fliers.
- Create a design that prints in black and white to save on printing costs.
That's what I've got from today's workshop. Thanks again to Brown Paper Tickets, our friends and neighbors.
- Peg Giffels
