Phase Two: Content Creation and Outreach
Outreach is a critical component to hosting a successful campaign. Creating a content calendar will help you keep track of all the components you have drafted such as emails, campaign updates, and social media posts. Preparing all of your content ahead of time will help ensure a smooth campaign.
Collect Content
During your digital outreach, you are going to want to pair text with different kinds of digital media. Posts that contain pictures or videos are more likely to catch someone's eye over a post that is just text. Take some time to pull already created visuals. This can be pictures, videos, infographics, and interviews with your staff, founders, or CEO. Take inventory of what you already have and supplement what you do not have. This also could be collecting quotes from staff, corps members, volunteers, or the population you serve that will be shared on social media and in emails. The contents you collect can relate back to the story you are telling, but can also highlight other aspects of your organization as well.
Content Calendar
Creating a content calendar will aid in managing your campaign. Take the time to schedule all of your digital outreach for your live campaign period. This should be planned out with what emails and posts you will be doing each day and what exactly they should say. Doing this before your campaign launches will allow you to just push them out the day of. A content calendar should be set up to track scheduled tweets, facebook posts, and emails. Creating a content calendar can be as simple as creating a spreadsheet or group digital calendar.
Email and campaign updates
Emailing is the best way to keep your network updated on your crowdfunding campaign. Click here to use our email templates.
Social Media
Unlike Emailing, social media is a supporting tool for your campaign and not the primary source to bring in donations. It is important to strategically use social media and not push supporters away. Donors respond better to quality over quantity. There is no benefit to your organization to post constantly if the quality of the post is poor. Always include a pictures in your posts. Your supporters are more likely to see your post if you are able to catch their eye with a powerful photo. Off peak hours are typically more successful times to post because your content is more likely to show up on your followers timeline. Always make sure to have a strong and clear call to action.
- Posting during off-peak hours will make content more likely to be viewed.
- Make sure all posts are on brand.
- Schedule posts in advance.
- Shorten links on bitly.com when posting
- Have a one specific goal.
- Match goals with an impact statement that will likely bump up donations.
- “Literacy improve when arts are introduced into the curriculum.”
- “$50 will provide five students with school supplies for a year.”
While we focus on Facebook and Twitter feel free to also use these tips on any other form of social media that your organization has a strong presence on. If you feel inclined to do so, you can even update your organization's home web page to alert anyone who lands on your page that you are doing a crowdfunding campaign.
Tools to help boost up your social media content:
- Scheduling: Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Buffer
- Photo editing: GIMP, photoshop
- Content: Flipboard, creative commons, bitly.com
- Numbers: your analytics dashboard
- Hashtags/ trends: hashtagify.me, keyhole
Sharing pictures and videos on Facebook will help your campaign get more attention. Here are some sample posts and best practices for using Facebook during your crowdfunding campaign.
Do you know how often Tweet during your campaign? Heres our list of best practices and ideas of what to tweet during your campaign period.
Video
Videos make campaign seven times more successful. Creating a video does not need to involve taking a trip to Hollywood to hire a production team. It can be as simple as having a member of your staff record a heartfelt video about the impact that your organization has and how much more of an impact you can have by expanding your number of corps member. Viewers can tell when someone is passionate, and that will drive them to want to contribute. Repeating the amount of money you are trying to raise is irrelevant. If your video is done correctly, your donors will be compelled to donate without your asking. Here's our tips for creating a powerful campaign video.
Test Impact
Once you have your story, pitch, and video, test it on everyone. Keep in mind: would it make sense to someone who knows nothing about your organization? It’s better to find out before your campaign is live that your pitch and story aren't strong enough. While keeping the mission of your campaign the same, you can easily shift the specific focus of your story or video to strengthen your pull to draw in the audience and convince them that they should donate to your cause.