Soapbox Engage Blog

SEO, analytics, advertisements, email campaigns, direct mailers, social media, blogs, TikTok... oh my! There are a lot of marketing options and avenues available to promote your fundraising events. Perhaps you're feeling a bit overwhelmed?

A marketing tool is only as good as how you use it. The key to using it effectively is to have a plan.

Ok, that was a little obvious. But we're here to let you know that event promotion doesn't require anything complicated, just a little bit of forethought and planning to get the show going. Since the most overwhelming place is always, "where do I start?", we made this guide for you!

Table of Contents

1. Start with your event
2. Know your audience
3. Pay attention to brand consistency
4. Create an event website
5. Put it all together
6. Capture data
7. After-event marketing

1) Start with some key details about your event before promoting online

The best way to promote your event begins with three easy details to get your marketing plan rolling.

What is the tone of my event: From a marketing perspective, when we ask, "what is my event?" we want to think of the theme or flavor that you want your attendees to get from your event.

Do you want them to feel informed and empowered? Do you want them to have an entertaining experience (and be a bit care-free with their wallets)? Do you want them to feel comfortable and supportive?

Your marketing strategy will prepare guests to expect this kind of experience from your event and set the tone. Your marketing should prepare them for the type of event you're putting on to help them get more from the experience. Knowing the tone ahead of time informs the tools you'll use and the wording you'll craft for your marketing.

What is my goal for the event: Any good event is planned with success in mind, of course. But, how do you know you were successful unless you measured it? Having some metrics to compare real numbers will go a long way to show how hard you worked on paper. It will also give you a starting point for the next event and help you identify what works and what doesn't.

If you don't mind a bit of straightforward advice, you should align your event goals and marketing goals. A number of the metrics already overlap: number of registrations, ticket aisles, data collected from supporters, donation button interaction, event website traffic, etc. By sharing your goals, your events team and marketing team will be working towards the same end objectives, and your data will be easier to read.

Who's coming to your event: This question is so important, we're going to give it its own section.

2) Know your nonprofit event audience

To promote your event, start by analyzing your past donation data and analytics to determine who you expect to attend--and who you WANT to attend, too. From there, you build an attendee persona. Attendee personas are specific "snapshots" of groups of people you want to attract to a particular fundraising event to increase potential donation success.

Using data you've acquired from past event attendees or expectations of what you want from future attendees, build a fictional but specific person for each section of your event audience.

For example, one of your attendee personas might be Bob, a middle-aged professional with a kid in college and one grown with a grandchild. Bob likes backyard barbecues, playing with his young grandchild, Fleetwood Mac, and the Lakers. How would you market your event to Bob?

Personas help you think about how your target audience can be reached. What messaging resonates with them? What's their perception of your event theme? What parts of your event will entice them (or bore them to death)? And where can you find Bob to invite him to your event?

Now look at the marketing tools you're currently using and ask yourself, do these tools work for your event? Will they attract Bob or someone else? Start by looking at previous donor engagement. Then look at demographic analytics to see where your target audience is landing. The goal is to connect these ideal audiences with marketing channels that will most effectively reach them.

3) Pay attention to brand consistency when promoting your event online

How you use your marketing tools will impact how your audience perceives your event and your organization as a whole.

Above all, you want to communicate consistency with your nonprofit's mission and brand. In our previous discussion about branding, we talked about how consistent branding leads to increased revenue. Your job as a marketer is to connect your event to your nonprofit's brand.

If you've cultivated a fun-loving and playful brand, a somber and serious seminar would need some intensive marketing to connect back to your brand. But a lively summer concert would be an easy promotion task. This doesn't mean you're locked into one kind of event. It just means you'll have to be clever in how you lay the groundwork for an event with a different "tone."

In addition to signaling consistency with your marketing, using the same marketing tools builds consistency and trust with your supporters over a long period. In short, supporters know where they can get information about your organization and direct their friends when promoting your mission.

When thinking about entering a new marketing opportunity, it's essential to consider whether you'll use it long-term and with whom you'll be connecting.

Finally, on the topic of consistency, you want all your marketing channels and tools to promote your event in concert with each other. Your tweets and your direct mailers should both be telling your supporters about your upcoming event. (We've even heard of organizations changing their email signatures to talk about their events!) While you may not write the same words in each channel, all your posts should be on the same topic--how fantastic your event is and why the reader should be there!

4) Use an event website for effective online event promotion

Now you've got all these different marketing channels hyping your event. Where should an interested supporter go to find out the juicy details like the event time, address, dress code, ticket price, ticket purchasing, etc.? When we get down to it, this isn't glamorous information. Still, it's essential if you want people to actually show up!

Think of your marketing tools like a hub with spokes. The outer edges are your channels: Twitter, email, direct mailers, Google ads, etc. The inner hub is your event website. It's the place where supporters and attendees can go to get essential information, purchase tickets, donate ahead of time, and check out fantastic event promotion pictures.

All the outer spokes will direct interested participants to your event website, so think about using a short and memorable URL to use as a link.

If you're thinking about using an event page (and we think you should), make sure to add banners to your homepage and other areas of your website to draw attention to your event page. And definitely include a donation page so supporters can give ahead of the event or afterward (or just to put the idea of donating on their radar).

5) Putting it all together

You've spent some time and energy identifying where your target audience can be reached most effectively. You've considered what marketing tools you'll use and how you'll direct your audience back to your event website.

Now it's time to start thinking about putting some shape into this plan with timing and copy. It's all about pacing your event notifications so that your target audience doesn't forget you're throwing an event too early but also doesn't feel nagged for too long (it's a delicate balance). For emails, this tends to be every two weeks to a month. For mailers, it's probably monthly or bimonthly.

You'll want to space out social media posts within your posting schedule, probably one event post for every two or three previously planned posts.

Copy is all about what you're actually going to say in those posts and mailers. This is where those insights on what resonates with your attendees come into play. When drafting copy, you want to think of the kind of messaging that motivates your event personas and gets them in your event theme's mood.

In addition to coming up with a full copy, you'll want to highlight short calls to action or snippets that will visually grab your viewers' attention. This could be a tagline, phrase, sentence, motto, or question.

6) Capture data to find the best ways to promote your event

Let's circle back to the topic of event goals. You identified metrics to determine what success will look like for your fundraising event. Now that you've got a plan in place, it's time to ask if your marketing tools and apps allow you to capture real-time data for the metrics you set.

Does your events registration form instantly upload attendee data to your database? Have you turned on "read receipts" for your email campaigns and delegated a staff member to monitor your social media channels and stir up engagement?

Having a way to capture data from beginning to end is equally important as identifying which metrics you'd like to capture. Forms, donations, email, registrations, whatever it is, you should be able to see real-time data so you can tweak your plan as you go.

For example, suppose you're not attracting as many new potential donors to meet that goal. In that case, you'll need to know in advance so you can adjust your advertising appropriately.

7) There is such a thing as after-event marketing

Once your event has ended, your after-event marketing begins. Having a plan in place beforehand means you can enjoy the event without extra stress.

Your primary engagement channels (where you see most of your event audience) should focus on thanking your supporters for attending your event. Many nonprofits also put together something special to thank attendees. Exclusive event content, photos, gifts, engagement with your event headliners, or other options are popular after-event "thank-you" gestures that continue marketing the fundraiser in a gentle, professional way.

The next step is to use this event to promote other fundraisers you've got in the near future. Have attendees share images and videos of their favorite event moments. This way, you're cultivating both engagements with your supporters and interest in future events.

We hope you're feeling relieved and equipped now. Event planning doesn't have to be complicated. At its core, nonprofit event planning is paying attention to your audience and what excites them. Your attendees want to have a good time at your event. They just don't know it yet.

If you're looking for fundraising software that makes many of these event marketing details easy and uploads information to your database in real-time, our Soapbox Engage apps are where it's at! We've got powerful donation buttons, flexible event registration, customizable forms that prioritize supporter feedback, and more. And all our apps come with Salesforce integration, eliminating any extra paper-pushing.

Every action directly imports essential user data to your database for future analysis when planning your next fundraising event advertising strategy!

We've also got you covered with three more resources to help you plan a successful fundraising event for your nonprofit.

• 6 Easy Ways to Boost Your Facebook Event Marketing: Did you know more than 700 million people use Facebook every month to market their events? That's a lot of potential traffic and publicity for your next fundraising event. It's also easy to get lost in the sheer volume of events and traffic on Facebook. This blog has some Facebook event marketing tips and tricks to help you gain greater visibility for your next fundraising event!
• 3 Ways to Boost Your Current Fundraising Campaign: Nonprofit fundraising campaigns are more than just raising cash for your organization or cause. It's also about building relationships with your donors and members of your community. This increased trust and visibility can lead to even greater fundraising opportunities in the future. This blog offers a few best practices to help you boost your current fundraising campaigns.
• 3 Elements of an Effective Fundraising Appeal Letter: For all the advances in technology, fundraising appeal letters are still among the most effective strategies for developing your relationship with donors, raising money, and sharing valuable information about your organization. Head over to this blog to learn how to take your appeal letter to the next level.