Raise more money with our new Promo Tools!
As you all know, we recently opened our doors to anybody who needs to raise money to fund a project, idea or dream. To help you reach your donation goal, we added an awesome feature to help you promote your page.
Introducing SPOT—a brand new set of tools located inside your MicroGiving account that will help you promote yourself to friends and family across the web.
So what is SPOT?
SPOT is the place inside your MicroGiving account where you go to manage the promotion of your profile. Basically, it will help you generate awareness for your fundraiser and lead people to your profile where they can learn about your cause and make donations.
Why do we need SPOT?
Creating a fundraising page is only the first step to your success. Raising the money you need requires actively promoting your fundraising page to others. This entails a lot of work. We take the work load off by making it easy for you to push your message out to the right people. The SPOT system is designed to help you solicit the support of your contacts by directing them to your page where they can learn more about your cause and make donations.
Don’t let your fundraising page stagnate. Use SPOT promotional tools to help you spread the word about your cause.
How does it work?
SPOT offers six helpful tools to make promoting your cause a heck of a lot easier:
- 1. Personalized widget to display on your social networks, blog or website.
A widget is a little doo-dad that displays a snip-it of your fundraising page (such as your image and a brief description of your fundraiser). You can publish this widget on any of your social networks, blog or website. Anyone who clicks on your personalized widget will be taken straight to your fundraising page where they can learn more about your fundraiser and make a donation to your cause.
- Contact manager to easily import and export your email list.
This tool helps you gather all your email contacts straight from your email service, such as Gmail, Hotmail and AOL among others. Group your contacts according to the message you want to send them. For example, you may wish to send a special message to your family, and a different message to friends and acquaintances.
- Friendly, automatic messages sent directly to your contact list to keep friends and family updated.
Keeping your supporters “in the loop” is essential. SPOT enables you to create personalized messages to send to friends and family periodically. With SPOT’s message system you can easily manage your communication schedule to keep your contacts updated.
- 4. Convenient calendar and reminder system to help you manage your fundraiser efficiently.
Use SPOT’s calendar system to organize your fundraising campaign. For example, schedule a specific day and time to send automatic messages to supporters. Or set personal task reminders.
- 5. Monitor your Project.
Using our Insight tools, see how people are viewing your fundraising page. SPOT enables you to see which social networks, website or blogs are driving the most traffic to your profile.
- 6. Awesome tips and training guides to help you attract more donors and reach your donation goal
Want to learn more about successful marketing? We give you everything you need to know in a series of helpful training guides. Learn how to be a Fundraising Guru and raise more money for your cause.
Wow, SPOT sounds great. What else can I do to improve my fundraising page?
1. Make sure you have a video.
Projects with videos are more successful than those without. Video is a chance to show your personality and capture your supporter’s interest in a personal and engaging way. Check out 5 Tips for Shooting Better Video.
2. Keep your message simple and clear.
Most people don’t have endless amounts of time to spend learning about your fundraiser. Keep your message simple. Tell us 1) Who you are, 2) What you are trying to do 3) How much you need to make it happen, and 4) What are the benefits to people who support your cause
3. Promote! Promote! Promote!
Success and the amount of money you raise is directly related to the amount of effort you put into promoting your cause. Use a combination of online and offline promoting to get the best results.
Offline promotion, involves telling your friends and family when you seem them. This is your chance to convey your passion and enthusiasm in a more personal and engaging way. Hand out flyers, or post them in your office break room. Hand write letters to your friends. Get creative!
Online promotion entails emailing and reaching out to your social networks on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Myspace.
Email is one of the best ways to inform your immediate friends and networks about your fundraiser. Keep the tone informal and friendly. Avoid ALL CAPS. This is often perceived as rude. And only send emails to people you know or have permission to contact. Unsolicited emails are considered spam.
- Social Networks
Social networks are the best place to promote your fundraiser. Use the social buttons on your profile to share your fundraising page with friends and family on your social networks. Post updates announcing the launch of your fundraiser, and keep friends and family aware of your progress by posting updates periodically.
4. Keep your Project page ‘alive’
Getting people to your Project page is a great start. Keep the Project feeling ‘alive’ by posting regular updates on your Blog. Let your audience know how the Project is progressing and any interesting news you may have to share. Even a simple ‘thanks’ to all your Donors makes a great update, and lets us know you are still there working away and thinking of us. People are more likely to donate to Projects that appear to have an active body working towards realizing its goals.
5. Give back
Successful promotion always involves an exchange. Although your mom will donate regardless, most people will want to know what’s in it for them. Offering good rewards is a great way to give back to your Donors. Makes sure your Reward tier is arranged to offer small, medium, and large rewards. Small rewards, in particular, encourage everybody to get involved, as all donations will get something in return. Also, try to match the Reward to the donation amount. Ask yourself, would I pay $500 for a copy of a book? If the answer is no, you should probably offer a better Reward.
Use our new SPOT promotion tools in combination with these tips to get the most out of your Project’s promotion. Remember to divide your time between online and offline tactics, keeping in mind all the channels available to you. This will ensure a steady stream of potential Donors to your page and surprising results with your fundraising efforts.
Don’t have a fundraising page? What are you waiting for? Get started and raise the money you need to fund your next project, idea, or dream.
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