Promoting Your Campaign

You did it!

You’ve written a post that you love. Now it’s time to get the world to see it and start taking action!

There are three core steps to promoting a campaign and I call them: Building The Fire, Starting The Fire, and Stoking The Fire

Before we get to that, I would like to share one more thought that I think is absolutely critical.

The “Field of Dreams” strategy of “if you build it, they will come” is the single worst philosophy of promotion ever created. Except in some very specific, very limited circumstances, it doesn’t work. Being in a Kevin Costner movie or being a celebrity is about the only two places it works.

Unless you are already famous and one Instagram post is all you need to put thousands of eyeballs on your campaign, you will have to work to make this happen. If you don’t, your campaign will almost surely fail, and that’s not ok with me. So, commit right now to doing what it takes to make this happen, and I’ll do my best to show you how.

A Quick Word On The “Why”

Some really specific recommendations follow. I want you to always use your best judgment about what is best for your situation, so I think it is important that I take a moment to explain why the recommendations are written as they are.

The following equation describes how donations work mathematically:

Donated Dollars = (Number of people who view the campaign) x (rate of viewers choosing to donate) x (average donation in dollars)

Each part of that equation is very important for success. Because we are using multiplication, if any one of those numbers is lower than necessary, it will drag down the other two as well.

The whole process we have gone through to craft your campaign is designed to increase the middle number, the number of viewers who chose to donate. And, hopefully, it will also increase the last metric, the average donation.

Let’s say, just for example, that a poorly-crafted campaign gets 10% of the people who see it to donate $20 on average. A better-crafted campaign gets 30% of the people who see it to donate $25. If 500 people view the campaign, the numbers look like this:

Poorly Crafted Campaign

$1,000 Donated = 500 viewers x 10% donation rate x $20

Better Crafted Campaign

$3,750 Donated = 500 viewers x 30% donation rate x $25

The amount of money you have raised has gone up by a factor of 3.75. Once you scale these numbers up to a larger campaign, the differences can be HUGE.

So, you’ve written your campaign, and that part is done. But now we need to focus on the number of people who view it. All else equal, the more eyeballs you get on a quality campaign, the more money will be donated. It’s almost that simple.

The number of people who are shown a particular piece of content is referred to as “reach” in marketing terms. There is a pretty tried-and-true way of gaining much larger reach for these kinds of campaigns by using a combination of social media and offline fundraising techniques.

The timing of when things happen is usually very important for obtaining more reach. Many campaigns take off like a rocket and then crash back to earth. That’s totally ok, as long as that initial takeoff is strong enough to hit the goal we’ve set.

Reach on social media is driven (in large part) by engagement - the number of people who interact with a piece of content such as liking, sharing, re-tweeting, etc. If a whole lot of people interact with a piece of content in a short period of time, it will earn a huge amount of reach quickly, and we can maximize that takeoff thrust.

Fortunately, in this specific situation, we can “hack” the social media algorithms and make them work for us, spreading our message very far in a very short amount of time. To do this, and to maximize the viewers in our equation, we need allies to take a coordinated set of actions at a specific time to make the social media algorithms think that your campaign is worthy of going viral.

So again, you don’t have to do it this way. Still, in my opinion, this is the best way of getting the most eyeballs on your campaign, unless you’re already famous. If so, what are you still doing reading this!?

First Steps

Set a Date

The first thing you will need to do is set a date for your campaign to go live. When is up to you. But you will likely need a couple of days to actually do everything in this section. There must be a specific date and time known to everyone who will be involved in this process for reasons I will describe in a moment.

Let’s say you settle on Thursday at 11AM, just for example.

Map Your Networks

This is probably THE most critical step. Don’t skimp on this exercise. It is the foundation for everything that is to come.

Sit down with a blank piece of paper and write down EVERY SINGLE GROUP you have ever been a part of. Think of schools, jobs, worship communities, clubs, professional associations, sports teams, online forums, etc. Include everyone, unless you are on really bad terms. Don’t judge the strength or recency of the connection, the likelihood they would donate, or anything else. Just write them all down.

Next to each one of those groups, write down whoever is in charge of that group, anyone in that group with whom you are or were particularly well connected, and your best guess of the approximate size of the group. Schools, for example, would include all active alumni. Don’t stress if you don’t know who now runs your soccer club from ten years ago. Just put a question mark and move on.

Have any very close friends or family members do the same.

Now you should be looking at a handful of sheets of paper filled with dozens of affiliations and some key data points about each. You may be stunned by just how many hundreds or thousands of people you are connected to by one step or less.

Use Social Network Theory To Your Advantage

As you look at these thousands of people, think of the person in charge of the group as the hub of a wheel, with everyone in that group connected as spokes. In marketing terms, we would call that person a “central connector.” He or she is (probably) a high-credibility person who can connect you to every other member of the organization.

Think of it this way: Let’s say you go to a church. The Pastor is your central connector. If the Pastor (or someone on their team) says that you are a real person with a real need, most folks in that organization will automatically believe him or her. Most of the objections or concerns around whether your campaign is fake will simply evaporate.

Even if these central connectors don’t donate, and you don’t even need to ask them to, their endorsement of your campaign will go a long way. Here’s why that matters:

Let’s say at the end of the day you personally have ten organizations you can reach out to with a simple request that they share your story with their organization. Each person who views that request is connected with another dozen organizations of their own. Even if only a small number of them take action, your potential reach doesn’t simply multiply, it grows exponentially with a growing number of endorsements from people who don’t even know you - but they trust someone who knows you, and that’s good enough.

Start by looking over your list and crossing out any groups that just don’t make sense. You did an internship in school 20 years ago, but you don’t know anyone there anymore, and they don’t know you. You can always reach out to them if you want, it costs nothing to ask, but it’s also not the highest priority candidate. Schools, faith groups, civic groups in which you were active, youth sports, and other community-centric groups are usually your best bets. But you may get wildly surprised by the fraternity you were in during college or a yoga studio you went to for quite some time.

The reason I asked you to make a note of the size of each group is that larger groups, in general, are more fruitful. You have to have coached a lot of youth sports teams to make up for one alumni association. If you are thinking about crossing out a big one, I would encourage you not to. Reaching out costs nothing but a few moments, and you never know from where donations or engagement may come.

Promoting Your Campaign: Section 2

Outreach

As you sit down with these sheets of paper, now is the time to plan out who is going to reach out to whom. Figure out who has the best chance with each of these groups and then divvy them up between family and friends.

Take a few moments to compose a short note that will be sent to the leader, and/or any stronger relevant contacts at each of these organizations. The opening and closing paragraphs will ideally be personalized, but the body of the email will probably be standardized. It might go something like this:

Dear Mary,

My son Michael is an alumnus of [school], and he so loved being a [school mascot]. He used to tell me every day when he got home from school what had happened in his AP Calculus classes with Mr. (someone who still works there perhaps?) and who was taking who to the prom. We chaperoned it a couple of times in the gym, and I had been wondering if it is still held there.

In any case, unfortunately, I am reaching out today because a few weeks ago, Michael was diagnosed very a very serious brain tumor that requires urgent action. His doctors have gotten him admitted into a clinical trial [hospital], which is the very best chance for saving his life. More common therapies are not an option, and so we’re working very hard to try to raise the money we need to get him into this cutting-edge trial that offers him real hope.

We don’t want to ask for any money from you or the school [they may give it anyway, but this takes the pressure off], but we would very much appreciate your help letting the community know about this need. We are going to be launching his GoFundMe on Thursday at 2PM [notice the time change], and I wonder if you would be able to just help us by making an announcement to the alumni association and post the campaign on the school’s Facebook account at that time?

We only have a couple of weeks to raise this money, and anything you all would be able to do to help make the community aware of this need would be deeply appreciated. So many folks wonder if GoFundMe’s are real, and just having the school acknowledge that he is a part of this community might go a long way to helping us save his life.

Please feel free to contact me at any time at [phone]. Thank you so much!

Let’s break that down a little.

First, it’s pretty hard for an organization that has even a little bit of a heart to decline to even acknowledge that someone is a member of their community. But how would they do that? They would do it by opening up their audience and promoting the campaign through their alumni and social media channels. The ask is so small that many people will say yes right on the spot, but the effect is potentially enormous.

This may also create other conversations around fundraisers and other ways to support the family beyond GoFundMe.

Secondly, notice how we’re asking them to promote the campaign at a later time on the same day. The campaign will actually launch at 11, but we’re asking them to do it a few hours later. That’s done purposefully because when folks from the school come to the campaign, we want them to see that activity is already happening. That activity will be something we’ve manufactured. Still, by seeing donations coming, it allows them to be a part of a movement to save Michael (instead of wondering if anyone cares because nothing is going on).

You can even take the next step and write a very short social media post for the school to use with a link to the GoFundMe. Make it as easy as possible for them. Worst case, you’ll get a credible share of the campaign. Best case, you’ll get hundreds, or even thousands, of views you would not have gotten otherwise, during the time when people following the links, liking, sharing, etc. really adds to the reach of the campaign.

You’ll want to do this outreach with every single organization you have identified. Yes, I know this is awkward. Yes, I know it’s weird asking people for money, especially those with whom you may not have been connected for quite some time. I know - and it needs to be done anyway. If you don’t maximize your views, you will not maximize your donations. It’s just math, and your life is worth a modest hit to your pride.

Honestly, once people know about your situation, many of them will want to know what they can do to help. So don’t feel bad about putting it out there. Anyone who is put off by such a simple request probably doesn’t deserve your affiliation.

Fire off those emails or letters. Follow up with phone calls or in-person visits to make sure people got them. Be ready to send a reminder (in the form of a thank you) just before it’s time for the campaign to launch.

Promoting Your Campaign: Section 3

Starting the fire

By the time you are ready to launch your campaign, you should have a number of organizations ready to help get you the views at the appointed time, or close to it. This is where family and close friends come in.

Prior to that 11AM launch, ask each person in that circle of people who love you to write a short post telling people how awesome you are, asking people to take a look at your campaign and support it if they are able. It doesn’t have to be a lot; just make sure it grabs attention.

Try to separate these folks in roughly four groups. The first group will donate and share the campaign with their short post immediately upon launch. That way, there’s already money in the bank when new folks come to look at it.

The second group can donate and share the campaign about 45 minutes later. The third group should launch whenever you see a lull in activity after that. Those launches will create an initial critical mass of donations and social media activity that should get the ball rolling.

If your contacts at all of these organizations are true to their word, you should start seeing more views and donations begin to roll in over the next several hours. You can also have each friend and family member like, share, and comment on the posts of the other friends and family members, as well as any new posts that pop up from re-shares.

If the setup is done well, you should have an initial chunk of money waiting for you to use by early the next morning, and this is when the 4th group makes their donations and shares their posts. The reason for this is that people will check in on the campaign when they wake up, and seeing the total continue to increase will build both excitement and credibility.

The last step of starting the fire is to post an update to the campaign expressing that you are thrilled and humbled that so many people have donated. Let them know how much money has been raised (if it’s a good number) and how many shares you have seen on social media. You also MUST explicitly ask everyone who has donated to please share the campaign on their social media channels. But do not ask them earlier than now. Let me explain.

There is a world of difference between a close contact (the people who are writing the posts, sharing, commenting, etc.) and a more distant contact who maybe remembers you from high school. If you ask distant contacts to share the campaign, they will reliably do that instead of donating. They want to help, and that’s a way of feeling like they have helped when what you really need is the donation.

Once the donation is made, NOW you can ask them to share the campaign starting in the middle of day two. You affirm their choice to donate with a thank you. Tell them that they are part of something that will save a life worth saving, and now ask them to take the much easier step of letting their networks know that they supported you. In this way, you get the benefit of both the share and the donation, and you keep the virality ball rolling for day two.

Stoking The fire

If you have done this right, a good percentage of the people who know you, know anyone close to you, and know the people who lead the organizations you or family members have been a part of will have seen your campaign. None of this is guaranteed or foolproof, but that’s A LOT of opportunities for people to donate.

From here, you should update donors frequently. Share fundraisers that may have popped up. Call out big donors if they would be ok with that. Keep telling them that you are getting ever closer to goal, and then don’t be afraid to increase the goal if you get there really quickly.

The key is to keep people engaged. Keep them commenting, liking, sharing, etc. to create a mass of activity. That will open up the social media algorithms and make seeing your campaign, and the people supporting your campaign, inescapable for just about any potential donor. Keep the energy going with updates, re-posts from your organizations, a shoutout from the mayor of your town, and whatever else you need to do until you get where you need to be.

Wrapping Up

That's it! I hope you have reached your goal and have a path forward to get the care you need.

From here, please bear in mind that serious illness is often a journey and it is entirely possible that you may need to raise funds again down the line. Both for that, and basic decency, gratitude goes a long way. Making the time to show appreciation in the form of thank you notes, campaign updates, etc. can help to reinforce a donor's choice to get involved.

If you want to learn more, please feel free to subscribe below and pass this information along to anyone you feel could benefit from it. I hope you, and they, will all reach better places soon and will be in a position to pay it forward.