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[Video] Content Introduction
The world is continuously changing and traditional ways of raising money are outdated and often leave people out. If you don’t market your virtual fundraiser the right way, your donors won’t show up to give. As result, your programming and communities you serve will suffer.
But there’s a problem…
Your community is counting on your organization to provide the resources and programs to survive.
Market your virtual fundraiser with confidence and ease.
The world is continuously changing and traditional ways of raising money are outdated and often leave people out.
Your community is counting on your organization to provide the resources and programs to survive.
We understand you’re anxious about marketing your fundraising event—it’s totally understandable.
We help nonprofits build a custom virtual event marketing strategy so your team can feel confident you’ll promote your event to the right people and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission.
What is a Virtual Event Marketing Strategy and Why Does It Matter?
How to Develop a Theme for Your Virtual Event
5 Strategies to Developing Your Virtual Event Marketing Strategy
Download your free email marketing toolkit to promote your virtual event:
Market your virtual fundraiser with confidence and ease.
[Video] What is a Virtual Event Marketing Strategy and Why Does It Matter?
What is a Virtual Event Marketing Strategy and Why Does It Matter?
Virtual events have become a staple in the world of fundraising. With virtual event marketing, you can reach out and interact with potential attendees even if they live halfway across the globe from your organization's location.
If you're struggling to generate interest for your fundraiser, read below for some reasons why this type of strategy matters—and how it could help get your supporters excited about coming together virtually.
In this article, we’ll review:
Let’s get started.
What is a virtual event marketing strategy?
In a nutshell, a is your plan of action to increase awareness of your event and get community supporters and donors to register. Your strategy contains your organization’s value proposition, event theme, brand messaging and talking points, visual identity, and plan for email and social communications. Most importantly, having a strategy is key to achieving high registration and attendee numbers, and to reaching your fundraising goals.
What does a virtual event marketing strategy do?
Setting a strategy for your event helps clarify your objectives and map out your marketing plan. Your virtual event marketing strategy will help you:
When you develop a virtual event marketing strategy, you’ll rest easy knowing you have a solid strategy to help your organization reach its fundraising goals.
Why Does Virtual Event Marketing Matter?
When it comes to fundraising, many people are skeptical about the effectiveness of virtual events. They figure that with a live event, there is always someone in person who can provide some sort of emotional connection and spur on donations. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Virtual fundraisers can be just as successful - if not more so - because they offer a unique opportunity for donors to get involved with your cause from their own homes or offices. This means that you don't have to raise funds only when you're hosting an event; instead, you can reach out anytime and anywhere via email blasts or social media posts. And these efforts will pay off in increased engagement!
Virtual events are a great way to increase awareness about your nonprofit fundraising event, build rapport with potential donors, and raise money for your cause. To do this successfully you need an effective virtual event marketing strategy in place that will help you reach your goals.
The tips we’ve provided should provide some guidance on what it takes to create a solid plan of action when using social media or email campaigns as part of the marketing mix.
If all of these ideas sound too complicated or overwhelming, don't worry! With a built just for you, you can feel confident you’ll promote your event to the right people and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission.
[Video] How to Develop a Theme for Your Virtual Event
How to Develop a Theme for Your Virtual Event
When your event’s visual design doesn’t reflect the value of your organization, you leave money on the table. With a beautiful event brand that represents the value of your impact, you’ll stand out from other virtual events competing for your donor’s attention and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission. In fundraising, branding is even more essential because visual cues prompt emotional connections that drive people to donate.
Define Your Event's Purpose
Your event's purpose is one of the most important aspects of virtual fundraising. If you have a clear and well-defined purpose for your event, then it will be easy to market and promote your cause, which in turn will help you generate more donations.
Defining your event's purpose should be done before developing any other aspects of the fundraiser, as marketing materials can always be adjusted accordingly. A good rule of thumb is to start with one sentence that clearly states what the fundraiser is trying to achieve.
Brainstorm a List of Theme Ideas
Next up, you'll want to brainstorm a list of related words or phrases that are relevant to your organization or this event. You'll use these to develop your event theme!
If you find your team getting stuck on developing a theme, reach out to a few donors to ask why they support your organization. This can help you understand their motivating factors for donating. We did exactly this when we were working with the Children of Armenia Fund. When the donor was asked why she supports the organization, she said “I love COAF because you move mountains for the children in Armenia.”
This one sentence led us to develop the theme of “Moving Mountains for Armenia.” During a global pandemic and civil unrest in Armenia, this event theme unified the Armenian community to raise over $4.5 million for COAF.
Design Your Visual Brand
In fundraising, branding is essential because visual cues prompt emotional connections that drive people to donate.
Your event brand identity should include the following:
With a beautiful event brand that represents the value of your impact, you’ll stand out from other virtual events competing for your donor’s attention and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission.
Create Designs for Each Design Element of Your Event
With your brand identity ready, you’ll want to reflect this aesthetic across your entire event, including the following elements:
With a beautiful visual event brand that helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace, word of mouth starts to spread like never before. You get higher donor engagement and increased donations because people are proud to be part of the work you are doing.
Selecting an event theme matters because it allows you to unify the message and visual cues needed to help you amplify your message. With this guide, we've given you some useful tips and tricks for creating a successful fundraiser online.
With the right marketing strategy in place, you’ll get your supporters tuned in to your virtual event and excited to support the amazing work you’re doing in your community.
Here’s to you raising the funds needed to serve your community. We’re rooting for you.
Don’t go it alone! With a built just for you, you can feel confident you’ll promote your event to the right people and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission.
[Video] 5 Strategies to Developing Your Virtual Event Marketing Strategy
5 Strategies to Developing Your Virtual Event Marketing Strategy
Do you have a virtual event marketing strategy in place for your next big nonprofit event? If not, you might be leaving money on the table.
Here are 5 steps to developing a solid strategy that can help your organization raise funds and awareness using online tools!
Set Relevant and Strategic Goals
Every great marketing campaign begins with identifying your campaign objectives. For virtual events, your objectives are likely related to registration numbers, dollars raised, or new supporters.
Many people just set big goals because they think it will inspire people. The reality is that when you set unrealistic goals that you don’t reach, donors walk away feeling unsuccessful, even though they may have stretched themselves to help. Realistic goals manufacture momentum during your event because of the: the closer you are to your goal, the more people see the potential of their gift to move the needle, and the more they will take action.
By setting realistic expectations and goals, you and your donors will feel successful and each donor will feel that their gift had an impact, regardless of the size.
Campaign Objectives to Set
Here's an outline of the three main goals you should be setting in your campaign:
When you are clear on your registration and fundraising goals, you can set your key performance indicators (KPIs) for social media and email too!
Write Your Event Communication Guide
With your event theme determined, your next step is to bring it to life through copywriting. With every campaign, write an overarching story theme with supplemental talking points. You’ll use these talking points to write your email and social media copy.
Your talking points should address the problem you’re solving, position your organization as the guide to solving this problem, and call your audience to action to join you.
Example:
Bringing that together, you get a powerful theme description:
This pandemic has skyrocketed housing insecurity and its disproportionate impact on communities of color. The King County housing community needs us all to step forward, in bold and unified ways, to build equity faster than this pandemic is tearing it down. Register now.
Sounds a little better than “sign up for our virtual fundraiser!” doesn’t it?
Design Your Visual Brand
When your event’s visual design doesn’t reflect the value of your organization, you leave money on the table. With a beautiful event brand that represents the value of your impact, you’ll stand out from other virtual events competing for your donor’s attention and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission. In fundraising, branding is even more essential because visual cues prompt emotional connections that drive people to donate.
You’ll want to reflect this aesthetic across your entire event, including the following elements:
With a beautiful visual event brand that helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace, word of mouth starts to spread like never before. You get higher donor engagement and increased donations because people are proud to be part of the work you are doing.
Even better, they are even prouder to introduce others to your organization.
Write an Engaging Email Campaign
Your marketing plan is coming together! You have set your campaign objectives, developed a theme, wrote your talking points, and designed your visual brand. Now you just have to create your promotion campaign to encourage people to register and sign up!
Your email marketing campaign is a must for virtual events. If done right, nonprofit email marketing will help you connect with your audience, raise awareness of the event, and eventually convert people into attendees, donors, and engaged constituents.
For virtual events, we recommend sending the following emails:
When your event's visual design doesn't reflect the value of your organization, you leave money on the table. If we want our donors or supporters engaged with our campaigns - whether they are at home or donating online - then we have an obligation to create compelling content that will encourage them to take action so they can be part of something meaningful happening.
With the right marketing strategy in place, you’ll get your supporters tuned in to your virtual event and excited to support the amazing work you’re doing in your community.
Here’s to you raising the funds needed to serve your community.
We’re rooting for you.
[Video] Conclusion and Call to Action
The world is continuously changing and traditional ways of raising money are outdated and often leave people out. If you don’t market your virtual fundraiser the right way, your donors won’t show up to give. As result, your programming and communities you serve will suffer.
But there’s a problem…
Your community is counting on your organization to provide the resources and programs to survive.
We help nonprofits build a custom virtual event marketing strategy so your team can feel confident you’ll promote your event to the right people and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission.
When you invest in a virtual event marketing strategy, you can be confident knowing that your organization will raise the funds you need to serve your community.
Imagine…
Children of Armenia Fund
“We really needed a team with creative energy to spearhead our marketing efforts with two of our virtual fundraisers. Marketing Mission was brought on board to create our virtual event theme, social media campaign, and eblasts. With over 3000 viewers and $4.5 million raised, our virtual events were a success thanks to their team.”
—Danielle, Children of Armenia Fund
Instagram Reels Scripts
[Reel] What is a virtual event marketing strategy?
What is a virtual event marketing strategy?
In a nutshell, a is your plan of action to increase awareness of your event and get community supporters and donors to register. Your strategy contains your organization’s value proposition, event theme, brand messaging and talking points, visual identity, and plan for email and social communications. Most importantly, having a strategy is key to achieving high registration and attendee numbers, and to reaching your fundraising goals.
[Reel] What does a virtual event marketing strategy do?
What does a virtual event marketing strategy do?
Setting a strategy for your event helps clarify your objectives and map out your marketing plan. Your virtual event marketing strategy will help you:
When you develop a virtual event marketing strategy, you’ll rest easy knowing you have a solid strategy to help your organization reach its fundraising goals.
[Reel] Why Does Virtual Event Marketing Matter?
Why Does Virtual Event Marketing Matter?
When it comes to fundraising, many people are skeptical about the effectiveness of virtual events. They figure that with a live event, there is always someone in person who can provide some sort of emotional connection and spur on donations. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Virtual fundraisers can be just as successful - if not more so - because they offer a unique opportunity for donors to get involved with your cause from their own homes or offices. This means that you don't have to raise funds only when you're hosting an event; instead, you can reach out anytime and anywhere via email blasts or social media posts. And these efforts will pay off in increased engagement!
[Reel] 4 Tips for Virtual Fundraising Events
[Reel] Define Your Event's Purpose
Define Your Event's Purpose
Your event's purpose is one of the most important aspects of virtual fundraising. If you have a clear and well-defined purpose for your event, then it will be easy to market and promote your cause, which in turn will help you generate more donations.
Defining your event's purpose should be done before developing any other aspects of the fundraiser, as marketing materials can always be adjusted accordingly. A good rule of thumb is to start with one sentence that clearly states what the fundraiser is trying to achieve.
[Reel]Design Your Visual Brand
Design Your Visual Brand
In fundraising, branding is essential because visual cues prompt emotional connections that drive people to donate.
Your event brand identity should include the following:
With a beautiful event brand that represents the value of your impact, you’ll stand out from other virtual events competing for your donor’s attention and raise the funds you need to continue living out your mission.
[Reel] Create Designs for Each Design Element of Your Event
Create Designs for Each Design Element of Your Event
With your brand identity ready, you’ll want to reflect this aesthetic across your entire event, including the following elements:
With a beautiful visual event brand that helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace, word of mouth starts to spread like never before. You get higher donor engagement and increased donations because people are proud to be part of the work you are doing.
[Reel Write Your Event Communication Guide
Write Your Event Communication Guide
With your event theme determined, your next step is to bring it to life through copywriting. With every campaign, write an overarching story theme with supplemental talking points. You’ll use these talking points to write your email and social media copy.
Your talking points should address the problem you’re solving, position your organization as the guide to solving this problem, and call your audience to action to join you.
Example:
Bringing that together, you get a powerful theme description:
This pandemic has skyrocketed housing insecurity and its disproportionate impact on communities of color. The King County housing community needs us all to step forward, in bold and unified ways, to build equity faster than this pandemic is tearing it down. Register now.
Sounds a little better than “sign up for our virtual fundraiser!” doesn’t it?
[Reel] Campaign Objectives to Set
Campaign Objectives to Set
Here's an outline of the three main goals you should be setting in your campaign:
When you are clear on your registration and fundraising goals, you can set your key performance indicators (KPIs) for social media and email too!
[Reel] Write an Engaging Email Campaign
Write an Engaging Email Campaign
Your marketing plan is coming together! You have set your campaign objectives, developed a theme, wrote your talking points, and designed your visual brand. Now you just have to create your promotion campaign to encourage people to register and sign up!
Your email marketing campaign is a must for virtual events. If done right, nonprofit email marketing will help you connect with your audience, raise awareness of the event, and eventually convert people into attendees, donors, and engaged constituents.
For virtual events, we recommend sending the following emails:
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