integrated marketing for special events

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Integrated Marketing Plans for Special EventsDONNA WILKINS

KATHRYN HALL

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WHO WE ARE

Kathryn HallInternet Solutions ConsultantBlackbaud

Donna WilkinsPresidentCharity Dynamics

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Measure Your Results … Relentlessly

#1

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• Set up key metrics for your event, including:- Total number of participants- Total number of participants who were also fundraisers (3:1)- Average amount raised per person ($60)- Percentage of people who received at least one gift- Fundraising emails sent per person (25-27)- Percentage of people who reached their goal- Percentage of people who exceed their goal

• Create reports to let you see Goal vs. Actual• Check these numbers relentlessly – weekly at least. • If you aren’t reaching your numbers, it’s time for a mid-

season adjustment to your strategy. • We’ll talk more about metrics later in the discussion

BENCHMARKS TO TRACK

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• Focus on tasks that will result in actions instead of focusing on dollar amounts.

• Ways to influence behavior: - If someone personalizes their web page, they’ll share it by

email, Facebook, Twitter or in-person, and this will result in donations.

- If someone sends out emails / posts to Facebook / Tweets, this will result in donations. FAF average is 4:1 ratio for email.

• Throughout the presentation we’ll look at more ways of influencing behavior through different techniques and practices.

STARTING TO REMEDIATE

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• Behaviors?• Stats?• Time-limited actions?

WHAT ARE YOUR KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS? HOW OFTEN DO YOU CHECK THEM?

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Limited attendance? Get more $$$ from a

capped group

#2

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FIND THE KEY SEGMENTS IN YOUR AUDIENCE

• Who were the real ‘influencers’ in your audience last year?

• Did team captains raise more money?• What about participants who signed up early?• Did participants using social media raise more

money?• What about those who made a self-pledge?

– Focus your current year’s strategy on growing these key segments this year

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UNDERSTAND YOUR METRICS

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STRATEGIES

• Coach on specific behaviors- Send emails- Upload a picture- Use social media

• Add incentives and recognition- Free

• Phone calls• Listed as top fundraiser• Name specific achievements

- Incentive prizes

• Congratulate success

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TAILOR YOUR COMMUNICATIONS

• One message doesn’t fit all: • Walkers, runners, families, team captains should

all receive messaging that speaks to their type of participation in the event – as well as their reason for participating.

• Use personalization, conditionals, and email filters to segment your messaging

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NEW TEAM CAPTAINS PREVIOUS TEAM CAPTAIN

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RECRUITING NEW PROSPECT

PREVIOUS PARTICIPANT

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• • •

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO GET MORE $$ OUT OF A SIZE-LIMITED EVENT?

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Drive behaviors with competition

#3

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COACHING WITH INCENTIVES

Drive towards the behaviors you know lead to fundraising success- Registering early- Sending emails to as many people as possible,

multiple times- Updating personal page- Teams

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WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE IT WORK

• How much more does a participant who registers early raise than one who signs up at the last minute?

• How many extra early registrations do you need to get 5-10X your money back on the iPad investment?

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• Incentives?• Competitions?• Public recognition?

HOW DO YOU ENCOURAGE AND REWARD POSITIVE FUNDRAISING BEHAVIORS?

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Compete for your participants’ hearts,

minds and time

#4

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MOST EVENTS RETAIN 41% OF PARTICIPANTS

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• A typical run/walk/ride event retains only 41% of their participants – yet retained participants bring in about 53% of the revenue.

• 75% of your participants will participate in more than one event (yours and somebody else’s) over the next 2 years.

• Plan to win the competition for your participants’ hearts and minds

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PEOPLE GET INVOLVED BECAUSE OF A PERSONAL CONNECTION TO THE CAUSE

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•

TEAM LIVESTRONG

Who We AreWe inspire and empower people affected by cancer. We believe that unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything.

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• Lavish attention on the top 20% of fundraisers, they may raise 80% of your money- Send personalized emails, make a phone call, offer help with

collateral materials or strategies. - Post-event take them on a tour of your organization to show how the

money they raised will be used, organize a top fundraiser lunch , have your CEO or a celebrity sponsor call to say thanks, ask for their feedback on the event. Invite them to be fundraising coaches.

• Don’t appear to spend all your donations on swag. Personal communication and support can have a bigger impact on your supporters’ perception of your organization.

• For the other 80%, send personalized emails, a thank you video message, and follow up later in the year with a status update on how their money was used. Make sure all participants feel valued, appreciated, and part of the cause.

RETENTION TIPS

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• • •

WHAT TYPES OF ACTIVITIES HELP YOU BRING THE MISSION HOME FOR PARTICIPANTS AND VOLUNTEERS?

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Strengthen your teams

#5

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UNDERSTAND YOUR METRICS

• How much do participants on teams raise versus those not on teams?

• How many teams did you have over the last several years?

• What if any are additional costs for a team?

• Are there any limits to the number of teams you can have?

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STRATEGIES TO DRIVE AND INCENT TEAMS

• Retain past team captains- Phone call- Personalized email

• Set expectations with team captains- Kickoff event- How to tip sheets

• Team toolkits

• Thank your team captains first! Invite them back first!

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• • •

HOW DO YOU STRENGTHEN AND ENCOURAGE YOUR TEAMS AND CAPTAINS?

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Incorporate social media into your event

#6

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INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA INTO YOUR STRATEGY

• Make sure your emails include links to your social media presences

• Make sure your postal mailings include your website and social media URLs

• Make sure your phone calls mention online fundraising and social media

• Make sure your social media presences link people back to your website – and vice versa

• Use tools like “Add This” to make sharing easy for participants

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COACHING PARTICIPANTS

• Provide sample fundraising status updates and tweets - Skip Starbucks and support my fundraising efforts! Donate today:

link- Pack a lunch, donate to your lunch $$’s and make a difference: link

• Provide mission facts that can be easily shared on facebook and twitter with a personal URL

• Encourage participants to attach pictures, video, events or a link to their status update

• Publicly thank donors in tweets and updates

• Social Media participant contests (e.g., best YouTube video)

• Be creative and have fun!

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BLACKBAUD SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT: TWITTER & FACEBOOK

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BOUNDLESS FUNDRAISING FACEBOOK

Donate your Profile Picture

(pushes a stream story)

Progress Indicator

Get the Word Out (Pushes

a stream story)

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SCHEDULED NEWSFEEDS

Scheduled Newsfeeds Tab

Checkbox to “opt in”

Ability to

update choices

Example of the newsfeed that will

be sent

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• • •

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES HAVE HELPED YOU BOOST YOUR EVENT PERFORMANCE?

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Incorporate mobile into your event

#7

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Take your events on the road with mobile ready event, personal, team, and individual donation pages.

MOBILE READY GIVING

Email Donation Form Confirmation

43% of mobile users access the internet “several times a day”

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TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND ON IPHONE, ANDROID, AND BLACKBERRY

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QR CODES AND TAGS

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• • •

HOW HAVE YOU SUCCESSFULLY INCORPORATED MOBILE APPS AND TOOLS INTO YOUR EVENTS?

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Encourage wrap-around events

#8

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• Teams and individual produce independent fundraising events (IFE) to raise money for The Big Event.

• Important to launch event 6 to 9 months in advance to give time for IFEs• Examples of wrap-around events: - Dinner party - Zumbathon- Bake sale - Concert- Garage sale - Sale of logo

gear- Professional services for donation - Car wash

(photography, DJ)- Penny wars - Restaurant night

• Funds get credited to the individual or team in The Big Event.• Provide guidance to IFE organizers on organization, tax deductibility of

expenses, and use or your brand.• Support IFE organizers by featuring their events on your website

WHAT ARE WRAP-AROUND EVENTS?

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GUIDELINES FOR IFES

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A BAKE SALE?• Martha volunteers for Share Our

Strength. 

• She learned about SOS from an ad for Great American Bake Sale.  She raised a couple hundred dollars w/ her 1st bake sale.  Five years later, she’s raising more than $5,000 with her bake sale and now serves on the Taste of the Nation committee – Taste is another SOS fundraising event.

• Martha is a great example of how you can bring new people into your organization with independent fundraising. While Martha serves on the Taste committee, she still holds her annual bake sale. Her bake sale has become an event everyone in her town looks forward to.

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ZUMBA DANCE PARTY

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• • •

DO YOU HAVE WRAP-AROUND / INDEPENDENT FUNDRAISING EVENT SUCCESS STORIES?

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Cultivate new groups of fundraisers

#9

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People love your event enough to volunteer. Ask them to fundraise

• Susan G Komen Chicago loves its loyal volunteers, and in 2011 for the first time, they asked volunteers to create a fundraising page as they registered. - Up side: WOW. 3 weeks before the event, donations brought in by

volunteers accounted for 15% of total donations (wow!). It has helped them recognize some of their strongest supporters, like a Mrs. Illinois who has raised $3,000 … and wouldn't have done this if she wasn't asked!

- Down side: “Some volunteers called up and complained, so we added their names to the volunteer list, no questions asked, no online registration. They’re important to us as volunteers.“

• Endurance Events – encourage spouse, family members and friends of participant to volunteer … and why not fundraise at the same time?

ENCOURAGE VOLUNTEERS TO FUNDRAISE

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• Companies today want to demonstrate corporate social responsibility.

• So recruit companies. Encourage corporations to more fully participate in your event(s) as a company-wide community service (and wellness, if applicable) initiative. - The American Heart Association Heart Walk began in 2010

to make a national push to recruit corporations• The corporation sets a fundraising goal ($540,000

nationally for Union Bank in the example we’ll look at) • An executive sponsor commits to work internally to recruit

and motivate employees- The “corporate pyramid” tool within Friends Asking Friends

allows companies to track their participation as a company with multiple teams within one or multiple events.

- The system automatically tracks a company’s local and national performance.

SPOTLIGHT CORPORATE PARTICIPATION

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• • •

HOW HAVE YOU SUCCESSFULLY CULTIVATED NEW GROUPS OF FUNDRAISERS WITHIN YOUR EVENT PROGRAM?

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Sleep-in / virtual participant option

#10

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• Add a “sleep-in” or virtual participant option for supporters who either don’t want to walk/race or live too far away … and still want to be a part of the event.

• Generate some incremental revenue. Most events studied raised an additional 2 to 3% from “virtual” participants

• Get better foresight into how many participants will actually show up for the event by giving people a way to indicate “I’m not coming in person”.

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL PARTICIPANT?

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• Sleep In for the Cure: Susan G Komen/Race for the Cure: Can’t make it on Race Day? No problem! Register as a Sleep In for the Cure participant! - Maryland - $35 to register; get race t-shirt and bib (+3%*)- Orange County - $40 to register; get race t-shirt and bib (2%*)- Massachusetts - $10 registration fee / $300 in donations gets a t-shirt -

virtual map of the state fills in as you fundraise

MORE SLEEP-IN / VIRTUAL OPTIONS

*Percentages shown do not reflect final event results

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• Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk Virtual walkers are:- Participants who fundraise even though they will not walk in this year's event - Encouraged to raise as much money as they can but are not obligated to the

fundraising minimum - Sent an official Walk T-shirt after Dec. 31, 2011, if they raise at least $250 - Pay no fee to register- Roughly 2.5%* of online revenue from virtual participants

• Beyond the Bike Virtual Rider – http://beyondthebike.kintera.org - Fundraise as a "virtual rider" - only $10 to sign up. - ~ 3.5%* from virtual riders- Virtual participants encouraged to organizing a Fun Ride, hold a bake sale or

car wash, host a party and charge admission, or sponsor a screening of Beyond Belief, a documentary of the ride.

SLEEP-IN / VIRTUAL EXAMPLES

*Percentages shown do not reflect final event results

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• • •

HAVE A SUCCESS STORY TO SHARE ABOUT VIRTUAL PARTICIPANT CULTIVATION?

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120 characters or less, please.

TRACK EVENT METRICS. DEPLOY NEW STRATEGIES AS NECESSARY TO ADAPT MID-SEASON TO ENSURE YOU FINISH ON TARGET OR ABOVE! #BBCON

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• Define your metrics – check them regularly. Then make mid-season adjustments to stay “on target”.

• Set up mobile donation forms in FAF – they’re built into the system.

• Define the profile of your most valuable participants, and encourage these qualities

• Who are your most valuable participants? What are you doing to retain them? Make a plan to ensure they come back year after year.

• If you’re not already using social media, it’s time to start. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are valuable channels.

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What new ideas are you trying out that you hope are next year’s tips?

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Events Boot Camp

http://www.blackbaud.com/bb/faf/boot-camp.aspx November 7, 8, 9, 10 and 15th at 2 p.m. for full details visit: