We recently had a comment on LinkedIn after someone read our Guide To Planning a Successful Fundraising Event. They asked:

“How would you recommend approaching the right media channels with regards to promoting a fundraising event? I’m currently in the process of promoting my own challenge that’s happening in march and would appreciate any advice.”

Here is how you can find the right media channels to successfully promote your next fundraising event.

Firstly, let’s break our potential media channels into the three main buckets: Owned, Earned and Paid.

How to approach Owned Media 

Owned media is anything that you direct own or control. Primarily this is your website or blog, and email list; but also your social media channels. In theory you don’t own them (the social networks do), but that’s splitting hairs.

The major advantage of owned media channels is that a) you don’t have to pay for it; and b) you don’t need to ask permission to promote your events on them.

However the disadvantage most people have with owned media is that their audience is relatively small, so if you only use this channel, your reach will be quite limited.

You may therefore want to spend the majority of your time thinking about ‘Earned Media’, which we’ll come onto next.

There are two exceptions to this:

1. Influencers. If you can get influencers involved in your campaign, then they may give your owned media the reach it needs. Influencers are people with large and engaged social followings, or who have celebrity status so that other media will write about them.

Ask yourself: Are there any people with large social followings or celebrity status you can quote on your blog (or convince to write a blog post)?

2. SEO. Assuming this will not be a one-off event, and you will want to continue fundraising for your cause, you should aim to build up the search authority of your website by creating original, valuable content on your own site.

So for long-term strategic reasons, you should continue to build your owned media reach, even if it doesn’t provide the short-term promotional list you may need right now.

How to approach Earned Media

Earned media is any promotion for your fundraising event that is distributed by 3^rd parties, typically without any direct payment involved.

This can include influencers sharing your event with their followers, guest posting on popular blogs or getting a press mention.

The major advantage of earned media is that their reach is probably a lot larger than yours (if it isn’t, you should question if it is worthwhile pursuing); and it should involve a direct payment from you, so it can cost-efficient too.

The major disadvantage is that getting earned media is hard! Everyone is trying to go this route, and to stand out with potential earned media partners, you’ll need to provide something of value that no-one else can.

Let’s look at a few steps to identifying a successful approach to earned media:

Step One: Identify your targets

This can be further broken into four types of earned media targets.

1. Media sites

This is the most obvious target, but it can be the hardest. Most media sites are supported by ads, which can often be in the form of promoted content or ‘native advertising’ – essentially it looks like earned media but really you’re paying for it.

To get around this, you’ll need to convince them your content is editorially valuable for their readers, and that it will help support their site above and beyond any direct revenue they may miss out on by not charging you.

Exclusive and impressive data, fun case studies or surprising / emotional personal stories are good angles for getting traditional press coverage.

To find media sites you should target, try typing into Google the key word or phrases your potential fundraisers would search for, and see which sites come up in the top 10 results. You can also do the same on Buzzsumo to see popular websites that cover the topic you want to be associated with.

2. Bloggers.

Perhaps the best type of media to target are blogs run by well-known figures, as they may be less strict on charging you, because they’re looking for more high quality content for their audience.

Try using AllTop and MyBlogU for blogs you could write guest posts for.

3. Social influencers.

Not all influencers have their own blog or media site. Some can work exclusively through a social network like Instagram, Youtube or Pinterest for example.

Try using Topsy and Klout for social influencers you can approach.

4. Brand partners.

You should also reach out to businesses who work in a similar area to your cause, or whose products sell to your target audience. The may be interested in aligned with your fundraiser, and not only could they be a sponsor, you could utilise their audience to promote your event.

All of the above tools for 1,2 and 3 should throw up plenty of brand names you can approach.

Step Two: Think about the hook

As mentioned a few times, you’ll need to provide something of stand-out value to get earned media (it’s called ‘earned’ for a reason, after all!)

A few ideas have already been mentioned, which we’ll dive into here.

1. Data

Providing unique data, insights or research that no-one else has access to is a really strong way to win earned media. If you don’t naturally have access to unique data, you could conduct a survey to generate interesting insights that could become a compelling story.

2. Personal stories and case studies

People love to read about people, and so personal stories of triumph over adversity, or intriguing and unique experiences, have a greater chance of winning you earned media. Reach out to your community to see if there are stories you can share related to your cause.

3. Useful resources

Infographics, checklists, downloadable templates, how-to videos, detailed guides, beautiful photography…anything that provides original, stand out value to an audience has a high chance of generating earned media.

4. Ego-hacking

A tried and tested method ‘ego hacking’ involves publicly acknowledging several influencers that are affiliated with your fundraising cause. This could be in the form of an infographic, blog post list, slideshare or other media – just make sure they know they’re on the list – and they’re likely to share it with their followers.

Step Three: The Ask

You need to be proactive with earned media, so here are a few simple guidelines for successfully approaching potential channels.

1. Get a referral

By far the best way to get a ‘yes’ is to have a mutually trusted acquaintance introduce you to the earned media channel owner – the higher up the decision tree the better. Warm referrals rather than cold emails will always stand a higher chance of getting you the answer you want.

2. Keep it simple

When you approach someone for earned media, the chances are they’re very busy, so make sure your approach is simple and direct. Don’t add in lots of fluff or irrelevant preamble.

Just tell them who you are, about your fundraising event (one line), why you think their audience is a good fit (one line), how you can add value that would benefit them and their audience i.e. what’s in it for them (one-two lines) and the specific next step you would like them to take (one line)

3. Make it easy

When you specify the next step you’d like them to take, make sure to make it as easy as possible.

For example if you want them to publish a blog post, ensure it is completely error free, well formatted and ready to publish, so they don’t have to spend time editing it. If it requires images, supply those, along with any necessary credit.

If you want them to share with their followers, write a few different tweets (or Facebook updated etc.) they can choose from, so they just need to copy and paste. You could event use something like ClicktoTweet so they just have to click on a link (with the added advantage you can track the results).

4. Be persistent, but polite

Busy people miss email, tweets and other forms of communication aimed at them. Often it won’t be intentional, just a fact of life that they can’t keep on top of all inbound communications to them. If you haven’t heard from them after 48-72 hours, try again. If you still don’t here back, try a third time a few days later.

If you’re getting no response to email, see if you have any luck on other channels, such as through Twitter or LinkedIn – wherever they’re most active.

It’s ok (and necessary) to be persistent, but don’t send multiple message a day, and once you’ve sent several messages with no response, it may be best to stop altogether and try someone else.

How to approach Paid Media

Paid media is what it says on the tin – anything you need to pay for when promoting your fundraiser.

The benefits of paid media are usually guaranteed reach often at a surprisingly low cost (though that does not necessarily equal results), good targeting and tracking, and in theory it should be less time intensive than earned media.

The downside is clearly that it costs money. It can also take time to set up and track the results accurately, and results can vary greatly.

There are a huge number of different paid media channels you could use: buying lists, retargeting, display advertising, adwords, paid promotion on social networks…just to name a few.

So, how do you approach paid media?

Identify the right channels

Where do your donors hang out online? Do you know if your target audience is mostly on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn or elsewhere? If not, you should find out, and then dedicate most of your resources to targeting that channel.

One way to discover the best channels to target first it to look at your Google Analytics. Check under ‘Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium’ and see where the most of your audience already comes from.

Another is to plug your site (or blog) into BuzzSumo and see where the majority of social shares are coming from.

Set goals

Once you’ve decided on a couple of main channels to begin your paid promotion, you need to set some goals. (You should have goals across owned and earned too, but paid is particularly important so you don’t waste your previous budget).

Goals can range of course, from event signups (ideal) to social shares/mentions to traffic to your site or event page. The goals are up to you, just make sure they support your ultimate goal, which is to get more people to your event!

Set a budget

Now you need to set a budget. How much money can you spend to acquire a new attendee at your event, and still make enough money to support your cause?

Let’s assume you want your paid test to bring on board 20 new attendees, and you can afford to spend £5 for each one. That gives you a budget of £100 to spend on paid media.

Test, test, test

The most important step for paid promotion is to test it! Use Eventbrite’s built in promotional link trackers to check if your paid campaigns are delivering the results you need them to.

For any channel, set aside a budget that is large enough to deliver a large enough data set for you to be confident it is accurate – not no more than that. Also set a specific time timeframe (3-7 days for example) so you know when to review your results.

Once you’ve found a channel that works, then you can spend a little more with confidence that it will provide a good return on investment, and ultimately support your fundraising goals.

Mix them up to get best results

The best way to approach media channels when promoting a fundraising event is to use a blended or mixed approach. For example you may create great content on your own site, but use some of the earned media steps to amplify it.

Or you may land a great earned media partnership that you want to support with some paid promotion.

They all work well together, so keep checking on which specific promotional efforts work well on which channels, and then repurpose them across the other channels we’ve discussed, so you maximise their potential.

Conclusion

Today’s fragmented media channels present a real challenge to any organisation, but equally you don’t have to overcomplicate it:

• Write valuable content for your own site, to encourage long-term search visibility and reduce reliance on earned / paid media
• Identify a handful of influential channels (media, blogger, individuals) and approach them with an offer that will benefit them and their audience
• For an extra boost, pick two channels that already drive the most sign-ups for your event and test if some added paid promotion helps magnify your success

Any other tips or success stories of promoting a fundraiser? Let us know in the comments!