How to raise charity awareness? It’s a big questoin and one which needs a big picture strategy and a long term commitment if you are to be successful. If you want to create a sustainable audience which will grow, it can’t be just about a once a year event. Once you have the basis of the strategy it is then a matter of reaching out to your audiences by delivering information through various media, preferably through a central hub.
The tools you need
If you have been reading the blogs about the 12 step process I have devised (or you have already downloaded the e-book), you will have already identified platforms and messages to engage the audience.
The next step is decide how to push your messages through to various media to engage with your audiences, potentially advertise on the platforms and monitor what is happening. It is preferable that you do this through one central platform which also helps with ensuring your messages are consistent across all platforms and measurable. There are many tools available online which can assist you with this, including Hootsuite, which is amongst the most popular. There are paid and free versions available. However, if you want a platform which does more than just your social media, but also will handle blogs, building landing pages, being up auto-responses and builds a database, then you need to speak with us about HubSpot.
The second key is acting strategically
Listening does not always mean changing automatically to fit in with a minority, no matter how large a group they may represent. It means making an educated decision to either accept they no longer represent your core audience who are the majority you want to cater for (assuming they are the most profitable), or you must develop a separate communications and marketing strategy to lure them back.
Consider your path
Set yourself some goals based on traffic and converting them into real supporters. Remember, a supporter could be a staff member, volunteer, someone who uses your services, they could be financially involved or they could just regularly share your content because they like what you say.
Be realistic about your goals and don’t fall into the trap that social media traffic will automatically translate into increaes in fundraising revenue. Social media in particular is not a short term game, nor is it likley to be successful without also doing some advertising.
Remember it is not like 30 years ago when you could say a majority of people would typically be watching one popular TV show on one channel each night. Everyone is receiving their informatoin and news from multiple media sources. You do need to choose the ones most likley to fit your audience, with the knowledge that it is going to be all of them working together (online and offline) which nets you an end result.
At the end of the day, to raise charity awareness, you need to give information which the public will value, in order to expect anything in return. You need to build that relationship of giving to them as you would do any relationship.
