Nonprofit Event Marketing: Finding Your Audience

In addition to digital reports, we have a long history at Yearly of working with nonprofit organizations that plan a lot of events, ranging from formal galas to outdoor festivals. There are always two questions I ask them during a planning session:

Who is the audience you care most about reaching?

What action do you want that audience to take at or after the event?

Just like any good marketing plan, defining a clear call-to-action is important, but you can go beyond asking your key audience to respond to a request at your event and have multiple opportunities to ask.

Figuring out how to do that and building those marketing tactics into your strategic plan to have your audience respond to what you need them to do, gives you a better chance of a higher success rate, similar to the idea of having to see an advertisement multiple times before you purchase a product for the first time.

To do so, I recommend a “Before, During and After” approach involving an event marketing plan that includes identifying your audience, the outcome you want and then determining how you can reach that group before, during and also after the event concludes…

Identifying your audience

Breaking down your various audiences by segments is a good first step. For instance, a client of mine that works in fundraising for their nonprofit was planning a formal event that would be attended by staff, volunteers, government partners and sponsors. While you may or may not want to focus on every type of event attendee, you’ll want to start by knowing who is there.

What action should your audience take

It’s good to recognize that different event attendees might require different messages you want to put infront of them, because you might want them to take different actions. You may want all attendees to take the same action. Whatever you decide, this is the time in your planning to map out which attendees require which messages.

Using the same example from the nonprofit above, they want attendees to sign-up to volunteer, register for new programs, and donate money to the cause. Not all attendees are fit to take action on all three of those actions, and you wouldn’t want to put out an offer for so much at once either, because it could be overwhelming and then no action is taken.

So, focus on which attendees should take which actions. In this case of this client, they might decide that they will promote volunteering to existing volunteers at their event, in effort to ask them to go home and start to recruit new and qualified volunteers, and so on. How you can do that comes next:

Marketing before your event

This begins the “how” in terms of deciding just how you can communicate specific actions you want specific event attendees to take. Start by thinking of the methods of communication you have already planned, such as invitations.

With an invitation for example, you can promote a live auction if your goal is to have have all audience members donate money. You can promote by using copy that gets the audience excited, so in this case if you have a famous person’s autograph to auction off, don’t leave out those excited details on the invitation. If you happen to know that just a portion of your audience follows sports, select those individuals to promote that item to.

Social media is another tool that is easy to accomplish this with, and you can get more specific with your audiences by using pictures and videos of that auction item, or whatever you have at the event that you want to promote, and then tag certain people, groups or audiences that you know might be apt to donate.

Marketing during your event

If you’re event is in-person, working your communications to various audiences into speeches and physical signs are a good place to start. Demonstrating your value through content at the event in any shape or form will grab their attention. You can also talk to them at registration or by having staff members strategically placed around the room.

There are a lot of variables here but the most important take-away is that different attendees might have different actions you can have them take. If your event is online, such as an auction designed to be a fundraiser, you can use social media and email campaigns to reach your audiences and promote specific themes, days, events or items that audience might gravitate towards.

Marketing after your event

It’s likely that some of your audience attended your event but has not yet taken an action to donate, volunteer, provide their email address, or whatever it is that you want that segment of your audience to do. Sending an email or handwritten note to thank them for attending is the most direct way to continue the conversation. Within that, you can remind them that it’s not too late to take action. You can also prompt them during or after the event to follow you on social media, where you can continue to show the value of your unique content. That can be in the form of storytelling, sharing pieces of your annual report, or sharing photos or videos from your event.

Once your new audience from your events are following you on social, you can promote the actions you want them to take in the form of announcements of new opportunities to get involved.

How can your organization put themselves in the best position to have attendees take the actions you need, before, during and after your event?

We built Yearly to give organizations the tools to tell powerful stories.

So, what’s your story? Schedule a free demo today.