1. #NPSuccess
© Constant Contact 2012 1

2. Today We’ll Be Discussing
 Planning your nonprofit event
 Promoting your nonprofit event to
 Create buzz
 Increase registration
 Maximize attendance
#NPSuccess
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3. #NPSuccess
#NPSuccess
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4. Increase Charitable Funds…
by Running Affordable Events
Customer:
Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival
Success Looks Like…
Encouraging advanced ticket sales, so that more
fundraising dollars could go to fighting cancer.
Her Success Formula:
Streamlining the work involved in planning and managing
a wine tasting by using affordable, online registration
tools.
What’s Working:
“I used your Event Marketing tool to promote a wine festival to
benefit charity. We ended up attracting 7,800
attendees
and raising $150,000 for cancer research.”
© Constant Contact 2012 4

5. Grow Your Audience…
by keeping them engaged.
Customer:
The Southeast Kentucky Chamber of
Commerce
Success Looks Like…
Increasing the chamber’s membership
from 375 to 500 in less than a year, but
keeping membership engaged and
informed.
What’s Working: His Success Formula:
“We are able to keep members and communities Using online surveys to gather
feedback about important local
engaged and connected with our legislation, social media to build a
Community Chamber Events.” community. keep members involved
with upcoming events.
© Constant Contact 2012 5

6. Keeping Playdates Official, Professional… and Fun
Customer:
Chase’s House, New York City
Success Looks Like…
Seeing attendance for playdates grow by 300% in one
year and still managing it all as a team of one.
Her Success Formula:
Using event and email marketing to keep track of
families coming to each event.
What’s Working:
“I had been using spreadsheets to keep track of who had accepted
and declined invitations, but it was a nightmare. Now, I can just
print out automatic RSVP lists.”
© Constant Contact 2012 6

7. #NPSuccess

8. Why are You Having an Event?
The 3
Top Reasons
Goal Measure Nonprofits Host
Events:
 What do you want to  What are the
achieve? measurable results
from your event?
 What is success
(ROE)?
1. Educate
 Is there a target Possible Measures: 2. Generate
audience?  Increased mentions on social __awareness
media, web traffic
 Increased donations 3. Get donations
Possible Goals
 High satisfaction, increase in
 Increase awareness for your volunteer sign ups
cause
 Drive donations
 Solicit volunteers
- Constant Contact Event Marketing Survey, 2010
© Constant Contact 2012 8

9. Why Should They Attend?
Goal Measure Main takeaway of
 What is in it for the  How will you calculate the event should
attendee? if the attendees be reflected in
– The tangible benefit for achieved their goals? your promotional
spending my time/money.
activities
 What motivates for
participation? Possible Measures:
 What do they learn?  Satisfied comments in
survey and social media
Possible Goals  Increased donations and
volunteers
 Enjoyable time
 Help a charity
© Constant Contact 2012 9

10. Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival
Goal
 Sell tickets >50% of
tickets in advance
 Raise money for cause
 Get more attendees
than previous year
Measure:
 85% of tickets sold in advance
 Raised $150,000
 7,800 attendees
© Constant Contact 2012 10

11. #NPSuccess

12. Communication Schedule
© Constant Contact 2012 12

13. Create Buzz (5-6 Weeks Ahead)
Email Newsletter
Event Directories
Website
Calendar
© Constant Contact 2012 13

14. Leverage Your Email Newsletter
Take advantage of the communications you already send!
© Constant Contact 2012 14

15. Use Your Website to Drive Awareness
Promote all your upcoming events on your website
Just set it and forget it!
 Add it once
 Automatically updates
 One-click registration
© Constant Contact 2012 15

16. Display Upcoming Events
Make it easy to find date and time that works for them
Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
Link from:
 Your website
 Email Newsletter
 Email signature
 Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Decline due to
60% Date / Time /
Location.
-According to research on 200K RSVP declines
© Constant Contact 2012 16

17. List Your Events Publicly
Expand Your Reach With Event Directories
 Event directories
 Events in America
 SocialVents
 Local paper
 Local event calendars
 Co-marketing
© Constant Contact 2012 17

18. Increase Registration (3-4 Weeks)
Registration Form
Social Media Posts
Event Homepage
Paper Mail Invites
Email Invites
Social Sharing
Facebook App
© Constant Contact 2012 18

19. Event Homepage
Provide them all the information they need
 One-click registration
 Easier than updating
your event website for
each event
 Link from:
− Website
− Social media
− Email
© Constant Contact 2012 19

20. Make the Most of Your Invitation
Make it easy to RSVP right from the print mailing
 Offline
 Provide a phone number
 Online
 QR codes
− http://qrcode.kaywa.com
 Bit.ly link
− http://bitly.com
“50% of people who receive direct
mail invitations prefer responding
through URLs.”
- Direct Marketing Association
© Constant Contact 2012 20

21. Does this Invite Work?
 No easy way to RSVP
 Very little branding
 No map
 No way to share event invitation
© Constant Contact 2012 21

22. Event Invitations
Get noticed in the inbox! Subject Line: Save 10%, register before 9/15
 Subject Lines:
“Emails with a date in the subject line
will generate a 24-29% higher
open rate.”
- Worldata Email Usage Study Q4 2010
Give them the info they need
 Event info, including a map
Make it easy to respond
 Clear call to action with RSVP
© Constant Contact 2012 22

23. Look Professional with Branding
Before After
© Constant Contact 2012 23

24. Look Professional with Branding
Match the look and feel of your organization
Make sure to insert your:
 Logo
 Font
 Colors
 Images
© Constant Contact 2012 24

25. Event Invitations
Don’t blast your invite out to everyone at once
 Chesapeake sent invitation to past Subject Line: Past attendees get an
exclusive invite!
attendees first
“Exclusive in the subject line generates
an additional 24% open rate.
- Worldata Email Usage Study Q4 2010
“Segmentation delivers a 7x increase
in open rates and a 14x increase
in click-through rates.”
- Understanding ISP-Level Email Filtering
© Constant Contact 2012 25

26. Send to Non-Responders
Contact people who haven’t RSVPed
Invite
 Only sent to those invitees that Invite to Non-Responders
have not RSVP’d yet
 Don’t just resend the event
invitation
− Provide an incentive to attend
− Switch up your subject line
− Try a different sending time
© Constant Contact 2012 26

27. Event Invitations
Motivate registrations with video
Take those videos and use them
in your event invitation!
Video increases click-through rates by 300%.”
- Forrester Research
“42% of small organizations created and
posted event marketing videos to YouTube.”
-Constant Contact Event Marketing Survey Try videos featuring:
October 2011  Guest speakers
 Activities
 Success stories
© Constant Contact 2012 27

28. Sending Your Event Invitation
Send your invite when people want it
Dodge traffic in the inbox
by avoiding peak sending
times
“The highest spike was at 6AM.”
- The Science of Social Timing,
Hubspot 2011
Schedule your emails:
“Online giving happens largely  5-6 weeks: Send announcement
between 9-5 on weekdays.”
 3 weeks: Send reminder
-The Online Giving Study
Network for Good and TrueSense Marketing
 2 days: Send “Don’t miss” email
© Constant Contact 2012 28

29. Sharing Your Event Invitation
Reach the widest audience with Simple Share
 Customize the message
for each site
 Include an image
 Easily share to all your
Facebook, Twitter,
and LinkedIn profiles
“51% of small organizations use
their social networks 4 weeks before
their event.”- Constant Contact Event
Marketing Survey, October 2011
© Constant Contact 2012 29

30. Registration Form
Keep it short
 Only ask necessary questions
Charge a fee
 Implies value
 Most common reason people
don’t attend is date/time, not
fee
Pay in advance
 Increases likelihood of
attendance
 It rained during Chesapeake
Wine Festival, but 85% of ticket
sales occurred ahead of time. Still
had 7,800 attendees
© Constant Contact 2012 30

31. Registration Form
Ask people who RSVP “No”
to donate!
 Take advantage of people who want to help,
but can’t attend!
 Assign a suggested amount or allow the
donor to put in their own donation amount.
 Attendees aren’t the only ones who can
donate to your cause
© Constant Contact 2012 31

32. Registrants Can Share on Social Media
Registrants can spread the word about the event
by sharing on Facebook or Twitter
© Constant Contact 2012 32

33. Promote Your Event on Facebook
Engage your fans with compelling posts
 Ask your Facebook fans to
“Like” your post
“Gets a 216% higher interaction
rate for pages.”
- A Scientific Approach to Facebook Marketing,
Momentus Media 2011
 Ask them to comment too!
“Gets a 27% higher interaction
rate.”
- A Scientific Approach to Facebook Marketing,
Momentus Media 2011
© Constant Contact 2012 33

34. Promote Your Event on Facebook
Use the Facebook App to promote 24/7
“89% of small organizations use
Facebook to market their events.”
- Constant Contact Event Marketing Survey,
October 2011
© Constant Contact 2012 34

35. Promote Your Event with Social Media
Promote your event where your audience is!
“77% are using social media
to promote events and 74% think
it's effective.”
- Constant Contact Event Marketing Survey,
October 2011
“66% use Twitter and 37%
create a #hashtag for the event.”
- Constant Contact Event Marketing Survey,
October 2011
© Constant Contact 2012 35

36. Maximize Attendance (0-2 Weeks Ahead)
Email reminders
Tickets/Confirmation
Social media
engagement
Event
homepage
© Constant Contact 2012 36

37. Increase Attendance with Reminders
Don’t just resend the event invite!
 Include a link to a pre-event
survey or poll, then show
results
 Show event count down
 Provide guest speaker info
 Make it easy to share with
“Forward to friend” link and
Social Share button
© Constant Contact 2012 37

38. Remind Them to Print their Tickets
 Ticket serves as a
tangible reminder
 Makes the check-in
process a snap!
© Constant Contact 2012 38

39. Update Your Event Homepage
Get registrants excited about the event!
 Use to provide
additional info about
your event
 Useful for when you
are promoting on
Twitter and other
places without a lot of
real estate
© Constant Contact 2012 39

40. Social Media Engagement
Don’t just link to the registration page!
 39% of small organizations
use social media to get
repeat attendees
“35% use social media to get more
attendees.”
- Constant Contact Event Marketing Survey,
October 2011
“61% use their social networks in the
days prior to the event.”
- Constant Contact Event Marketing Survey,
October 2011
© Constant Contact 2012 40

41. Use Follow-Up to Create Buzz for Your Next Event
Email reminders
Tickets/Confirmation
Event homepage
Social media
engagement
Social media
Survey
Homepage
© Constant Contact 2012 41

42. Make People Want to Come Back
Update your Event Homepage
 Show pictures from event
 Include any event collateral
Send a follow-up email
 Collect feedback with a survey
 Ask:
− What did they like best?
− What could be improved?
− Ask questions to measure your goal
− Pull responses for future promotions
© Constant Contact 2012 42

43. Make People Want to Come Back
Communication doesn’t stop
once the event is over
 Stay top of mind
 Keep them engaged with
social media
 Thank them for attending
 Post pictures from the
event
 Ask for feedback
 Promote the next event
© Constant Contact 2012 43

44. Takeaways
Email Newsletter, Website, Calendar, Event Directories
Invites, Registration Form, Social Sharing & Posts, Facebook App
Reminders, Tickets, Update Homepage, Social Media Posts
Update Homepage, Survey, Follow Up Email, Social Media Posts
#NPSuccess
44

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© Constant Contact 2012 45