The single most reliable way to raise more money online for your campaign is to grow your email list. It’s the only “secret” there is.
The best way to grow your email list is to create and promote petitions and surveys via social media, text messaging, and your website. These are simple forms on your website that collect – at a minimum – a supporter’s name and email address so you can integrate them into your online fundraising program.
In this post, you’ll learn how to create, launch, and promote a petition that gets results for your campaign.
Choose the Right Topic
The subject of your petition or survey has the most impact on how successful it will be.
You must choose a topic that is timely and relevant. Your objective is to swim with the current of online conversation and tap into existing interest around the topic. If you try to promote a petition that your audience isn’t immediately concerned about, you will get fewer email signups.
Similarly, every hour you waste deliberating and wordsmithing is an hour your petition misses potential supporters. To do this effectively, campaigns need to be bold and move fast.
Customize the Copy
The copy for your landing page, confirmation page, donate page, social media, and text messaging all have to match each other in order to maximize your conversions along each step. Each step of the process should feel like a unified whole.
With each piece of copy you write, explain the problem and articulate the solution as the next action you expect them to take.
Build the Supporter Experience
You only have a few seconds of a supporter’s attention to funnel them from discovering your petition, reaching the landing page, and signing up. The transition between each stage needs to be seamless. The call to action must be compelling, your landing page must load quickly, and immediately introduce the next step.
And don’t forget the followup. Once a supporter has given you their email address, initiate a series of automated emails asking them to donate, volunteer, and opt in to text messaging.
A typical workflow should look like this:
Social Media Post > Landing Page > Donation/Confirmation Page > Followup Emails
Promotion
After you’ve selected a topic, written copy, and built the supporter experience, it’s time to promote your petition or survey. Paid Facebook advertising must be part of your overall strategy. You cannot get enough reach organically via social media to progressively build your email list.
Start by promoting the petitions and surveys to supporters who already follow you on Facebook. They’re already primed to take action and it will give you a good indication of whether your topic is worthwhile or not.
Then expand your targeting to include Facebook users identified as conservatives. Because you’re focused on growing your email list and online donors, it doesn’t matter if your targets can be matched to a voter file.
Resources
If you use WordPress, I recommend installing Gravity Forms to handle your petitions, surveys, and other website forms. WinRed also provides an excellent, free petition builder that integrates directly with their donation.
To handle the email automation, use a service like Mailchimp to send your supporters fundraising emails and other messages as part of the petition experience.
Petitions and surveys that capture supporters’ email addresses are proven methods for growing your campaign’s email list for online fundraising. To use them effectively, you’ll need to choose a topic that is timely and relevant, consider each step of a supporter’s experience, and pay for promotion on Facebook.