Nonprofit Event Marketing Strategies for Mobilizing Supporters and Maximizing Impact

Hi everybody. How are you today? Let me know if the chat is working. I see your names coming in. So, I'm going to call out your names and say hi. Carla, Celia, I hope I'm saying that right. Christy, Dan, there is no Carla. I made up that name. Carla's coming though. Carla will be here. Danielle, hello. Welcome everybody. Heather, let me know the first thing you did when you woke up this morning. Yesterday, I asked that in the webinar and I got some of the sweetest things. Oh my god. One person said she meditated for 20 minutes. I'm like, you know what? We all need to do that before we just jump out here in this big virtual world. So, thank you guys for being here. Oo, hello. I let my chickens out. I love it. I love it. Did go, girl. Look, I took the dogs out for a walk first thing this morning. That's so important, right? Because those dogs will let you know when they got to go. Thomas went to the dentist. Good for you, Thomas. We got to keep those pearly whites. >> Got to keep these clean, you know. That's right. Back with my son to daycare. Rocky, that sounds so sweet. And those are priceless moments. I fed the cat. We had a lot of cat people yesterday. It was so many. I was like, "Yay for the cat people." Yay. Kayla is an organ. I did a little yoga first. Namaste, Kayla. Awesome. Good job. Yoga really helps my body. That's like the only thing when I was going through physical therapy that really made a difference. So people say yoga, I'm all down for it. Guys, we're going to start in like 30 seconds. So thank you for letting me know the first thing you did um when you woke up this morning. My name is Artha Sas. If you haven't been here today, I'm the webinar producer or before, not just today. I'm the webinar producer here at TechUp. I'm going to show you how you can participate. You're already using the chat. Let me know that you checked on your boat. I love that you're in St. Pete. You're right down the road from me. Vancouver is in the house. I love it. I love it. I love it. Welcome, guys. Awesome. If you would like to put your question in the Q&A, especially if it's a long question, please put it in the Q&A and we'll um answer it towards the end. But these people are like professional. They probably going to pull it while they're talking and multitasking. This is being recorded. You're going to get the recording and the slides later today or early in the morning. I'm going to move out of the way and turn this over to some of our favorite partners, Constant Contact. I know you're gonna have lots of questions. Uh, Thomas, over to you. Have a great webinar. >> Thank you so much. And thank you, Arthan. And thank you everybody for jumping on. I love the opportunity. I was just telling the team, I love these webinars. Y'all are always so engaged. You're always ready to learn, ready to uh grow, and ready to hopefully make that impact in your community. I see people filing in. We've got a great group. I'll do a quick introduction here. My name is Thomas Net. I am a solution engineer at Constant Contact. I've been here for 14 years, if you can believe that, which is crazy to think about, but I've done webinars. I've also worked in the nonprofit space. I was an executive director for a while for a nonprofit as well. So, the topic that we're going to be talking about today is pretty near and dear to my heart because it is something that is so critical and it's something that is so fun. It is also something that once I give you the title, it might elevate some heart rates a little bit because it also is a lot of work. but high-risk, highreward type uh content that we're going to be talking about today. And we're going to focus in on events and nonprofit event marketing. Now, I know, I know events are so fun, but they are so much work. The goal for today is to hopefully give you some ideas, some motivations, and some inspiration to really take these ideas and take how you could leverage something like Constant Contact to help with event promotion and for um payments and for all of the different things that come with an event. And that's really what we're going to focus on today is nonprofit event marketing strategies for mobilizing supporters and maximizing impact. It's a bit of a long one, but you know what? I think it's going to be really beneficial for y'all. So, let's get started. And it talks about when we talk about growing your organization with events, the biggest thing is relationships. If you've seen me do any sessions with y'all or you've seen me do any sort of webinars, the key thing is relationship building. It's how do you get in front of people? How do you connect with people? And you know what? In such a digital world, we're in a digital webinar. I'm looking at a camera right now. I'm not seeing any of y'all's faces. That face to face interaction is so nice. It's so nice to be able to connect with people and be able to shake hands and do all of those things because it's just so personal and it's just such a wonderful thing to be able to do. And so we want to talk about that. We want to encourage that. We want to build those strong relationships. We want to bring new people in so that way they can connect with people who are existing supporters and volunteers and and sponsors and stakeholders. All of those things are absolutely incredible for connecting and helping people know what you are doing and the mission that you are trying to do in your community. This helps you grow your list and this also drives those donations that revenue. Events are a great way to do that and to really bring everything together to just show the world what it is that you are doing. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Did you know that 81% of US donors regularly attend fundraising events? I saw Vancouver, you might have similar numbers on your side of the house, too. But the key here is people want to come to events. Why is that? Because they want to see what you're doing. Not only does it help them kind of see that return on donation, but it also allows them to see you in action to see what you're doing. And that's an incredible opportunity for you to do just that. So, what are we going to talk about today? We're going to explore various types of events to boost revenue or donations. We're going to learn how to master event promotion. And we're going to extend your success beyond the event. Cuz this is something that sometimes will happen. You you prep, you gear up, you do this huge event, whether that be a gala or a walk or some sort of huge event. Everything is so exciting for the buildup and then the event happens and we take a six-day nap, right? But we want to make sure that there's things that are happening afterwards. We follow up. We want to make sure that there is a continuation of that relationship. So, we'll talk through what that looks like. I'm just speaking from personal experience. Maybe y'all are perfectly fine after after an event, but for me, my wife's always told me, I know when it's event day because you kind of are a different person. Hopefully, you're a bit of a better situation than I am with that, but you know what? We want to make sure that we are following up. So, let's start with explore various types of events to boost revenue and donation. So, what is the goal? This is any sort of marketing. This isn't just event marketing, but this is anytime that you're doing any sort of communication, anytime you're wanting to get the word out, you got to have a goal in mind. Begin with the end in mind, right? So, what is the goal of the event? Don't just have an event to cross to check a box to say you've done an event. Have a goal in mind. Fundraising is pretty much always going to be part of that, right? You're always wanting to have some sort of return so that at least you can cover the cost of that particular event. Whether that be just renting the space or whatever the case may be. There always want has to be some sort of option there. But then you're also wanting to build your list. You're also wanting to educate. You're also wanting to build that community and that celebration and that opportunity for pictures and for showing people what you are doing in the community to get the word out. So set that goal and then you'll see this kind of asterisk down here at the bottom. Set an event budget. Be careful with that because if you don't set a budget that can pile up really quick, right? And if you have these events where you've done a few different annual events or whatever the case may be, set those budgets, plan accordingly. That's so critical so that way you don't just burn through your marketing spend and burn through your budget in an event that isn't quite optimized for what you're looking for. So have that budget as much as possible at the front for you. So here's a few ideas. Raffles, gallas, if you've done a gala before, you know that those are super fun, but they're a lot of work. Maybe there's some other things that you can do kind of in tandem with that that are a little bit easier, such as maybe a 5K walk, or you could have partnerships with other businesses or silent auctions. what kinds of events will show people what you do and be a fun way for them to do that. One thing that we did for the nonprofit that I worked with, so our nonprofit did um awareness for things like human trafficking awareness and education and things like that. And we actually had a volunteer who painted who did um who did glass art. And so what they would do is they actually hosted a class where they brought all the materials and then we did a glass art piece where we built like a mirror or we built some sort of uh glass art piece and it was just a reminder. It allowed us to share a little bit about what we did but it also was a reminder of from broken to beautiful was kind of the the tagline that we brought along with it to bring that healing and that hope. So that was just an example of something that we did that was really great, really personal, really great opportunity for people to connect. So if you have something that is your your mission, you obviously have a mission statement, you have something that you're doing, think about a creative way to incorporate that into the event itself or the type even of event that you are hosting. So what kind of options are in here? What are some of those things that you can do? So hopefully you're penciling down some ideas here. Event ideas that build loyalty and drive awareness. Food and beverage tastings, VIP dinners. If you've got those people who are some of your more premier donors or some people that have sponsored in the past or have been key volunteers over the years, do those VIP dinners. Do those connections. Help them feel like they are such pivotal people in your mission and what you're doing. Offer up those opportunities. again, partner with another organization. You know what the greatest thing that you can do is show camaraderie. Unfortunately, I think there are times where nonprofits can get that fear of siloing. Maybe they're interfering or they think that being able to have a few different people in the same mission, maybe that they're conflicting or that businesses and and those connections are are trying to cause um friction in in the community. But I'm a big proponent of if you can work together, if you're accomplishing the same mission, if you're partners in helping your community, take advantage of that. Do some sort of community event where you bring a bunch of people together so that people can just come and see what those services are. That's a great opportunity to show that camaraderie, show that connection in the community that you are doing. And then of course, if you have those partners, those sponsors, and they're willing to host an event and maybe have proceeds of that event come to you, that's something that's a great opportunity, too, because you're making that connection with somebody who's doing business with that organization, but also that that organization is benefiting you. So, be open to those types of opportunities as well. And sometimes those are even a lighter lift for you because you just have to show up and talk about what you're doing. Talk about your mission. So be open to those types of things as well. Movie nights, networking, all of these are great ideas to build that loyalty and to drive that awareness both in the community as well as with potential sponsors and potential big donors that you have. What about education? I said most of these things are fundraising, but you know what? Education is also key, right? If people know why you're there and they know why they should support you and that you are experts in your mission, that's going to really help build that trust. That's going to really help them understand the value of donating and volunteering and connecting with you. So if you have workshops, if you have skill building, if you have ways that you can share what it is that you are doing in a more formal educated way, whether that be a webinar or some sort of virtual workshop or again, as we've talked about before, something in person, that's a great way for you to show your expertise and to be able to help them be your voices in the community and share with that. so that way they can get on fire for the mission that you have as well. Talks and panels are great. Hands-on and experiential learning is great. Being able to have those panels, whether that be people you've done work with as part of your mission, being able to connect with them and have those testimonials, have those panel discussions, so that way people can see the value of what you are providing is a great way for people to see that return and be able to connect with you on that. Now, this one's interesting, too. Pop-ups. Do you have a way to just throw a table up, get a nice tent in there, maybe you need some shade. I'm over here in Florida, so we always need something to keep us shady. But you do want to have, if you have a way to do a popup, have a way for people to connect with you at a park. Have a way for people to get more information from you. And they're on a specific event date. Like today is National Dog Day, I believe. So, if you're in the pet business, might be a good day to have a popup if you want to throw that out after you uh wrap up the webinar today. But having ways to meet people where they are to be able to learn a little bit more about you is a great way for you to raise that awareness about what you're doing. The key here is what's in it for them. You want people to get on fire about your mission, but they have to see what's in it for them. So, whenever you're doing any sort of event planning, don't just do it just to do it. Be very intentional. Even ask questions in the community. You could send out if you're sending out newsletters or sending out campaigns or anything like that. Ask them what would be something that would resonate with you. What types of events are you looking for? And use that as inspiration as you are continuing to move forward with your event planning for that particular year and the years to come. We talked about this a little bit. monetizing your event to cover those costs. So, ticket sales, you can, of course, do free events and do donations. That's one way to do it, but you can also do ticket sales as well. Sponsorships, sponsorships are great. Again, that allows businesses to show that they care about the mission in the community, and that allows them to be able to have more um access to people that they may not have otherwise had access to who are part of your mission. So, those partnerships are key there. merchandise. I've done walks where they've provided t-shirts. So, having different options for that is is an option as long as it makes sense for you from a cost perspective. Content. Content is going to be good because if you can show people everybody having a good time at the event, right? If you have the ability to post those things on social, if you have the ability to put those things on your website to get those testimonials live at the event, that's also a great way for you to be able to get those connections, build that loyalty, and be able to expand on that auction items and then also donations from people who can't attend. There are going to be times where the event just doesn't quite work for somebody, but they want to make a donation. Have that opportunity for people to do that. It's a great way for people to still be part of your mission even if they can't attend that particular event. All right, so we talked about different types of events. Now, let's talk about how to master event promotion. What can you do for event promotion? Sometimes this is half the battle, right? You you have this event, you really have a lot of hard work that you've put in. You may even have a great keynote speaker or you've got a band that came in or whatever the case may be. You've got everything geared up and it's going to be an amazing event and then you have a hard time getting people to register. And if you're anything like I've experienced, people like to wait until the absolute last minute to register for anything. We had the same thing happen with our wedding. People were waiting till the last minute and then when that deadline hit, people were like, "Hey, I still want to register." And we say, "Sorry, you can't come." Right? We run into that same issue. People like to wait until that last minute. So, how do you stay top of mind? How do you stay in front of people to help them with registering for your event and getting it on their calendar? So, let's talk through multi-channel. What does this mean? Multi-channel approach. So, don't just send out one newsletter and call it a day. Don't just post on social and call it a day. The idea here is to have a few different ways to be able to connect with people. So you can create an event and most event tools have a landing page that you can point people to, right? So you point them to a landing page, they can register for it. That's great, but how do they know about that landing page? Send out an email. Send out an invite. Send out a save the date. I would say at least four to six months in advance depending on how big that event is just to get on people's radar and then send out those reminders as much as you can without of course being super overwhelming but at least having a few more touch points of a month before a couple weeks before whatever that deadline is for registration purposes. send out something that same week that says last week to register. Like for real, you got to get on this or you're not going to have a seat. Make sure that you have that fear of missing out and that time sensitivity in some of those communications that you're sending out via email. Moving to the social side of things, have those save the dates on social, but also have if you've done the events in the past, if you've had testimonials or stories, incorporate those from last year. include any imagery from the previous years. And if this is your first time doing it, really talk through the value of what it is that you're doing and why people are wanting to get involved. Have those volunteer testimonials or something that will provide that value for them. Provide some facts as to why the event is happening so that way people know the value of them being part of that. And then you can also do text and SMS. This is a great way for you to send out those quick hit reminders about the event. This will just be very short information, very quick, saying, "Hey, don't forget to register. Registration ends this Friday. Have the link." Very simple. These are going to be your VIPs. People who opt in to text messaging from you. Those are your VIPs. Those are going to be those people that you want to send out those communications to very quickly because they're the ones that are really excited about what you're doing. If somebody follows you on social, that's great. If somebody joins your mailing list, that's even better. Somebody gives you their personal phone number to send text messages, that's a big deal. So, make sure that you have that opportunity as well. If you have a storefront or a popup or ways that people can connect with you in person, there's also a bunch of great offline options here that you can do for events. Easiest one is going to be QR codes. Have little flyers with a QR code anywhere that people can see them. They scan the QR code, they register for your event. You can make it so that they can be registered by somebody at the front of the organization or of the uh nonprofit that you're serving where they can register using a tool like Constant Contact for registration, but have some offline options for people to register as well. You could do good oldfashioned paper forms if you want. Usually that's a little bit tricky, especially if people don't have the greatest handwriting like me, but having as many different ways for people to connect. And one other thing that we've done that is sometimes helpful too is if you have a smaller event that you're just raising awareness and education, something like that, have a signup sheet right there. Have people sign in. They don't mind. They're there. They understand that most of the time when you're registering for something, there's at least some sort of check-in mechanism so that you can have the um the um opportunity of who's actually attended versus registered, things like that. So have it at those existing events that you're doing as well. All right. So what do you do with that landing page? Now this is funny. So there was one time that I had an event. This was when I was first starting doing events. I made this beautiful flyer. In my opinion, it may not have been that great, but to me it was a very good flyer. It had all of the details that I thought I would need to do. It had a nice picture. It had who was going to be there. It had where it was going to be. It had the details of what was going to happen at that particular event. And I say, "Okay, if anybody has any questions, let me know." Somebody in the back raised their hand and said, "So, what day is it?" I'd forgotten to put the actual date on the flyer that I sent out. Always got to check those things, guys. Always got to check those things. So, who, what, when, and why? What's going to happen? the description of what's happening at the event, when it is, why it matters, why people should show up, and then that call to action for them to be able to register. Now, this one over here, use real imagery as much as possible. If you could use imagery from you instead of AI imagery, things like that, that just makes it even more personal. There's more connection. There's more relationship there. So, even if you have somebody with an iPhone or something that is able to take some pictures along the way, you don't necessarily need those professional photographers, per se, although they're also very helpful to have and they'll usually help you with certain deals if you ask them. But having those image images that are you, that way they're seeing familiar faces and they could say, "Okay, the person on this flyer is the person I'm going to meet at this event." It just adds that personal touch and it's a great way for you to be able to do that. So, even just having somebody there who can answer those questions is a great way to do that. And then social proof, reviews or awards, finding ways to show what's happened previously is a great thing for you to do. And then when you're talking about the email, the emails need to be short. Need to be short and sweet and hard to beat. Have that picture, have that paragraph, have that call to action. And then if you have people who have attended previously, if you have people who have been volunteers or who have made donations in the past, you can segment and be able to send out specific types of emails to specific people. And that's a great way for you to have those targeted groups. That's one thing that's really helpful for collecting registration is you can go back to those people who registered in the past and if they had a great experience, tell them to bring somebody. You could even consider some sort of bring a friend discount if you wanted to do that. But have some sort of connection with them to say, "Hey, thank you so much for attending our event last year. We want to have you here again. Here's some information." great way for you to send out that more personalized invitation to people who have attended or donated previously. When it comes to social photo carousels featuring the events in the past, engaging design and graphics, leverage things like Canva to be able to get those images popping. Still include personal faces, but you can add some pizzazz to that. user generated cont content or a contest some sort of setup there where people are able to help you get the word out for their friends, testimonials, video teasers, collaborations. We've talked through those already, but having those pieces and being able to do those quick snippets of information as part of promoting that event is going to be key. And when you're talking about social, that's also another time to have those save the dates, have things speckled in throughout the rest of your content that you're doing, and then have a couple really big pushes towards the end of that registration process. SMS, we talked about this, those VIP constituents, those people who have gotten connected with you. Include some sort of special offer if you can, that call to action to register. you've got 160 characters to work with. So, make sure it's nice and short. This is going to be the shortest bit of information that you're giving them, but also the most personal and most impactful. So, make sure that you are very intentional on the SMS side of things here. So, a key thing here with SMS, number one, you got to have those optins. People have to opt in specifically for text messaging. Just because they give you a phone number does not mean that you can send out these types of text messages. So having a tool or having a way to collect those is going to be key for that. And then from there, think of SMS as those quick hit VIP type situations. You don't just want to randomly send out text messages to people. You want it to be extremely intentional about whatever it is that's happening. Maybe you have some sort of emergency situation that you're responding to and you need some volunteers. You need people to engage in a different way and you need some more emergency needs there. That's a great way to do that. Or if you have an event coming up, of course, saying last week to register is a great way to do that. Or even if there's some sort of personal message that you want to send to them and say, "Thank you for coming. Thank you for being part of that." is really really great to do that. All right, so providing reminders to register. I've talked about this a little bit, but the idea here once again is don't just one and done. Get an invitation out. Get that save the date. Get on people's calendar and start promoting as soon as you're possibly able to do that. You may not even have all of the details of the event yet, but if at least you have a when and a where, that's a great starting point. Say, "Hey, we got this coming up in October. We've got this coming up in January." Save those dates as much as you can and as quick as you can. Provide those reminders. Don't forget, don't forget. And then a last chance. at least have those three pieces in place so that way people can have that sense of urgency and be able to connect with you. We all know life happens. We all know people get busy. But making sure that you put those pieces intentionally in place because chances are you might forget too if you don't plan ahead to be able to do that. All right, so we talked about QR codes here, but this is also just a a quick reminder. You can use a QR code generator or some of these other tools. If you use the constant contact side, we actually have a QR code generator that automatically happens when you publish the event and I can show that to you in the demo here in a moment. Shortened URLs are helpful so that way it's not a super long URL for them to have to open up. But have as few different ways whenever you put your flyers out for people to register and QR codes are usually the best way to do that. All right, last but not least, let's extend your success beyond the event. So, as I mentioned before, the event is great. Gearing up for the event is great, but what are you doing afterwards? What are some things that you can do to help continue that conversation? First off, send a follow-up email. A great opportunity for you to do this at the very least is if people are registered, they attend the event and there's pictures, give them the link to the photo gallery. Easy way for you to have a response and a connection to them. Thanking them for coming is huge. But then another thing here is asking for feedback. This is something that is so critical when it comes to events because you want to know, you have ideas, you have visions of how you think an event would work, but the people who are there firsthand, a lot of times they will have really great feedback for what would be successful for next time. So asking questions like what went well? Will you plan on coming next year? What is some feedback that you think would make next year's better or whatever those events are? Ask for that feedback. Not only is that encouraging engagement, it shows that you are listening and it shows that they are a key proponent in what you are doing in the events and also in the work that you do. So don't be afraid to ask for feedback and then of course ask them to subscribe. Again, we want to make sure that we're very clear about what we're doing with people's information when they register for events. So just because they come to an event doesn't necessarily mean that they want ongoing communication. We like to assume that and there's a little bit of that implication in the states, but it's always good to just double triple check, especially if you're in Canada or you're in working in Europe and some of those other places that have more explicit permissions. It's always good to have that paper trail. All right. So, rating items on a scale, leaving comments, something related to those next steps. This is a very simple survey. You can dig a little bit deeper if you wanted to do that. I've usually I've I've also done parts of my surveys where I say, "Rate the speaker, rate the food." You know, some of those things are are really helpful for you to be able to gather if it's making sense, if what you brought to the table makes sense. If you did any a walk event in Florida in August and you provide feedback that says, "Hey, maybe we should do this in January when it's not so stinking hot, right?" Having that opportunity for people to leave those comments is a great way for people to do that and have those next steps there. And then recapping your event, sharing those images, having that opportunity for people to hear what happened. And the other thing here too is those results. Be willing to share those results of what happened at the event, how many people attended, how that connects to last year, how much you you earned during that time. If you're able to share that information, great. But at the very least, people see faces. They recognize the value of what you're doing because they see you in action. And again, if you can get those testimonials, if you can get people to share what their experience was, that's a great opportunity for you as well. And then people can also leave comments and feedback on social as well. If they do leave comments, make sure you respond to every single comment, good and bad. You don't just want to keep the good ones. You want to be able to have that conversation and that dialogue as much as possible. Of course, if somebody is just not uh giving you constructive feedback, then you can take action on that. But if it is something that is valuable to you for the events moving forward, respond to those as much as possible. All right. One thing that you can do after the event is done, when you get those optins of people who have subscribed, you can also do an automation here. the automation. The whole purpose of this is to send out those follow-ups and give them those particular u benefits to joining you and your mission as a nonprofit. So, first email, they came to your event, so they may know a little bit about you, but you're also only able to say so much in the 30 to 60 minutes or few hours even that you have of that particular event, right? So tell them about your organization. Tell them about what you're doing. Include a testimonial in that particular email. Features and benefits. Whatever it is that you offer, whatever those pieces are in your mission that you provide is a great way for you to share that second email. Maybe have that go out a week or a few days later. Email testimonial or some sort of a client testimonial, excuse me, or some sort of press release or something that shows what you're doing in the community. And then lastly, asking for that donation or for them to make a a purchase of some sort of merch or something that is helpful for you to be able to further your mission. Having those emails with not all of them asking for a donation, maybe having some sort of call to action there to get them to connect with you, ask questions, and then having a donation specific campaign once they've seen a little bit more about what you're doing is a great way for you to have a nurturing of that relationship and changing them from a subscriber to a lifelong relationship with you. Again, the key is that relationship and that connection with you. All right, so here's some kind of final thoughts before we jump into a demo. And then I'm also going to show you um what the special offer is with Tech Soup and Constant Contact. You want to make sure you stick around for that because there's actually a two-parter. It's going to feel like a bit of an infomercial, but you know what? It's okay. And it's all really, really good stuff that I'm excited for you to take advantage of. But event marketing strategies for building lasting connections. One, choose an event that shows value. Shows value in who you are, value in what you do, and value to them. What is in it for them? How does this connect back to what you are doing? And how can they get involved? Don't just do events to do events. Don't just do an event that somebody else has done with huge success. Maybe talk to them about it. see the value of it, but if it doesn't quite connect with what your mission is, take that and translate it into something that can take the good stuff out of those conversations. Learn from each other and be able to pick that event that shows value. Doing that multi-channel approach, don't just settle for one newsletter or one social post. Make sure that you have a schedule of communication as much as you possibly can. Again, four to six months out if possible for a save the date, maybe a month or two months beforehand as a reminder, and then a week or two before the actual deadline is a great place to start from a timeline perspective. And then, of course, follow up. Make sure that you are following up with that information, with how the event went, collecting that feedback, making sure that people see that you are valuing their opinions and their thoughts, and then being able to follow up. If possible, reach out to those registrants individually, even with cards or something like that. It's a huge event that might take some time, but as much as you can add that personal VIP touch, you're going to be able to make a great impact in your relationships there. All right. Now, I'm going to I'm going to flip the script a little bit here. I'm going to show you a little bit of Constant Contact, but I do want to show you the actual value here of what you're able to do with the Tech Soup discount. So, hope the guys and the team behind me don't mind. But I want to show you the special offer. The uh but wait, there's more, which is kind of like that late night infomercial I'll show you in a second, and then we will get into the demo and do Q&A. But I think this is a really great thing to start with. So, if you are a new customer to Constant Contact, you are able to request your access code through Tech Soup, and there's a $5 admin fee between now and September 4th and 5:00 p.m. Pacific time. If you sign up through that setup, you get 50% off your Constant Contact monthly subscription for as long as you need the account. So, make sure that you are doing it directly through Tech Soup. You get that access link. That's going to be a great way for you to be able to leverage Constant Contact and especially over the next week or so, you've got that lower admin fee. Here's the But wait, there's more. Okay, so there's Techup Plus. Here's an opportunity for you to be able to take advantage of TechUp Plus. There's going to be 50 orgs that if they activate a new Constant Contact account by September 11th, they will also receive a one year, one free year of Tech Suit Plus. So notice the dates slightly different here. September 11th for this particular opportunity, but if you sign up before the 4th of September, you'll get that $5 admin fee. So that's a great way for you to do that. And the other thing is you will also get a exclusive four session deep dive on growing through constant contact. So this is specifically for these 50 orgs here. So you receive this information and if we get more than those 50 signups then it will be selected at random. There will be 50 organizations and you'll receive an email a week later essentially letting you know that you have TechU plus and that you're able to register for those four session deep dives there. So wanted to get that in your ear. We'll put the link in the chat of how to sign up on that. With that being said, I am going to show you a little bit of Constant Contact. All right. So, this is the Constant Contact interface. Constant Contact is a digital marketing tool that allows you to do things like email newsletters, social posting, event promotion. And we're going to focus again on the event side of things here so that you could see what is available for you and then uh we can talk through how to promote it and then we'll take questions at the very end. So I'm going to do a petwalk event because it is National Dog Day today. I didn't make that connection while I put this together, but you know what? It worked out. So I'm going to show you how I got there. The event is made, but I'm going to show you how I got here. You've got the ability to put a title, a description, what type of event it is, physical location of the event itself, when the event is, who the event contact is going to be. You fill out all of this information to create the event itself, and then you can also have the imagery that you want to do there. Now, I know this is an AI image. You're not going to do that. But just for the sake of example today, this is the flyer that we have. And then you also have this opportunity for tickets. Now, in this case, I have it as a free event, but you can also do payments here. So, you can connect a Stripe account or a PayPal account to be able to. There's um processing fees and things that you'll want to keep in mind as you build this out. But you also are able to have your registrants absorb those should you want to do that as part of the registration process. But that's just as simple as going in here, changing the price. You can have a few different options in here. You can have a range. So have an early bird special or something like that should you want to do that. Generate a printable ticket if you'd like to do that. Make a ticket required for all registrants. And you could even have specific promo codes or ticket prices that are available based on them putting in some sort of code there. And then you can have a form itself. So you could have it be as simple as first name, last name, email address. I have a pet's name option here. You can have food allergies here. There's a bunch of different types of questions that you can ask that we could help you build if you decide to move forward with us on this, but you can have custom fields or any of the phone number, address information, things like that. And then once the event is done, you are able to publish it. And then when you publish it, you'll get both a landing page that is automatically generated for you. It'll look like this. And then people can register for it right there. Or you can also just have the registration link itself where people can go through and register for the event right here. And notice I have that keep me updated. This is that subscription aspect that we're talked about before so that people can join your list that way. You also have the ability to create an event invitation as well. Very simple here. And then they could just register. You can customize this. And then one other thing that you could do just as a side note is if you ever have an event where you just need kind of a yes or no hand raising type experience, you can also do what are called RSVP um RSVPs in the body of the email here. So, if I go down here, that's what this is. So, this doesn't connect to a whole registration flow. All it is is I send an email to them. I have the location. I have where the event is. And all they would have to do is say, "I'll be there maybe or I can't make it." And then you would get that list of the people who clicked on those specific things. So again, if there's no cost or you don't have additional details, this is even an easier way for you to just get those hand raisers on your actual registration there. And then from here, you are able to get the registrant information and the QR codes as well. So let me go back here. If I want to share the QR code that goes to the landing page, I just click on this. This is the QR code for that registration or that landing page, excuse me. This is the QR code for the actual registration form itself. So, it'll really depend on if they need to get more details on the event itself. If that's the case, then you'll do the landing page QR code and then they'll register after that. If it's a very simple flyer like a walk and you just have that flyer have the quick pieces of information they need, the QR code to the registration form is perfect. That way they just register and they're good to go. And then from there, you're able to see who those registrants are. I can click in here. I can see that I've registered. I could see what kind of ticket if you have multiple different tickets. There's a little bit of editing that I can do on the details. I can cancel registration. So this would give you that ability to collect that information and then be able to export it so that you could then do those follow-ups as needed to those people who have attended the event. So very very simple tool that you can use. You can leverage this for the email side of things for social. If you wanted to put something directly on your website, we even have a widget that you can put that will grab a list of all of the events that you have coming up if you have multiple and people can just click on the one that they want to register for directly from your website. So you can be as robust as you want on this particular setup here. So, just wanted to show you a little bit about how you could leverage Constant Contact for the event, how you can do those promotions as well. With that said, let me jump over here and let's take some questions. I know there's quite a few in here. So, let me jump in here. All right. So, the first question I have is from Isabella. Do you have tips on starting SMS? So, we talked briefly about this, but the key here is going to be ask for permission first. Make sure that they know that you are sending text messages to them. That way, number one, they're expecting it, but number two, they don't just opt out or think it's just somebody um sending them a text message that they didn't sign up for. It's the same type of thing as email. But just making sure that uh you do that permission and we have landing pages that can help you with getting those signups or if you have a a way to get people to opt in through forms that they fill out. That's a great starting point. And then from there, keeping those text messages short and sweet. Have a quick call to action to go to the website, to go to the registration form, but making sure that you don't just do it every time you send out a newsletter or every time you do social. We want it to be very intentional and very precise to who it is that you're sending and what it is that you're sending to them. And then just make sure that it's 160 characters or less. Now, one thing for if you leverage Constant Contact for the SMS, and a lot of the tools are the same way, it does have the name of the business and a reply stop to unsubscribe at the bottom of every text message. That's a requirement for um you know federal laws and things like that. So keep in mind that that will take some of that character limit. So you probably have between 120 and 130 characters to be able to work with when you're doing those text messages. So just keep that in mind. But that is another great way for people to know that it's coming from you and to be able to make those connections. Really, really great question. Hopefully that helps. And then Ann, uh, great, um, segue. So, if you do want to sign up for SMS, yes, you do have to register. It is going to be 10 DLC phone numbers if you register through our system. We will use 10digit phone numbers that the text messages will come from, but you do register for it. You do um, fill out your paperwork that is the same name as what you have in your tax documentation. You provide your EIN number, all of those things. It's a registration process that usually takes a few days and then once you're approved for that then you could start collecting those phone numbers to be able to send those text messages. Really, really great question. All right, so um and I'm probably going to say it wrong, but but Deji, I see your question. Give me just one second to read through it here. Okay. So the question is for um civic organizations and for organizations where you are u working with a few different groups like government entities and things like that. How do you connect with businesses? That's a really good question. You can have some events that are essentially neutral, right? And then people can can join and connect and you can actually ask for those partnerships across the board. And as long as people are for your mission and as long as people are connecting with you and they care about what you're doing in the community as that civic organization, then they'll connect with you on that. And you could provide, you know, what the event is, what it is that you're doing. Those are great ways for you to be able to do that. But keeping that event as um open as possible to the different groups is a great way for you to do that. Or if it is something that is very particular, trying to find that group that would pertain to that particular um type of event. So I know that's not the best uh answer, but at least starting off with any of those kind of neutral ground um events that you can do is a great way for you to be able to connect with that. And then if people are willing to connect with you, then that's a great way for you to be able to do the partnership there. It can definitely be a little tricky. >> Thomas, I might um if you can hear me, I might just add to that, right? Like you just have to ask, right? Uh you know, the worst thing you get from a business is, "Hey, no thanks. We're not interested." Um but you won't know until you ask. >> Absolutely. Great call out, Rafie. I appreciate that. All right, let's see. We've got a couple more here. Please keep the questions coming. Um, let me Okay, so Isabella has tried to do surveys, so that's great, but there's been just a little bit of a hard time getting feedback on that aspect of things. Post on socials, have a paper form. Okay, so Isabelle is actually going to be doing a raffle as part of the survey follow-up, which is a great opportunity to do that. Ultimately, you're gonna get a small percentage of people that actually take the time to fill out that survey. But the good news is those are going to be your invested people, right? So don't necessarily worry as much about the quantity of responses as the quality of the responses, right? So if you have an event for 100 people and only 10 people complete that form, those 10 people were in it. They were invested. They were poured in and they were excited about what you're doing. So much so that they took that five minutes to be able to fill out that survey. You could definitely do a raffle. One thing that I have actually seen other people do as well is as part of the event, they actually had a QR code at the table that was actually people were able to fill out a quick little survey very very quick right at the event itself. And that was even another way so that way you didn't have to worry about them missing an email or worry about them going back to their social pages. Hopefully, if the event was so great, they're already posting on social and you're already starting to get some of that feedback. collect that information too if possible. Have some sort of hashtag or have some sort of fun way for people to post on social as part of the event and that way you can kind of follow along with the feedback that people are getting on that aspect of things too. But I wouldn't focus so much on quantity of responses as quality. by all means do that raffle, have those opportunities for people to provide that feedback, but um really just give that those opportunities and take advantage of the feedback that you do receive there. Really great question. All right. And then Darby, let's see here. Okay. Okay. So, this is in reference to the four emails. So, it doesn't have to be four emails. That was just a recommendation. You can have at the very least that welcome email. You could have a second email that shares a little bit more about what you do. I would say within about that first month of them communicating with you. So, have that immediate one, have another one maybe a few days or a week later, and then maybe wait a week, week and a half for the third, and then a week, week and a half for the fourth. That way it's not too much, but it is staying top of mind and you're striking while the iron's hot, as they say, for those communications. But really, part of it is going to just be um some testing and just making sure that you're offering the communication, you're offering the different uh options that are available for them. And then tying that in with follow-ups if you can do call follow-ups or a note followup that says, "Hey, thanks for attending." if you're able to hit them in a couple different touch points, that's going to definitely help from that perspective. So hopefully that helps. But I would say if you do do three or four emails, have it within that first month of that initial of of them connecting with you is a great place for you to for you to start there. All right, I think we got all of the questions. Let me just double check and make sure there's not anything in the chat or Rafy or Jimmy if there's anything else that you're missing. Otherwise, just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you for taking some time. We're coming up on things like Giving Tuesday, which is crazy to think about already that we're almost at the tail end of the year here. But hopefully this was beneficial. Hopefully this gave you some ideas on how you can leverage events and how you can stay in communication with your constituents and with those people who are getting behind you in your mission. Make sure you take advantage of the Tech Soup offer to be able to get that $5 on the admin fee for up till September 4th as well as the 50 orgs that if you sign up by the 11th, you'll be able to take advantage of TechUp Plus for a year and that exclusive training. I really appreciate you all. Thank you again for coming and for what you are doing in your communities. Hope you have a good rest of your day. Thank you.