VARIABLE ONE: THE MOTTO

Decide upon the purposes of your fundraising events – whether it’s only meant to be a charity event to raise money for a community or an NGO. Is it supposed to raise awareness of any kind, or is simply a way of reaching out to people to make them feel connected to your brand.

VARIABLE TWO: THE TARGET

Get all your committees together to work out the target amount that you look forward to raising at your event so that all your teams will have this amount in mind while carrying out their respective tasks. This will be the net amount you manage to raise, that is, the amount raised at the event minus your expenses.

VARIABLE THREE: THE BUDGET

Frame a budget that maps all sorts of expenses that you will be incurring – transportation, catering, security, entertainment, ticketing – to name some. As far as ticketing is concerned, you can always rely on Yapsody to not charge you for fundraisers, while you invest the same amount on other unique fundraising events.

VARIABLE FOUR: THE BENEFACTORS

You should be having a “host committee” comprising of the keynote speakers, donors, business tycoons, or celebrities, who act as influencers for your fundraisers. While they contribute a great deal to your event, they also increase your event ticket sales. For your benefactors, Yapsody lets you have a custom questionnaire to know them better.

VARIABLE FIVE: THE AUDIENCE

List out the audience you wish to invite to your fundraiser, whether it’s a general event that can be attended by anyone, or whether a certain group of people is supposed to be a part of it.

VARIABLE SIX: THE CHECKLIST

Next, you decide what kind of set-up you require, that is, the venue, date, time, theme, and food. Prepare checklists to make sure you’re meeting all these requirements.

VARIABLES SEVEN & EIGHT: SALES & MARKETING

Market your event on social media and make sure your promotions are catchy. Now that you have people who are interested, you need to have the best event ticketing software. With Yapsody you can accept donations of any amount using your Online Ticket Store.

VARIABLE NINE: THE GRATITUDE

After a great event, don’t leave your benefactors and team members sulking because you didn’t convey a simple “thank you” for their work. Make it a point to thank them.

Also, check out some of the easy and unique fundraising ideas for nonprofits and why it is important to Plan Your Fundraising event with Yapsody

The Yapsody ticketing platform is the ideal launchpad that can give your fundraising event ideas event a boost in the right direction. Get started today.

The post Nine Important Variables For Planning Fundraisers appeared first on Yapsody.

Even paid marketing tools, like PPC, can prove to be terrible investments if they’re not dealt with appropriately. You may end up overspending and yet not receive desired results. This only leads to one conclusion – no matter how much you spend on marketing tools, your conversion rates eventually lie in your own hands.

This particular blog post will help you understand the most popular PPC model, Google AdWords, so that you can improvise on your AdWords campaign and get maximum returns out of your investment.

The first step towards understanding Google AdWords would be to understand the definitions of the metrics involved:

1. Impressions and clicks inform you about the number of people who have viewed your advertisement and how many have actually clicked on it.
2. Click-through rate (CTR) measures the number of clicks against the number of impressions. Basically, it tells you how many people, out of the ones who viewed your advertisement, also clicked on it.
3. Cost-per-click (CPC) is the average amount per click that you’re paying for your ad. This cost depends on three factors, namely bid, competition, and quality score, which will be discussed later.

What is Quality Score?

Quality Score, or QS, is Google’s algorithm to calculate the strength of your keywords, based on which the position of your advert in the results pages is determined. Lower your QS, higher will be the price you’ll pay. QS is measured on a scale of 10, and it’s at this score that you get the cheapest price per click. You can increase your QS by improving the relevance of your keyword to the ad and landing page. A good score might fetch you the top 4 positions in the search results.

The Significance of Account Structure

AdWords follows a Hierarchial Structure and you need to understand its significance before you start investing in advertisements. If your account structure isn’t clearly defined, your entire strategy might fall apart.

The first step is to have a crystal clear idea about your purpose. You might actually want to write down the key demographics of your target audience and what kind of keywords they might enter in their searches. For example, if you’re hosting a non-profit event, your target audience is likely to search for “non-profit events”, “charity events”, “fundraisers” etc.

Next, divide your account into campaigns and ad groups that follow an understandable nomenclature. This makes things easier for your future reference and also for your teammates if they’re going to be accessing the account, too.

What kind of keywords?

While reading the previous section, you might have lingered over the words – what kind of keywords they might enter in their searches. Even though you’re focusing on your target audience, pointing out the exact keywords that they’re likely to use can be quite a feat.

The best thing to do would be to fall back on Google’s autocomplete suggestions when you search for the keywords. Also, when the search results are displayed, scroll to the bottom of the page to find related searches and voila, more keywords!

Know Thy Competition

Yes, know them very well, especially their keywords. Compile a list of all your competitors and note the search terms they’ve been advertising for. Analyze their adverts to discover their choice of keywords. You could use SEMrush to get an insight into what’s working for your competitors.

Apart from SEMrush, also try the Google Keyword Planner that gives you keyword ideas if you input a landing page. Simply paste one of your competitor’s web pages in the tool, refine the results using the category filter and get blown away by the results. Give yourself a minute to come back to senses and put together the huge amount of information that’s at your disposal now – volumes per month, level of competition, and the suggested bid for every keyword.

Define Your Niche

Don’t just be restricted to everyday keywords, instead, find longer-tail keywords (which consist of more than 4 words) and ensure that your ads get displayed for these searches. There are two primary advantages of using longer-tail keywords: less competition and increased precision, both of which directly imply reduced cost and increased conversion rate.

Fix a Budget

When you’re defining a budget, make sure you’re taking into account everything. And by ‘everything’, I mean EVERYTHING. The smallest of internal allowances have to be accounted for before you actually go ahead and start spending on any kind of advertising, including AdWords. Keep a few factors in mind when you are formulating the budget, for example, the price at which you selling your event tickets, whether you’re aiming for a break-even or actually wanting to earn profits, how much profits are you thinking of, and so on. Knowing the answers to these questions will help you discover your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).

Know Your Worth

More like, know the worth of your keywords. Your CPA is your budget limit; it helps you set the maximum bid for your Ad Groups and also allows you to tweak the performance of an individual keyword.

If your cost per conversion surpasses your CPA, you might want to straighten out a few flaws:

• Your choice of keywords is poor
• You’ve incorrectly used keyword match types
• There’s a lack of negative keywords
• Your QS is very low
• There’s a Keyword to Ad copy mismatch
• Bids that are too high or too low

And so on.

It’s not about the Money

If your ulterior motive is not really to earn profits, that gives you all the more a reason to clearly define what you wish to gain from your event. Your Call to Action could be aimed at gaining more subscribers or increased social engagement; in any case, you need to have a tracking system in place. Rely on Google Analytics and setup conversion tracking. These goals can then be imported into AdWords and assigned a value and category wherever necessary.

Now That You’re Done…

Let’s begin!

That’s right, you’ve got your AdWords campaign in place, but where exactly are you going to drive all the traffic to? That’s correct – your landing page!

NOT your homepage, folks, your landing page.

If you’re paying a large sum for paid searches, it won’t make sense that these direct to your homepage because it just makes the user frown and give up. Your landing page should fulfill certain requirements, and these include:

• The message displayed on your landing page should align with your advertisement.
• Use headings, sub-heading, and bullets to keep the message brief and understandable.
• Eradicate all other distractions (menus, other CTAs, pop-ups and so on).
• Elaborately describe your offers and USPs.
• Testimonies and reviews act as good supports.
• Make sure your CTA isn’t vague and ambiguous.
• Make it crisp, elegant, and fast.

Be Friendly

It’s almost a ‘moo’ point (if I were to go all Joey-like here), but you need to understand that I mean mobile-friendly and not just friendly-friendly. Your adverts have to be optimized for mobile devices as well as desktop because Google’s search algorithm prioritizes mobile optimized results. AdWords allows you to create mobile-friendly adverts, and you could actually dedicate a separate Ad Group to mobile only. Always keep an eye on mobile vs. desktop performance and keep making changes accordingly. Use conversion tracking for the same.

Call Me Maybe?

If your campaign is aimed at taking bookings or enquiries over the phone, use click-to-call ads, where a phone call is triggered directly when a user clicks on the ad and he will be saved the trouble of visiting the website and fetching your number. This saves a lot of time, you provide a good user experience, and you can also expect better conversion rates with this simple tactic.

Test the Waters

Before you dive in right away, it’s always better to check the temperature and measure the depth.

Your assumptions about the campaign could go horribly wrong because, let’s accept it, we’re dealing with people and people can be very unpredictable at times. So, keep testing everything: keywords, synonyms, and related terms. Test different landing pages, different ads in the same ad group, basically everything you can.

Also, Google’s default setting prioritizes spending money by attracting most clicks. But, you’re more focused on getting better conversions and ROI, so always set it to “rotate indefinitely” even if AdWords warns you against it.

The Beginning

This is a taste of what it’s like to actually plan out an AdWords campaign and by now you know that you can’t get done with it simply by paying the amount. Yes, there are a lot of other things to factor, other measures to take, other plans to carry out to make sure you’re actually getting good returns from investing in PPC, but that doesn’t mean you should get scared and not give it a try at all. It may look like a hassle at first, but once you start working on it and carry out one campaign successfully, you’ll have the framework registered in your mind and the subsequent times won’t be as difficult. Remember to start slow, start small, and plan out every step. Focus on your most important conversion first and expand only after you’ve achieved success. Make sure your landing page is relevant to your advert and refrain from using your homepage.

In conclusion, I’ll just say that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you’re learning from them and doing better the next time. All the best!

The post Kickstarting Your Google AdWords Campaign for Online Events in 2020 appeared first on Yapsody.

And what does Christmas bring apart from joy and prosperity and mistletoes? Loads and loads of shopping and spending and partying, of course. Which is why you, as someone with a business to run, could use this festive season to your advantage and while you attempt to do so, these promotional tips could come really handy.

1. 50% DISCOUNT

Even posing as a sub-title in a blog post, those words act like eyeball magnets. Though it’s a very old promotional tactic, you could give it a savvy edge while luring customers. Pick out the biggest spenders to offer a discount, or run a competition. Time your discounts so that they stay in demand. For example, Yapsody continues to offer a 50% rebate on Reserved Seating owing to the overbearing response from our presenters. (Now, that’s a promotional tactic, if you see what I did there. *wink*)

2. GIFT CARDS

You need some stock calculation with this tactic to make sure what you’re offering always seems fresh and new. Rotate your stock and keep gift cards limited to a specific range of stock, mostly incorporating your bestsellers. Keep in mind what your customers really need and want while drawing up the gift cards and ensure a fresh stock on December 26.

3. 12 DAYS OF GIVEAWAYS

If you watch The Ellen Show, you can act smug and have the “I know what this is about” face on. This is a classic Christmas theme and you can definitely use it as a promotional strategy by offering discounts on twelve products, a different one every day in the twelve days leading up to Christmas. You’ll be able to expose a wide range of your products to your customers and push them to actually try them out.

4. IN-STORE AUCTIONS

For all customers with a big amount on their receipts, you could ask them to carry their receipts to an in-store auction where they can bid for products, starting at a minimum $5 maybe. Your sales are bound to skyrocket if you try this out.

5. OFFERS FOR THEM, BY THEM

Customers often have favorite products when they consider stores and brands. You can offer them a choice to get any product they like at a flat 20% discount. Don’t automatically restock the products that have been bought, because new and fresh products will spark more interest. On the other hand, if you’re a premium brand, give your customers complementary goods on regular purchases instead of offering flat discounts as this will add more value to your image.

6. REWARD YOUR SPECIAL CUSTOMERS

If you’re a store, don’t wait for your best and values customers to walk in to get them introduced to your special offers. Print out fliers or pamphlets and have them delivered to them. Give them privileged or personalized discounts on products they like. If you’re an online brand, you could mail them their coupon codes and offers. Making them feel special in this season would easily lead up to them opening their wallets.

But, don’t make this a one-time thing. If you really like a girl and are going to ask her out for Christmas Eve, you’ll keep her engaged and interested months before that. It works the same way with your customers, too.

7. HOST A CHRISTMAS EVENT

An invite-only event will speed up your promotions and add a real spark to your Christmas offers. Handpick special customers and send them free plus-one invites to your Christmas event where you can offer 50% discounts on your best products. Use Yapsody for selling your event tickets online to make your event look professional and top-notch. Add good food, some music, and your event will be the talk of the town. Not only will your customers feel valued, people will try to get on the invite list by becoming loyal to your brand or store.

8. TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS

And treat them right. This not only refers to the kind of service you’re providing, this means you ought to give them stuff that they really want and would appreciate. Know your customers and treat them to the kind of things they’d like – an exquisite dinner, a sports event, a musical at the Broadway etc. Whatever you offer, make sure it reflects the image of your brand.

9. GIFT HAMPERS

This is a domain where you can go absolutely crazy with the promotions. You can have tailor-made hampers for individual customers, and you can include new products that you want to introduce your customers to. Hampers can be big or small and don’t necessarily have to be expensive.

10. TEAM UP

Partner with other businesses that are relevant to your own or belong to the same industry and offer joint packages. You could also tie up with a charity and do some good to the world. This will not only help you in building a good brand image, but also play your part in this world during the auspicious Christmas season.

A Merry Christmas, y’all!

The post 10 Tips for Last Minute Christmas Promotions appeared first on Yapsody.