Fundraising with video: My strategy from A to Z
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ve probably picked up on a few key themes that I tend to circle around:
You should be expecting more from your videos; if you’re investing in video, it’s worth making sure you’re fully benefiting from its potential
The smart way to use video is as part of a deliberate marketing strategy, a plan to build lasting relationships with donors
With this strong base of support, you’ll be able to focus on making a difference (instead of constantly scrambling to meet fundraising goals)
Long-time readers probably even have a good sense by now of which videos to make in which circumstances and how to get the most use out of them.
But in blog format, this information has been coming at you piecemeal, a little bit here and a little bit there. And for some of you, maybe that’s all you want – ideas that are short, to the point, and easy to digest and keep in mind.
But if you’re interested, I recently decided to take a deeper dive. I actually walked through my whole process, explaining every step that goes into creating a marketing plan and the videos to match, including:
My method for identifying the most lucrative target demographic for fundraising
How to craft a powerful message that will inspire your audience to act
The four stages of building strong donor relationships, with a full chapter on each one
A series of appendices guiding you through making videos in-house, covering topics such as how to get the best sound bites in interviews, what kind of visuals to include, tips and tricks for getting a good response to videos on your website or at events, and more.
If you’re happy with the blog, feel free to stick with it. I’m still going to be putting out tips every month, including exploring new ideas as I come across or develop them. But if you want to be able to process my approach to video marketing in a more organized and in-depth way, the book is meticulously laid out to help you do just that. It also covers a lot of new content that I don’t really have the space or context to go into in any individual blog post or series of posts.
This will probably be particularly helpful as a handbook if you want to start making videos in-house. My goal is to help you set clear objectives for any project, so you have a concrete sense of what you should be aiming to accomplish and how to measure success. I also provide you with a set of guidelines for how to achieve those goals, including practical instructions for how to produce a video.
On top of that, the book is also just a good way to start learning about marketing. The more information you have, the more empowered you’ll be to make strategic decisions whenever you start a new project or hire a new vendor. No matter the project, being informed means that you’ll know what to focus on and what to let go, how to maximize impact and how to track your results. You won’t waste time wondering how to prioritize or waste money on videos that you end up having little use for. This ties into another particular goal of mine in writing the book: offering a way for organizations without a big budget to benefit from exclusive marketing concepts.
If you do it right, you should be able to achieve a state of sustainable growth. That’s the core of my approach – not quick tricks that provide short term revenue boosts only to fall off, but long-term relationship-building that results in a reliable income stream, so you can get back to focusing on the work you love.
Take a peek at the first chapter here (scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the offer) and let me know what you think!