You’ve launched your campaign and you’re probably wondering…now what?! Don’t worry, in this chapter, we’ll take you through what happens after your campaign is up and running.
First of all, take a moment to do a little happy dance and celebrate the fact that your campaign is officially LIVE! Hooray!
Okay, now that you’ve acknowledged your accomplishment, let’s get right back to work because, let’s face it, your campaign isn’t going to promote itself (no matter how incredibly awesome it is).
Here’s a list of guidelines for how to successfully promote your campaign.
Create Your Promotional Calendar
Trust us when we say that determining a promotional calendar ahead of time is going to be a huge help. That way you’ll have it all planned out from the get-go and you’ll know what to post and when.
Start by looking at the length of your campaign. Go ahead and mark the launch date, the middle of campaign date, and the end of the campaign date on your calendar. These dates will be important to note as you strive to keep momentum going and as you make the push for final sales.
Now, spend some time thinking about how you want to schedule out your campaign promotions. Using a variety of promotional content across different platforms will help keep things fresh and exciting. Once you’ve decided on your promotional content, start filling out your calendar with what promotions you’ll do on different days throughout the course of your campaign.
Download Our Promotion Checklist
We’ve created a free Promotion Checklist to show how you can promote your campaign in its entirety. This can be a great jumping-off point for you as you build out your promotional calendar. Download it, print it out, and use it to help you along the way!
Rally Your Core Community Members
In Chapter 1, we asked you to identify who the core members of your audience were. These are the people who will be your biggest supporters during the process of promoting your campaign. They are the ones you can count on to buy your products, tag you in merch photos, share about your campaign, and re-share your content. Loop them in on your promotional calendar so they will know what to expect and when.
Promote Your Campaign Across Social Channels
There are many different social channels you can use to share your campaign with your community. Utilizing all of your channels will help you access an even wider audience.
Think back to how you answered when we asked how you typically interact with members of your audience. Do you usually communicate with them over Instagram? Facebook? Your website? Emails? These are just a few social channels you may be using. Pick two primary and three secondary communication channels to update during the length of your campaign. You want to reach as many people at once as possible and you want to leave a lasting impression.
Linktree
Linktree helps you share everything you create, curate, and sell in one link.
Bonfire has partnered with Linktree on an integration that allows your community to shop your top campaigns or even visit your full store without ever leaving your profile!
This integration is a free and easy way to create a seamless buying experience across all your platforms – Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, etc.
Once you’ve enabled the Linktree integration, add your unique Linktree URL to all of your social media bios and be sure to tell your community to visit your “link in bio” to check out your Bonfire store!
Helpful tip
To learn how to manage your Linktree integration, check out this article.
Social Media
Social media is one of the easiest ways to share your campaign. Which platform do you have the most followers on? Which of your social media accounts has the most engagement? Perhaps people love watching your Instagram Stories, or your Youtube videos. Take advantage of the places where you already have a captive audience.
Social media analytics can also help you determine typical times your audience is active on your select platforms. This will help you decide when to post about your campaign.
Social Media Promo Guides
Your Website
Your website is a great place to showcase your campaign! Create a website banner and include your campaign link. You could also feature photos of your community rocking your merch on your website, or share videos of the organization you’re fundraising for.
Email Newsletters
Many organizations and brands have established email mailing lists. Take advantage of sending a dedicated email newsletter to your contacts announcing your Bonfire campaign.
Tools like Mailchimp can help you create an awesome-looking email in just a few minutes and also schedule when it will be sent. You can even save a specific list to send the emails to, instead of spamming your entire contact list.
Learn more about email:
What to Talk About and Share
Now that you know where to post, let’s break down the main elements of what you should talk about over the course of your campaign. Varying the content in each post will help you avoid sounding like a broken record and will help you keep your supporters engaged.
Here are some topics to work with when deciding what to talk about and share in your promotional posts.
The Design
You worked hard to create a shirt design that your community would love, and now’s the time to show it off. A simple graphic of your t-shirt works well on social media. If you took the advice from Chapter 1 and purchased a few of your products ahead of time, you can take some photos of you or your friends/colleagues/community members wearing the products that you are selling. As you share photos of your merch, include explanations for the design choices you made. This will help people get a feel for your passion and investment in your campaign.
The Impact
Supporters like to know that their money will make an immediate, measurable impact on your goals. In your promotional content, explain the specifics of what proceeds from your campaign will accomplish. If your campaign is helping impact a community or cause for good, talk about it. Engage your audience in the bigger picture of what you’re doing by sharing the cause behind your campaign.
The Deadline
Bonfire sells and prints products from your campaign in batches to help you maximize sales. Take advantage of the batch deadline to develop a sense of urgency with your buyers. Encourage supporters to purchase before it’s too late. Be sure to let people know when the current batch of your campaign is winding down so that folks on the fence will be reminded to purchase.
In the age of same-day delivery, the idea of buying a shirt and getting it a few weeks later feels unnatural. Ease their concerns by letting them know when shirts will print and ship.
If your community is interested in receiving their shirts quicker, you could use our print-on-demand option. While this option does come with a small hit to your overall profits, print-on-demand allows shirts to be processed, printed, and shipped on an individual basis as orders come in.
Amplify Your Message
In order to have a successful campaign, you have to make sure enough people know about it. Here are a few ways you can be sure you’re spreading the word far and wide about your campaign.
Engage Your Supporters
Maintain supporter engagement throughout your campaign by keeping them in the loop about your progress. Let them know about important campaign dates, milestones you hit, and when you’ve reached (or surpassed) your fundraising goal. Updates like these will help your community feel connected to your campaign. People tend to get excited and stay excited when they feel their purchase is making a difference.
Encourage Shares
Ask your buyers to share, re-tweet, and re-post about your campaign on their social media profiles. Have them tag you in merch photos and unboxing videos. Celebrate your 20th, 50th, and 100th buyers! These simple-asks help your community feel like they’re an active part of your campaign’s progress.
Use Boosted Posts
If you have a business page on Facebook, you could consider using boosted posts to reach a larger audience. It might seem counterintuitive to pay to get the word out on a free site like Facebook, but boosted posts have the potential to massively increase your sales.
Invest in Targeted Ads
If you have a significant budget to work with, consider investing in targeted ads to help get your merchandise in front of more people.
Make sure to use targeted ads strategically to get the most out of your investment. When deciding which platforms to partner with for your ads, focus on the platforms your supporters use regularly, as well as the platforms where you interact with your supporters the most often.
After an initial push of targeted ads, many sellers have found that they can switch back to relying on other marketing strategies.
Offer Promo Codes
Another fun way to encourage sales is to offer promo codes to your buyers. You could give promo codes as a reward for your most loyal customers, as a gift for first-time customers, or perhaps even as an incentive for signing up for your mailing list. You are able to choose how long your promo code lasts, so you could offer them for a limited run, or for a long stretch of time. There are so many creative ways you could offer promo codes to your customers. Play around and see what works best for you.
Read more:
Introducing Promo Codes for Bonfire Sellers and Buyers
How to Use Promo Codes to Increase Your Merch Sales
Assess Campaign Progress
While actively promoting your campaign, it’s beneficial to pause from time to time and assess your campaign progress. If you’re interested in checking your sales stats, you can do so in your Bonfire Dashboard.
Check in with your community – are they loving your products? Are they excited to share about your campaign? Do they have any suggestions for products and/or designs they would like to see offered in the future?
It’s okay to reassess your strategies along the way – in fact, we encourage it. If you realize something isn’t working, take the time to change it. If you find something that seems to be working well, lean into it. Be open to feedback you might receive, celebrate the wins, and use what you learn to help inspire and motivate what’s next for you and your campaign.
You did it! You planned your campaign timeline, designed and created your products, launched your campaign, and put together a promotional calendar. Wow! That’s impressive.
We knew all along that you were a pro, we hope you know it now, too.
Written by: Hayden Ireland / Content Specialist
Illustrated by: Madison Summers / Lead Marketing Designer