How to plan marketing for social causes

Marketing for Social Causes: Like Pieces of a Puzzle

McQuillen Creative is dedicated to marketing for social causes as much as businesses. We have learned a lot from working with non-profits and fundraising consultants. When you’re putting together a campaign, it’s important to keep a few things in mind for your initial push. Your first posts are supposed to set a tone for messages to come. Initially, you’ll want to create a checklist for these posts. We see it too often where businesses and organizations leave out key elements in their social media posts. So here are five things you should always have for your posts to drive engagement.

  1. Create a short and clear message.
  2. Make your call for action prominent.
  3. Include a link to a specific page.
  4. Keep your brand and image consistent.
  5. Encourage sharing among your audience.

Keep The Message Simple

We get that you care deeply about your cause. Your organization’s mission is what drives you to wake up in the morning. Sometimes, you’ll want to go on-and-on for hours about what you care about. Unfortunately, people don’t have time for that on social media. When marketing for social causes, you need to get your point across quickly.

In journalism, there is a concept called “burying the lede.” This happens when the most important part of a story is buried under a mountain of general information. When you create your post, you need to know what your most important fact is. Once your “who, what, where, why, how” is established, STOP! These posts are supposed to be short. The next part is the most important element.

Make Your Audience Move

Once you make your message, tell your supporters to do something. Did you capture their attention? Tell them to act. Do you need volunteers? Are you raising money? Should your audience spread awareness? The answer to these questions is a call for action.

Create a call for action for every post when you’re marketing for social causes. For example, it’s not enough that a post gets X amount of likes. What did your audience do beyond just seeing your message? If you made a clear call for action, they will have done something more.

Links Are Everything in Marketing for Social Causes

Next, you should make sure your posts link to somewhere. Be it a landing page, your website, or a registration form, it’s important to send your audience somewhere. Furthermore, always include a link even if your goal is to just make an affirmative message.

Keep in mind, links are a gateway for your supporters to interact with your organization. Additionally, it helps your website gain traffic easily. You’ll always have competition on Google, especially against bigger organizations. Social media offers a better opportunity to grab your audience and make them act.

McQuillen Creative marketing for social causes

We approach every social media post like a puzzle and every piece fits together perfectly.

Your Image Matters

As a graphic design company, we make our social media to strike our audience visually. We believe in making imagery that sells a product or a cause. There are tools available that make creating graphical elements easy. But sometimes a professional touch makes a huge difference.

If you don’t have a budget for a full-time designer, there’s nothing wrong with a little DIY. Our philosophy remains that “less is more” when it comes to design. Most importantly, the graphics should convey the feelings your audience should have.

Sharing is Caring

People are storytellers. Our ancestors had to memorize and recite stories to keep history moving forward. Today you need to keep telling the story of your organization and its impact on the community. You need to ensure that your post tells the story of what your organization is doing.

If you can’t afford an agency or a full-time social media manager, this checklist should help you craft more effective social media marketing for social causes. When you put these pieces together, you can create the full picture of your organization.

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Contact McQuillen Creative

McQuillen Creative has been in the marketing game for over 25 years and we want to help your business. Do you need help with your social media presence? We offer month-to-month packages that scale with the needs of our clients. GIVE US A CALL and let’s see how we can create a brand strategy for your social media presence.

McQuillen Creative Group, Inc | 423 S Main St, Suite 1

Aberdeen, SD 57401 | 605.226.3481 | MCQUILLENCREATIVE.COM | MCQUILLEN CREATIVE ON FACEBOOK