ARTICLE
Your Best Fundraising Era Yet: What Your Nonprofit Can Learn From Taylor Swift’s Marketing Strategy
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Millions of people around the world followed Taylor Swift’s promotional campaign for her Midnights album—a feat that proves she knows what she’s doing when it comes to marketing.
You may not have the same amount of time, money, or resources at your disposal, but you can still implement some of her marketing strategies when planning your fundraising campaign.
Are you…Ready For It? If so, keep reading.
Four marketing strategies that Taylor Swift used that your nonprofit can implement too
1) Give your fundraising campaign a creative and memorable theme.
To promote Midnights, Swift created a TikTok series called “Midnights Mayhem With Me.” The short videos—which she released at midnight—revealed the tracks on her album. This sparked conversations among fans, critics, and potential supporters.
This strategy also established the tone of the era. The album is dark and moody; it wouldn’t have made sense for her to promote it in a way that was bright and upbeat. Follow Swift’s lead and choose a theme that serves your brand and your campaign’s goal.
Caveat: We don’t recommend taking Swift’s lead when it comes to posting at midnight unless your audience is also awake and donating at that time. It’s better to share exciting news when your supporters will see it.
2) Give supporters something to talk about and increase your word-of-mouth reach.
When you get people to share your campaign with their communities, you’re increasing your word-of-mouth reach. Part of the reason why Swift’s strategy is so effective is that she shares content that’s designed to get her fans talking. They’re so invested that they’ve even been known to read into how she styles her hair leading up to her big announcements.
What do your supporters care about? What do they talk about? Create assets that you know they’ll want to share with their friends, family, and community. It’s also a good idea to create those assets before you start promoting your campaign. This will save you time and free you up to be more creative as the campaign is unfolding.
3) Invite companies or influencers to promote your campaign.
Swift worked with several artists on her album; in turn, they promoted the collaborations. This exposed her work to new audiences and served as a way to increase awareness in general. She also partnered with Spotify, allowing them to post new lyrics on billboards around the world.
Take a page out of Swift’s book and find partners for your campaign. Think of local business owners, community members, and other potential supporters who might resonate with your cause. Once you have a list of names and businesses, reach out and see if they’re interested in promoting your campaign. We also recommend asking your volunteers and board members to introduce you to people and organizations you might not be familiar with.
4) Use that momentum to share more exciting news.
As you know, the hard work doesn’t end when your fundraising campaign does. One way you can make the most of this time is to use the attention and momentum you have to promote your next initiative or project.
Ask yourself: What events or good news do you have coming up that you can share with your audience? If you could share one thing with them at this time, what would it be?
For Swift, she built momentum over the course of the promotional period by revealing her new album at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, teasing the album and tracklist with videos and other social media content, and announcing her next tour after the album was released.
Prepare for your most successful fundraising era yet.
Sometimes major excitement drives major headaches. Take Swift’s tour, for example. There was so much interest in it that millions of people visited Ticketmaster’s site during the presale period. Unfortunately, Ticketmaster’s site couldn’t handle the influx of fans. Instead of feeling excited about her upcoming tour, fans were left disappointed and angry.
One way to prepare for success is by making sure you have donor management software in place that can manage an influx of donations and support you in your online giving campaigns. That way you can focus on establishing relationships with your supporters and promoting your future fundraising eras.
Schedule a Demo of Bloomerang and one of our team members will reach out to share how Bloomerang can help you reach and exceed your goals.
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