Now that you’ve applied the knowledge you have about your community to create products that inspire them, it’s time to sell some shirts! Get the campaign rolling by purchasing the first item or two yourself, and then share the news of your newly launched products with everyone else.

1. Rally Your Top Supporters

In our previous post, we talked about the importance of identifying a small group of your core community members who can help be your biggest supporters during the process of promoting your campaign. These are the people who will gladly share your campaign on their own social media, likely be the ones to buy your first products, and generally be a champion for your cause to help you reach your campaign goals.

If you haven’t looped them in yet to your plans with the campaign, now is the time to do so. Make sure they know when your campaign will start, and what they can do to help you build momentum in the first hours and days.

 

 
2. Create Your Promotion Calendar

Here is an example of how we plan out a Creator’s marketing execution plan. The easiest way to manage your campaign is to plan out all of your promotion so you have a schedule of what you will post and when. Do this by looking at the length of time your campaign will run. Then start filling out the calendar with what promotion you’ll do on different days across the course of your campaign.

We’ve created this helpful Promotion Checklist to show you how to promote your campaign through 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 reach your sales goals!

 

There are many different channels by which you can share your campaign with your community. Think about two primary communication channels and three secondary channels to update throughout the course of your campaign.

a) Social Media

Social Media is one of the easiest ways to share your campaign. Pay attention to which platform you have the most followers on. But, also consider which of your social media accounts has the most engagement. Perhaps people love watching your Instagram Stories, or when you post your newest Youtube video. Take advantage of the places you already have a captive audience waiting to listen and respond.

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. Set up a schedule of social media posts that spans the length of your campaign. This will help you manage a cross-channel promotional plan for your Bonfire apparel campaign. 

b) Email Newsletters

Many organizations and brands have established email mailing lists. Take advantage of these contacts. If you typically send out a newsletter, dedicate a whole email to an announcement about your Bonfire campaign. This can make sure you really capture their attention.

Tools like Mailchimp can help you create an awesome-looking email in just a few minutes. Using a tool like this also helps if you send out multiple emails during the life of a campaign. You can make and save a specific email list to send to, instead of spamming your entire contact list.

c) Website Banners

Don’t forget about your website! This shouldn’t be the singular place you post about your campaign, because most people are probably not hitting your website every day, but depending on the type of campaign you are hosting, it can really help you spread the word. Create a banner image to show off your campaign on your blog or website. Make sure you link the banner image to your campaign!

d) News Outlets

Depending on the nature of your campaign, it may be a very good idea to reach out to local news outlets, or other new organizations that align with the mission and interests of your campaign in order to get the word out. A quick Google search can help you determine the best organizations to reach out to. 

e) Blog Posts

A blog post is a great place to fully flesh out your campaign story and the goals behind your campaign. This is especially helpful if your community surrounds your blog, or if you are hosting a fundraiser with an in-depth story behind it. Share a link to the blog post on social media or in your email newsletter. This can become a great piece of content to use while promoting.

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. Don’t be a broken record. Once people start seeing the same appeal in their inbox over and over, empathy turns to eye-rolls. Vary the content in each post, and you’ll keep your potential supporters engaged. Here are some topics to work with.

a) The Design

You worked hard to create a shirt 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 our advice from a previous post and purchased a few of your products ahead of time, you can take some photos of you or others rocking the products you are selling. As you share photos of the designs, Pair the images with an explanation of the graphics, and why you chose the design or colors that you did.

b) The URL

Always remember to include the link to your campaign page, so people know where and how to find your shirt!  Your link should be clickable, and certain spaces on your social media profiles showcase this best. For example, if you’re sharing your campaign on Instagram, put it in the “website” box of your profile (found in your settings) and let people know through your comments that the link is in your profile. If you have “Swipe Up” enabled on your instagram account, this is the perfect time to use it.

When deciding whether to buy a product from your campaign, a potential supporter should perceive that their money will make an immediate, measurable impact on your goals. Explain what proceeds will specifically accomplish. If this 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 an image, GIF, or video related to the cause behind your campaign.

Yeefu sells and prints products from your campaign in batches to help you maximize sales. Take advantage of the campaign 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.

Help your buyers feel comfortable with and understand the Yeefu campaign structure. 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 upfront when shirts will print and ship. Pay attention to comments and responses, as buyers may be asking questions about the campaign or the products.

Let your buyers know how the campaign is going. Keep them updated as you near certain sales milestones, or when you’re almost to your financial fundraising goal. People get more excited to buy when they feel like their purchase is making a difference.

When your promotion calendar is set, share it with your top supporters, whether that’s your family, friends, donors, volunteers, or fans. Make sure there are specific callouts for this group so they know when and how they can help! And remember, their actions don’t have to stop once your campaign gets rolling. Once their products arrive, get them to send you photos of themselves with their new gear for you to share on your social channels. 

Keep using your engaged buyers to work for you! Ask them to share, retweet, and re-post about the campaign on their own social media profiles. Get them to post screenshots of their orders to show off the products they picked for your collection. Celebrate your 10th, 20th, 50th, and 100th buyers! This can help your community of supporters to feel like they’re an active part of your campaign’s progress.

If you have a Facebook Page with more than 1,000 likes, you could benefit from Boosting your posts via paid Facebook Ads. Regular posts to your Facebook Page will only be seen by a small fraction of your fans. In order to reach a larger percentage of them, Facebook lets you pay to “Boost” your post, putting your campaign in front of way more people. It might seem counterintuitive to pay to get the word out on a free site like Facebook, but if done right, it can massively increase your sales.

Yeefu offers Product Boosting advertisements for all of our sellers on social media, as an additional service. We also do email retargeting, free of charge. This means that when someone visits your campaign page and then leaves the page without purchasing a shirt, we send them a reminder to their email encouraging them to purchase a shirt. 

At the end of each day, check your sales stats in your Yeefu Dashboard or with help of our Yeefu team. We are happy to guide our Creators on how to boost up their campaign effectively by analysing the campaign statistics. As your campaign continues, you may decide to make alterations to your promotion strategy. For example, if sales are not quite where they need to be, adjust the language of your emails or social posts to focus on your fundraising goals, and how much further you need to go before you reach it.

Once your campaign wraps up, you may realize you’ve learned some things. Maybe you have an idea for a new design, or maybe you’ve gotten helpful feedback from your community of products they’d be interested in purchasing. Take what you’ve learned and determined what’s next for you and your campaign.