Do you have a cause that you care deeply about? Are you extremely passionate about your brand and/or business? Your answer might be a resounding “YES.”
Sometimes, a passion for a project can blind us to many of the common mistakes in creating content and driving audience growth. I recently addressed this in a Q&A session and would like to share the insight I provided. It might be of value to you.
One of my private coaching group members saw that I grew a million followers for an ocean conservancy nonprofit in 14 days, and asked me how it was accomplished. Here are the main takeaways from my response:
Identify what you’re trying to accomplish first.
Followers are valuable, but if you’re looking to fundraise, the most cost-effective thing to do is run a direct response campaign. You can use the same methodology I have in my book One Million Followers for this.
However, if your goal is to create awareness for a cause, aim to grow followers first. You can leverage the audience for action later. Regardless, establishing what you want to accomplish before you begin your effort has many benefits. It’s how I approached growing the audience for the ocean conservatory nonprofit, as well as for my book.
Make your content as widely relatable as possible.
I talk about the importance of the first three seconds of a video often. The same mindset can be applied to any content you create. You want to make something that quickly grabs people’s attention, and this includes with a nonprofit or cause.
With content for charities, people often make the mistake of going straight into the brand or the importance of the work they’re doing. It is much more effective to begin with the universal pain point the cause is trying to solve. Then, draw in your brand and mission.
For example, with the ocean conservatory project, the video that worked best didn’t talk about the importance of clean oceans. It was a video that showed a woman being bombarded with plastic bags as she walked out of the ocean. More people were able to relate to seeing the direct impact of pollution in our oceans than just the message that our oceans need to be clean. It helped drive the video’s engagement, and the nonprofit’s mission.
You need to have as many people as possible choose to engage with your content in order to drive interest in your cause. It can also impact algorithms, as well. Focus on what might best hook people into your content, experiment with ideas, and get creative.
The same approach can apply whether you’re trying to support a nonprofit or drive attention to your business. By avoiding these two common mistakes above, you’ll increase your chances of success.
I provided strategies for promoting your work on digital platforms in this recent blog post.
