4 Reasons Why You Should be using Video for your Fundraising

A few years ago we were talking about the need for charities to come on board with video as a medium for fundraising. Hardly any charities were using it, many did not even have decent still photo library resources, let alone video.

But even then we didn’t fully appreciate the explosion that would take place in video and film. It is ubiquitous.

So, if you are not well down the road to using video in your fundraising and communications, then you are going to get left behind.

1. This is the new norm for consuming information.

Look at a carriage full of passengers on your morning commute. Nearly all of them will be looking at their smartphones or tablets. A few will be reading a book or a newspaper.

Many will be on Facebook or Instagram. 19% of all time spent on mobile devices is on Facebook. Open up Facebook to your home feed – I’ve just done it – the first post will more than likely be a video (yes, it was).

If you want to reach people today, you need to be online, you need to be posting video and you need to follow the rules.

2. Competition for people’s attention is at an all-time high (and people’s attention span at an all-time low).

Think of the number of images, videos, articles, blogs, channels, TV stations, feeds, radio stations that are ‘out there’. The amount of information that is available to us is greater than ever. So if you want to grab attention, you need to be compelling, visual and in the right place speaking to the right people.

All of this content has created a much lower attention span. Most users will scroll quickly through content onto the next post, spending only a few seconds on each one. I have observed many Facebook users scrolling on from a 5 minute video after 10 seconds or so.

Life is busy. You do not have long to persuade someone to listen to you.

3. It is a smart way of recruiting new supporters.

With the demise of direct mail acquisition and the limited channels open to most charities, online video is a great way of acquiring new supporters to your charity.

Of course, the important thing here is the strategy, creative and mechanics around how this actually works. But video is a core part of the success of recruiting new supporters, be it via Facebook, Instagram or other online channels.

By harnessing Facebook’s charitable giving tools, we have devised a programme of generating leads and donations through a series of online actions – including petitions and pledges – to self-select people who are interested in your cause.

These potential supporters are taken on a journey which results in some of them going on to make a monthly donation.

4. It is a great way to keep existing donors informed and engaged with your work.

In exactly the same way, video can be used to report back to your existing supporters on the work they have accomplished through their donations. It is a fantastic feedback tool.

The use of email to embed and link video imagery is not nearly utilised enough. Even charities we work with who have extensive libraries of moving images do not think first and foremost about using it in their everyday communications and fundraising space. Even though that is how supporters are behaving and what they are expecting.

Finally, make sure everything is integrated. This all needs to work together, it needs to be planned – you can’t just make this up as you go along.

We recommend a comprehensive donor journey plan which not only integrates all online activity (email, Facebook, website, donation pages) but integrates all of that with the direct mail (newsletter, appeals, communications).

For more information on how you can recruit new online supporters contact us stephenb@petrafundraising.co.uk or 07866 695476