Promotion is all about creating awareness and excitement. The idea is to make sure that everyone wants to be involved and do their part to help the cause. The best you can hope for is to create such great hype about your shoe drive that everyone is talking about it. It’ll be the place to be!
Table of Contents
How Promoting has Changed
- Technology
- Awareness of social causes
- More demanding people
Technology
We all know that the digital world has changed how we talk to each other. Information is so readily available that we have to be careful what we believe. It’s therefore worth bearing this in mind when deciding how to promote your shoe drive. Being as open and transparent about the process and the cause will only help build trust.
Also, people are constantly being bombarded with so much information all the time. Nevertheless, you can stand out with your shoe drive. Clearly, social media is important but so is word-of-mouth. In addition, people will be only too happy to pass on the information if they know it’s for a good cause. This is also where you can ask your hosting company to help you.
Most shoe collectors are non-profit companies that help micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries. The more successful you are with your shoe drive, then the more likely they will have volumes of shoes to send to their micro-entrepreneurs. Therefore, they’ll be more than happy to support you by helping promote your shoe drive.
Awareness of Social Causes
This goes without saying but make the most of the social cause you’re backing. Find out as much as you can about the micro-entrepreneurs you’re supporting in developing countries. Perhaps your hosting company can even share some personal stories with you. You’re then much more likely to get the emotional hook with people. It’s so much more powerful picturing a face and a real person when you’re supporting a cause. At the end of the day, we all want to help each other, and knowing the person we’re that we’re reaching serves to motivate us to give more.
Demanding People
Clearly, we have so much choice these days such that, as consumers, we want more and we want it more quickly. You can use this to your advantage for your shoe drive too. In this case, you’re helping people remove their clutter. You can therefore make sure that you have as many donation points available as possible that are easy to access. For example, these can be on busy commuter roads or on the way to the major schools.
Promotional Tools to Support your Shoe Drive
Bearing all this in mind, there are lots of tools you should be using to actually promote your shoe drive, as noted below:
- Social media
- Leverage Influencers
- Pamphlets
- Announcement boards
- Local newspaper interviews
- Blogs
Social Media
Everyone knows social media but do you know how to create a page and leverage your friends? For instance, the more people post and share on Facebook, then the more likely your shoe drive story will appear on people’s feeds. Furthermore, you can ask your friends to write comments on all the social media accounts so that you can build excitement.
Leverage Influencers
The number of followers that people have is a key target these days. The great thing is that you don’t have to build up that many followers. On the other hand, find those influencers with volumes of followers who can talk about your shoe drive. Reach out to them and ask them to post on their pages.
Blogs
Similarly to social media influencers, there are some bloggers who have a good following. Perhaps you can research some of your local prominent figures and ask them to blog about your shoe drive? Alternatively, they can simply post an announcement on their page that links to your events page.
Pamphlets
There are many different types of people of all ages who could be interested in your shoe drive. Not everyone has social media so you shouldn’t forget paper advertising. Handing out pamphlets at major supermarkets, restaurants, and schools, for example, can give your promotion an extra boost.
Announcement Boards
Depending on your area, perhaps you have a church and other billboards where you can post leaflets about your shoe drive? Don’t forget that even if people have social media, they might not be in your network. Announcement boards can therefore be a very useful way to make sure you’ve reached out to as many people as possible.
Local Newspaper Interviews
Generally, most people love the news although most of the time it’s depressing. So why not give them something different and fun to read about? Most local newspapers are happy to promote local fundraisers, including a shoe drive. You’ll then be able to benefit from their network both online and offline.
Final Recommendations for Promoting your Shoe Drive
A shoe drive is only as successful as the number of people who are involved. This means that promotion is your key activity. Don’t let this scare you though because that’s where friends come in. Moreover, the supporting shoe drive company you’ve chosen to work with can also support you. In fact, promotion can be a lot of fun especially if you have people to help so it doesn’t overwhelm you. Simply create a plan, allocate resources and start as early as possible to give yourself time to build momentum. Everything should then follow smoothly such that you deliver a successful shoe drive.