A successful fundraising event that brings in funds for your cause – the ultimate goal. But how do you measure whether your event is a success? How do you tell which channels are working so you can double down and increase your results?
Event data tracking is a crucial part of your fundraising event’s success. It is important to track and learn which of your marketing efforts are working so you can drill down on what’s really working for your organization. And, when you blow your fundraising goals out of the park, and your Board asks how, you can have a clear answer as to why you saw such great success. Now, there are lots of ways you can approach this, but we’re sharing our two favourite ways – custom checkout questions and affiliate marketing links.
Custom checkout questions
Custom checkout questions give you the chance to ask specific questions as your donors are buying their tickets, allowing you to collect data you wouldn’t usually have – a huge win!
Set up a custom question at checkout so that when a guest buys a ticket you can ask them how they heard about your event. Our research shows organizations that make this question required, with a few drop-down options for donors to pick from, get the best results.
Here is an example of a question and drop-down options for you to steal!
How did you hear about our event?
- A friend or family member
- Social media
- An event partner’s social media
- An email newsletter
Trellis Top Tip: Don’t be afraid to make changes as you go! If right at the beginning you notice everybody is coming from social media, use that insight to steer how you keep promoting your event.
Affiliate marketing links
Affiliate marketing links allow you to create specific links for different promotion channels such as social media, websites, event partners, board members, or your email signature. You simply choose a name for your link to create it, start using it for the channel it was designed for, and can easily track the results to see how it is performing. It’s that easy!
After the event, you can see which channels drove the most engagement for your ticket sales. And, if this is new to you, don’t worry getting started is simple. We’ve got you covered!
Trellis Top Tip: Our favourite affiliate marketing link idea is to make inviting people a game. Create custom affiliate links for your organization’s supporters, and set a goal of how many invites you want them to send out. Then each week, give an update on how many emails were sent, and how many people have bought event tickets as a result. When the event ends announce the winner of who brought in the most guests!
Next Steps
Data collection may seem new to you and as a result a little intimidating. If that’s the case, we’re here to help! Download our guide here to find more actionable steps as well as other tips on marketing your next fundraiser.
We know not all ticketing, event, or auction platforms are built the same and we’d love to show you the data tracking features we have built into Trellis. Join a demo here. On the call, we’ll also share some more Trellis Top Tips to help you grow your fundraising!
