Turning Prospects into Supporters: How to build and sustain a powerful supporter base

You want to create a Campaign that does not just draw people's attention, but also engages with them and sets the base for a long term relationship? You’ve come to the right place! It only takes three steps for people to become your long term supporters. Follow these steps to elevate your communication to the next level.

Sounds good? Then bare with us as we go into detail on 'Attract - Involve - Mobilize'

Attract

Getting attention from like-minded people.

This seems obvious. Only if someone takes notice, there is the chance of further involvement. But when it comes to social media, we all know, it’s not that easy. Every day there are countless posts and ads fighting for your attention, with click bait-y titles, colourful thumbnails and all kinds of curiosities. Today’s hot topics have vanished tomorrow.

And we all know what this does to us: our attention span, when consuming any media, is shorter than ever before. Yes, that is scientifically proven by a 2015 Microsoft Kanada study, which found out that it is about 8 seconds, when scrolling through social media. This is a shorter attention span than a goldfish has! The good news is, we can focus longer than eight seconds, if - after our first perception - we decide it is worth it. ‘The first impression counts’ becomes your mantra when creating social media content.

So how is your content supposed to stand out? It all comes down to three factors and only if you master these, you will be able to draw attention to your message:

1. Choose the right topics

When you are looking for the right topics, there are three search fields that can help to identify those that are likely to become relevant. Immediate issues, which directly affect people Current events, such as Christmas, national holiday, the first snow of the year … or really just anything Your company’s or organization’s higher mission.

2. Create content that gets the message across

To create content that grabs people’s attention, it is not enough to make it bold and colorful. Consider the following guidelines whenever you create a new post or ad.

1. Keep it short and simple
2. Make your product’s or service’s value apparent and be solution oriented
3. Use real people's testimonials to trigger emotional responses
4. Place a clear call to action within the first 3 seconds of videos
5. Consider mobile users first (more than 80 % of end users use social media predominantly on mobile devices)
6. Use videos and animations, since they are attention grabbers and are being favoured by social media platforms
7. When writing a copy follow the platform’s recommendation for text length and use emojis

3. Deliver your content to the right audience

Just like not every crop grows on every soil, also the best content won't be perceived appropriately from the wrong audience. This is why it is so important to not simply post, but also advertise your content on social media. This way you’ll be able to use clever targeting and to deliver your valuable content to an audience, for which it unfolds its full potential.

CamBuildr’s upcoming social media feature empowers you to create amazing looking content, based on high quality templates, to upload it directly to the social media channel of your choice, and to set up the ad strategy - all by yourself - all in one tool.

Involve

Creating entry points by offering easy ways to interact.

This step’s goal is to generate leads. It is such a crucial step, because it enables you to directly get in touch with your supporters, without having to rely on social media. Emails, for example, are still one of the most effective measures to reach your supporters. And the best thing: they are free for the most part. Other popular means of communication within a campaign are text messages, phone calls or popular messengers.

Again, this is easier said than done. Most people aren't willing to give away their contact details right away. Luckily, there are some methods to overcome this challenge. Using behavioral triggers, such as reciprocity, social proof, exclusivity and urgency you can encourage users to sign up for your campaign.

The principle of social proof states that people are more likely to take part in something, if others, who might be similar to them, are already in. An example for social proof in action is a counter on your petition website, or by displaying testimonials on your landing pages.

Exclusivity is the opposite of social proof. It triggers people's fear of missing out and thus gets people to take action. By making your movement appear as something not everyone can be part of, becoming your supporter suddenly becomes more desirable..

Urgency also plays an important role in pushing people to participate. By incorporating a countdown and setting goals for your movement, you can amplify the urge to take action now.

The principle of reciprocity says that it is more likely one will give you what you want, if they get something in return. An easy way to implement this in a campaign could be to offer a free goodie or premium content in exchange for a sign up. This does not have to be a physical product, it could be a useful piece of information.

Speaking of: do you know what’s a very useful piece of information? Our exclusive guide on how to establish ‘campaign core loops’, in order to keep people engaged after they entered your data base. (in return for your email address of course 😜)

With CamBuildr’s landing pages you will be able to create beautiful landing pages in no time. With the email feature you can send unlimited emails to your supporters to keep them up to date.

Mobilize

Encouraging people to become active.

Now it is time to harvest the crops you have been sewing - to get a return on the investments you have done in order to build your community . If you want your community to support you in a coordinated and powerful way, you have to ask them. But knowing who to ask for what can be a challenge. Asking too much of people who are still observing your campaign, could shy them away. Meanwhile asking too little might not seem worth it for some supporters, who are waiting to really contribute.

The ‘ladder of engagement’ model has proven itself over and over again and can help you with this exact issue. It helps you categorize all your contacts into different groups based on their behaviour and level of activity.

Besides solely consuming information, the lower levels are for people who are ready to do very small things, such as participating in a voting.

People on the middle-steps are more likely to attend an event or to publicly commit to your cause. Some might even invite friends and family into your campaign.

So what is left that could even top in-person attendants at events and bringing new people? The highest levels are for people, who are ready to stand up for your cause, or are even willing to volunteer. Asking those to share a post on social media is not just a waste of potential, it also does not show confidence in their capability to really boost your campaign!

We have to admit, only a fraction of your supporters will ever reach the top level, but those who do, will be indispensable to your campaign.

But the key takeaway for your campaign is: if you really want to mobilize your supporters, you have to approach them in the appropriate manner - according to where they stand on the ladder of engagement - for them to become active.

CamBuildr offers a variety of engagement apps to mobilize your supporters, such as commitment walls, an event module, to empower users to host their own events, a grassroots campaign modul, with which users are able to start their own campaign, and a modul to start advocacy campaigns. Furthermore, CamBuildr enables you to organize your contacts within the ladder of engagement and displays them on your dashboard.

By following those three steps and keeping communications up, you will be reach the rght people, involve them more and more in your campaign and thus build a powerful supporter base!