In January, we shared our work around creating a user acquisition strategy focused on reaching our target audiences. We narrowed down on the top three traction channels to test, and since then have been busy developing and executing our test plans.
Our test plans were built around three key focus areas: social ads, content marketing, and business development. To begin, we asked ourselves these questions:
- “What are we testing?”
- “How are we going to test that?”
- “How will we know if it’s successful?”
These questions helped us to be clear about the goals and purpose for each of the tests. It also helped us identify the parameters and platforms for our tests, and the metrics that we would track and evaluate following the tests.
Here’s our progress in each of these channels, thus far:
Social Ads
We’ve created our first campaign on Facebook and Instagram and will be launching it in early March. For our first campaign, we wanted to help our audience learn about GiveShop and some of our features. In this carousel ad, we’re showcasing some of the amazing new characters our talented Illustrator designed for us. We will be A/B testing this ad and a variation of this ad, which has an animation. The purpose is to test the messaging and the creative used for the ad.
We are also testing the effectiveness of social ads on Facebook and Instagram in recruiting new users. In doing so, we are also validating our target audience groups.
Content Marketing
This last month, we have been busy working on creating content for our upcoming webinar on “How to Make an Impact with Skills You Already Have”. This webinar is geared towards those who are interested in using their skills to do good — regardless of whether they are skilled professionals or recent bootcamp grads. The purpose of this webinar is to help potential collaborators see and understand the benefits of volunteering and the impact they can create. It is also designed with practical steps that they can take, like assessing skills and knowledge they have to offer, and areas/causes they want to contribute to. It will also help them to think through the skills they want to further develop and what they want to gain from the experience. The webinar will give real examples of what organizations and projects are looking for and strategies for finding a project that fits them. We are planning to deliver two webinars and we’re excited to share the content later this month.
In addition, we are working with two of our collaborators to share their stories. In the articles, they will be sharing their testimonials about skill-building through volunteering, and how as a result, they were able to land a full-time job with the new skills acquired. The first story will be shared in an article by our collaborator and the second article will be written in the format of an interview. Through storytelling we hope to encourage and inspire others to do the same — to build and develop their skills through volunteering.
Business Development
In the last month, we’ve also begun reaching out to additional projects focused on housing. Thus far, we’ve reached out to 60+ potential partners and have started discussion on some projects. We hope to bring additional projects onboard for our community of collaborators to support.
In addition, we have started reaching out to create partnerships with educational institutions. We hope to connect with career centers and counselors to share volunteering opportunities with students and recent graduates. The goal here is to connect skilled volunteers to social impact projects.
Following these tests, we will be evaluating the results to see which channels were successful in helping us gain traction and acquire new customers. Again, the goal was to identify the top three traction channels that seem most promising for us, test them, and learn from them.
Stay tuned for our upcoming webinars, articles, and social media posts.
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