Top tips for creatively marketing to potential volunteers

Recently we wrote on the subject of top tips for volunteer recruitment, based on our work as part of the Get Out Get Active (GOGA) programme. As our GOGA work progresses, we want to continue sharing what we’re learning with, and recommending to, the organisations we’re supporting to help them better engage with volunteers.  In this blog post we’re looking at the creative marketing tips that we’ve been sharing. They won’t all work for everyone, but hopefully within this menu there’s something new or different you could consider applying to your volunteer recruitment and marketing. These apply to online and physical materials.

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Don’t just get out there when you want, or (worse still) urgently need new volunteers.  You need to be volunteer friendly all year round, building a community around your work – however small. Put stuff up and out regularly, make a simple comms plan (what, and who by) for the year or next few months and stick to it!

MAKE FRIENDS

Build a community around your area of interest / work online by tagging other similar organisations and people in your posts, and sharing theirs. Ask if you can go in people’s newsletters, and would they like to go in yours?

DON’T BE A BOT!

People want to know there are real people behind the materials and feeds.  Don’t be scared of your own voice, and giving a personality to the organisation.  If ever in doubt, write how you talk – and / or how your community talks to each other.

CAN YOU VISUALISE IT?

Are your marketing materials overly text heavy?  Could you shorten the text, and can you add a great photo or image?  Work to build a bank of strong, indicative photos that portray what you do really well – and that (important) you have permission to use.

MAKE IT SUPER-SHAREABLE

Think about what makes YOU look at, click in and ultimately do something with a physical ad or social media post.  Consider eye catching visuals, whether you can use a video or gif, and if there’s any actions you can ask people to undertake.

TOP 10S

As with this post, sometimes it’s easiest to share what you want to say as a list – think about all those buzzfeed articles people share.  Could you craft your content in to a list, and one that people might want to read?

REUSE, RECYCLE, REFRESH

Having made all the effort to create and store great visuals, messages and articles – don’t just promote or use them once!  Find multiple uses for your content.  Have you shared them on all the relevant social media?  Can you do so more than once –say if there’s a relevant news hook, or it might reach a new audience.