How to advertise on Facebook: Call-To-Action

What is the first thing you see when you visit a Facebook page? Usually it’s the cover image and the buttons featured at the top of the page. You should take advantage of this viewpoint by changing your cover image to a promo image to ensure your campaign gets the most online impressions possible. Another promotional tool you can use is Facebook’s new call-to-action (CTA) buttons.

Here is an example of the visible buttons on your Facebook page, notice the CTA “Shop Now” next to the “like” button.

Why use a call-to-action?
CTAs are used in marketing to provoke an immediate response or action; they can be an effective tool for increasing conversions (in our case, conversions would be selling campaign items) because they clearly indicate to your audience what you want them to do. Using a CTA button like “shop now” tells your audience exactly what you want them to do…go shopping!

There are a variety of different call-to-actions available for Facebook pages including:

• Shop Now
• Book Now
• Contact Us
• Use App
• Play Game
• Sign Up
• Watch Video

For Fabrily campaign purposes “shop now” will be the CTA of choice; by selecting this CTA you can encourage Facebook followers to purchase an item from your campaign.

How to create a Call-to-Action on Facebook
Creating a CTA on Facebook is very easy can be done in just a few minutes.

Step 1: Select the “Create Call-to-Action” on your Facebook Page

Step 2: Select what type of CTA button you want to use. We will select the “shop now” button because we want people to purchase an item from our Fabrily campaign

Step 3: Enter your campaign URL (or campaign store URL) for the “Website” link

Step 4: Select “website” as the destination for iOS and Android mobile users (so they are taken to your campaign page when they click the “shop now” link). Make sure “website” is selected for iOS devices and click the “next” button on the bottom of the page. Do the same for Android devices and select the “create” button on the bottom of the page.

That’s it! You’ve now got a visible “shop now” CTA on your Facebook page. You should test the CTA  to make sure it works by clicking on the “Shop Now” button and selecting “Go to link”; this action should bring you to your Fabrily campaign page. You can monitor how many people are clicking on your CTA using the display menu on the right side of the screen where it reads “THIS WEEK”:

Visit our Free Promotional Tips page for more info on sale-boosting campaign descriptions, post-campaign promotion and more! We’ll be exploring more Facebook store options so check the free promo tips page for more content!

Click here to launch your own Fabrily campaign today!

Questions? Email campaigns@fabrily.com

Create FREE promotional images for your crowdfunding campaigns

Promotion is key to the success of your crowdfunding campaigns. Having eye-catching and informative promo images can help boost your campaign sales…the problem is, many of us aren’t too savvy when it comes to programs like Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. Not to worry though! The Fabrily Team has discovered a useful graphic design site that makes creating promotional images easy. The best part about Canva is that it’s free to use and you don’t need to be a graphic designer to create great promo images!

Canva enables you to create flyers and cover images for Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, as well as Facebook ad images, business cards, and much more!, There are tons of pre-designed layouts and you’re able to create completely custom images too.

The importance of using promo images:

• Updating your Facebook or Twitter cover image enables you to make an impression as soon as someone visits your page.
• Promo images provide the opportunity to showcase the various items available within your campaign
• They’re an easy way to give supporters all the info they need, like what’s available and where to get it
• Promo images are easily shareable; your supporters can also help you promote your crowdfunding campaign by sharing the promo images you have created; more shares can equal more purchases!

What to include in your promo images:

  

There are 3 things you should aim to include in all of your promo images:

1. Call to action: “Reserve your limited edition item today!”, “Reserve today!”, “Get yours today!”, “Support our cause!”
2. Campaign URL: Include the campaign URL so people know where to purchase your item
3. Showcase items available in your campaign: feature mockups of the products available within your campaign so that people can see there is a variety of item types to choose from

How to use Canva to create promo images
Below is a short video in which Fabrily Campaign Manager Anna explains how to use Canva to create promotional images yourself.

Now that you’ve learned how to create free promotional images for your crowdfunding campaign…you’re ready to to get started!

Optimize item mockups for promo images – how to create transparent background for mockups!

In the video you might have noticed that the garments featured in our promo images and the video tutorial have transparent backgrounds; as most of us aren’t familiar with photoshop or adobe, we’ll explain how to make the background transparent using a free website called Lunapic.

1. Go to your Fabrily campaign page
2. Right click on the garment image you want to feature in your promo image and “save as” a PNG to your computer.
3. To remove the white background go to 166.lunapic.com
4. Select “BROWSE” where it reads “edit a photo” on the homepage and select the garment image you saved from your campaign page
5. Once the image is uploaded, click on the ‘scissors’ icon ()
6. In the center of the screen where it reads, “Tool:”, click the dropdown menu and select ‘Magic Wand’ . Make sure to reduce the “Threshhold %” to 8.
7. Trace/Click the outline of the garment with the magic wand, until the entire outline of the garment is highlighted in red
8. Once it’s highlighted, click ‘Cutout’, which is located towards the top center of the screen. The image will then reappear with a transparent background.
9. Save the new image to your computer by selecting “Save To: Your Computer” which is located in the lower, center part of the screen. Now you’re ready to add it to your promo image!

There are other websites  you can use to create eye-catching images for your campaigns. If Canva’s templates do not include the colours/designs/images you have been searching for, check out PiktoChart instead.

Don’t forget to visit our free promotional tips page and the Fabrily YouTube Channel for more helpful information on campaign set up, promotion guides, crowdfunding tools, etc.

Promoting for Success: Spotlight on Bat Conservation Trust’s Fundraiser (VIDEO)

From start to finish Bat Conservation Trust’s fundraising and promotional efforts were spot on! They followed the Fabrily promotions guides for Facebook, Twitter, and Post-Campaign perfectly and the results were quite impressive! Below we’ve highlighted several of the promotional methods BCT used with specific examples for you. The steps are quite simple, but when followed correctly they can be the key to having a (or many) successful campaign.

During campaign:

1. Write the perfect campaign description
2. Share campaign via Facebook and Twitter (and newsletter, blog, etc. when possible)
3. Encourage supporters to share your campaign & thank them for their support!

After campaign ends:

1. Ask supporters to send in photos of their new items (selfies!)
2. Create a photo album where these photos can be shared
3. Re-launch your campaign!

Check out the video below where Fabrily Campaign Manager Kate goes over specific examples of putting these promotional methods into practice:

Fundraising with Fabrily: How to write the perfect campaign description

You’ve got your design idea and are in the process of setting up your first Fabrily campaign…now what? It all starts with a great campaign description! Below we’ll offer tips and examples on writing a great description and explain why it’s so important to the success of your campaign.

Campaign Description DO’s and DON’Ts

Your campaign description is more important than you think! Having a good campaign description adds creditability to your campaign, provides people with a way of contacting or connecting with your organization, and offers you the opportunity to ask your supporters for help promoting the campaign. Here are the DO’s and DONT’s of writing your campaign description:

DO:

• DO write 1 – 2 paragraphs about the organization & how funds raised will be used
• DO include inks to your website, social media accounts, etc.
• DO make sure to thank people for their support and ask them to help you promote the campaign through their social media accounts

DON’T:

• DON’T make your campaign description too long – this is something we see a lot and it is a big NO-NO! When your description is super long it makes viewing different styles/colours very difficult. Also having the “buy now” button clearly visible increases the chances of people making a purchase.
• DON’T leave out links to your website or the website of the organization where the funds will be sent – the absence of this information can make a campaign look less credible; people want to know where the funds raised are going.

REAL CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES:

1. Marie Curie Fundraiser

Vicki wrote up a great description for her campaign – she explains why she is raising funds, how the funds will be used, included links to her social media accounts, as well as asked supporters to help her promote the campaign via social media. Also notice the shirt styles and colour options are clearly visible.

2. Blackfish Brigade

Blackfish Brigade is a perfect example of a good campaign description – all the information is clearly visible, they have included links to their social media accounts, and they thank their supporters as well as explain exactly where the funds raised will be sent.

3. MSA Awareness

This campaign description by MSA Awareness is short but it tells us the main things we need to know– who the fundraiser is for, how the funds will be used, and where we can find more information about the organization. Notice the colour options are clearly visible as well as the green “buy now” button.

For more tips please visit our Success Stories page where we provide video tutorials, campaign insight, advice from past campaigners, and promotions guides for Facebook, Twitter, and post-campaign promotion.

Post-Campaign Promotion: what to do once your Fabrily campaign ends

Many people don’t realize just how important post-campaign promotion is. If you’ve launched a successful Fabrily campaign chances are you’ll launch another one! So what is the secret to boosting sales for your next campaign? Selfies! Yes you heard us correctly…”selfies” are a great way to keep buzz going about your previous campaign and create social proof to reassure uncertain customers about the quality of items you’ll offer in future campaigns.

How does social proof work?

Imagine a satisfied customer from your campaign shares a “selfie” on your Facebook page with their new item. They include a comment about how much they like their new item and how great it is…if someone was uncertain about purchasing an item from your previous campaign, now that they see their peer is satisfied with their purchase, the uncertain customer is more likely to purchase an item from your next campaign…see how this works?

SharkAid International shared a Facebook post with their followers asking them to submit a photo once they received their shirts.

By encouraging supporters to share selfies you achieve several things:

1. You add credibility to your campaign and encourage creation of social proof to persuade uncertain customers to purchase (other followers will see that their peers purchased an item and are happy with the product – this makes them more likely to purchase a shirt if you run another campaign in the future)
2. Your followers create and share digital content (user generated content) about your organization on social media which boosts your organization’s exposure and reach online
3. You can also use these photos/content for your own website, newsletters, etc.
4. The extra exposure and interest in your campaign items can help you sell more the next time you launch a campaign!

Bat Conservation Trust took advantage of the interest in their supporter’s selfies to share their re-launched campaign!

The Bikepsyche Facebook group created an album to share their pictures with fellow page fans and promote their latest campaigns. They’ve sold hundreds of shirts to date! 😉

We have created a special Facebook album”My Fabrily #FabTees” for campaign supporters – we encourage all of our non-profits and other groups to share these photos with us and have them added to the album; this will give your group even more exposure via Fabrily’s social media pages.

We’re also running a “Fabrily Fan of the Month” selfie contest this March which presents a great opportunity for you to gain more exposure for you website and social media accounts as well as grant your supporters the chance to win some fab prizes!

For more promotional tips visit our Free Promotional Tips page