# Charity marketing strategy: how to raise funds using a lottery and raffle campaign with inbound marketing

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/12/12/charity-marketing-strategy-lottery-raffle/
- Published: 2016-12-12T20:56:21+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Table of Contents**

 1. Introduction
 2. Benefits of Inbound Marketing
 3. [Effective Inbound Marketing Strategies](https://whitehatseouk.blogspot.com/)
 4. How to Make Inbound Marketing Work For You
 5. Set Up An Online Charity Lottery
 6. 5 Ways to Run A Successful Charity Raffle

### ⏎ **1. Introduction**

In this digital age, majority of the charities and nonprofits still resort to traditional
marketing methods, such as, direct mail, print ads or expensive [pay per click management](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/seo-services/pay-per-click-management)
campaigns that all too often leave them with empty pockets. But with billions of
people entering the digital world, inbound marketing is not only cheaper but a faster
way to reach out to the right audience with the right tools.

Inbound marketing enables charities and nonprofits to reach out to potential donors
who are already looking for reliable and most trusted charities online. These best
thing about these strategies is that, they do not use up charity funds nor resources
reserved for running the organisation.
[⌊Writing on a laptop lottery⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/ebook1.jpg)

## Advertisement

### 2. Benefits of Inbound Marketing for Charities

#### **Why Should Charities and Nonprofits Choose Inbound Marketing Over Traditional 󠀁[Charity Marketing](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/inbound-marketing-for-charities-and-non-profits)󠁿?**

There are over 1.1 million nonprofits today in the United States and **195,289**
charities in the UK alone. With a majority of them using traditional marketing methods
to reach out to their donors through emails and direct mailing. Your charity needs
a far more effective way to engage and stand out from your competition. You must
be able draw donors towards your creative selling proposition.

Inbound marketing empowers charities and nonprofits to increase awareness about 
their causes and initiatives and their services to humanity in a cost effective 
manner. Inbound marketing also enables them to build a robust online community of
active people who are passionate and supportive about their mission.

#### **How Do Charities and Nonprofits Benefit from Inbound Marketing?**

Inbound marketing is a comparative low cost and efficient method to promote charities
rather than sinking money into [outbound marketing](http://floodlightnewmarketing.co.uk/outbound-marketing/)
campaigns that may not always help them reach their target market. An effective 
campaign run by an experienced [Inbound Marketing agency](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/inbound-marketing-agency-london)
lets charities drive qualified and organic traffic to their website.

For instance, inbound marketing attracts supporters to your cause and charity rather
than you searching for them but running advertising campaigns. Moreover, with inbound
marketing you can connect with people who seek a reliable organisation to donate
funds to.
[⌊Benefits of Inbound Marketing⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/ebook2.jpg)

### ⏎ 3. Effective Inbound Marketing Strategies

Following are some of the most common and effective inbound marketing strategies
and the best way to utilise them for your charity organisations.

#### **1. Search Engine ****Optimisation**** (SEO)**

Search Engine Optimisation gives charities the power to rise to the top of search
engines and grab attention of their prospects faster than their competitors. By 
implementing and effective [SEO service](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/seo-services)
on your website, you optimise your content using targeted keywords and phrases that
can draw potential donors onto your site and get more information about you and 
possibly how to donate funds online as well.

An SEO strategy also helps ensure that when potential donors and interested supporters
search charities using those keywords, your charity organisation will show up on
the search engine in the top results. This way you are able to increase the likelihood
that prospective donors will click on your website link and would be interested 
in finding more information about you.
**Reference**: Read more on Search Engine
Optimisation here: [SEO London](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/seo-services)

#### **2. Content Marketing**

![Content Marketing](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/ebook5-1024x605.
jpg)

Charities need to have relevant, engaging and humanising content, which would provide
potential donors a reason to show their support and  really care about your cause.
Your charity’s content strategy must be able to entertain and inform your potential
donors simultaneously. Start by considering what your potential donors would want
to know about your charity organisation and then curate compelling content that 
would help you gain their trust, support and encouragement and invite them to get
involved in your initiative as well.
[Inbound marketing is an efficient and effective
way to to ensure that individuals who are searching online for volunteer opportunities
can seek out your charity organisation and join you in your cause. A good content
strategy also will provide your target audience and prospective volunteers to take
the necessary steps and get involved in your cause.

Charities must constantly publish fresh, engaging and quality content that provides
value to their target audience, charity organisations can efficiently position themselves
online as industry leaders and gain trust of potential donors by projecting a positive
image through inbound marketing.

#### **Videos**

In addition to that, charity organisations can publish content that empower donors
to tell their stories and the initiatives that have helped change hundreds of lives.
Many charity organisations produce videos since they are powerful pieces of content,
and can easily go viral if they carry a powerful message, within a matter of minutes.
Using videos as part of your content strategy where you tell stories of donor impact
will attract more donors and supporters to your organisation.

#### **Blogs**

[⌊Download The Complete Guide as an eBook ⌉⌊Download The Complete Guide as an eBook
 ⌉[

Charities can also post these same donor impact stories on their blog and make their
efforts public to gain more donors and volunteers.

Blogging also helps charities rank higher on search engine results with regards 
to their mission. Charities can invite their volunteers, donors and supporters to
share their stories and how through your organisation they have been able to make
a difference in the life of others.
**Reference**: [Blogging for Charities & Non Profits – An Introductory Guide](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/blogging-for-charity-nonprofits)
[⌊Effective Inbound Marketing Strategy Blog⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/ebook9.jpg)**
3. Email Campaigns**Using email campaigns effectively enables charities to convert
their donors into loyal advocates. Whenever an individual makes a contribution online,
make sure that you send a thank you message along with their donation receipt. In
the next few days, send them a follow up email containing additional information
about the best way to share the mission values of your charity with others.

You can also send them information regarding how they can volunteer with your charity,
become an activist for your organisation or start a fundraiser for you in their 
community.  Always make sure to follow up with your donors with additional information
about your organisation and its latest activities to keep them engaged.

### **4. How to Make Inbound Marketing Work For You**

#### **How Best To Make Inbound Marketing Work For Your Charity?**

Many charity organisations are beginning to see the effectiveness of marketing themselves
online and using the tools and techniques of inbound marketing to build up their
online presence and gain the trust of their donors. But question arises on how to
ensure that your charity and its message is being received by your target audience?

[⌊How to make Inbound Marketing Work For You⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/HowtomakeInboundMarketingWorkForYou.jpg)
Inbound marketing directs your charity to maintain a strong presence online in order
to attract potential donors. When you use target keywords and phrases in your content
and meta description, your target audience can automatically reach your site by 
searching for the same keywords and phrases on the search engine. When your target
audience clicks on your website link, they can get more information about your charity
organisation, its mission and its latest activities. On your website, you can place
multiple calls to action to encourage and persuade your leads to take the next step
and become a volunteer or donor.

Inbound marketing helps your charity organisation stand out from other charities
and ensures that you are not wasting all your marketing budget and hard earned donations
promoting your campaigns to people who are not genuinely interested in your cause
or getting involved in your initiatives.

#### The Role Lottery And Raffle Campaigns Are Playing For Charity **organisations**

There is an increasing number of charity organisations that are tuning to raffles
and lotteries as a way of creating steady money to keep their organisation running.
Using this form of incentivised giving, makes lotteries one of the most effective,
quickest and outstanding fundraising method in the present times.

Here are a few reasons why you as a charity organisation should start a charity 
lottery:

[⌊Lottery and Raffle Campaigns⌉⌊Lottery and Raffle Campaigns⌉[

 * Lotteries have been shown to stand out from a variety of fundraising methods 
   because they provide a form of incentivised giving from your donors: it lets 
   your supporters be rewarded. Lottery gives your donors and supporters a chance
   to be rewarded and gives your charity a chance to attract the right kind of people
   who might not always come forward and donate to your charity organisation. This
   works as an added advantage for your organisation, it can help you build contacts
   in your database and help you reach out to more donors in the long run as well.
 * There are also a few people who consider charities using raffle campaigns or 
   lotteries as unethical, saying that such campaigns encourage irresponsible spending
   and gambling on the part of donors. But this is not true. Online charity lottery
   provides people with an added incentive of getting something out of their donation,
   such as, winning a cash prize while helping the organisation and showing their
   support for a good cause. This makes a great combination and it is no less ethical
   than offering your supporters a reward, discounts or something that would make
   them feel nice about helping out  in exchange for signing up for a membership
   at the store.
 * A charity lottery gives people the possibility of gaining or winning something
   in return for their good deed, no matter how small it is, but it just the thing
   that many people need to nudge them into joining in for a good cause and be part
   of a charity organisation in whatever way they can. For instance, Breast Cancer
   Care used the strategy and came up with an online lottery and as a result their
   regular donations doubled in number.

**Reference**: [The National Lotteries Commission](http://www.natlotcomm.gov.uk/)

[⌊How to make Inbound Marketing Work for you⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/ebook15.jpg)

### **5. Set Up An Online Charity Lottery**

#### How To Set Up An Online Charity Lottery?

As a charity organisation, you are legally free to set up your own online lottery
and take the responsibility of marketing your charity lottery to your donors, supporters,
volunteers, as well as, corporate supporters and other members from the general 
public using inbound marketing strategies. There are a number of specialised software
packages available that enable charity organisations to import their electronic 
standing orders and direct debit files. Most charity organisations engage a specialist
company to look after the operations and carry out their online lottery efficiently.

As a charity organisation, you can also join a [joint online lottery scheme](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032732/).
For your first charity lottery, this could be a good option, especially if you are
unsure of how your donors and supporter base will respond to your online lottery
venture. Once you have received the response and feedback, you can switch over to
running your very own online lottery and gain all the support you need from your
target audience with a guaranteed prize fund.
[⌊Set Up an Online Charity Lottery⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/ebook14.jpg)**
How Beneficial Setting Up A Charity Lottery Really Is?**

The biggest advantage of having an online charity lottery is that you can attract
a lot of players and you can also predict how many players will help you in generating
income in the long run. Most charity lotteries usually cost players £1 to £2 per
week to play. But its gives a great incentive to players and enables the charity
to earn a lot of money annually. Some large charities as well as hospices have made
more than a million pounds a year through online charities and the inbound marketing
strategy they use to promote their efforts is by creating and sharing content about
winners which makes for good PR and attracts more donors to the lottery.

Charities that have a very strong local supporter base, for example, a hospice often
have 20% of their supporters signing up and playing their online lotteries.

#### The Process of Setting Up and Registering Your Online Lottery

Some feel that the process of setting up and registering a lottery is tedious and
extremely difficult and time consuming, but it usually depends on the number of 
players. Smaller lotteries that involve fewer than 4,000 players who pay £1 a week,
only have to register with a local authority in their town. This is a rather easy
and quick process and charity organisations can also register themselves for an 
online lottery by applying online. The application fee for registering and setting
up an online charity lottery is £40, with a recurring annual renewal fee of £20.

If the value of lottery draw is to exceed £20,000, or £250,000 in one year, the 
online charity lottery will have to be registered with the [Gambling Commission](http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/Licensing-authorities/Licensing-authorities.aspx).
The commission will issue a license to the charity to legally run their online lottery.

[⌊Process of Setting Up and Registering Your Online Lottery⌉⌊Process of Setting
Up and Registering Your Online Lottery⌉[**Using Inbound Marketing Techniques To 
Market Your Online Charity Lottery**

Promoting your online charity lottery should be an integral part of your inbound
marketing plan. You should launch your lottery promotional campaign three months
before the first lottery draw date; this will allow you to recruit new members to
your online lottery and help you reach a break even target as well. If in case, 
you are not able to reach your desired number or membership levels, you can postpone
the draw or launch another aggressive marketing campaign that will help your charity
organisation recruit new members and ensure that your only lottery will not run 
into a loss.
**Reference**: [You can use your Google Grant budget to promote your Lottery](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/google-adwords-for-charities).

The most successful and popular promotional tool for online lotteries is a simple
leaflet with an enclosed application form for people who are interested in signing
up as members. These forms are often mailed to the warmest and kindest supporters
of charities. [Telemarketing](http://floodlightnewmarketing.co.uk/inbound-marketing/3-ways-to-successfully-integrate-inbound-marketing-with-b2b-telemarketing/)
is also a great method that has been adopted by multiple charities of all sizes.
There are companies in the UK that specialise in [telemarketing for charity organisations](http://floodlightnewmarketing.co.uk/),
and they can be hired for run and carry out promotional campaigns for online charity
lotteries in order to attract new members and also convert existing members.
[⌊Charity Events and Campaigns⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/Subtitle.jpg)
Charity events and campaigns, such as, summer galas and fundraising balls should
also be used as a golden opportunity to promote your online charity lottery. The
staff of a charity organisation should be trained in recruiting new members and 
must be ready to guide them on how the lottery works and will benefit them.

[Social media marketing](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/social-media-marketing) 
and [use of your website to promote your online charity lottery](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/growth-driven-design)
is also a cost effective, efficient and easy way to inform your donors, supporters
and volunteers about the upcoming online lottery, but this should not be the only
marketing strategy to be used, instead it should work alongside other promotional
methods.

### **6. 5 Ways to Run A Successful Charity Raffle**

Raffles are a fantastic way for charity organisations to raise additional income
to find their causes or initiatives. Today there are thousands upon thousands of
charity organisations in the UK alone, that run raffles every year and make millions
for good causes. According to a research, approximately 21% of all the UK donors
had bought raffle tickets in the year 2014.

Here is what you need to get started on your first raffle and ensure its success
in the long run:

 1. **Get ****Licence**** For Running A Raffle**

You can run raffles as part of your fundraising event or a campaign outside of your
fundraising event. If you are running a raffle as part of an event, you do not need
a license. However, if you were to launch a stand alone raffle, you will definitely
need a license. You can obtain a raffle license from your local authority and you
can also use this same license to run a lottery as well, where other players can
join your online charity lottery in a weekly or monthly draw and you can award them
prizes of up to £25,000.

 2. ** Always Source Your Raffle Prizes**

Donated prizes are always great to win and also very cost effective on the part 
of the charity organisation. When sourcing raffle prizes, always think about the
people who will be buying the tickets to your raffle and also the type of prizes
that will instantly attract them. It is often observed that the more unusual the
prize is, the better it sounds to the people. You can start by asking your corporate
supporters, volunteers, donors or partners regarding the prize. Cash prizes are 
always effective, but for some charity organisations they might not be so cost-effective.

[⌊Plan Ahead Of Your Raffle⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/PlanAheadofyourRaffle.jpg)

 3. ** Plan Ahead For Your Raffle**

Having a clear raffle plan is key to achieving your goals. An effective strategy
will not only save you time but it will also improve your raffle and lottery promotional
campaigns in the future. You can start by accurately pricing your raffle tickets
so that they help you reach your fundraising goals. Research your target market,
and know exactly who you want to target with your campaign, what you want to achieve
from it and how you are going to achieve that, and you will be on your way to running
a successful promotional campaign for your raffle in no time.

 4. ** Promote Your Raffle Campaign With Efficient Inbound Marketing Strategies**

Once you have everything noted down and ready to begin. You should start promoting
your raffle three months prior to the first draw as noted above, since it will give
a boost to your online marketing campaign. If you are having an online raffle, you
should simply put the URL into all your communication, such as, social media, email
marketing communications as well as [your official charity website](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/growth-driven-design).

[⌊Make Sure You Have A Valid Legal License To Run A Raffle⌉](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/12/ebook21.jpg)
Do not forget any legal requirement for running your charity raffle. You must have
a license if you plan on running a stand alone raffle for your charity. Following
these steps will help you run your online raffle campaign successfully and achieve
your target fundraising goals. Using inbound marketing tools and techniques are 
not only cost effective for charities but they also help them enhance their online
presence.

You can [download this complete article as a free eBook here](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/inbound-marketing-lotteries-raffles):

## ⏎ Related Articles

 * [Google Grants for Charities Now Available](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/11/15/google-grants-for-charities/)
 * [Inbound Marketing For Charities And Nonprofits](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/inbound-marketing-for-charities-and-non-profits)
 * [Blogging For Charities and Nonprofits, An Introductory Guide](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/blogging-for-charity-nonprofits)
 * [10 Things Your Charity Needs to Know About Google Grants](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/google-grants-for-charities-10-tips)
 * [10 Quick SEO Tips For Charities & Nonprofits](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/10-quick-seo-tips-for-charity-non-profits)

## Author

This guide was written in collaboration with Edwin Raymond, Managing Director of
Floodlight New Marketing and Whitehat who are [SEO experts](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/seo-services/search-engine-optimisation)
at [a London based marketing agency](https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/). Floodlight,
a [B2B Inbound Marketing Agency](http://floodlightnewmarketing.co.uk/), specialises
in the Technology, Manufacturing and Electronics industries. Their goal is the unification
of sales and marketing efforts helping growing companies to drive better customer
engagement, forge stronger relationships and [accelerate sales results with a strong ROI](https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/hubspot-roi).

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