Social Media Fundraising Approaches

Identifying your target audience is step one. Success in business requires much more: It's one thing to know who you're selling to. It's another thing to know: - Where they spend their time - What mindset they're in when they encounter your message - What triggers them to take action That's the message behind this Lamborghini quote: Don't spend money trying to reach buyers in the wrong places. Most brands ignore this principle. They launch campaigns and run ads without asking fundamental questions: ➡️ Where does our customer actually spend time online? ➡️ What moment are we trying to reach them in? ➡️ What problem are they trying to solve when they see our message? The platform matters as much as the message. But so does the context. If you're selling enterprise SaaS to tech leads... They're searching Google for solutions. That's intent-driven behavior. Instagram won't capture that moment. If you're targeting founders running DTC brands... They're listening to podcasts during commutes,  checking Slack between meetings, and reading emails at night. They're not passively scrolling TikTok looking for business tools. If you're marketing luxury wellness retreats... Your buyers are researching through referrals and testimonials. They want proof from people they trust,  Not direct response ads interrupting their feed. Understanding this changes how you allocate budget. Your customer isn't everyone. And being present on a platform doesn't mean they're in buying mode. Someone scrolling Instagram at 11 PM is in entertainment mode. Someone searching Google at 2 PM is in solution mode. It’s the same person, but with a different intent and conversion likelihood. That's why relevance is a critical component of any scalable advertising system. At Ad Pros, we map out three things before launching anything: ✅ Audience behavior:  Where they spend time and what they're doing there ✅ Platform mechanics:  Which platforms reward the type of content that fits your message ✅ Timing and intent:  When they're most likely to act and what triggers that action The right message is only half of the work that needs to be done. To convert, you need the right message, at the right time, on the right platform. Ready to add $1m/month to your eCommerce business? Join the waitlist: https://lnkd.in/e-Av-tdY Do you know where your audience spends most of their time?  Leave a comment below with your thoughts. ♻️ Repost to share this reminder with your network.  Follow Nehal Kazim for more advertising strategy.

Today, in Facebook ads, creatives serve as the strongest targeting lever, more so than any other targeting options. In performance marketing, it is famously called soft targeting. Hence, choosing the right type of communication is more important than targeting and bid/budget optimization in Facebook ads. You should have different ads that speak to people at different stages in a manner that best suits them. So, what are these stages and the corresponding ad types? 1. Unaware Ads These ads are for the audience who are unaware of the brand and the problem. These ads should turn an unaware audience into a problem-aware & brand-aware audience. 2. Problem-aware Ad These ads are for people who are well aware of their problems but not the solution or the brand. Ads for these users should talk about their problems and introduce the brand as a solution. 3. Solution-Aware Ads A certain set of audiences is well aware of their problems and of possible solutions, too. But they don't know which solution/product to choose. Solution-aware ads should help in determining which solution/product to choose while introducing the brand 4. Brand-Aware Ads These people know everything about their problems. They also know how to solve it and what product/brand to choose. They are just waiting for the right time and the right offer to buy it. In traditional campaign structuring of Top of the Funnel(ToFU), Middle of the funnel(MoFU), and bottom of the funnel(BoFU), - Type 1 and Type 2 ads should be used in TOFU campaigns - Type 3 ads should be used in MoFU campaigns and - Type 4 ads should be used in Bofu campaigns.

I've reviewed thousands of LinkedIn posts that never took off. They all share one missing ingredient. Not better headlines Not smarter hashtags Not posting at 9:47 am on Tuesday Emotion. The posts that break through (the ones that get saved, shared, and commented on) make people feel something specific. Emotion leads to action, impact, connections and results. Shaan Puri (from My First Million) breaks it down perfectly with his 7-emotion framework. Every strong piece of content hits at least one of these emotional notes: 1️⃣ LOL - that's so funny Your audience laughs out loud. The algorithm notices shares 2️⃣ OHHH - now I get it! You break through confusion. People screenshot and save 3️⃣ WOW - that's amazing! You surprise them. Comments flood in with 'this is incredible' 4️⃣ AWW - that's sooo cute You create warmth. Tags multiply because people want to share the feeling 5️⃣ YAY - that's great news! You deliver a win. Celebrations spark engagement 6️⃣ WTF - that pisses me off You channel frustration. People vent in the comments 7️⃣ FINALLY - someone said it! You validate what they already think... 'Exactly'! becomes your top comment And this isn’t just true for creators. It’s especially true for founders, CEOs, and leaders. People don’t come to LinkedIn to (only) read your press release.. they come to feel inspired, challenged, even surprised. The leaders who get this build real communities.. and see a real ROI on their business, too. That's the algorithm hack nobody wants to hear: there is no hack. Just better content.

Most B2B marketers make the same mistake: They treat Google, LinkedIn, and Meta as separate campaigns instead of a connected system. Here’s the thing → one channel alone can’t carry your whole demand engine. Google gives you intent. LinkedIn gives you qualification. Meta gives you scale. When you connect them, you don’t just generate leads — you build a profitable, self-reinforcing flywheel. Step 1: Capture demand with Google Ads Google is still the undisputed king of intent. Someone searching “enterprise CRM for SaaS” is already in-market. That’s gold. But here’s the reality: Only 2–5% of visitors convert on the first touch. High-intent clicks cost $8–$12+. Most of that traffic bounces and disappears. If you’re just measuring Google by “conversions today,” you’ll either cap out quickly or burn budget. The smarter move? Pay for that in-market traffic, then pipe it into a system that qualifies and retargets. Step 2: Qualify and nurture with LinkedIn This is where most companies fall short. Drop the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your site and suddenly you can segment Google visitors by industry, company size, and seniority. Now you’re not treating every click equally — you’re focusing spend on the ones that match your ICP. And instead of spamming brand ads, run Thought Leader Ads. These are organic-style posts from your CEO or SME, sponsored into the feeds of your best-fit prospects. It builds trust, positions your team as experts, and warms the accounts you actually care about. Bonus: LinkedIn Company Hub shows you exactly which accounts are leaning in. Served 30+ impressions? 3+ ad clicks? That’s your intent list. Step 3: Enrich and scale with Meta At this stage, you’ve captured intent and qualified fit. Now it’s time to scale. Export your engaged LinkedIn accounts, enrich them with decision-maker contact data, and upload that list into Meta. Why? CPMs are 3–4x cheaper than LinkedIn. Enriched data improves match rates. Facebook + Instagram give you unmatched reach. Now you’re retargeting with testimonial videos, case study carousels, or founder explainers — not to cold strangers, but to warm, qualified accounts. The result? Lower CPC overall Warmer leads Higher conversion rates Cleaner attribution More efficient ad spend That’s the power of building a B2B Ad Trifecta instead of siloed channels. If I were starting from zero today, this is exactly where I’d begin: ✅ Capture demand with Google ✅ Qualify and nurture with LinkedIn ✅ Enrich and scale with Meta Control what you can control: your system. Not the algorithm. Worth testing if your funnel is stuck on one channel.

Could social media help raise $5.5M in just 24 hours? The The University of Georgia's annual Dawg Day of Giving campaign rallies students, alumni, and supporters to donate in a single day. High stakes, 100+ social posts to manage, and a small team of three strategists covering 400,000+ people. This year, they 5x'd their social-attributed revenue. How? They listened before they posted. Using social intelligence, they tracked real-time conversations across the Georgia Bulldogs community - fan-generated content, emotional alumni moments, trending topics they would've missed otherwise. They turned those insights into content that resonated. Their analytics revealed something counterintuitive: static image carousels were outperforming video. So they stopped pouring resources into video production and doubled down on what was working. Data killed their initial assumptions. And they were able to generate better results with less effort. The outcome: → $5.5M raised in 24 hours → 522% increase in revenue attributed to social → 54% YoY increase in digital giving revenue → 1M+ Instagram views on a single campaign Social isn't just a brand awareness play. When you combine listening with data-driven content, it becomes a revenue engine. What business impact could your organization be driving with social?

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘀. When was the last time you 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 something from an ad? Not just understood it, but actually felt a lump in your throat or a smile on your face? That’s what Coca-Cola nailed with their ‘𝗛𝘂𝗴 𝗠𝗲’ vending machine campaign in 2012. No coins, no cards - just a hug to get a free Coke. It wasn’t about selling soda. It was about sparking emotion. And it worked! Foot traffic around the machine skyrocketed. Social media lit up with shares and smiles. Why? Because touch triggers the release of oxytocin - the "bonding hormone" which builds trust and emotional connection. A study by the University of North Carolina found that even brief physical contact can reduce stress and increase feelings of security. Coca-Cola didn’t just dispense drinks, they dispensed dopamine. This is the power of emotional branding. It’s not about the product. It’s about the feeling you associate with it. Here's another great example of emotional branding: Spotify. They didn’t go the usual route with their billboards. No pricing. No tech specs. Just raw human emotion. Billboards like: “Be as happy as the guy who added 1,235 ‘I Love You’ songs to his playlist.” Or: “To the person who played ‘Sorry’ 42 times on Valentine’s Day - what did you do?” Funny. Relatable. Real. They weren’t selling features. They were holding up a mirror to our lives - with music as the soundtrack. The result? Massive online engagement. Word-of-mouth virality. And brand love that no performance metric can buy. In a world chasing attention, the brands that win are the ones that make us feel seen, heard, and understood. So here's the question - are you giving people information, or giving them a feeling they’ll never forget? #business #campaign #businessstrategies

Same LinkedIn post. Two countries. Completely different results. Ever wondered why your content crushes it with one audience and falls flat with another? A meta-analysis in the Journal of Consumer Research studied 29,000+ people across 22 countries. The finding is fascinating — and directly applicable to how we create content here. In collectivist cultures (think Japan, China, Brazil), emotional messages persuade more strongly. In individualist cultures (think Germany, Netherlands, USA), emotional and logical appeals perform almost the same. This isn't about creative preference. It's cultural psychology. And it explains why the same hook, the same story, the same CTA can work brilliantly in one market and completely miss in another. What this means for you on LinkedIn: ↳ Collectivist audiences respond to: belonging, shared benefit, "we" language, emotional stories first ↳ Individualist audiences respond to: clarity, control, personal gain, logic first Both can be persuaded. But the order matters. Collectivist: lead with emotion, follow with certainty. Individualist: lead with clarity, follow with meaning. How to apply this: 1. Know your audience's cultural mindset before writing Ask: Do they think as a group or as an individual? 2. Test two versions of your key message One emotional-first. One clarity-first. Most creators never test this — yet it's often the biggest conversion lever. 3. Match your motivational cues Collectivist: protection, harmony, shared success Individualist: autonomy, competence, personal results Persuasion isn't universal. System 1 and System 2 don't operate the same way everywhere. Some audiences move through emotion. Others move through clarity. Many need both — just in a different order. If you're targeting a global audience on LinkedIn, one-size-fits-all content is leaving engagement on the table. What's your audience — more emotional-first or clarity-first?

Laser-targeted campaigns generate the warmest online leads ✅ But what are laser-targeted campaigns? We all know that feeling when a company's ads follow us around. There are three ways laser-targeted campaigns are set up: 1. Ideal customer profile ads We build a profile of people likely to be interested in your product or service and run campaigns for them. For example, we create an audience of people in specific sectors, specific sizes of companies, specific job roles, and specific geographical areas. Your ads are only seen by these people. Even your competitors don't see your ads. It's a highly efficient use of ad spend. 2. Retargeting ads For those who respond or show interest in your posts, ads, or website we run different campaigns. For example, people who downloaded a particular white paper might see more ads related to that topic. People who visit a certain page on your website might see ads about that topic. And we show no ads to people who never respond to your campaigns, so over time, your ad spend just gets more and more efficient. By using retargeting continually, it's possible to automatically take people from curious, to knowing, liking, and trusting you, to feeling enough clarity and confidence to reach out and speak to you. 3. Account-based marketing Similar to 1 & 2 but using hand-built lists of companies you want to advertise too. For example, some Bespoke clients advertise only to lists of existing clients or target clients for the future. These can be lists of 20, 200, or 2000 companies. The same principles apply to targeted campaigns first, and then remarketing based on their response. But the reason most of Bespoke's clients use laser-targeted campaigns is not just because it's an efficient way to allocate ad spend. Other benefits are: ✅ It generates detailed data on who is interested in your ads (eg which companies click, which sectors click, and which job roles click) ✅ It informs what content should be added to your website (it shows us which topics and headlines people respond to, and which they don't) ✅ It generates warm, uncontested leads (people become curious about you only, your competition is essentially not considered in the process) So the food for thought is - do you run laser-targeted campaigns like this? Or do you run old-style campaigns, with one message for everybody? More in the video ➡️ ➡️ ➡️

"Post more, engage more, grow more"→biggest scam ever. A client came to me, frustrated. “I’ve been posting every single day. Following all the advice. But it feels like nobody is reading my post.” She wasn’t wrong. Her posts were well-written. Packed with value. Structured perfectly. But here’s the problem: No one felt anything. People scrolled past, nodded, and moved on. Because her content wasn’t hitting them where it mattered. So, we made one change. Instead of just sharing “value,” we made them feel something first. We told stories. We showed real struggles, real emotions, real shifts. 3 weeks later: → More engagement on one post than her last twenty combined. → DMs from people saying, “Wow, I needed this.” → Inbound leads—without ever pitching. Because here’s the truth: People don’t ignore your content because it lacks information. They ignore it because it doesn’t move them. Want to fix that? Do this: 1️⃣ Find the moment that makes people stop. Not a “pain point.” A real emotional trigger they already feel. 2️⃣ Start with a punch. No warm-up. No fluff. Hit them where they feel it. 3️⃣ Tell a story, not just a tip. Instead of “3 ways to improve,” show what happens when they don’t. 4️⃣ Make them uncomfortable. People act when they realize what they’re missing, not when they get another “how-to.” 5️⃣ End with a thought that lingers. A question, a challenge, a shift in perspective that sticks after they scroll. The moment you stop making “content” and start creating experiences? That’s when people start paying attention. Now tell me: what’s the last post that actually made you stop scrolling? #storytelling

As a Communications Officer in an NGO, targeting donors, funders, and partners on social media requires strategy — not just storytelling. Here’s how I would approach it: 1. Segment Before You Speak Not all audiences are the same. Donors want impact, transparency, and emotional connection. Funders want data, scalability, governance, and measurable outcomes. Partners want alignment, visibility, and shared value. A single generic post won’t convert all three. Content must be intentional. 2. Lead With Impact + Evidence Social media is crowded. Credibility wins attention. I would consistently publish: Before/after impact stories Clear outcome metrics (beneficiaries reached, % change, ROI of intervention) Visual dashboards and infographics Short case studies Numbers build trust. Stories build connection. Together, they build funding confidence. 3. Position the Organization as a Thought Leader Donors don’t just fund projects — they fund competence. I would create: LinkedIn articles on sector insights Commentary on policy trends Reflections on lessons learned from field implementation Data-driven threads on SDG alignment This attracts institutional funders looking for strategic partners — not just implementers. 4. Showcase Partnerships Publicly Tag existing partners. Celebrate collaboration. When organizations see their peers working with you, social proof increases credibility. Partnerships attract partnerships. 5. Clear Call-to-Action Every campaign should answer: Are we seeking grants? Corporate sponsorship? Strategic collaboration? Technical partners? The CTA must be visible and specific — website link, proposal deck, contact email, impact report. 6. Retarget & Nurture Social media is the first touchpoint, not the final conversion. Connect with decision-makers on LinkedIn Send tailored follow-up messages Share quarterly impact briefs via email Invite prospects to webinars or virtual field tours Campaigns convert when communication continues beyond the post. Key Takeaways Targeting donors, funders, and partners on social media is not about posting more. It’s about: Strategic messaging. Evidence-based storytelling. Consistent positioning. Relationship building. Because funding follows credibility. #NGOCommunications #FundraisingStrategy #DevelopmentSector #SocialImpact #CommunicationsOfficer #CommunicationsManager