Bill Scott “Deadlines Are Your Friends”
Deadlines are your friends
I learned a long time ago when I first began in Christian radio at a station called WCIE, that deadlines are your friends.
Thirty some years later, deadlines in a fundraiser are more important than ever. As radio personalities we have to cut through a lot of clutter in order to get the attention of the listener. There are a lot of things competing for the listeners ears.
While doing your fundraiser, if there isn’t a deadline you will not get your listener to make the pledge you desire to have. It’s human nature to put off calling or going online to make the gift to the radio station. We would all be millionaires if we could cash in on good intentions.
I often say you have two sales pitches you have to make in each break: 1) You must convince the listener your radio station is worth giving their hard earned money to. If you stop there, you more than likely will not actually get their gift even though they are convinced that you are worth supporting financially. You can have the most heart felt story that convinces a listener to give but without the second step, you have fallen short. 2) You have to convince the listener that NOW is the time to call or go online to make that gift. It’s a one two punch in order to get that donation into your station. Convince them you are worth supporting and sell them that now is the time to make the gift. Step 1 with a good story only moves the heart, you also want to move them to take out their credit card and make that call.
Deadlines often can be the one thing that will convince a listener to make their gift in the moment you need them to. “Only one more song to make this goal, only one minute left in order to hit this challenge, the challenge money won’t be released if your station doesn’t find four more people to join at $30/mo”.
Years ago, the mindset was that having just one deadline an hour was a good thing. Of course at the end of the hour you would see the phones blow up. Why would the phones blow up at the end of the hour? Because there’s a deadline. People react under pressure. Let me throw out this question: What if you had three deadlines in each hour? The answer, you would see the phones blow up three times as you approached each deadline. If you are only doing one deadline each hour, you are leaving money on the table.
I try my hardest to get in three deadlines in an hour and never go under two deadlines. Remember you have two things you must sell in order to get the donation: 1) That your radio station is worth supporting. 2) That YOU are needed in order to hit this deadline, without you, your station is going to miss this incredible challenge.
As you try this in your fundraising, hit me up and let me know how it works for you. I promise, if it’s done right you will see an increase in giving. Hit me up, bill@VidareCreative.com.
So remember the three things you need in your next fundraiser, deadlines, deadlines and deadlines.
I look forward to seeing many of your at our upcoming Vidare Creative Fundraising Training Camp in Nashville July 25 & 26. VidareCreative.com has all the details.
Bill Scott – Chief Content Officer, Vidare Creative / www.VidareCreative.com. Contact Bill at bill@vidarecreative.com
