Giving Tuesday and Inbound Marketing: A Love Story

December 3rd HubSpot launched its #GivingTuesday campaign in which we'll donate $.50 for every new follower we get on Google+, up to $5,000, to our charity of choice -- charity: water. To learn more, click here. Don't forget to follow us on Google+ to participate in the day's spirit of giving!

With the holiday season fast approaching, you’re getting ready for the surge of consumers looking for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday discounts. But once all that craziness dies down, there is one more day everyone should be talking about -- the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, also known as Giving Tuesday.

This dedicated day of giving back to the causes that are close to your heart, whether you’re a company, school, volunteer, board member, or organization, is about kicking off the end-of-year giving season by raising awareness of the Giving Tuesday movement and its over 5,400 partners. 

Whoever you are -- this day is not only for nonprofits and philanthropists -- this is a day to step back, find a cause you care about as a group or as an individual, and help them in one way or another. And the best part is that you can use your inbound marketing skills to do so!

Launching Your Giving Tuesday Inbound Campaign

Since there are only 15 days til Giving Tuesday, we are going to give you everything you need to join the conversation on December 3rd. You can still become an official partner of Giving Tuesday and share your campaign plan, but you do not have to be a partner to access their campaign resources or our marketing kit.

Let's break down your Giving Tuesday campaign by each inbound marketing channel you can leverage.

On Social Media

The success of Giving Tuesday last year was driven a lot by social media. The hashtag #GivingTuesday trended last year, and the conversation has already picked up this year with anticipation. If you simply join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook, you're doing your part to raise awareness for the movement.

We’ve also created these inspiring quote images that you can post on Facebook that will help drive lots of Likes, shares, and comments come December 3rd.

Once you decide you're going to participate in Giving Tuesday, join the conversation ASAP. You don’t have to wait until December 3rd to raise awareness for the day of giving by talking about it on social media. Here are some lazy tweets provided by Giving Tuesday that can get you started: 

• Perfect antidote to overspending this holiday season? #GivingTuesday coming Dec 3! www.Givingtuesday.org @givingtues
• Ever thought u should "give back" a little more? What are u waiting for? #GivingTuesdaywww.GivingTuesday.org @givingtues
• Take advantage of those post-Thanksgiving deals. But spare some cash this year. #GivingTuesday is Dec 3 @givingtues
• Dreading post-Thanksgiving shopping? We have a better idea: #GivingTuesday. How will u get involved? www.givingtuesday.org

On Your Website 

If you're a partner of Giving Tuesday and want everyone to know it, updating your homepage with a Giving Tuesday banner or logo is a great idea. You can link to givingtuesday.org or to the organization for which you’re raising awareness. You can do this now or just on December 3rd, but we've seen that the earlier you start talking about Giving Tuesday the better.

If you don’t want to or don’t have the ability to update your homepage, you can create a separate landing page that explains your involvement in Giving Tuesday, what organization you're supporting, and how your networks can get involved. Including some lazy tweets for visitors to share with their social networks is a great way to spread the word and join the #GivingTuesday conversation.

On Your Blog 

Writing a blog post about Giving Tuesday not only informs your audience about the day, but it also helps with your search engine optimization (SEO). With the heavy search volume for the phrase "Giving Tuesday" in the month of November and December, you might see a spike in traffic to your blog when you write on this topic. You can see the phrase is already trending upwards on Google Trends: 

You can write a simple post about what Giving Tuesday is to educate your audience and include an ask to either tweet about it using the #GivingTuesday hashtag, or to support an organization of your choice (or yours if you’re a nonprofit). 

In Your Email Marketing

This is great channel to use either the day before Giving Tuesday or the day of to let everyone know what Giving Tuesday is, how your company or organization is participating, and what your network of customers and followers can do to help or raise awareness. You can share lazy tweets, images for Facebook (like the inspirational quotes above), as well as anything else you want to promote for your specific audience. 

If you're fundraising for an organization on Giving Tuesday, think about having one or two emails on the day of to share what you’re doing and your fundraising progress. You may also want to think of sending a summary email at the end of the week with featured tweets and stories collected during the day, as well as your total campaign success. Email is a great way to get people involved and also the number one channel for asking for donations.

There are many advantages to participating in Giving Tuesday as a company, as well as an organization. If you want to learn more about Giving Tuesday and how to amplify your campaign you can join our Giving Tuesday webinar on Tuesday November 19th at 2pm EST with Double the Donation. 

How are you participating in Giving Tuesday?