Tip of the Day from NOI

This week, all of our tips will come from members of the Black Roots: New Media BootCamp training team. Want to follow Black Roots live? We're on Twitter at #BlackRoots11!

One of the biggest goals of a digital organizer is building a strong email list of supporters who will take action to help achieve your goals. But how can you find new people? Creative use of Facebook ads is one great way. Here's an example:

In March, Freedom to Marry launched a Say, "I Do" campaign, with an open letter calling on President Obama to publicly support marriage for same-sex couples. The initial signers included celebrities like Ellen and Portia DeGeneres, civil rights heroes like Julian Bond, and tech leaders like Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. We then asked our supporters via email, Facebook, and Twitter to co-sign the letter. But we knew that we also needed to reach new potential supporters.

Enter Facebook ads. We had celebrity signers like LeAnn Rimes and Jane Lynch who had a lot of supporters on their Facebook pages, so we thought, "Let's run Facebook ads featuring photos of the celebrities and target fans of those celebrities on Facebook."

The results: many new signers and a huge increase in the Freedom to Marry email list (with the cost per conversion running less than $1).

Over the course of the campaign, we added new celebrity signers to the letter and rolled out new ad creative. In a couple of months, we doubled the size of our email list.

A few key things to consider when creating Facebook ad campaigns:

• Smart ad targeting. We targeted fans of celebrities cosigners. We also targeted other demographics including men who like men, women who like women, and supporters of progressive organizations. Think through different groups and interests when targeting ads, and be creative!
  
  
• Ad testing. We tested multiple versions of each ad, altering the headline and body text. Test and keep testing to get the most effective ad possible.
  
  
• Invest in results. Once we saw that we had a winning campaign, we increased our ad buy. If something's working, commit to it!
  
  
• Fresh content. As the campaign went on, we added new ad creative to keep the campaign fresh. Even just updating the text or image can make a big difference over time.

With smart targeting and a compelling campaign, Facebook ads can be an effective and low cost way of building your email list.

Seen a creative ad campaign? Run one yourself? Share your stories in the comments on our blog!

Michael Crawford is Director of Online Programs at Freedom to Marry, a member of the #blackroots11 leadership team, and a graduate of BootCamp '09