How to keep your crowd in the know: writing updates
Updates are a key part of a campaign. They’re also an important part of how you communicate with your crowd when you’re not crowdfunding.
You want to attract raving fans, be the best at what you do and serve your crowd in the best way, right?
Everything you do is part of the product. So let’s start with writing updates.
We’ve seen hundreds of campaigns go through our platform and we do updates too! We’ve learnt a bit in our time and we’ve distilled those learnings into a few key things.
Whether you’re about to run a campaign or you just want to start communicating with your crowd, we hope that this will help you become the brand worth gathering around.
Start with why
Why are you providing this update?
Why are you doing this campaign?
Why do you do what you do?
Why is this important?
If you can answer these questions, it’ll be easier to make the words happen.
(also, if you haven’t already, definitely watch the Simon Sinek talk we’re blatantly referencing)
Be aware of expectations and context
What are they expecting from you?
If it’s a campaign update or newsletter, they’re probably expecting to find out what has changed since your last update. This seems simple, but it can often be overlooked! (We’ve all opened those emails that make us think “why would I want to know that?”)
If you’re starting to engage with your crowd for the first time, it’s great to set expectations. If they’ve joined your email list, update the welcome email to let them know how often you’ll be emailing and what you’ll be saying each time (and don’t forget to thank them for subscribing!)
Also, be context-aware: how are they hearing from you?
It’s a little different for each context. The way you talk to your best mate will be different if you’re giving a wedding speech, chilling on a Sunday arvo, or giving them a quick call during work hours. Same thing goes for your updates.
Consistency and authenticity
If you’ve set expectations, fulfil them! Show up when and where you said you would. And keep showing up.
You should also sound like you. Regardless of context, you’re still the same brand every time. You aren’t the news, you aren’t a robot, you’re a human. We want to connect with your humanity.
What are you trying to say?
What’s the little thing? And what’s the big thing?
For campaign updates, the little thing is stuff like:
- we’ve got X days to go!
- we’re X% funded!
- we were in the paper!
And the big thing is:
- we want to keep making a difference in the world
- your dollars help us make that difference
The game is to write it about the little things but make it about the big thing.
This works for newsletters too. Maybe you’re talking about an upcoming sale (little thing) but you’re also talking about how that product will make such a difference in their life (big thing).
Planning and off-the-cuff
It’s not one or the other!
Here’s what we reckon: plan the bare minimum and give yourself permission for off-the-cuff stuff.
Planned
For campaign updates, pick your time milestones. A good starting point list might be: 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 7 days, 3 days, 48 hours, and 24 hours to go.
For newsletters, pick your frequency. If you’re starting out, go with monthly until you’re consistent.
For socials, it’s up to you how much you want to work on it.
Off-the-cuff
For campaign updates, it might be a really juicy bit of news or an exciting milestone eg. “We’re already at 80%!”, “We’re fully funded!” or “<Minor celebrity> just gave us a shout out!”
A few other tips
Stuck?
Figure out what you like about how other people do updates and make it your own.
Use help
Use an app like Hemingway to fix up your words. It’s brutal but it’s an app so we promise it’s not judging you. If writing isn’t your thing, pay someone to help you with it. Some people just record audio and send it off to get transcribed and then someone on their team edits it into a blog post.
It gets easier
Keep doing it until it’s not a big deal. The first few times you put stuff out in public, it feels like a massive ordeal. Remember learning how to drive? Not a big deal any more is it? But when you first got behind the wheel, you might have felt like you were facing imminent death.
Once you’re consistent, cut down your activities to what matters
Someone was once putting a heap of time into creating graphics, writing copy, scheduling posts. She kept it up for months before she realised something crucial: the posts she did off-the-cuff were getting better engagement and took 10x less effort.
Remember the big thing. If what you’re doing isn’t contributing to that, put your focus onto what is.
Remember, you can always see what other great organisations are doing with their campaigns and if you’re thinking about running a campaign of your own, get in touch!
