How to Market Your Mobile Bidding Event

Mobile bidding is fun, easy and can really boost your fundraising revenue. To make the most of this great technology, you’ll need to market your mobile bidding event effectively so you can generate excitement, get your guests on board and help them feel comfortable with the process.

An easy way to accomplish this is to create a mobile bidding page on your website that shows your guests how easy and fun it is to bid with their smart phones. The Greater Giving Communication Kit provides you with the resources you need to create an effective marketing page for your mobile bidding event:

• Videos (and instructions on how to embed them in your site) that provide your guests with:
  • Detailed instructions on using their phones to bid
  • A sense of what a mobile bidding event looks like
• Boilerplate instructions for:
  • Registering your phone
  • Bidding on auction items
  • Making donations
  • How to bid without a phone
• Photos of mobile bidding events that you can post on your page
• Screen shots of the mobile bidding app in action
• Greater Giving logos

The Seattle Aquarium has put together an exemplary mobile bidding page. They’ve included some great features that make it easy for guests to use:

• Clear instructions on how to use mobile bidding (see our Communication Kit for the boilerplate text)
• Links to bid sheets
• Location of a “Recharge Lounge” or “Juice Bar”
• Where to get help (i.e. Bid Assistants dressed in red)

You can liven up your own mobile bidding page with videos, photos and/or screen shots from our Communication Kit.

As you plan your mobile bidding event, put some thought into how to make your Bid Assistants easily visible to your guests. Perhaps they all wear the same color, or a fun “uniform” related to the theme of your event. Make your Bid Assistants visible and obvious so your guests are assured they can get help when they need it.

Once you have created your mobile bidding page, you can share the link (or even a summary of the information) in your email newsletter and in your social media blasts. Generate some buzz and excitement for this new way of bidding. Your guests will have more fun and your event will be more successful.