😆Marketing tactics to consider for your plan

With your strategic fundamentals in place, let’s get to the actual tactics.

Note: We’ve designed this tactics list to support Gitcoin Grants partners but there are still some helpful suggestions and templates that will support any ecosystem leader to effectively market their grants round.

We recommend that you think about your marketing plan in three separate phases:

[PHASE 1] Pre-Round - 4 weeks out

• Beginning 4 weeks before the start of the Grants Round

• Outcome of phase: To increase the number of high-quality grantees applying to your round. This phase primarily focuses on grantees/grantee enablement but allows for a secondary focus on building wider awareness of your event with potential donors.

This phase contains two sub-phases, allowing for a more granular focus: - Awareness - Increasing awareness of your round. You want as many people to know that your round is happening and that they will have the opportunity to participate. This sub-phase mostly focuses on attracting high-value grantees to apply to your round. - Discovery - Build hype & help prepare your audience by promoting your ecosystem’s objectives for the grants round (i.e., why you’re running the round). This sub-phase still primarily targets grantees engagement but begins to put a stronger focus on donors as well.

• Beginning 4 weeks before the start of the Grants Round

• Outcome of phase: To increase the number of high-quality grantees applying to your round. This phase primarily focuses on grantees/grantee enablement but allows for a secondary focus on building wider awareness of your event with potential donors.

This phase contains two sub-phases, allowing for a more granular focus: - Awareness - Increasing awareness of your round. You want as many people to know that your round is happening and that they will have the opportunity to participate. This sub-phase mostly focuses on attracting high-value grantees to apply to your round. - Discovery - Build hype & help prepare your audience by promoting your ecosystem’s objectives for the grants round (i.e., why you’re running the round). This sub-phase still primarily targets grantees engagement but begins to put a stronger focus on donors as well.

[PHASE 2] In-Round - First day & beyond

• Beginning at the start of the Grants Round

• Objective of phase: To increase the number of unique donations given to the round. This phase primarily targets funders. This phase contains three elements to consider:

  • Promotion - Use promotional content, storytelling, and online events to engage your community and bolster support for your round. This sub-phase targets individual donors.

  • Improvement - Tips to help boost performance of your round

  • Support - Ways that Gitcoin can help support your round’s performance

[PHASE 3] Post-Round - 1 week post-round

• One week after the end of the grants round.

• Outcome of phase: Create a comprehensive round recap for your audience & reflect on learnings. This phase primarily targets your community. This phase contains two sub-phases:

  • Recap - Provide content that highlights outcomes and wins as a way to close the round.

  • Retro - Learn what worked for your round.