Marketing and fundraising ideas to help make your lottery a success.

We hope that you find the following marketing information useful and it aids the promotion of your fundraising lottery.

The Weather Lottery staff are here to help you in every possible way, if you have any queries regarding any aspect of your fundraising lottery we will be glad to help.

We wish you all the best in your membership drive - raising those vital funds for your organisation!

Your first steps

So...What do you do now?

1. Use YOUR website - see our section of Raising funds from your site!
2. Distribute YOUR Personalised leaflets
3. Take ownership of your lottery

Some Pointers

• Famililiarise yourself with the lottery - join yourself! You will find you will be able to promote the lottery better if you know how the system works.
• Introduce the lottery to your friends and family - start with a friendly face.
• Promote the lottery to colleagues - and people who work in connection with your organisation.
• Communication is the key, so be SMART in your approach:
• Specific - shout about it! Support our Lottery!
• Measurable - how many players do you need?
• Achievable - set your target and don't give up!
• Realistic - what are you aiming for?
• Timely - review on a regular basis!

Advertise your Lottery

The Weather Lottery will provide you with marketing material such as posters and leaflets free of charge.

• Use premises e.g. shops, centres and office to display details of lottery.
• Ask local doctors surgeries, shops, newsagents, libraries and community centres to help publicise the scheme.

Promote the Lottery to Members of the Public

You will achieve great results promoting your lottery face-to-face as it enables you to talk about the lottery and why you want to raise funds.

• Use Volunteers/members of staff - treat the lottery as a raffle ticket, distribute 10 leaflets to your volunteer and ask him to sell to his contacts. Set targets. Share experiences and techniques. You will be amazed how quickly your funds will grow by this method.
• Organise a stall in a shopping centre to publicise the lottery. Enter players into a prize draw if possible to encourage them to sign up.
• Do not hand leaflets out without any introduction, as you will find that the leaflets will be forgotten about.
• If you are able to, try and get people to fill in the leaflet in front of you. If people do not have their bank details take a telephone number and fill that part in later.
• Ask people to send the leaflets back to you directly as opposed to our head office - the player will often feel better sending to an address they are familiar with.
• Market widely at all your events e.g. Lunch Clubs, Bingo Sessions, Jumble and Car Boot Sales.

Mailing Leaflets Using Your Database

• Prepare a letter explaining the lottery. Never send out a leaflet without a full explanation of how your organisation will benefit.
• Do not mix other marketing/sales material with the lottery. This has the effect of diluting the lottery impact and your sales will be reduced.
• A template letter is including in the PDF document

Newsletter / Newspaper Insertions

• Use the local media and in-house newsletters to promote the lottery as much as possible.
• A template for a newspaper press release is available telephone: 01777 818036. Adapt this to your society to help publicise your lottery in the local media.
• Print the entry form inside your publication. A loose insert will get lost or thrown away but an entry form inside a newsletter or magazine can be cut out and sent to us.
• In addition to the entry form, you should also include an editorial introducing the lottery and explaining why you are raising the funds. This will encourage more participants.

Your Webpage

• A web page on http://www.theweatherlottery.com will be automatically created for you.
• To assist linage growth we recommend that a Lottery page is created on your site - we will supply all graphics and text. People can apply through either site.
• A link from your website to ours and vice versa can be created.
• Players can play online using our safe and secure website. You can obtain web graphics from us to guide your supporters to your online lottery page.
• Use your website to promote the lottery and publicise winners and winning numbers

E-Mail your supporters

As more and more people are using the Internet and have direct access to e-mail, this is an excellent opportunity to reach your supporters. You can direct your supporters to the new lottery page on your website or to your page on our website.

Publicise your winners

This is possibly the most effective way to advertise and promote your fundraising lottery.

People usually do not like to be the first to sign up for something, so when people start winning you will find it easier to promote, they will see that it works and people actually win!

• Use your website. You can create a link from your website to your page on The Weather Lottery website which will show recent winners for your organisation.
• Use your own publications. Newsletters or e-mail newsletters are a perfect opportunity to publicise your winners.
• Display winners in your clubhouse/head office. If you are a sports club, simply pin the winners list we send you on a monthly basis up on your notice board, or you can get creative and design your own winners list.
• E-mail your supporters to keep them informed with recent winners.
• Use the same channels to publicise winning numbers if possible. This will raise the profile of your lottery and attract more members.
• If you are lucky enough to have a jackpot winner up to £200,000 for your organisation, this will be the best opportunity to promote your lottery. A guide to arranging publicity is available.