Keyword Strategies

The keyword you choose when you set up a new GiveSmart Fundraise form can have a vital impact on the overall success of your campaign. This document will cover keyword best practices, common mistakes, and help you determine the extent to which your keyword selection will impact your campaign.

What makes a good keyword?

Keywords cannot contain spaces or special characters. They can only use numbers and letters. A good keyword is ideally:

One word
- Example: "GIVE", "HELP", "IMPACT", "WATER", "ELEPHANT", etc.
Easy to Spell
Easy to Remember
Not likely to auto-correct

TIP: Make it specific to your organization, your campaign, your event or activity so your supporters can associate it with your cause

EXPERT TIP: Text your keyword to yourself. When creating a keyword, pull out your own cell phone and type your envisaged keyword into a message box.

Does it auto-correct? If so, it's not a great keyword. Even if it doesn't auto-correct on your phone, try on a friend or colleagues phone! Auto-correct, unfortunately, differs from device to device, so there is no way to universally control the issue, but it's good to test on as many devices as possible.

SUPER EXPERT TIP: If your desired one-word keyword is not available, add a number into the mix! Numbers also prevent auto-correct from coming in and changing your keyword.

Examples: "run4change", "give2kids", "help4homes", "give2018:, etc.

If you are creating a Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity, do not end the keyword with a number. See below.

What is a bad keyword?

We have seen too many organizations' keywords fail because of simple guidelines not followed. To avoid most potential keyword issues avoid the following:

When two words are used together, without the use of a number.

Why? Because your phone will auto-correct to add a space to separate the words. If this happens, the GiveSmart Fundraise system will only read the first word in the sequence as the keyword.
- In the example above with "GIVENOW", our system will only read the word "give" and exclude the word "now". If the first keyword in the sequence ("give") happens to be owned by another organization, your donor will be directed to their donation page (yikes!). We know you don’t want this, so please be sure to avoid two-word keywords -- unless a number is included -- to prevent auto-correct from separating the sequence into multiple (key)words.
Examples: "givenow", "runforchange", "givetokids"

IMPORTANT: A Keyword should only be one word.

Acronyms are not ideal keywords.

Why? Because they are likely to auto-correct.
Example: The keyword "rdn" auto-corrects to "run" or "ran"

A keyword with a number at the end is not a good keyword for crowdfunding/peer-to-peer campaigns.

Why? GiveSmart Fundraise will create a unique keyword for every fundraiser in your campaign. We do this by adding a number to the end of your campaign keyword. If your keyword ends in a number, another number will be added to identify the fundraiser. It makes the fundraiser’s individual keyword a little clunky.
Example: "give2018" becomes "give20181", "give201821" etc. for individual fundraisers and teams.

Determining the relevance of a keyword in your campaign

First, a GiveSmart Fundraise form can be shared or accessed three ways:

It can be embedded on any web page
It can be accessed by sharing its unique link
It can be accessed by texting your chosen keyword to a shortcode

For any campaign, the extent to which the keyword you select matters depends entirely on how you intend to promote your campaign.

Examples:

If you are intending to simply embed a donation form on your website, the keyword will not matter to your end-user, because they will never text the keyword to access the form. They can simply go on your website and access the form there.
If you are doing an email campaign and plan to only promote the form through emails, the keyword will not be relevant because your email recipient can simply click on a link in an email to access the form.
Facebook or Social Media campaign? Again, the keyword will not be relevant if you are planning to solely share the link within your posts.

When does the keyword matter?

The keyword matters most when you are:

Designing a donation form for an in-person ask at an event
- Example: "Please pull out your phones and text GIVE to 41444"
Promoting a keyword on print materials
- Example: Table tents, banners, posters, direct mail, etc.
Doing a video call-to-action with the keyword displayed on screen

Case Sensitivities

Keywords are not case-sensitive. No matter how you show them in printed materials, presentations, social media, videos, and more, they will work if the person types them differently ("Give" can be typed as "give", "Give", and "GIVE" and work)

Need help getting a desired keyword?

If you are looking for a specific keyword but are unable to save it to your account (see: keyword string already taken), click Contact Us above to open a case and we will do some investigation to see if we can release the keyword. However, there are no guarantees that a keyword can be released.