Sometimes, your review team is overloaded with interest in your program. Others, it may seem that the word has not gotten out about your amazing opportunity—or maybe it has, yet everyone appears to be sitting on a draft. For the latter, today we’ll take a look at some tools and strategies for increasing submissions or applications to your program.
Submittable tools at your disposal
Google Analytics
If you haven’t already, it may behoove you to begin by tying your Submittable page to a free Google Analytics account. Why? You’ll be able to see how many visitors you have to your site in the first place. This information will help you determine if you are not seeing the amount of traffic to your page as you expected or hoped, or if you are, but those visitors aren’t (as we say in marketing) “converting”—meaning, they are visiting your form but not submitting. Here’s how to set up Google Analytics→
Eligibility Forms
Eligibility Forms are the gatekeeper to your program. They’re relevant here because sometimes, your best strategy to increase submissions is to rethink eligibility to your opportunity. Eligibility Forms are available on the Forms page for most customers.
(Not seeing them? To upgrade your package, contact your customer success manager) .
Draft Submissions
Draft Submissions is the final tool in your arsenal. Anyone who visits your form and begins to fill it out (with a minimum of one question) will have a draft auto-saved. With the updates we released to Draft Submissions last year, you are able to see how far they got as well as communicate with them. Draft Submissions are located in the top navigation bar under “More”.
Diagnose the issue
With Google Analytics and Draft Submissions, you’ll be able to determine where your issue is:
Not enough visitors to your main Submittable page: You need to begin at the top with new marketing strategies.
Not enough visitors to your specific opportunity/form: In this instance, your eligibility requirements may be too stringent.
Enough form visitors, but not enough submissions: Here, you may have too much friction in your form itself, which you can try reducing. You can also try communication strategies to encourage those with drafts to cross the finish line.
Note, it may well be that a combination of these factors are in the way of you and your submission goals. So exploring several of the suggestions below could be your best path forward.
How to increase submissions to your opportunity
Try new marketing strategies
Leverage partnerships. Are there like-minded organizations or individuals that you could ask to reshare your social posts, or include a blurb about your opportunity in their newsletter? Be sure to reach out. It never hurts to ask! (Perhaps you could offer to do the same for them or discover new ways to grow your relationship.)
Sweeten the deal. Is there any kind of incentive you can offer? This could be feedback on unsuccessful submissions, an entry into a raffle, or some kind of early-bird benefit for the first cohort of submissions. Feel free to get creative (no bad ideas in a brainstorm!).
Offer “social proof”: See if a past beneficiary or friend of your program will share a testimonial about their experience to help lend your opportunity credibility.
Communicate any updates: If you make changes to simplify your form or remove eligibility requirements, be sure to share those with your audience. And it never hurts to emphasize that submitting will be quick and easy (and, since you use Submittable, mobile-friendly!).
Join Discover: Submittable has a built-in marketplace where users can find your opportunities. In your project settings, toggle on to Join Discover and then add the tags that make sense for your opportunity (such as “award” or “scholarship”). Learn more about Discover here→
Rethink eligibility requirements
If your eligibility requirements may be too stringent, it’s time to consider if they are really necessary. For instance, is it really essential that a nonprofit be a certified 501(c)(3)? Sometimes this can be a barrier to newly-formed nonprofits or less formal organizations such as a neighborhood coalition. Similarly, if you are seeking to highlight a particular demographic group, for example, you might have unwittingly reduced your potential applicant pool. Try exploring if you can still meet your goals if you open up to a wider group.
Remove friction in your form
First, Draft Submissions is your friend. Follow along into a few drafts by selecting “View Details” to see if you can identify any particular question in your form that visitors seem to get hung up on.
As a rule of thumb, shorter is better. If your form is long, try to remove any unnecessary questions (such as information you can get after making your selections). It’s also a best practice to leave as many questions as possible as non-required.
Not everyone communicates best in written formats. If your form is heavily reliant on text, consider additionally accepting file uploads such as video.
Fees can create friction as well. If your form has a fee, consider removing it, reducing it, making it optional, or removing it for some categories of submitters (by using Form Logic).
Follow up personally
By using Draft Submissions, you can check in on every draft applicant’s progress and follow up personally to encourage them to apply or provide feedback that will help them be successful.
Communicate widely
To send a message to all users with a draft, on the Draft Submissions page, simply filter by the project, select all, and click Send Message. You’ll be able to leverage a template and/or select files. This is a great tool to:
Send reminders of deadlines (or deadline extensions)
Reiterate that it will be quick and easy to apply
Call out any changes you may have made to the form
Emphasize the benefits of the opportunity, social proof, and/or any incentives
I recognize that some of you may have seen today’s subject line and wondered how you can do the opposite. But sometimes, for new or targeted opportunities, or new organizations just getting off the ground, growing your submitter pool is the first and vital step to identifying the right awardees and making the biggest impact you can. If you’re in that boat, I hope today’s tips will help you meet your goals.
For more ideas on setting your submitters up for success (beyond simply increasing volume), check out this blog post. See you next month.