There are so many different ways to get parents to sign up to help as volunteer for PTO events:
- You can pass around a sign up sheet at a PTO meeting
- Post on social media with the link to the sign up form
- Ask parents when you run into them around store or at the soccer game
- Hang up a sign up sheet on a bulletin board at school
- Send home a flyer with the sign up link on the form
All of these methods for getting parents to sign up to volunteer are great options, except for the last one mentioned.
If you’re using a program like Sign Up Genius to track volunteers, then you probably know what the issue is…
When you make a sign up form, the url address link to the form is hella long!
And let me tell you, the parents who will take the time to type in that super long URL address to sign up to help can be counted on a few fingers at the very most!
Long links are costing your PTO volunteers
This is a point in the volunteer funnel where there are a bunch of holes and more people are falling out than are staying in.
Trust me on this one.
People are busy.
Some are even lazy.
You must make it as easy as possible for them to sign up, or they won’t!
The Long Link Antidote
You’ve made the sign up form to make it quick and easy for parents to sign up online, so why make them jump through another hoop to actually sign up?
Lower the time involved for parents to sign up for a volunteer slot by using a free link shortening service like bit.ly.
With bit.ly, you can paste that 48 character long link into the link shortener and a much shorter link pops out for you to use!
Plus, bit.ly is free and easy to use!
And pave the way to easy sign ups even further
What’s more, you can even customize the link to make it easy to remember!
For example, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c044cafaa2ea6fe3-fall23 becomes bit.ly/Ug2te which then can be customized to bit.ly/fall19concessions
(Note, I made up these links just to show an example, so don’t try to use them!)
Genius, right?!?!?!
Be honest, which would you be more likely to type in to a browser to sign up?
Such a silly question, I know!
Watch this!
Prefer to watch me talk about this hack instead?
I’ve made a video for you about this!
Over to you!
Such a good hack, right?
Simple, easy, anyone can do it.
But tell me, what other hacks do you have for getting more volunteer sign ups?
Let’s chat about them in the comments below!
Resources You’ll Love
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