Planning Your Virtual Auction & Guest Experience

Follow these easy steps to plan for a great auction and make it simple for your supporters to participate.  

1. Tell your supporters 
2. Register Bidders in advance 
3. Preview and promote items 
4. Share with social media 
5. Send reminders 
6. Raise more with a raffle or fund-a-need 
7. Review online bidding process 
8. Share how items will be awarded 

Download your virtual auction & guest experience checklist here!

Step 1: Tell Your Supporters About the Auction 

Let your community know you are running an auction a few weeks before the auction online start date to get them excited!  

Be sure to build and activate your auction homepage before sending out an auction coming soon email. We have several email templates with default verbiage that you can customize (go to the Promotions tab > Create an email). If you are planning on using your own email provider, just copy the verbiage from our templates to get started.  

Step 2: Register Bidders in Advance 

Ask supporters to create a bidder account in advance before your auction begins to ensure a seamless kick-off.  

Here are some helpful resources to answer questions from Bidders or to share with your potential Bidders: 

• Bidder FAQ 
• How-to-Login-Register-as-a-Bidder 
• How-to-Place-a-Bid 

Helpful Tip! In your emails, create clear and strong call to actions with clickable links.  For example, if you are asking them to register for a bidder account, provide the direct link to the bidder registration form. Below are some examples of frequently used call to actions: 

• Learn more about our upcoming auction here
• Register to participate in bidding here
• Purchase your ticket for our live event here  
• Donate to our cause here

Step 3: Preview and Promote Items  

Motivate your supporters by showcasing big-ticket and hot items before your auction begins:  

• Publish all items to your auction catalog 
• Feature your top 6 items on your auction homepage. Click on Event > Website > Homepages to enable.  
• Use all four Featured Items and all three Coming Soon Items options in your email templates to showcase your items. Click on Promotion > Create an email to get started. 

Step 4: Share with Social Media  

Encourage supporters to tell friends and family about your auction via word of mouth or social media.  On every auction page, there are buttons for supporters to share the page via email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other popular sites.  You can also share your auction and exciting auction items via your own social media account(s).   

Step 5: Send Reminders 

Create a communications schedule to keep your supporters engaged. Below is suggested verbiage for emails, social media updates, website updates, newsletters, phone reminders, etc.   

Also, be sure to email supporters to let them know that bidding is open!  Click on Promotion > Create an Email to send the Auction Open email template. 

Mark your calendar 
Get excited, we are insert # of days until auction out from the start of our auction. Be sure to mark your calendars!  

Register to bid 
Every bid helps support our cause. Register for your bidder account today, so you are ready to bid once the auction is open.  

Tell your friends
The success of this online auction depends on spreading the word to as many people as possible. We need your help. Please tell a friend and encourage them to participate so they do not miss a single moment of fun and excitement. 

Place your bid
Whether you are looking for something unique for yourself, searching for a gift for a special someone, or looking to add a little adventure to your life, you are sure to find something in our auction. Every bid helps support our cause.

Step 6: Raise More With a Raffle or Fund-a-need 

Increase your fundraising total by implementing a Raffle or a Fund-a-need items to give bidders another way to support your cause.   

Raffle 

• We recommend setting up tickets as Buy Now items so that bidders can purchase them directly from their bidder account. 
• Decide on the quantity of raffle tickets you have available for sale and the value of each ticket. 

Fund-a-need 

• Set up items as Buy Now items that support your one of your organization’s projects or ongoing expenses.  We suggest creating different items with different amounts to appeal to all supporters.    

Step 7: Review Online Bidding Process 

If you have some exciting items and expect competition, we suggest that you consider enabling bid extension to extend the auction end time by five-minute increments. You can do this for select items only.  

We also recommend familiarizing yourself with the bid increments and maximum bid process prior to the auction.  This way you will have a good understanding of how it works, and you will be able to answer bidder questions quickly during the auction if needed.   

Step 8: Share How Items Will Be Awarded 

It is best practice to announce when and how winning bidders can expect to receive their items prior to the auction close to properly manage expectations. We recommend providing this information in these key auction areas: 

• Item special notes 
• Winning bidder email  
• Auction homepage  
• Emails to supporters