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10 Tips for HighlySuccessful
CrowdfuningCampaigns
E-Book Created by Dean Renfro
10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
As crowdfunding makes gains in popularity, the battle for pageviews andpledges has become increasingly competitive, especially on portal sites thatfeature thousands of live projects at once. If you’re depending on a Kickstarterfeature to kickstart your campaign, then you could be in trouble.
So how do you ensure that you’ve optimized your campaign for success?We’ve taken a look at a number of recently funded projects in order to identifysome of the techniques, strategies, and crowdfunding secrets that will give youthe best chance of meeting your goals.
1. Prepare Your Face Off
You can use crowdfunding to help validate ideas before they are fully realized,but if your campaign comes across as half-baked then your audience isn’tgoing to invest. “People don’t want to back a campaign that’s not going towork,” says writer and entrepreneur Seth Godin on his crowdfundingexperiences, and you can’t use crowdfunding as a shortcut to avoid properlyfleshing out your ideas.
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10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
2. Strategic Social Media
You don’t need a blanket presence on social media, though the wider yourreach the better. Pick the networks that best match your marketing and contentstrategies and where your potential supporters are most likely to be found.Don’t forget to customize your promotion to suit each platform too: indie bandBigtree Bonsai raised $6,956 (almost double their target) via IgnitionDeck afterspreading the word with a #letsmakearecord hashtag.
3. Produce a Great Video
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10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
Video clips give visitors a better idea of your project — they can see you oryour product in action rather than clicking through a series of static images.They are also labor-intensive, so don’t attempt to put together a clip if you don’thave the time, resources and expertise required. An amateur-looking video isn’tgoing to convince anyone to get involved, and at worst, could damage yourcampaign’s credibility.
It’s usually well worth paying for help to make your video pitch the best it canbe because of the investment it will attract. Seth Godin again, on the campaignhe ran that reached its goal in three hours: “There’s something about themedium that makes the video even more important than you’d think.”
4. Create a Helpful Media Page
You’ve no doubt seen some of the most popular crowdfunding projects coveredin the press, but this won’t happen if you don’t have a solid website and somepress materials that journalists can download. Even if you’re a one-man show,don’t rely on your Facebook page to do it all. If journalists can’t find moreinformation about your project and some high-resolution pictures to illustratetheir features, they may choose to promote a different project instead.
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10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
If you have grander plans, think press releases and even tours: the Star Citizenvideo game raised over $14 million through IgnitionDeck’s WordPress plugin,and the campaign included a press tour before the crowdfunding element waseven launched.
5. Don’t Ask for Money Immediately
Tell your story and share your enthusiasm for your project, and people willnaturally want to add their support. Remember that your supporters are givingyou money with the expectation of getting something back: they want toreceive a return on their investment, whether it’s a physical product or anemergency relief operation that swings into action. Consider how well theIgnitionDeck-powered campaign for The Public Domain Review worked — itshows the benefits and value of the publication up front, so backers know whatit is they’re supporting. What’s more, supporters could pledge as little or asmuch as they liked.
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10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
6. Build Interest Before You Close
Even before you launch a crowdfunding campaign, you can drum up interest inyour project or your business. With a solid fanbase in place, your campaign willget off to a good start. For example, Adam Baker leveraged the activefollowing on his Man Vs. Debt blog to help his I’m Fine, Thanks documentaryreach its goal with over 4,000 backers. If you don’t already have a communityto tap into, try and get the attention of a handful of influential figures who mightbe interested in your project.
7. Communicate Often
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10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
Whether it’s good news or bad, keep your backers and potential backers in theloop. Post regular updates on your crowdfunding page, and keep the processgoing after the campaign has ended: “The real work begins after thecampaigns to ensure everyone gets what they pledged,” says Piwik’s MatthieuAubry, who successfully funded a new feature through IgnitionDeck.
8. Keep It Personal
Introduce your team to let your supporters meet the people behind your projectregardless of whether you’re an established company or an up-and-comingstartup. Consider the humor and personality in the crowdfunding campaign AHouse For Lions ran to fund their debut album using IgnitionDeck. Rewardsincluded surfing lessons from the band and input on the track listing.
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10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
9. Appeal to Your Existing Fans
The campaign that earned the Veronica Mars sitcom a shot at the big screenpaid particular attention to the show’s existing fans. The campaign didn’t do agreat deal to draw in new interest, but was very clever about appealing topeople who had already formed an attachment to Veronica Mars. Consider thefans and supporters that you already have, making your project goals andrewards something that these people are going to be ready to identify with.
10. Appeal to Everyone Else
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10 Tips for Highly SuccessfulCampaigns
You can create a campaign that has broad appeal at the same time as payingspecial attention to your existing supporters. One of the best ways to do this isby creating a reward scheme with many different price points. Even if you can’toffer a physical reward for a $1 donation, you could still give these pledgersearly access to your product or a credit within your software package, forexample. The Back To The Roots AquaFarm raised $248,873 after setting a$100,000 goal, with rewards ranging from $1 (for behind-the-scenes updates)to $10,000 (for an educational seminar in your community).
There’s no way of guaranteeing crowdfunding success, but by studying theprojects, strategies, and crowdfunding secrets that have worked for others,you can certainly maximize your chances. Like any other business venture,crowdfunding is an iterative process that start long before the doors areopened, and long after the campaign has closed.
The information in this document came from an onlinearticle: http://ignitiondeck.com/id/10-crowdfunding-secrets/
To Put your invite code anywhere in this document,contact me at: [email protected]
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