No matter where you are in your campaign timeline, you’ll need to implement specific strategies in order to reach your funding goal. You can choose to hire services or you can do it all yourself. But, a combination of both is often the most beneficial.
I’ve been involved with many crowdfunding campaigns over the past few years, and I know the ideal strategy for successful crowdfunding promotion starts even before your campaign launches.
Why is a pre-launch marketing plan necessary?
Developing a plan helps you get exposure and find initial subscribers who will become influencers for your campaign once you launch. Crowdfunding is more than just launching a project and hoping for funding. In fact, if you don’t reach your goal in the given timeframe, your entire campaign fails. You must make the most of this limited time by acquiring as many potential customers as possible.
The following services and tactics can be used to promote your Kickstarter or Indiegogo project.
BackerClub
Getting backers that you can count on is one of the most significant concerns for any crowdfunding campaign. BackerClub is a club for serial backers. When you submit your project, you can offer the community of backers an exclusive pledge option such as an upgraded reward tier, a free add-on item, or even a price discount.
Hyperstarter
Testing the quality of your campaign presentation is a must prior to launching your project. Hyperstarter helps Kickstarter campaigns by providing fantastic insight. All you have to do is paste your campaign URL and click a button. The marketing and analysis tool helps you identify and solve any issue with your campaign page and so you can better find backers and influencers.
Facebook Ads
If you’re handling ads on your own, remember to utilize the largest social media platform in the world. Facebook offers plenty of options to ensure you get the most bang for your buck. You should perform split tests while you’re designing your ads. By doing this at the ad set level, you’ll be able to pinpoint the most engaging audience base for your crowdfunding campaign.
CrowdReach
Targeted advertising on Facebook is often challenging. This is where CrowdReach comes in to save the day. The idea started in 2014 when Zack Brown raised $55,000 for his campaign involving potato salad. You can use CrowdReach to easily manage your email, social media, and even text marketing. As a result, you can drive more pledges or gain more subscribers, depending on where you are in your campaign.
Pinterest Ads
People often forget about Pinterest when it comes to social media platforms for crowdfunding. However, Pinterest certainly has its place. It has its own niche audience and works in a similar way to a search engine. There are multiple ways you can promote your campaign on the platform, like creating boards and using hashtags. You can also join Pinterest Boards that are related to your project. This visual platform relies on fantastic photos, so stick to lifestyle images from your campaign.
Get listed on Gadget Flow
We’ve promoted more than 4,000 crowdfunding campaigns at Gadget Flow. Our promotion focuses on presenting your product to a more mainstream audience instead of just niche backers. Since crowdfunding is especially time sensitive, we tailor our promotional timeline around your campaign so you can get the most exposure. Our user base is made up of people who are interested in both crowdfunding and product discovery. Click here to find out more about our marketing plans.
Gadget Flow Promo Video (2018)
Crowdinsight
Only around a third of crowdfunding campaigns are successful, with the main reason being inadequate preparation in terms of marketing. A close second is not getting real and honest feedback. Crowdinsight by Gadget Flow connects your campaign to potential backers to receive thoughtful, sincere feedback on your marketing style before you even launch your campaign or while it is still live.
Green Inbox
A great way to fire up your campaign is to reach out to your contacts from the beginning. But, if you want to use social media to reach them, you’ll have to create ads since traditional posts have limited organic reach. Green Inbox instead allows you to send personal messages to your entire list of social media contacts in one go and it currently works for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Of course, you can customize the list and message, so you’re not spamming your friends and contacts.
PR Newswire
There’s no denying that a proper PR service is a must when it comes to reaching the right audience. Even though it might sound like an old school approach, campaigns that put a lot of effort into PR reach a larger audience base. However, PR can be tricky to understand. PR Newswire lays the foundation for you with total efficiency. Once your press release is ready, you can distribute it via PR Newswire to get the word out to your targeted audience.
These are just some of the services that can improve your crowdfunding campaign. What other services have you used to enhance your campaign? Share your favorites in the comments below.