Crowdfunding campaigns are becoming more and more successful every year. In fact, this past year, crowdfunding campaigns raised a whopping $34.4 billion, with the top four crowdfunding sites raising over $6 billion in total.
So why are crowdfunding campaigns so successful? Well, there are a number of reasons, but I’m going to focus on one in particular: the marketing element. If you’re thinking about running a crowdfunding campaign, it’s important to understand the marketing aspect, how it will impact your campaign, and how it will help your project in the future.
All you need is a good idea and a crowd!
Every single crowdfunding campaign online is supported by two major ingredients:
#1: a good idea
#2: A crowd - that’s why it’s called ‘crowd’funding after all!
Let’s take a look at the marketing element of crowdfunding campaigns. The first thing we need to look at is how an idea impacts your crowdfunding campaign. Obviously, you need a good idea at the center of your project, but you also need a good marketing plan. You need to differentiate your project from the others by being creative, and by doing your research. You need to research everything about your audience to know how to speak the same language and how to interest them in your project. If you want to succeed, this research step is your starting point. Once you understand your audience, you can start creating your video and campaign page. For this step, you need to apply what you learned in your research and add a good dose of creativity to make it interesting and retain the attention of your audience. The backers are highly interested in innovating products. Once you find a good idea and attract the right audience of backers, your crowdfunding campaign can take off really quickly, and even become viral.
Crowdfunding is about building relationships between brands, makers, and potential buyers. The best way to do that is by sharing your story. This means you need to: have a compelling product, understand your market, create a story that’s interesting, and communicate that story to your crowd. There are a number of ways to share your story with your potential customers inside and outside the crowdfunding platform. When launching a crowdfunding campaign, you are prompted to present a campaign video and a campaign page. Those are meant to give you a space to share everything about your project and the story behind it. Sharing your story and attracting buyers at this early stage tends to create a stronger sense of attachment to the brand for the backers, which benefits your project in the short and long term. As great as the platforms are, you would make a big mistake not market your project outside of it. Channels including online marketing, social media, and video sharing platforms are crucial in bringing potential backers to see your story on the crowdfunding platform.
Marketing your crowdfunding campaign
Now, let’s explore the different elements of marketing a crowdfunding campaign. You might think that posting your story on a good crowdfunding platform is enough to attract your crowd, but if you want to create a successful crowdfunding campaign, you need to promote it.
In fact, you need to start marketing your campaign as early as possible, much before you launch. Why? Because it takes up to three times longer to get a crowdfunding campaign funded than a traditional campaign. In fact, the average success rate of a crowdfunding campaign is a mere 5%. But, don’t worry! With the right preparation and marketing strategy, your chances will be much more encouraging.
The first thing you need to do is get the word out about your campaign. Months before your campaign launch, you should create a landing page and social media accounts for your project, You can also share your ideas on forums. At this stage, it’s crucial to find the right balance between sharing enough about your project to create an interest, but keeping some intrigue so people want to show up on your launch day.
The second challenge is to get your audience to talk about your crowdfunding campaign. One of the biggest advantages of crowdfunding is the willingness of the audience to talk about your project. Many backers might talk about your project without being asked, just because they love your idea and they want to share the word or because they like your story and want to help you. Other backers might require some extra incentive to start sharing about your project. Once you convince them, they become such valuable advocates for your brand and they give your project a serious boost.
When your audience shares your project, your get more credibility, you attract more backers, and it helps with your marketing efforts. You can incentivize them by offering something in return such as a free item, a discount, or cash-back. Platforms such as Kickbooster let you create an affiliate link; using this link, your backers can share your campaign and get a percentage of each sale they generate.
Conclusion
Don’t let your crowdfunding campaign fail. Research, research, research, and spend as much time as you need getting it right. If you don’t take the time to do it correctly, you’re essentially setting your crowdfunding campaign up for failure. If you decide to run a crowdfunding campaign, you need to spend some time researching your audience and how to market your product to them.
Running a campaign is time-consuming and a lot of work, but done properly it can really launch your brand to the next level. Crowdfunding campaigns are successful because they offer individuals to take part in a project that is bigger than them. It allows people like you and me to know about the newest innovation at a stage when they would normally not be involved. Crowdfunding platforms create an environment for project creators and backers to build a mutually beneficial relationship.