Story provided by Indiegogo –
It’s never too early to start planning ahead for a successful campaign.
- No fees to create a campaign
- No obligations or commitments
- Go live when you’re ready
1. Learn what to expect
Crowdfunding can be a pretty amazing experience.
It’s an opportunity to raise money and do what you love, and it’s also an unparalleled chance to build and connect with a community that shares your passion.
For optimum visibility and more contribution dollars, you’ll need to market your campaign, spread the word, and engage current and potential contributors.
It can be hard work, but you can make incredible things happen with the right knowledge and tools, which you can find right here in the Indiegogo Playbook.
2. Think long-term
Your campaign can be used to support the greater ambitions of your project today and into the future.
Think about how you can advance other long-term objectives in addition to your immediate need for funding. For example, if your campaign relies on volunteers or users, think about how you can raise awareness of your project and find people who will be interested in later involvement. Maybe your perks could feature events that draw people into your community. Releasing a product? Your campaign is a great chance to get feedback from future customers and even test your pricing models.
3. Get inspired
Explore and see what fellow campaigners are doing.
Find campaigns you’d be interested in contributing to and ask:
- How and why did this campaign draw you in?
- What do you like about the campaign page?
- What could the campaigner have done to make it more appealing?
You’ll learn a lot by seeing how other campaigns are executed, what kind of funding goals are attainable, and which perks are most appealing to contributors.
4. Brainstorm the basics
Got a campaign in mind? Awesome! Now is a good time to start figuring out the fundamentals:
- Who is your target audience?
- What resources and time do you currently have to run this campaign?
- Who can you invite to be part of your campaign team?
- Fundraising aside, what objective are you hoping to achieve?
- What would success look like a year after the campaign ends?
5. Assemble a team
Here’s an amazing fact: campaigns run by two or more team members raise 94% more money than campaigns run by single individuals.
With a team, you’ll benefit from the diverse skills of teammates and from sharing the workload. Together you’ll tackle everything from press and media inquiries, customer support, campaign updates and strategy, marketing network outreach, and more.
Teams also tend to have better crowdfunding results because the size of their combined personal networks is greater. The more people who have a direct and personal interest in your campaign’s success, the more funds you will raise.
Thinking about how to pull together your team? Running a campaign can take a lot of work, so look in your network for people that share your passion and commitment to the campaign.
6. Collect campaign media
Sharable media that illustrates the evolution of your campaign is incredibly valuable.
A growing collection of media ensures you’ll have plenty of content for raising awareness around your campaign. It will come in handy when you’re creating blog posts, updating social media, or putting together a video for your pitch. The content will continue to be valuable to your project as a marketing tool long after your campaign comes to a close.
Examples of campaign media include:
- Behind-the-scenes video clips or a complete promotional video
- Photos of your project, team, or product
- User testimonials
- Prototypes of your product
- Audio samples
- Statistics that support your goals
Plan on creating a pitch video as you gather media. Campaigns that use a pitch video raise115% more money than campaigns that use a pitch image.
If you have friends with writing, design, or video production skills, get in touch with them early so they can find the time to get involved.
7. Gauge & grow your community
Start by roughly quantifying how many people you and your teammates personally know (email, social media, offline, etc.) and who you can count on to contribute. The people you know will help pool the initial funds and give your campaign the momentum it needs. Think about how you will get in touch and interest them in your campaign.
We’ve found that personalized email is the most effective channel of online communication for your campaign and in fact, the average contributions amount through email is about 20%higher than for contributions through other sources.
Social media platforms will also be among your best marketing tools. On average, about 22%of the funds raised by a campaign come from people clicking on social media posts. Plan and create content for Facebook and Twitter to keep your audience engaged and growing before you launch. Consider creating a special Facebook page and/or Twitter account just for your campaign.