“Crowdfunding is not a walk in the park. Unless that park is covered with broken glass. And a lion ate your shoes at the entrance gate. And he is now chasing you.”
Crowdfunding! It sounds like a joyride but only from afar. The success of your crowdfunding campaign largely depends on how well you strategize for the right people. Let me take you through some innovative ways a small business can crowdfund their unborn but great business ideas.
7 Steps of a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign:
1. Let people know about your crowdfunding campaign: Your website is the best place to showcase your crowdfunding campaigns. I would suggest you to redesign your homepage for that. You can refer to Beckett Simonon’s home page in this regard.
Followed by the website, you also must use your social media pages to let people know about your campaign. You can change your Facebook cover page and Twitter background accordingly. This is the best way to attract more and more eyeballs to your campaign. Look how Foot Flops re-created their Facebook cover image to drag eyeballs to their crowdfunding campaign.
2. Find the optimum content mix: Content marketing is the most important part of crowdfunding campaigns, as they are the elements that would attract investors towards your product.
Suppose, your target audiences fall under the busy professional group. In that case, you need to think of a content that would manage to hook them up within the short span of time. Videos would be a great content layer for you.
3. Select the right social networks for your campaign: It mainly depends on your product. You need to think of your audience and their buyer persona. For example, if your product belongs to lifestyle, Facebook would be the obvious choice. If your product is B2B, investing time on LinkedIn would be fruitful. Or if you’re raising money for a charity, Twitter too can work along with Facebook.
Most of the beginners do it wrong by going for too many networks at one time. My advice would be to go slow with social network selection but go aggressive with your marketing. This is the ultimate way to produce quality work along with prime quantity. However don’t forget to mention your social presence on your website.
4. Create social media posts that would attract your audience: Getting attention from social media users is a bit tricky. You need to be creative, educational, and at the same time entertaining. The challenge is great than what it sounds. So, you really need to put your thinking cap on.
Look how TowGo is doing it by sharing unique crowdfunding trivia. They have a product that makes trailering hassle free. Having been categorized under a not-so-interesting genre for social media enthusiasts, they have managed to pull their attention pretty well. Thanks to their unique social media marketing strategy.
5. Choose a dedicated hashtag: Hashtags can set your campaign apart from others, provided you pick a new dedicated one. Make sure you use this hashtag everywhere with your social media posts. You also can ask your fans and followers to add this hashtag in their updates. This is the best way to collate all the conversations under one roof.
Well Aware’s #ShowerStrike campaign deserves a special mention here. They’re crowdfunding for clean water in Kenya. They’re using the hashtag #showerstrike in all their social media posts, encouraging all their supporters to follow suit.
6. Balance promotion with entertainment: It’s also necessary to balance your promotional posts with the entertaining ones. The challenge is huge. You need to raise funds for your product and at the same time keep entertaining your social media audience. If you post too many updates on ‘Support us for crowdfunding’, you can easily end up ruining your audience experience on the space.
7. Spend some bucks and target your investors: Last but not the least, you must consider having an ad budget to increase the reach of your crowdfunding campaigns. You don’t need to do it for broader targeting. Instead target only your potential backers and investors.
Final thoughts: Crowdfunding can be one of the most important catalysts to make your dreams come true. And trust me, if you have a great idea, it would sell.