Crowdfunding 101 - How to Crowdfund Your Big Idea Successfully Part 2
In the past, typically only enterprise companies with large R&D budgets could bring a product or innovation to market. But today, crowdfunding has levelled the playing field and enables businesses and entrepreneurs to make their ideas a reality. In this blog, part of 2 of ‘How to crowdfund your big idea successfully we continue to explain the key areas of how you can launch your crowdfunding campaign successfully.
Marketing Campaign
Once you have your messaging ready now is the time to build your marketing campaign. At the heart of your marketing is a marketing funnel, which generates awareness of your campaign and attracts leads to support you.
The key areas of your marketing funnel are:
- Landing page
- Email marketing
- Facebook Paid Advertising Campaign
- Social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc)
- PR
Landing page - is a 2-page website, which has a ‘home page’ that works as a sales page and a ‘Thank you’ page. The home page is designed to showcase the launch of your campaign and request people who are interested in your campaign to sign up using their email address. Once someone signs up they are taken to the ‘Thank you’ page, where you can have additional messaging such as requesting people to join your Facebook page or community page.
Email marketing - Once someone registers their interest on the landing page their email address is added to your email list. You can then email the person on a regular basis nurturing a relationship with them. The idea is to provide them with relevant content about you and your campaign which entices them to back you when you launch. The whole idea of the email marketing sequence is to foster a relationship with the leads and get them to know like and trust you. This makes it easier to sell to them when your campaign goes live.
Facebook paid advertising campaign - is the preferred choice of traffic source. Running a Facebook ad campaign almost guarantees leads from your target market and is a very quick way to build up a large lead list. The only drawback is that is can be expensive, however, most successful rewards crowdfunding campaigns have used this strategy, understanding its important to invest money upfront in order to generate the leads required to make sales when your campaign launches.
Social media channels - use your social channels and your team’s channels to promote your campaign. Its best to start talking about your campaign as soon as you can, to build up the buzz and noise around your launch. Post about all topics to do with your campaign - the cause, the prototype, the team, experiences to date, campaign news, fun stuff etc.
PR is good for brand and campaign awareness. Not all campaigns use PR as it can be a bit hit and miss, with some industry stats indicating it is only responsible for generating 5% of campaign sales, however PR if done right is great generating awareness and building interest in your product and company.
Build a Crowd
Building a crowd of hungry backers before you launch, who are ready to support you, is vital to the success of your campaign. Its a fact, the more people you have on your email list when you launch, the more money you will raise. But building a list is not easy and you will need to work hard using various strategies to build your crowd.
Many people think the crowdfunding platform will send people to your campaign but unfortunately, unless your campaign reaches around £25,000 in the first few days of launching, platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo will not promote your campaign. Industry stats show that 75% of funds raised by campaigns come from the traffic they sent to the campaign page. So, how do you build a crowd?
Leverage your network - Your own network is the foundation for your campaign and the best place to start building a crowd is with your friends and acquaintances. Sit down with your team and create a spreadsheet, which lists all of your contacts, use your phone's contacts and platforms like Facebook to build out your list. Once you have your close contact lists build a list of your 2nd and 3rd tier of contacts like friends, people from networking, relevant and related people and business. Use Linkedin for help with 2nd and 3rd tier contacts.
You need your campaign to gain momentum early on, so leveraging your close contacts to support you is a tried and tested method for gaining early support and getting your campaign off to a good start.
It takes more work to build a relationship with a cold lead and get them to know like and trust you, so don’t be shy to let your friends and contacts know what you are doing.
From your and teams list of contacts choose 15 to 20 people who can help amplify your campaign. Reach out to them and ask for their support in advertising your campaign across their networks, directing traffic to your landing page or campaign page depending at what stage your campaign is at. The bigger your team the bigger the reach you have.
Some tips for using social platforms to build awareness of your campaign:
- Set up and use your Pinterest account to promote your project’s vision and “brand.
- Pin pictures of your product/rewards and anything else visually interesting that relates to your project.
- Pin images and videos that direct people back to your campaign.
- Post pictures documenting your product development and campaign journey.
- Post pictures of the team and events relating to your project.
- Tag your pictures with a link that relates to your campaign.
- Set up and use a personal & business Facebook page for your campaign to send regular campaign updates.
- Always include a link to your campaign whenever posting about it on Facebook.
- Set up a private group and get leads to join it. Ask them for feedback on your project and use their comments to build a stronger campaign.
- Use popular and trending hashtags to raise awareness for your campaign.
- Ask contacts for retweets to help spread the word about your campaign.
- Tweet at people (even those you don’t know) who might have a special interest in the subject of your campaign.
- Make sure your team also tweet to their contacts about the campaign.
Crowdfunding is a game-changer and has made it easier than ever before for you to launch your big idea. Use the information explained in both parts of this blog to help develop your campaign and launch it successfully. For more information about how Wow Your Crowd, crowdfunding agency UK can help support you with your campaign, get in touch today and arrange a free crowdfunding strategy success session. To your crowdfunding success!
Crowdfunding 101 - How to Crowdfund Your Big Idea Successfully Part 1
Many entrepreneurs and businesses struggle to raise the funding they require to turn their big idea into a reality. Crowdfunding helps to solve this issue, but how do you crowdfund? In this 2 part blog, we explain the main areas of ‘how to crowdfund your big idea successfully’, and highlight certain strategies we use here at Wow Your Crowd, which you can implement and help launch your campaign successfully.
Crowdfunding is being used across industries in many different ways to great effect. Helping individuals and businesses to build communities of customers and followers and to raise funding, which helps to advance projects and causes and improve the lives of us all.
The three main types of Crowdfunding are Donations, Equity and Rewards.
Rewards Crowdfunding is the most known form of Crowdfunding, due to the rise of Kickstarter the famous Crowdfunding platform, where projects generally pre-sell products, in order to raise the money required to manufacture the product.
Equity crowdfunding is on the rise with more platforms appearing around the world as it becomes a legitimate way to raise investment for business projects. Investors gain shares/equity in the business for their investment.
Donation crowdfunding is primary for charity and social causes, where backers of campaigns donate to a good cause but generally don’t receive any form of reward for their donation apart from gratitude.
Although the three main types of Crowdfunding are quite different the core strategies that need to be implemented in order to run a successful campaign are the same. These strategies once learnt can be repeated time and time again whether you are crowdfunding or marketing your business or special cause.
The steps for how to crowdfund your bid idea successfully are:
Research & Analysis
The very first thing to do is to carry out research into successful campaigns similar to yours. Whether you are launching a product, raising investment or asking people to donate to your cause its vital you understand why campaigns have been successful.
Make notes, compiling a spreadsheet, which lists information about the campaign: for example campaign name, raise amounts, value propositions, positioning, messaging, target markets, reward types, pricing, type of imagery, type of video, website and campaign page design.
Message
The next stage is to clarify your message. Crowdfunding is about Innovative products, disruptive businesses and strong causes that will change the world for the better.
Use the information collected from the ‘research & analysis phase to position your product, business or cause so that it differentiates itself from other campaigns. Your offer should sound different from previous campaigns.
Think about who your audience is and write to them. What are their problems, pains and needs? Tailor the messaging to solve their biggest problem. Create copy that makes them feel emotionally connected to your project and wants to back your campaign. You are the leader and guide, make them want to be part of your movement and community.
All big brand advertising campaigns have a ‘planning’ phase at the beginning of a project. Where the planning team develops a ‘comms strategy’, which clarifies the key points that the campaign messaging should focus on. The comms strategy is like the launchpad for your rocketship. Without the comms strategy or more importantly the key points from it your campaign will struggle to take off.
Before you start your project, create a comms strategy and use it to help create the messaging for your campaign. Key points of your comms strategy include:
- Your why - the reason why you are doing what you doing.
- Your mission and vision statement.
- USPs - unique selling propositions,
- Features and benefits and the value they provide.
- Target market/persona of your ideal audience, their likes and dislikes, age, backgrounds, jobs, financial position
- Develop a branding guideline, including tone of voice and styling.
The comms strategy will form the foundation of your business moving forward as well as your campaign, so it's worth spending the time developing it.
Use the points from the comms strategy plus the research you carry out to craft the best messaging for your campaign, which attracts your audience and entices them to back your campaign.
Marketing Campaign
Once you have your messaging ready now is the time to build your marketing campaign. At the heart of your marketing is a marketing funnel, which generates awareness of your campaign and attracts leads to support you.
The key areas of your marketing funnel are:
- Landing page
- Email marketing
- Facebook Paid Advertising Campaign
- Social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc)
- PR
Landing page - is a 2-page website, which has a ‘home page’ that works as a sales page and a ‘Thank you’ page. The home page is designed to showcase the launch of your campaign and request people who are interested in your campaign to sign up using their email address. Once someone signs up they are taken to the ‘Thank you’ page, where you can have additional messaging such as requesting people to join your Facebook page or community page.
Email marketing - Once someone registers their interest on the landing page their email address is added to your email list. You can then email the person on a regular basis nurturing a relationship with them. The idea is to provide them with relevant content about you and your campaign which entices them to back you when you launch. The whole idea of the email marketing sequence is to foster a relationship with the leads and get them to know like and trust you. This makes it easier to sell to them when your campaign goes live.
Facebook paid advertising campaign - is the preferred choice of traffic source. Running a Facebook ad campaign almost guarantees leads from your target market and is a very quick way to build up a large lead list. The only drawback is that is can be expensive, however, most successful rewards crowdfunding campaigns have used this strategy, understanding its important to invest money upfront in order to generate the leads required to make sales when your campaign launches.
Social media channels - use your social channels and your team’s channels to promote your campaign. It is best to start talking about your campaign as soon as you can, to build up the buzz and noise around your launch. Post about all topics to do with your campaign - the cause, the prototype, the team, experiences to date, campaign news, fun stuff etc.
PR is good for brand and campaign awareness. Not all campaigns use PR as it can be a bit hit and miss, with some industry stats indicating it is only responsible for generating 5% of campaign sales, however, PR, if done right, are great generating awareness and building interest in your product and company.
Build a Crowd
Building a crowd of hungry backers before you launch, who are ready to support you, is vital to the success of your campaign. Its a fact, the more people you have on your email list when you launch, the more money you will raise. But building a list is not easy and you will need to work hard using various strategies to build your crowd.
Many people think the crowdfunding platform will send people to your campaign but unfortunately, unless your campaign reaches around £25,000 in the first few days of launching, platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo will not promote your campaign. Industry stats show that 75% of funds raised by campaigns come from the traffic they sent to the campaign page. So, how do you build a crowd?
Leverage your network - Your own network is the foundation for your campaign and the best place to start building a crowd is with your friends and acquaintances. Sit down with your team and create a spreadsheet, which lists all of your contacts, use your phone's contacts and platforms like Facebook to build out your list. Once you have your close contact lists build a list of your 2nd and 3rd tier of contacts like friends, people from networking, relevant and related people and business. Use Linkedin for help with 2nd and 3rd tier contacts.
You need your campaign to gain momentum early on, so leveraging your close contacts to support you is a tried and tested method for gaining early support and getting your campaign off to a good start.
It takes more work to build a relationship with a cold lead and get them to know like and trust you, so don’t be shy to let your friends and contacts know what you are doing.
From your and teams list of contacts choose 15 to 20 people who can help amplify your campaign. Reach out to them and ask for their support in advertising your campaign across their networks, directing traffic to your landing page or campaign page depending at what stage your campaign is at. The bigger your team the bigger the reach you have.
Some tips for using social platforms to build awareness of your campaign:
- Set up and use your Pinterest account to promote your project’s vision and “brand.
- Pin pictures of your product/rewards and anything else visually interesting that relates to your project.
- Pin images and videos that direct people back to your campaign.
- Post pictures documenting your product development and campaign journey.
- Post pictures of the team and events relating to your project.
- Tag your pictures with a link that relates to your campaign.
- Set up and use a personal & business Facebook page for your campaign to send regular campaign updates.
- Always include a link to your campaign whenever posting about it on Facebook.
- Set up a private group and get leads to join it. Ask them for feedback on your project and use their comments to build a stronger campaign.
- Use popular and trending hashtags to raise awareness for your campaign.
- Ask contacts for retweets to help spread the word about your campaign.
- Tweet at people (even those you don’t know) who might have a special interest in the subject of your campaign.
- Make sure your team also tweet to their contacts about the campaign.
Crowdfunding may sound difficult but with the right team behind you and a solid plan, crowdfunding is simple and produces amazing results for those that get it right. For more information on crowdfunding video and how we can help support you with your campaign, get in touch with Wow Your Crowd, a crowdfunding Agency in the UK and arrange a free crowdfunding strategy success session. Speak soon!
3 Types of Crowdfunding Video To Successfully Fund Your Kickstarter Campaign
The crowdfunding video is your campaign’s most important marketing asset. Get it right and a successful campaign beckons, get it wrong and months of hard work could be ruined. Here at Wow Your Crowd, we are pitch video specialists and in this blog will explain the 3 different types of video you can make for your campaign.
Running a successful crowdfunding campaign comes down to 1 thing, getting your audience to buy your product. If you can’t convince your audience to support your project and buy your product then it's highly likely your campaign will fail. So everything you do should work towards the end goal of enticing your audience to support you. But how do you do this, how can you engage your audience and take them from one end of the buying spectrum, where they are hearing about you for the first time to the other end of the spectrum where they buy your product?
Well, your crowdfunding campaign should be built around a marketing funnel strategy, which creates multiple touchpoints with the audience, allowing you to pitch your key marketing message points to them. The most important touchpoint in your marketing funnel strategy is your crowdfunding video. Without a doubt, your crowdfunding video is your campaign’s most important asset as it is the key to convincing your audience to buy.
The crowdfunding video is what converts viewers to buyers and so it's vitally important you develop a standout video, which pitches your story and showcases the value of your product, convincing backers to support you.
Here at Wow Your Crowd we are pitch video specialists and have been solely making pitch videos for many years. We have developed our own unique P5 Pitch Video formula that we use when creating videos for our client’s projects.
We can let you into a little secret - there are three types of crowdfunding video that you can create for your campaign, which type you choose is up to you and your current situation.
One thing I implore you not to do when creating your video is to make a ‘promo video’. Time and time again I see campaigns who have created a ‘promo video’ instead of a ‘pitch video’, Creating a promo video will have a negative effect on the campaign, as it doesn’t provide the viewer with the correct information they need to make a buying decision, which usually results in campaign failure. So when seeking help with creating your campaign’s video be sure to hire an agency like Wow Your Crowd who understand how to create a pitch video and give your campaign the best chance of success.
The 3 Types of Video you can create for your campaign are:
- The Traditional Pitch Video
- The Product Demo Video
- The Promercial Pitch Video
The Traditional Pitch Video - is the classic style of video that features the campaign founder introducing their big idea and the backstory to the campaign. This type of video is great for building a relationship with the audience, as the audience is able to associate a face with the project and build a subconscious relationship with you. You want your audience to trust you, so by showing a face behind the project, you are allowing the viewer to get to know, like and trust you. This has a very positive effect in convincing a backer to support the project.
The problem with featuring in a video is when the person delivering the pitch isn’t very good at speaking on camera. They may be shy and feel awkward in front of the camera, which comes across in the delivery of their pitch. So, when deciding what video to make you need to first ask yourself, do I want to feature in the video and can I deliver a strong performance to the camera? If the answer is yes, then you should definitely make an appearance whether that is through the whole video or in 1 or two bits, as it will help to nurture a personal relationship with your crowd.
The Product Demo Video - does exactly what it says on the tin. It demonstrates your product, explaining the features and benefits to the user. A product demo video is usually narrated by a voice-over or set to a music track with on-screen text explaining the main marketing message points.
Product demo videos are good when you have a limited budget or you don’t want to feature in the video. The video consists of shots of the product in different scenarios/locations. For example on a white background in a studio and then in a lifestyle location like the kitchen or office. The video generally doesn't feature any people unless you see a hand appear to pick up or activate the device.
If shooting a product demo video it's better to keep the video short and to the point. This will help to keep the viewer engaged and excited about the product.
The Promercial Pitch Video - is a name we here at Wow Your crowd have created for a specific type of pitch video. The video is a cross between a product demo video and a commercial. The promercial video showcases the product being used by models or actors in lifestyle situations, selling a story of how the product will benefit the user in real life. The promercial can also feature the founder speaking to camera or be presented by an actor or narrated by a voice-over.
In recent years the promerical pitch video has pretty much overtaken the traditional pitch video as the main type of video for promoting Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaigns. Many of our clients prefer to go for the Promercial video over the traditional video as the footage created can easily be repurposed for future marketing videos.
One thing to bear in mind is that creating a promercial video is usually more expensive than a traditional style video or product demo video. This is because the productions are generally bigger, with more people involved, more time required to develop the creative and the additional cost of actors and locations etc.
Whatever video you chose to make for your crowdfunding campaign the secret is to make the video as engaging and entertaining as possible, hooking the audience quickly, whilst showcasing the value your product provides them.
For help and advice on how to make the best video for your campaign contact us at Wow Your Crowd and find out more about our award-winning crowdfunding video production services.
3 Step Formula to a Successful Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign
Over the past 10 years, Crowdfunding has changed the way entrepreneurs, start-ups and innovative businesses can launch their products. Providing an alternative route to the problematic and expensive way of traditionally bringing an idea to market. But how do you launch a successful Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign? Our 3 step formula explains how you can.
Crowdfunding is amazing, it is a ‘game-changer’, giving entrepreneurs and start-ups the opportunity to launch their products and big ideas, but it hasn’t always been this way. Traditionally, launching a product was expensive and was only possible for companies with large R&D budgets. Most entrepreneurs or small businesses didn’t have a chance and could only dream of launching their products, with a small minority actually taking their idea from concept to selling it commercially. But thanks to the way the Internet has changed how we communicate with each other and with the rise of Crowdfunding, entrepreneurs and startups now have the ability to navigate the issues of traditionally launching their product and make their big ideas a reality.
Although crowdfunding has levelled the playing field for creators there is still a lot of work to be done in order to launch your product successfully. Many people see the large raises by certain successful campaigns on platforms like Kickstarter and instantly think Crowdfunding is the easy way to raise funding and the answer to their start-up dreams. However, Crowdfunding isn’t as simple as you may think.
Official stats from Kickstarter show that only a third of campaigns to date have been successful (489,000 campaigns launched, 183,000 successfully funded) and of those successful, the average funding raised was around $7,000. When you see these stats in the cold light of day it puts a different perspective on things. As mentioned before, many people see the successful campaigns that raise 6, 7 or 8 figures and think they can easily do the same. In fact, only the top 3% of campaigns raise over $50,000. The top 1% raise over $100,000 and those that reach 7 or 8 figures are the top 0.4%.
You can be successful and launch a 6,7 or 8 figure campaign, but it's vitally important that you understand what the successful campaigns do in order for you to replicate them. Whether you want to raise ten thousand dollars or one million dollars with the right effort, the right planning and hard work you can certainly do it.
So, what do successful campaigns do that unsuccessful campaigns don’t and what do you need to do to give your campaign the best chance of success and skyrocket the chances of smashing your funding goal?
From our own experiences, helping our clients to successfully launch 5,6 and 7 figure campaigns (joining the much sought after 1%) and by studying the most successful campaigns over the past couple of years we have developed this 3 step formula:
Step 1. A Unique Product
The most successful campaigns don’t rush their projects. They spend many months and years developing their idea. Researching similar products, understanding the needs of the user and then developing something that improves on what has become before. It's no coincidence that the big campaigns are for products that are generally labelled ‘The World’s First…’ These products and ideas are different to what has been made before and are pushing boundaries, creating unique innovations that provide users with something different.
For example, Vectoman wallet didn’t rush their launch. They spent two years tweaking the design of their luxury wallet, adding additional smart features, so that the wallet was completely different to any other wallet that had been launched before. When they did eventually launch they raised over $2million.
If you launch a product that is the same as what has come before, people will stick with what they already have. They have no reason to switch or upgrade. The psychology behind inventing products that people want is for you to change a user's habit in order to get them to buy.
Step 2. An Awesome Pitch Story.
It would be incredibly unjust if you decided to create an amazing product that was completely different to what has come before and then not backs it up with a standout pitch story that conveys exactly how your product helps its users. But unfortunately, this happens regularly. Many creators have great ideas and create awesome products but they fail to explain the value the product provides the user.
A great pitch story hooks audiences on a physical and emotional level. Your story and marketing message should be written so that the user thinks you have built your product specifically for them.
A pitch needs to stimulate your audience, and get them thinking emotionally,... “yes I must have that now!”. Create an offer your audience can't refuse. But remember you aren't selling, you are building a relationship with a user who has a problem or knows someone with the problem and has a need for your product, the solution to their problem. Work these message points into your pitch video, your campaign page and all of your marketing campaign and your crowd will be queuing to buy your product.
Step 3. A Hungry Crowd
A big mistake made by many people is thinking the crowdfunding platform (where the campaign is hosted) will provide the backers required to help fund the campaign. This is far from the truth. Industry stats show that around 75% of funds raised by campaigns come from their own traffic sources - their crowd.
It's vitally important that your project builds a crowd of hungry backers prior to launching. Backers who are ready to buy your product as soon as you go live. This will allow you to reach your minimum funding goal quickly and give your campaign momentum. Once your campaign is underway and off to a good start you can send cold traffic to the campaign page and make more sales.
Platforms like Kickstarter will only advertise your project in its newsletters and promote the campaign on its homepage once the campaign is showing signs of success and audiences are backing it.
So it is vital you build your crowd beforehand using organic and paid advertising methods - such as leveraging your contacts and generating leads through paid Facebook advertising campaigns.
Crowdfunding really is a game-changer and helping entrepreneurs and start-ups all over the world make their dreams come true and it can make yours come true as well. To make sure your campaign is a success, seek support from a crowdfunding marketing agency and let them guide you on your crowdfunding journey and help reach your fundraising goal.
