How LinkedIn Can Boost Your Crowdfunding Efforts
Whether you’re in the very early stages of gathering support and backing for your project or are focused on putting the word out there with the help of influencers in your industry, LinkedIn is a great resource.
While most business leaders and company owners will have a LinkedIn account, many don’t use it as an actual tool in promoting their products and achieving core marketing objectives.
So, if for some reason you’re not leveraging the power of LinkedIn to support your crowdfunding efforts, here’s a reminder of why you should be.
What’s So Good About LinkedIn?
The beauty of LinkedIn for businesses is the predominating user demographics that frequent the platform.
While Facebook and other platforms should definitely be part of your crowdfunding marketing strategy too, LinkedIn facilitates connections with many types of people who can assist you in the early stages of your launch, such as influential people in your field, potential investors with capital, professionals in your sector, and partners who may want to be involved in a great project like yours.
With business conventions and industry events being severely disrupted due to Covid-19, LinkedIn is also one of the only spaces where individuals in your community can gather, albeit virtually. It can give you a vital chance to share news about your project and learn from people in your sector.
1. Find Influencers and Potential Backers
You can make advanced searches through LinkedIn to search out potential investors, partners, influencers and other individuals who may be able to facilitate your crowdfunding scheme.
The platform lets you make searchers with keywords relating to location, industry, interests, and seniority level so that you can narrow down who you’re looking for.
The list of individuals you discover can serve as potential leads for a number of goals, whether you want to find an industry blogger to cover the launch of your project or investors who are actively looking for new projects in your sector.
2. Build a Vetted Audience
LinkedIn is the perfect place to build an audience based on specific criteria that can be useful for your brand and project. For instance, you can focus on building your awareness among managers, CEOs and those in leadership roles so that when you publish engaging content, you have a greater chance of being noticed by the right people.
Also, a member interested in the same industry as your Kickstarter campaign or who is in the same LinkedIn group as you may be more willing to pay attention or even support you in some way.
As a Kickstarter video production company, we understand that the work we do isn’t worth anything unless the right people see it. So, to prepare for when you have something meaningful to actually share, we always recommend building online communities as early as possible so that your content will achieve a significant amount of amplification.
3. Introductions and Reach-outs
With some decent connections in your industry, achieving introductions and reaching out to people who can potentially help you can be incredibly effective on LinkedIn. You can do this by posting something in a group, or just in your feed, with a request for introductions to relevant people.
Even if just one person puts you in touch with someone who can help you, it’s worth it. And even if not, your posts can double as a kind of announcement to people in your industry that you’re engaged in interesting activities.
4. Direct Messages
We’ve all been in situations where we’ve identified a potential lead who could help our project in some way but haven’t been able to find a contact for them.
Even if you’re able to uncover their email, it might seem too forward to send them something directly without an introduction of some kind.
Through LinkedIn, you can search out the people you want to contact and send them a direct message, following a connection with them on the platform. This will greatly improve the chance of someone actually reading and responding to your message, as you’ll be within their “network” even if you only have a tenuous link with people they already know.
5. Expand Your Network
Constantly working to expand your network can help you in many different ways. With more professional contacts in your industry knowing who you are and potentially viewing your posts, knowledge of your brand and your product launch can gradually diffuse among the right communities of people.
Boost Your Crowdfunding Efforts
At Wow Your Crowd, we’re a Kickstarter video production company committed to showcasing the value of your clients in the best possible light through video content, but we’re also passionate about helping you build communities and establish connections with the right people.
If you’re looking for help to get your Kickstarter going or want to learn more about how platforms like LinkedIn can be used in your strategy, get in touch with us!
Why You Need to Build a Powerful Online Community for Your Brand
Whether you’re launching a niche product or something you hope will cater to the masses, the benefits of building an online community for your crowdfunding project are undeniable.
Digital communities can turn the initial curiosity of potential customers into a long-term love affair, with loyal followers even promoting your brand to others. And often, the community you first establish will last far beyond the launch of your first products and can form the foundation of future digital marketing campaigns.
Among the many benefits, such as driving traffic to your website and helping you retain customers, online communities also allow you to stay up-to-date with the thoughts and opinions of your fans so that you can adapt your products to be more relevant and user-focused.
What is an Online Community?
An online community is essentially a group of individuals joined by common interests, opinions, and goals, who meet in a virtual space, like a social media platform.
For example, one of the simplest communities you can build is a private group on Facebook. However, depending on your brand and business goals, your online community might be best suited to another platform or channel like LinkedIn. Some online community platforms include:
- Facebook Groups
- Disciple
- Hivebrite
- BuddyBoss
- Mighty Networks
- Circle
- Tribe
Your community might be an open forum where anyone can come and share their views and opinion, or an invite-only space where entrants are vetted first.
For brands who want to establish a community before or during the launch of a new product or service, an online community often includes a mix of customers, partners, and employees who are brought together in one place to share developments, news, ideas and establish a stronger emotional connection between members and the brand.
This initiative could be led by your crowdfunding marketing agency, by yourself, or even by a chosen follower in some instances, who are willing to lead the group thanks to their simple love of your brand.
What Happens in Online Communities?
Whatever your platform of choice, the major activity that should be taking place within your online community is the development of a meaningful connection between an individual and the brand, as well as between member individuals. A few things that encourage this are:
- Discussions on topics relating to the brand, product or community theme
- Direct feedback and opinion sharing about product elements (especially useful during the testing and development stage of new products)
- Sharing of interesting content that relates to the community (videos, articles, personal reflections etc.)
- Fan based projects and artworks (you can set up a competition where fans develop artwork for the brand for the chance of winning a prize and having their work published)
- Sharing of industry news
- Useful advice and tips for group members
Why Are Online Communities Important?
When launching a crowdfunding project, there are several unique ways your community can benefit you.
- Communities can attract new followers to your brand who will eventually turn into paying customers when your product or project is launched
- It’s a cheap way to gather market research data from real people without commissioning interviews or surveys
- Creating a strong connection between people at an early stage will often inspire long-term loyalty ad individuals may become your greatest advocates
- When partners or investors see the scale of your community they are more likely to believe in your project and get on board
- Online communities are a direct way to communicate with your customers, which can support sales inquiries and other activities
- Running an online community lets you be seen as a leader in your space and you’ll have the chance to shape the conversion as you go
- Having a regular dialogue with your community helps you stay up-to-date and improve your products
Investing In Your Community
Whether you plan to handle the growth and management of an online community yourself or seek help from a crowdfunding marketing agency, this activity is far more than just a social media strategy that can improve your brand awareness potential.
Successful online communities can be a vital tool when developing your product pre-launch and can give you a deeper insight into the mindset of your customers.
If you want to learn more about how you can promote your Kickstarter with community building or other marketing initiatives, get in touch with us at Wow Your Crowd.
How to Simplify Your Brand Story for Your Crowdfunding Video
If you want people to spread the word about your project and truly buy into your dream, you need to ensure your Kickstarter video and brand pitch are both simple and memorable.
We don’t mean you need to dumb things down so that you’re not conveying the nuance or unique nature of your project, but rather that you must do your best to condense all your key information and messages into something relatively short and sweet.
Most videos and Kickstarter pitches fall flat because they haven’t been thoughtfully distilled into something that is easily digestible. And this is a tragedy when you’ve actually got a great idea that people will love, underneath it all.
We’ve created a simple guide to help you make sure your crowdfunding video is short and memorable.
Why Does Simple Matter?
- You’ll make more money - simple means more memorable and easier to process, which translates to a wider dispersal of your messages to a greater number of potential investors and future customers.
- You’ll look better - videos that are too long and complicated make projects and founders look bad, even if their ideas are innovative and simple. If your first impression is “clunky” what kind of impression are strangers going to have of you?
- You’ll generate more loyalty - simplicity is a core component of all brand experiences, that extends far beyond the crowdfunding video you’re making. If you start off well here, people will be more likely to respond well to your brand experiences and products across multiple touchpoints, including your promotional social media output.
Focus on the First 10-Seconds
Most people have short attention spans these days, especially when it comes to digital content like videos. Most viewers aren’t going to sit through a 5 minute Kickstarter video to figure out if they want to back you or not. You’ll be lucky if they last 15 seconds so making the most of the start of your video is crucial.
Just try browsing several crowdfunding videos yourself from other brands and see how long it takes for you to feel that all too familiar content fatigue. Your first 10 seconds should be a concise introduction of who you are and why people should keep watching. Going straight into complex data or explanations will deter new users from staying tuned.
Establish Your “Face”
To be memorable, you must have a kind of brand “face” that makes it simple for people to establish a connection with you. This includes things like your company name, logo, colours and possibly a jingle or slogan. It can also include the actual faces of your founders, which will help people to develop a more personal connection with your project.
All of this will develop visual associations that will help users to recognise you in the future, and simplify their interactions with you. If you have a vague or confusing “face”, perhaps with inconsistent colour choices, shapes, icons, or other motifs, people will find it harder to remember you and your project.
Speak Directly to Your Audience
One effective tip is to avoid language that doesn’t speak directly to your audience. People will always respond better to messages that are addressed to them rather than statements or questions that are targeted at an abstract audience.
Assuming you already know who your core audience is, make sure you tap into their core motivations and shared context to speak directly to them. This will help you to simplify your crowdfunding video and increase overall engagement.
Make Your CTAs Clear and Obvious
What happens when your audience is completely on board after making their way through 50% of your video? To ensure that you don’t lose followers and investors during the second half, make sure you tell them clearly what you want them to do.
For example, are you looking for immediate contributions or to direct interested parties to more information about your brand. You’ll be surprised how many brands don’t do this and lose out because they didn’t create simple and effective CTAs.
Keep It Grounded
While long-term visions of how you are going to change the world are great, you must always ground your Kickstarter in the real world. This includes explaining how you are tangibly going to achieve your goals and the practical steps you have already taken to launching your brand.
If you want more tips on making your Kickstarter video simple and memorable, or want help with producing one of the most crucial assets of your entire crowdfunding campaign, get in touch with us at Wow Your Crowd.
