Storytelling - The Power of Narrative in Crowdfunding
Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools you can harness during your crowdfunding campaign.
There’s nothing quite like it when it comes to getting investors and future customers on board, connecting with them through compelling and captivating stories about your brand and what you hope to one day achieve.
Why Is Storytelling So Important?
- Helps people relate to you and connect on a more emotional level
- Taps into the values and passions of your crowd
- Allows people to visualise your journey as a business
- Illustrates the vision you hope to achieve in more detail
- Makes you appear more genuine and human
Understanding the Types of Stories Audiences Love
Telling your story in the right way is an art. And when you want people to back your concept, there are a few proven ways to make your story resonate with your audience. Below are a few archetypal story techniques that might help your Kickstarter.
Personal Stories
People need to trust you before they back you. They also need to understand that they’re dealing with a genuine human who is committed to specific values and goals. Without this, it can be incredibly hard for people to part with their money and actually invest in you emotionally.
By making your story personal, you can overcome this trust barrier and connect with people on a human level. Conveying who you are as a person with real character traits and flaws will give people a better understanding of who they’re dealing with and the risk they’re taking when they invest.
This can involve sharing with people the major drivers behind your motivation to build your business or project. Knowing that you’re in it for more than just the money will allow people to believe in what you’re doing.
Overcoming Adversity
Everyone loves a story of overcoming adversity. Whether the monster in your tale is an actual person or just a difficult circumstance, we all love to see characters fight against hardship and evil forces to eventually come outstanding.
You might not be comfortable portraying yourself as a hero in your own story, but this can be an indelible powerful tool in getting people to back you. Alternatively, you can create the sense that your project or even the investor or customer is the hero who is battling adversity.
Or perhaps you can combine everything and describe your project and all the people behind it as the hero who is taking on an industry or sector that ultimately evil or corrupt.
Fear vs Happiness
Two of the most powerful emotions to leverage during speeches, talks, crowdfunding videos and pitches are feelings of happiness and fear.
While happiness can inspire someone to feel good about your project and the chance of doing good through backing you, fear can be used to motivate people to get involved before it’s too late and they miss out.
One of these things might be more suited to your brand and personality, but understanding the role that emotions like these have in your storytelling is important.
Tragedy
Obviously, you don’t want to leverage the tragedy theme as a motivator unless there is actually a real tragedy to convey, to avoid the risk of losing integrity.
However, if you’re launching a project that aims to improve society or support damaged communities after a natural disaster, for example, tapping into genuine tragedy can be a key motivator that gets people on board.
Real-life stories from the people you are trying to support or case studies about how businesses or communities have suffered can help people to realise your project can help to alleviate some of the suffering and damage caused by a tragedy.
How to Tell Your Story
You might have a lot to say, so keeping things logical and concise can help you to make your crowdfunding story more compelling and digestible. Here are some basic best practices you can try to follow.
- Start with a personal introduction
- Explore the challenge and adversity you face
- Offer your solution and the potential benefits your project will have
- Provide specific examples to improve the emotional connection
- Keep your story short and concise
- End with a call-to-action
Always End with a Call to Action
Your story should end with a call to action so that you can actually achieve a tangible goal. This could simply be for people to invest or for them to subscribe to your social channels and share your content with as many people as possible.
Whatever it is, your narrative should conclude with you requesting that people do something that can contribute to the progression of your story.
Inspiring Crowdfunding Videos in London
If you’re looking to tell your story through inspiring crowdfunding videos in London, get in touch with us at Wow Your Crowd and we’ll be happy to explore your own narrative and how we might be able to present this to your crowd to create stronger connections with your audience and drive support.
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.
9 Steps to Effectively Promote your Kickstarter Campaign
Like it or not advertising your Kickstarter campaign is a MUST if you want to hit your funding goal. Whether you are starting or in the middle of your campaign, you should consistently promote your offer so you attract an audience to support you. In this article, we’ll discuss a number of ways you can advertise your project, reach your audience and crowdfund your big idea.
Why is the Advertisement important?
Why do some Kickstarter projects quickly reach their funding targets while other campaigns struggle to get the first donation? There are a number of variables that come into play. For example, pricing and product offer, but generally it's simply down to not enough people knowing about your campaign.
Typically you can expect to see a backer conversion rate of 5%. So for every 100 people who are interested in your offer 5 will back you. With these metrics, you can easily work out the number of people you need to reach in order to gain enough support to help you achieve your funding goal.
Here are some tips to promote your campaign and build your crowd.
1.Carry out proper research to create an irresistible offer
Understanding who your audience is and what your competitors offer will enable you to create an offer that is different and more desirable to potential backers. You can only do this by carrying out decent research before you start your project. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Who needs my product?
- Why do they need my product?
- How is my product better than alternative options?
- How much will people be happy to pay for the product?
Then consider how much you need to raise to make your campaign viable. Do the figures work out? If so, then get ready to tell everyone about your campaign and offer!
2. Create a Lead Capture Page
Create a stand-alone landing page or add a page to your existing website that focuses on your crowdfunding campaign. Add a ‘lead capture box', so anyone who is interested in your campaign can leave their email address, and be updated with news about the campaign launch. Use different traffic strategies to send people to the lead capture page and build a list of ‘hungry’ leads, who are ready and interested in supporting your project.
3. Use Facebook Advertising
Paid Advertising campaigns on Facebook are highly effective at promoting your product and generating interest. The top marketing agencies use Facebook ads to drive traffic to a landing page and capture leads. Using Facebook’s ‘Ad Manager’ there are a number of different campaigns you can run. For example, awareness, lead generation, conversion, and engagment. Facebook ads are great as they can reach really tailored niches and millions of people easily all at the same time. You just need a budget to make them work effectively for your campaign.
4. Use Email marketing
Connect your email marketing software up to your landing page’s lead capture box, so when people sign up they go straight into your email list. You can then message your leads directly and nurture a relationship with them. The key is to get your audience to know like and trust you. Build up momentum as you lead up to the launch of your campaign.
5. Social Media & PR
Use your social media channels to promote and build awareness of your campaign. If you have multiple social channels, post across all of them, or if not just focus on 1 channel. Engage your audience, speak with them, ask them questions about your topic, build up a relationship and encourage people to back your campaign.
Use press releases to reach out to members of the press who may be interested in writing about your product and campaign. Making appearances in the media will attract more interest and give your campaign more credibility.
6. Use Pinterest
People sometimes neglect Pinterest when it comes to advertising a crowdfunding campaign. Pinterest has great potential. It has a niche audience of its own and works as a search engine. You can posts images and videos about your product and promote your campaign. The platforms key features include creating ‘boards’ and using searchable #hashtags.
7. Use a Compelling Video and Gorgeous Looking Photos
Your video is your campaign's most important marketing tool. It's the first thing people look at, and if it's not good, most people bounce to another campaign. Hire an agency that specialises in Kickstarter video production to make your video. As well as your video you’ll want nice photos of your product. Take a selection of your product on its own and with actors in lifestyle shots. So backers can see what the product looks like in a real-life situation and imagine themselves using it. Use the photos and video on your Kickstarter project page as well as in for your advertising campaigns, social networks and pr news releases.
8. Use Super Backer Sites
Many successful crowdfunding campaigns have 1 thing in common, they are backed by 'super backer ‘supporters. Super backers are (predominately males) who have supported multiple campaigns. There are a number of dedicated super backer websites where you can pay a small fee and have your campaign syndicated to the platform’s list of super backers. Generally, you offer the super backers a special perk (Reward) which isn’t available on your Kickstarter project page. This can be a discount on the price, a free add-on, or an upgraded reward level.
9. Give Away a Prize with a Referral Campaign
Referral campaigns can be a good way to build a list of leads cheaply. The one problem with using ‘paid’ ad campaigns like Facebook Ads is that they can be expensive. Referral campaigns give you the opportunity to build a list of leads cheaply. By offering the chance to win a prize you can entice leads to sign up and build a large crowd before you launch your campaign. The only problem with referral campaigns is that the quality of leads can be quite poor when you give away a prize for free. Meaning the lead isn’t that interested in buying your product/supporting your campaign. They just want to win the prize. But saying that when you get your referral campaign right it can be a brilliant way to build a crowd cheaply and launch a successful campaign.
In Summary
There is a lot to do to effectively promote your Kickstarter campaign, but by following the 10 steps above, you will give your campaign the best chance for success. If you are feeling slightly overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done, then build a team to help you or outsource some of the workloads to experienced professionals who can support you. At Wow Your Crowd, one area we can help you in is Kickstarter video production. To find out more, simply get in touch today and arrange a free crowdfunding strategy call. To your success!
How to Use Social Media to Create Awareness and Attract Interest in your Crowdfunding Campaign
One of the fundamental aspects of a successful crowdfunding campaign is to build an audience of followers before you launch. These followers will be your advocates and will support your campaign when you are live. They are the lifeblood to your campaign success and your business goals. But how can you build an audience of raving fans and followers? That’s where social media comes into play. A solid social strategy can be the difference between a successful crowdfunding campaign and a campaign that fails.
If you want to use social media to build your audience then you can get help from your crowdfunding marketing agency or you can manage the campaign yourself. Here are some tips and advice on what you need to know and do.
How can you use social media for your campaign?
If you already have a presence on social media then continue to build and promote your channels. If you are starting from scratch then choose a platform that suits you and also is where your target market is located. Posting regular updates is the key to building a following. Be consistent, post each day and nurture a relationship with your fans. This will lay the foundation for converting them into backers and paying customers.
What social media platforms can use for your campaign.
Facebook is the world’s No1 social media platform, with 7 billion users. It is recommended you have some kind of presence on this platform as most target markets can be found here. Bear in mind most ages group on Facebook are 30+, (whereas younger age groups are on social platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok). Set up a Facebook business page to represent your business or product. You can also set up a private ‘community group. Both are great ways to build a following and spread the news about your product and crowdfunding campaign. Most successful crowdfunding campaigns use Facebook Ad campaigns to advertise the campaign and build a database of leads.
Twitter is a great platform to find supporters, journalists and people of influence who are interested in your niche and may want to write about what you are doing. Building an audience can be done quickly when posting regular content and by using certain hacks to find people who have an interest in your topic.
Instagram is great for sharing images of your products and behind the scenes of your campaign. Instagram (owned by Facebook) has a young and old audience and includes great features like Instagram ‘Stories’, where you can upload short recorded videos. These are really handy for posting quick content to capture a moment and let your audience know about it.
Is the social media site for business, predominantly B2B and is a great way to search for prospective investors to support your equity crowdfunding campaign.
Pinterest is not often viewed as a social media platform but it really is and is a great way to source traffic and leads for your campaign. Similar to Instagram, you can post images and video. Pinterest is a great way to build up visual content related to your topic using other peoples imagery. Pinterest has a very big ‘female’ following.
Your Social media Strategy
It can be important to use different social media platforms to connect with your audience. It’s likely your audience is spread out across multiple platforms - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In etc. So, it’s critical that you publish relevant material and syndicate across the platforms in order to reach as big an audience as possible. Use syndication software like ‘Buffer’ to automate sending the posts out each day.
Pro tip - keep your branding the same across all of your social channels, so the public can easily recognise you.
Content Creation Strategy
In order to market your campaign effectively develop an effective social campaign that engages with your audience and gets them to interact with your brand. The content you share should be insightful, entertaining, educational and most importantly well presented. Start by sharing useful industry-related information, news about your product or cause and share stories about your team and the obstacles you have faced during developing your product.
Here are the goals of your content creation strategy:
•Increase awareness and engagement with your target audience
•Drive traffic to capture leads interested in your crowdfunding campaign
•Create a buzz and galvanise support for your project
Create Specific Hashtag
Pro tip - create a hashtag that is unique to your crowdfunding campaign and use it in all social media articles and posts. By doing this people can quickly find all discussions surrounding your campaign and access more content about your campaign which they may not have seen.
Pre Launch Posting Schedule
You should keep in mind these points when creating a social post schedule for your Pre-Launch
•Create a schedule that outlines, at minimum, a plan for two weeks. Ideally, it’s better to create a social media plan for the whole duration of your Pre-launch campaign.
•Aim for 5 posts a day, sent out across all social channels
•Schedule three posts in the day and two posts in the evening.
•Mix up post content use images, text and video
•Share stories on Facebook or Instagram.
Monitor Results
Track your social media campaign’s results. Analysis of each post to gain better awareness of what content receives more interest. Check for shares and feedback and access interaction. Search for mentions and retweets on each social platform. See what is working and getting the best engagement. Then create more of this content and share it with your audience.
Conclusion
Social media is an important part of promoting your crowdfunding campaign. When implemented correctly it is incredibly effective at building a following and buzz around your project. Concentrate on developing content that resonates with your target audience. Create, test and repeat. Build awareness and in the process a community of followers who love your idea. If you need any support, as an experienced crowdfunding marketing agency we can help. Get in touch with us today and let’s crowdfund your BIG idea.
Tips on How to Create a Landing Page for Your Crowdfunding Campaign
Did you know that it's best practice to build a landing page to collect leads before you launch your crowdfunding campaign?
Many people believe they can create a project page on a crowdfunding platform and then launch. Well, you can, but we wouldn’t advise it. You need to build your crowd before your campaign goes live and a landing page plays a leading part in building your crowd.
Landing pages have an important role to play, and that is to give interested supporters a glimpse of your project and capture their email address so that you can continue to communicate with them and keep them up to date about your campaign.
So how do you build a landing page that generates better crowdfunding results?
The answer is fairly simple: design and messaging.
If you want to build more leads then create a professional-looking landing page with strong relevant imagery and enticing messaging. A poor-looking or badly made landing page will have a negative impact on your brand image and reflect in fewer leads signing up to be included on your email list.
If you are running a paid advertising campaign to send traffic to your landing page then a poor looking lading page will cost you money as potential leads will bounce off your page and go away forever.
Therefore, if you want a good launch for your crowdfunding campaign, a high-quality landing page should be created.
Essential tips for your landing page
Tip 1. Searchable with Appealing Design
People will find your landing page through various ways, such as an internet search, social media search, and advertisement campaign. It's not vital how they arrive at your landing page. What is essential is the first impression project has on them. Make sure the site looks great and draws the viewer in to find out more. Use relevant keywords within the page copy so the website is easily found by search engines.
Some of the important elements of the landing page are:
Tip 2. ”NO" scrolling
If a person on your site has to search for a signup form, they usually won't take the time to do this. When you design the landing page, make it easy to find the signup form. One tip is to keep the form above the "fold" so that the consumer doesn’t need to scroll to find it. Place the most important information about your project in the first half of the home page. This is the most viewed part and captures the most significant interest.
Tip 3. A picture says a thousand words
Choose relevant images that showcase your product or niche. Professional looking lifestyle imagery that can involve actors or models is a great way to communicate how people will feel when they interact with your offer. Less is more. 1 great picture will work better than a few mediocre pictures.
Look at the imagery well-known brands use to promote their products and services and try to do something similar. Hire a professional photographer if you have the budget for it. It's well worth it.
Tip 4. Clear concise messaging with a call to action
Your 'offer' is the most important message to show on your landing page. Spend the time to create a headline and sub-headline that encapsulates what your project is about and why people should be interested. The most enticing headlines and copy focus on the benefits your offer provides and how the user will feel.
Add short paragraphs of body copy that highlight the main features and any other additional benefits the user may receive. Keep the messaging short and concise. Once again less is more.
General practice is not to mention any specific pricing at this point. Although we would recommend mentioning that there is some kind of discount e.g. “get 50% off when you sign up”
View the messaging on the landing page as an ‘overview’ to gain interest and create intrigues so viewers are eager to find out more.
Include a call to action, make it clear that the audience understands they should enter their details into the signup form to join the email list.
Tip 5. Mobile-friendly landing page
Ideally, make sure your landing page is optimized so it loads quickly on a mobile easily. Today. most people will access your site from their mobile, so make it a pleasant experience. If there is any delay in the website loading the user will not stick around.
Tip 6. Split-test and measure
A successfully designed landing page will capture leads easily and quickly. If your page isn’t converting as well as you like then try changing the imagery and messaging or layout to see if signs up improve. When testing only make 1 change at a time.
You can also try A/B split testing - create two sites with different messaging and send traffic to both - see what converts the best.
Ideally, you want your page to convert at least 25% of the people who view the page.
Here are some landing page platforms that make building landing pages easy:
kickofflabs.com
leadpages.com
mailchimp.com
unbounce.com
How can a video help you?
Adding a cut-down version of your crowdfunding video can be a great way to build trust and encourage more people to sign up on your landing page. You can boost conversions by 80%! This is a huge number!
At Wow Your Crowd we provide crowdfunding video production and can help you with your video requirements. To find out more simply arrange a free ‘crowdfunding success strategy call’ and we can help get your campaign ready for launch.
How to Set up a Successful Crowdfunding Email Marketing Campaign
Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies for crowdfunding campaigns. In this blog post, we’ll explain how to set up a successful email marketing campaign, so you can nurture a relationship with your crowd and improve the chances of successfully funding your campaign.
Why does some email marketing not work?
Some people say "email marketing is dead," but research shows that 72 percent of people are more receptive to promotional content via email over other types of marketing channels.
If your email content isn’t working and It’s not generating the results you desire. Then this could be due to a few things:
- A poor quality email list
- Poor email content
- A Poor call to action
If you are sending emails to a list of people who aren’t your preferred target audience then the campaign is starting on the wrong foot. Poor quality, non-original or salesy content is a big turn off. As are campaigns that push readers to low-quality products or an offer that isn’t as good as your competitors. It may seem obvious to you, but you’ll be amazed at how important it is to tell your audience what you would like them to do. Use a call to action and encourage your audience to act.
What we experience?
From our experience, email marketing is an effective crowdfunding marketing technique that when implemented correctly encourages your crowd to support your campaign. Campaign data shows there is a correlation between sending out an email to your list and then seeing more donations or sign-ups take place. However, there are some crucial points that you should follow to increase the probability of your campaign’s success.
Before Pre-Launch
Before you launch your ‘prelaunch’ campaign you and your team should use your existing networks to build a list of contacts. Take the completed list and upload it to your email software of choice, for example, MailChimp. Connect your landing page’s ‘email sign up form’ to MailChimp. So any leads that sign up through the form are added straight to your main contact list.
You are now ready to start emailing your contacts.
Welcoming Email
It's best practice to have a ‘Welcoming’ email, which is sent out to someone when they join your email list. On signing up, an automated email is delivered to them straight away - welcoming them to your community. The ‘welcoming’ email is an ‘overview’ of your campaign and a chance to recap on the messaging included on the landing page or elsewhere.
Points to include: reintroduce your project vision, explain key benefits, highlight links to any related groups e.g. Facebook community group and give a good CTA at the end of the message. For example, information about the launch date.
During Your Pre-launch Campaign
The emails you send to your list during the prelaunch phase are intended to build and nurture a relationship. Use the opportunity to create interest and intrigue in your cause or offer and get people excited to be part of your project’s community.
How many emails you send during prelaunch depends on how long your prelaunch is. If your prelaunch is 4 weeks then we’d recommend sending an email every week for the first 2 or 3 weeks and then as you get closer to the launch date you can send a few more emails.
Wondering what you should talk about in your emails here are a few ideas:
Chat about your back story, your project’s history and your reason why highlight features and facts and keep your contacts notified about the launch date.
Reminder Email - ‘Launching Tomorrow’
As you get closer to launching you can send out more emails (every couple of days) to encourage backers to support you when you launch. The most important email is the ‘reminder’ email sent out the night before your launch. As people will join your email list at different points throughout prelaunch the ‘reminder email’ helps to put everyone on the same page. Notifying you are launching tomorrow.
Launch Day Email - ‘We are Live’
On the day of launch send an email to your list to let them know that your campaign is now live. Encourage your list to support your campaign straight away. For ‘rewards’ campaigns where you are offering a product at a certain price you can encourage your list with an ‘Early Bird’ discount offer which is available for a limited time. This strategy will help to encourage your list to support you straight away.
Live Campaign
During the live campaign, it's important to keep messaging your main contact list. Keep them updated with the latest campaign news, the milestones you have achieved, for instance when you hit your funding target. As the campaign draws to a close you can send 3 or 4 emails counting down the final days and hours of the campaign.
Generally, you’ll find the most amount of action for your project is in the opening and closing days of the campaign.
Important Things to bear in mind
When creating a list, keep in mind where your emails will go. Will, they hit your user’s inbox, promotion folder, or spam folder? All of these are dependent on your IP credibility and domain history, and credibility.
The best way to make sure your list is receiving your emails is to remind them when they sign up to add your email to their ‘contact address book’.
Their email client will then know to trust your email and you can relax knowing they are receiving everything you send out.
Make your emails come to life
Whether you need help with designing your email marketing or other areas of your marketing campaign or even Kickstarter Video Production then get in touch with us at Wow Your Crowd. We’d love to hear about your big idea and help your campaign to get funded.
Best Tips on How to Use Video for Social Media Marketing
You have created a marketing plan for your product launch campaign, but it’s not creating the results you desire?
Why is this? Are you missing something?
The main reason is genuinely due to the lack of content that engages your audience. Data shows that video is the best medium to attract and communicate with your audience online. If you have not already made significant investments in social media video content, then it's time to start investing.
It's not just video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram that are more focused on video, for example with ‘stories’ and ‘IGTV’. Other platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn also provide video options, since this is the way users expect to digest content.
Different types of video for social media marketing
There are various types of video you can create to promote your product, business or personal brand. Here are a few ideas:
- Animations
- Brand Promo
- Commercial
- Sales video
- Educational How to
- Product Explainers
- F.A.Q. videos
- Expert Opinion videos
- Vlogs
- Live Stream videos
- Event highlights video.
So, what's the best? It depends on your specific goal, your budget and your level of experience with making videos. For a strong consistent social media campaign, we’d recommend making various videos from the above list, try them out and measure the response you get from your target audience. Then make more of the videos that work the best. Use the videos to build trust and nurture a relationship with your followers and customers.
The ideal video length
The ideal video length is a bit of a myth. It really depends on how engaging the video content is and what the video is used for. As a guideline, we’d recommend the following:
- Promotional video for your website - 1- 2 mins for brand content
- Facebook & Twitter - Up to 1-minute promotional brand content
- Instagram - from 15 - 30 seconds for promotional brand content
- Youtube - Up to 2mins for promotional content and up to 60mins for long long-form educational and entertainment content
Use different social media platforms effectively for your video marketing
YouTube
YouTube is the ‘social media video’ website. A place to learn and be entertained, which is different to posting messages on other social media platforms. Building a strong YouTube channel with great content relevant to your subject matter will allow you to attract subscribers and fans, which you can then turn into customers. Get good at YouTube and be great at video marketing.
Important points to keep in mind when posting videos on Youtube
- Use keywords relevant to your topic in the description and video title
- Post videos regularly (at least once a week)
- Use the YouTube Ads options like Pre-roll to sell and attract people to your business
- Always remind viewers to like your video and subscribe to your channel
Facebook is a perfect place to promote your product to your target market. You can upload videos easily, use them as advertisements to reach niches, or launch a Facebook Live stream and speak with your audience directly.
Important points to keep in mind
- Make sure the video is engaging, with the right style of content for your audience
- Upload your videos directly to Facebook; don’t link to them from other websites
- Include your videos into playlists, labelled for easier search
- Include a call to action at the end of your video
- Host live Facebook Q&A sessions, to forge a closer personal relationship with fans
- Re-share your Live streams for fans who may have missed the original live broadcast
Twitter is just as good as any other platform for sharing videos as part to your product launch and social media marketing. Creators will typically upload videos as tweets or pay for video ads. Both options are available.
Important points to keep in mind
For Twitter posts and advertisements, a common rule for posting is that shorter messages create better results. Twitter research reveals that advertisements that are less than 15 seconds work better and viewers retain the messages more often.
- Don't forget to use hashtags related to your niche and "join the talk," (as suggested by Twitter) in your posts.
- Add descriptions and keywords
Instagram is very popular and is promoting more video content based on its new functionality. In addition to video posts and advertising, a new live streaming option was started with Instagram Stories and IGTV, which functions similarly to YouTube.
Important points to keep in mind
- Create your videos with a clear topic, with related visual design
- Keep your captions short and include the right message in your video
- Instagram videos have a 60-second time limit so keep your video short
- Instagram ads are much like Facebook ads, so try it here if you have noticed things that work on Facebook
- Instagram Stories have a limited time length, such as 15 seconds, and disappear forever after 24 hours, similar to Snapchat
- IGTV operates like YouTube and is a great place for Vloggers to share their content
Snapchat
If your target audience is a younger market say 16 - 30 years old then your social media content marketing campaign should include Snap Chat, which allows for informal exchanges with your fans through Snapchat posts.
Important points to keep in mind
- Keep your Snapchat posts short and simple
- Use and create Snapchat filters and lenses to upgrade the look of your posts and advertisements.
Finally!
To enhance your product launch or crowdfunding campaign It is essential to implement a video marketing strategy on social media. Wow Your Crowd can help to produce what you need. So, when you need marketing help or a sleek, professional crowdfunding video that promotes your product, give us a call and in the meantime feel free to reach out and ask us any questions you may have. We’ll be happy to provide some insight and advice on how you can promote your products online.
10 Ways to Promote Your Crowdfunding Campaign and Build Your Crowd
You have been working on your crowdfunding campaign for months. You created your prototype, shot a film, written your pitch, and designed your website. Finally, the campaign goes live, and your friends and family back you immediately. But after a fast start, how do you continue the momentum and attract more backers to your campaign?
Here are ten ways to boost and promote your crowdfunding campaign.
Websites to Promote
There are hundreds of different sites across the internet that you can use to host and promote your crowdfunding campaign, making it compulsory but also difficult to choose which is the best for your specific campaign. When it comes to choosing a Crowdfunding platform, select a site that relates to your project and the type of person you are targeting. For example, launching a new tech product with a global audience - choose Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Raising funding for a local cause in the UK choose Crowdfunder, or for a global cause choose, Go Fund Me.
For additional reach and building awareness about your campaign, approach review and news sites to gain additional coverage and support.
| Platforms: | Promotion: |
| Kickstarter | Product Hunt |
| Indiegogo | Kicktraq |
| Crowdfunder | Gadget Flow |
| Go Fund Me | Geeky Gadgets |
| Fundly | Kickbooster |
| Crowdcube | Backerclub |
| Seeders | Backerland |
| Fundable |
Create a website or landing page
In order to build trust with backers, it's important to have a digital footprint online. The first place to start is with a website or landing page. To keep things quick and easy, populate your site with the same messaging and imagery/videos, which you use for your campaign page (on the crowdfunding platform). Be sure to add relevant keywords to your site, to help with SEO and people finding you via Internet search engines. Your only expense will be choosing a hosting package from a web host provider.
You need a strong social media strategy
This, of course, is a time-consuming task. But your social media plan determines whether your crowdfunding campaign will work or die. Many campaign owners believe their campaign will be found by people searching on a crowdfunding platform, but this rarely happens unless you are featured in a platform’s newsletter. You will need to find backers and attract them to your campaign. A well-planned marketing campaign is the best way to do this.
Build a team who can share your posts across their social media channels and build up more exposure for your campaign. Talk to people on Facebook and Twitter directly. And don’t worry about making the campaign go ‘viral’, just concentrate on what you and your team can manage. Be cooperative with your audience, and keep on updating your social content each day.
Use "Phrases,"
The Georgia Tech analysts took nine million sentences from 45,000 Kickstarter campaigns and found some of the most widely used sentences from fully-funded campaigns against more ineffective campaigns. Many successful campaigns used compelling sentences, as you possibly would expect. The following are some of the common phrases used: 'positive karma,' 'got you,' 'given a chance,' 'future is,' and, of course, 'cats.' Phrases that didn’t work so well, "Hope to have," "need one," "we have more.” A rule of thumb to follow is to be ‘personal and friendly’ and not ‘salesy’.
Keep it alive! Update regularly
Projects that post at least three updates to backers during their campaign raise 239 percent more funds than those who don't post updates, according to Indiegogo. Evidence suggests the more updates you give, the more funds you collect. Post updates related to your project every couple of days or at least once a week. Also, thank your contributors, tell them news about your product, share your milestones, and tell them if there is any change. Keep the audience involved and encourage them to tell their friends and contacts about the campaign as well.
Grow your email list
Your email list is probably the most important marketing strategy your crowdfunding campaign has. As the famous quotes state “the money is in the list”. It's not by coincidence that projects that have built a successful email list, full of leads who are interested in your offer, generate more donations to your cause. So focus on building an email list full of quality leads before launching your campaign by using a landing page with email capture. Launch an email nurturing campaign to your list of contact during your pre-launch phase and throughout the ‘live ‘ campaign enticing your list to back you.
Join relevant forums
You want to increase awareness about your crowdfunding campaign as soon as possible. Go ahead and join as many online communities related to your topic as you can! Do this months in advance of launching your campaign so you have time to build up relationships in the forums and become a known contributor.
There are also widely popular web platforms for crowdfunding projects. These interactive forums are great for discovering marketing initiatives, engaging with future fans, gaining tips, welcoming new team members, and more.
Use press
The use of media channels that your target audience use can be a perfect way to build awareness of your campaign and create trust with supporters. Creating a press release for your crowdfunding project and syndicating it across major news platform’s will be a critical part of the campaign's start, as it helps to spread the story about your cause and why you are seeking funding. Release additional press releases as and when you have more news to promote e.g. hitting your funding goal or various milestones.
Host live events
Do you know that a live event can be a perfect way to build interest in your project, as you can meet potential supporters face to face? Live events allow you to link to potential and current supporters quickly and directly. You can tell your story in your own words and connect on a personal level. Explaining what your idea entails and inspire them with personal experiences. You can answer questions and provide feedback and get a feel for the appreciation people have for your campaign.
A live event could be hosted locally to where you are based or online for example with a Facebook Live stream.
Video marketing for your campaign
Along with your main campaign video, additional videos are a great way to promote your campaign across social channels and build trust. Think about what additional content people will want to see in order to help them make a decision to back your campaign. For example testimonial videos, behind the scenes videos, product demo videos, meet the team videos are just some of the quick and easy ways to add validity to your project.
For help and advice with campaign marketing and Crowdfunding Videos London reach out to us here at Wow Your Crowd, we’d love to help you launch your big idea.
