5 Actions to PRE-Prepare for your Crowdfunding Campaign

I have coached quite a few people through the crowdfunding process and I often get invited to the party AFTER it’s almost too late. It makes it harder to gain momentum when you have not pre-prepared.  Here is what to know first

• You need to have an existing fan base – crowdfunding is not a discovery tool.

• You need to understand your target audience and create not only compelling rewards, but also a compelling story/ journey to bring them on.

I have found the most unexplained aspects are a step further back from these two bullet points.

1. Choose the right platform

There are several platforms available for crowdfunding. While many of them seem to offer similar experiences, choosing the right one takes some consideration. There are hundreds but here are the 4 you should look at:

This list of four is a place to start. However, there are many more to consider, so feel free to do your homework.

Kickstarter

Hands-down the largest platform in the crowdfunding space, Kickstarter is open to art, design, fashion, has become known for quite a few record-breaking campaigns, including tech startup Pebble Watch, pre- selling 275,000 units, Amanda Palmer’s $1,000,000+ album-focused campaign.

Kickstarter takes 5% of successful campaign funding. If a campaign is not successful, all money is returned.

Indiegogo

Indiegogo allows you to keep a partial raise, regardless of whether you hit the goal or not. Of course, similar to RocketHub, the standard 4% commission charge is raised to 9% if you don’t hit your goal. Another benefit is you candesignate your campaign as a 501(c)(3). When you create your campaign, you will be asked “Which person or organization will receive funds from your campaign? All funds will be sent to your organization through FirstGiving” (from the Indiegogo website).

RocketHub

crowdfunding platform focusing most of its efforts on campaigns that surround educational technology and educational programs. If you raise 100% of your funds, you are charged 4%. If not, you are charged 8%.

PledgeMusic

Separating itself from the rest of the crop, PledgeMusic focuses on the experiential component of crowdfunding campaigns by offering unique, direct-to-fan experiences that could not be obtained elsewhere.

PledgeMusic has a strict application process, yet, also the industry’s highest success rate (although they take a 15% commission from all completed projects).

Acquaint yourself with all of the platforms and do some research. Ask people around you if they have had experiences, good or bad, and then make your informed decision.

2. Deciding the timing of your campaign

It is a natural thought to start your campaign with all of your cards out on the table, but I have learned that it is actually far more effective to continuously update your campaign with more and more as time goes on to keep interest high and persuade those still on the fence about which tier to go with for those on the fence about contributing to your campaign at all.  So save some blog posts and update fodder for later in your 30 day sprint.

 As with any launch, there is a long tail effect where the launch starts with a bang but then trails off, slowly fizzling out as time goes on. It is important to plan out the campaign so as to counteract this effect, keeping interest high throughout.

3. Partnering with friends and colleagues for mutual benefit

Crowdfunding campaigns can very quickly become about me, me, me. This is especially true when creating the rewards. And rightfully so in many cases… after all, this whole experience is about taking your followers and customers on your journey.

But why not get others involved?

When I ran my crowdfunding campaign, I reached out to several friends and allies in my industry to take part as well by offering up products and services for my reward tiers. I helped them to connect with their target audiences, and in return they helped to drive attention towards my campaign. Win-Win.

4. Creating ALL of the content needed for the campaign

There are two obvious pieces of content that you need for a crowd funding campaign:

Campaign video
7 to 9 levels of rewards

But something that you may completely overlook is the truly overwhelming amount of OTHER content that you will also need in order to launch your campaign, including:

Reward Graphics
Possible new pages on your website
Blog posts
Newsletters
Expanded campaign videos
Video testimonials
Custom skins for your social media profiles

5. Overcoming Your Fear…

One of the biggest complaints about crowdfunding is the fear of failing, but you may encounter something else – it’s a different kind of fear. The fear of sharing your big dream. Your campaign probably isn’t just ‘help me build a new product’, create a new album, etc… this is ‘I’ve got a dream and it’s in your hands to help me achieve it’.

I found it incredibly difficult to find the best way of saying just how important this was for me and my clients feel the same, without it coming off as cheesy or cliche. My advice for this is – do it anyway – speak from your heart and be clear about what you want and how it benefits anyone who contributes and you will be sure to have a successful crowdfunding campaign.

How To Get PR for Your Crowdfunding Campaign

This guide will walk you through what you need to prepare for in generating online PR for your crowdfunding campaign, and show how you can quickly garner targeted new media PR which will give you more assets and fodder to share with your tribe throughout your crowdfunding campaign.

“Traditional” PR outlets are newspapers, magazines, and television. I caution you when approaching these for your crowdfunding campaign. 

Online PR is another story and if you are like the vast majority of crowdfunders and you are raising money for a project that is relevant to a smaller niche-focused group (your personal fan base), the most effective PR you can garner is online PR.

This means approaching blogs, podcasts, and online tastemakers that are targeted to the niches that will care most about your project. This type of PR is worth your effort if you are launching a larger campaign (10K and above).

When To Try For “Old-Fashioned” PR

Traditional journalists are looking for newsworthy items with wide appeal. This means news that is topical and relevant to a large audience and include an intriguing angle.

There are only three times that a crowdfunding campaign would be considered newsworthy to traditional media: 

1. A campaign has had explosive numbers in a short amount of time (i.e., Amanda Palmer raising a quarter of a million dollars for her album in the first 24 hours).
2. A campaign that has a very interesting or unique story, such as Igor Vovkovinskiy, Kite the innovative and non-toxic patch that keeps mosquitoes away, and POOL+ an innovative urban swimming pool.
3. A campaign that far exceeds its goal and makes history. Note: traditional media might not see this as a newsworthy piece until after the campaign is completed, and the PR will actually hurt your chances of raising more money beyond the goal. According to Wikipedia, out of the top 50 highest netting crowdfunding projects, only one was music-related (Amanda Palmer).  Not surprisingly, 19 of them are video game-related as gamers are fanatical, interconnected, and communicate in tight-knit communities online because they operate in multi-player environments.

Obviously none of these three cases is a common scenario.

Don’t let that discourage you from getting your own PR.

How To Be Your Own Crowdfunding Publicist 

The first step in your journey is to create your crowdfunding press kit, which consists of these three elements that should be readily available for you to send easily and share:

1. Your blogger outreach letter
2. Your video – all ready for a sneak preview
3. Your bio

1. Your Blogger / New Media Outreach Email

This is a specific email that you draft for bloggers, podcasters and new media. Each one will probably have to be somewhat customized depending on how well you know them and what you are asking. This email will be asking bloggers specifically for an interview featuring you, a guest post written by you, or a Q&A with you that includes content relevant to your crowdfunding campaign. A full outline of how to write this is included in my Roadmap at the end of this book.

2. Your Video

Video is a powerful way to connect to new media makers and many will be more likely to respond if you share a sneak peek of your crowdfunding video with them.

3. Your Bio 

Write a one-page bio that is succinct and captivating. I strongly advise avoiding vague clichés. Try making your description stand out. This bio will be about you, or if it is not about you personally, it should reflect the organization launching the project. You may need this if bloggers are going to be interviewing you so that they have something they can easily insert into the article along with your photo and video.

I highly recommend creating four separate bios with the following lengths:

1. One page
2. 100- 150 word
3. 50 words
4. Tweet (less than 140 characters)

Try to create a bio with the assumption that the vast majority of people need a hook within the first five sentences. Shorter is sweeter.

Now that your three assets are in place, its time to move ahead with new media maker, (blogger and podcaster), outreach.

Five Steps To Blog and Podcast Press

If you already have a tribe of people and a fan base that you are aiming your crowdfunding to, it will be easy to identify these bloggers and podcasters. In fact, if you are active on social media, you might already know exactly who to contact. If not, follow these steps:

Step 1: Identify Relevant Niches

In my case, I went after fellow bloggers and companies who support the independent music community because that is who my project was aimed to help.

Come up with at least five online niches to increase your chances of success. Niche examples include music, technology, fashion, travel, health & wellness, book reviews, cooking, and parenting. You can drill down even further here and identify niches that focus your outreach even more, like I did with independent musicians, DIY blogs and artist success blogs. Some cases of more specific niches might be mobile technology, affordable fashion, and singles travel.

Step 2: Find Your Bloggers

A Google Search will turn up blogs and other influencers in your identified niches.

Once you review each blog, you will become more acquainted with who contributes to it, comments on it, and reads it.  To get an even deeper sense of the blogs target audience, look at their Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, G+ and Twitter communities. This will help you decide if the blog is right for you.

Step 3: Check Alexa -Rankings

Check to see that the blog has a high Alexa Ranking, which means it is relevant and indexed by Google, with significant traffic.

To do this, go to Alexa at http://www.alexa.com and type / copy the URL of the blog or site. If the result number is less than a million (1,000,000) and information about the site or blog pops up, then it is a well trafficked site / blog and you should add it to your target list.

The site may not have a high Alexa ranking but it could very well have some strong social media numbers (look at their Social links – Twitter, Facebook, G+, and Pinterest are key).  If they don’t have either these two assets – traffic or social numbers, move on and find the blogs that do. The possibilities of more people seeing your posts needs to be strong in order to make this PR effort worthwhile.

Step 4: Figure Out Their WIIFM? 

Creating great content that is not only about your campaign, but is also beneficial to the blog’s community is key. This is where the blogger outreach email comes into play. Understanding what will motivate the bloggers readership by directly answering his WIIFM will yield results. 

For my campaign, I approached each blogger personally via email explaining that I was launching a crowdfunding campaign and I would appreciate it if they could share what I had to say with their own followers and readers. I offered exclusive articles that I knew would appeal to each of their individual readerships.

I took these opportunities to share some of my knowledge with each blogger. Then I mentioned the crowdfunding campaign at the end, as part of the conversation so it didn’t look like a giant advertisement for my crowdfunding campaign.  Rather, it turned into a multipurpose feature with a mention.

Many bloggers were happy to oblige

Here are some examples of blogs that featured my campaign:

       http://bit.ly/PlayItLoudAriel

       http://bit.ly/FuelYourFansWithAriel

       http://bit.ly/ArielandBobBaker

       http://bit.ly/CourageInCrowdfunding

Step 5: Thank the Blogger

Thank the blogger and share the resulting articles with your community on your social channels, and in your crowdfunding updates. Remember: people believe what other people say more than they believe what you say, so sharing the online press support you received is a fantastic way of allowing your community to see that you are getting support. This is how you leverage the digital PR you have received so it adds high value to your campaign.

What To Do If You Can’t Get Any Bloggers to Respond

Bloggers can be hard to get responses from.  If email does not work, try messaging them on Facebook and Twitter.  If you still get no response, assume that they were not interested or they may have a lot of requests coming their way.

Submit Your Story Blogs

Many blogs have open call-outs to writers who want to submit their own posts.  These are known as “submit your story” blogs.

To find “submit your story” blogs that are relevant to your niche, here is what you do:

Go to Google and search “Submit Your Story” + Blog

Again, search for your appropriate niche i.e. “Travel”, “Positivity”, “Gluten Free” (choose a niche that relates to your campaign), and “submit your story”list of blogs that take submissions will pop up.

Take Note!  Make sure that the “submit your story” page on each blogs is active and updated regularly. Look to see that the blog is regularly updated with guest posts, or your post may not go live in time.

7 Mistakes That Will Damage Your Crowdfunding Campaign And How to Fix Them

Mistake #1 – Launching your campaign during the holiday season

I made this mistake during my own crowdfunding campaign and so have a few of my clients. Many friends said that they would have loved to contribute more, but they just didn’t have the extra money.

2nd worst time: If you have a lot of parents in the community you are looking to raise from, I would also avoid August and September – this is a time when people spend money for vacations and back to school and they might not have a lot of extra money in their coffers to pledge.

How to avoid this: Um, pretty obvious – Steer clear from the Christmas /Hanukkah /New Year’s timeframe and the August / back to school time period.

How to fix this:  If you already made this mistake one-way to spin it is: give a pledge as a holiday gift!  (If applicable)

Mistake #2: Leaning too heavily on your social media strategy

Social media is important and you should make sure you have active social channels well in advance of launch, and you should also create a unique hashtag for your campaign. But keep this in mind: Your email strategy will bring in far more money than your social posts will, so make sure you don’t lean too heavily on your socials.

How to avoid this: This will require getting over any fear that you are doing something embarrassing – this is your dream right?  You deserve the money (tell yourself this a few times a day every day throughout your campaign).

2 ways fix this:

#1 Write 50 – 100 personal letters to the top people you think may be your contributors (there’s a reason every charity you support still sends you letters!) you don’t need to mail them but personalized emails won’t hurt.  

#2 Make the telephone your new bestie (like we used to do in the early 90s!) Pick it up and call your friends and family who are good for a pledge and who may not check socials as much as you do!

Mistake #3: Leaving town or being too busy with other projects during your crowdfunding campaign

We all live in a time of “too busy”. You have to make your campaign a major priority so do what you need to get the win!

How to avoid this: Make sure that you can spend the entire 30-days focused on getting to your goal, and planning your pre campaign buildup carefully as well.

How to fix this: Plan ahead. There will be a deep sense of urgency to launch once you decide on a crowdfunding campaign. Resist the urgency to launch now and instead plan and see what you can get off of your plate during your 30 days. In other words delegate anything and everything that you can.

Mistake #4: Thinking that hope & luck will get you through

If you have friends or colleagues who have completed successful campaigns and you are thinking “they are so lucky!” They probably aren’t really that lucky at all.

Luck = careful planning.

How to avoid this: Here’s a little formula that I keep on a post-it note above my desk:

Hope is for suckers, action is for winners!

How to fix this: Create a detailed plan that involves personalized high touch to people that have money. Focus on your campaign every day and follow through – it will make you “lucky” in the end.

Mistake #5: Letting the silence get you down

At the very beginning of your campaign you want to come out of the gates on fire.  Why? Because according to expert Lea Bailes “Campaigns that get to 30% of their goal within the first week are more likely to succeed.”

However, during the middle of your campaign it may begin to really feel like no one is out there. But stay the course! According to an Indiegogo report that studied 100,000 campaigns, 42% of funds are raised in the first and last 3 days of the campaign’s duration.

How to fix this: I know it may feel highly uncomfortable to ask multiple times, but doing so in the middle of your campaign WILL make all the difference. Put your emotions aside, pick up the phone, and ask!

Mistake #6: Giving up as you approach the finish line

I know it’s uncomfortable as all get out but don’t give up.  

How to Avoid This: The last 72 hours are critical. 

I had a freak-out when I was four days and $20,000 short from my own campaign’s goal. Then, in the last 48 hours, $23,000 came in. If you continue to regularly communicate with your crowd, you will get a windfall of money in the last 24 hours of your campaign (again, see the above stat from Indiegogo).

How to fix this:

Send 5 (yep 5!) emails – it is crucial to keep your energy and communications up and firing until the final hour. Send email #1 at 72 hours, email #2 at 48 hours, email #3 at 24 hours, email #4 at 5 hours and email #5 at 2 hours.  Yes people may unsubscribe – that’s okay, they weren’t going to contribute anyway.

Mistake #7: Stopping the financial flow at the final day of your campaign

Just when you thought you had shouted about your campaign from every rooftop, you will still receive phone calls and emails hours or even days after your campaign ends. Some people just won’t see the emails until the final hour has passed or they didn’t get it together in time.

How to avoid this: You won’t be able to – people are people!

How to fix this: Make it easy to receive money after your campaign is over. Sign up for a Square account (it’s free!) before your campaign starts so your delinquent, yet totally appreciated, late to the party contributors can still pitch in by reading you their credit card #s over the phone. PayPal is also good, if they have an account, but I suggest the Square method!

Now go forth and conquer!