Thursday 16 February 2017

How to Promote your Crowdfunding Campaign for Free

The crowdfunding success stories have convinced thousands of people to jump into online funding before they properly understand what it takes to raise money from the crowd. This results to the fact that two-third of the campaign fails to reach their goals. Launching a crowdfunding campaign is not an easy task, as there will be many difficulties & challenges while reaching your target. In order to make your crowdfunding campaign a success, you have to reach out maximum number of potential backers as possible.


There are many paid services to get exposure of your campaign. Some of which include boosting of your campaign, social media ads, Press Releases, reaching bloggers & journalists, and lots more. The paid channel helps a campaign reach to maximum peoples, but sometime it’s not enough to reach your target. The fact is, the paid channels charge hundreds of thousands of dollars which are quite difficult for some campaigners and also the services that the third party is providing doesn’t have the personal touch that you need to reach people.

Before you go for paid services, check out a list of some free ways to promote your crowdfunding campaign.

Social Media

Social media is one of the most powerful tools for a free crowdfunding promotion. So when you’re planning to run a crowdfunding campaign, then make sure to focus on social channels that will provide the most impact. There are numbers of social media channels, but some of the main channels that are quite helpful for a crowdfunding campaign were Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumble, and Google+. The Facebook has more than a billion active monthly users and which is a great place to promote your campaign.

Using social media doesn’t always mean posting and sharing about your campaign, but to find people that actually care about what you are doing. Search and join groups that are related to your campaign topic and increase followers that are interested in your product or idea. Your groups and followers will help you reach new audiences, create social proof and also make donations.

Press Release

A press release is another effective tool for a free crowdfunding campaign promotion. Writing a press release for your campaign that gets media attention will help your campaign to go viral and may also get funds to your campaign. There are many free press release sites where you can submit your press release for your campaign without any cost. Some of the free sites include CrowdfundingPR, PRLog, Free Press Release, 1888PressRelease, 24-7Press Release, etc.

While there are many services that write good press releases, but if you’re planning to write by yourself, then make sure your press release should not go wrong. A press release doesn’t mean the whole story of your campaign, but something that you need to announce and give enough information to make them interested in your campaign. If you are able to craft a compelling story, the press release will help you to reach more people and also get supporters to your campaign.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing can be an effective tool for getting contributors when used correctly. In crowdfunding, the best medium of communication is email marketing. And according to the survey, more than 30% of your campaign funds come from the people you already know. So it is important to have a strong email list before launching a crowdfunding campaign.   

The most important thing in email marketing is the template. Your email template or design should be unique and attractive so that people interest to visit your campaign. While sending mail, make sure to optimize your subject line, maintain the right balance between text and images, link to campaign and social accounts, and a request to share the same with their contacts.

Forums

The Forum is another great tool to promote your crowdfunding campaign in front of many supporters. As we all know forums are the best source for getting information for a specific topic. There are many forums related to crowdfunding whether it’s about the advantages of crowdfunding or about a specific campaign. You can either start a forum by asking a question or just post a comment on forums which are directly related to your campaign topic.  

The best part of the forum is, it is only discussed to a specific topic. There are many forum sites related to crowdfunding, some of which include CrowdfundingForums, KickstarterForum, Crowdfunding Subreddit, and many more. You can also post link to your crowdfunding campaign which will results in more visits to your campaign.

There are a lot of free ways to promote your crowdfunding campaign. You can also check http://www.crowdfundcenter.com/blog/ for more ideas on how you can make a campaign successful.

Friday 10 February 2017

The One Thing, No Crowdfunding Campaign can Succeed Without

Crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular over the last several years for both investors and entrepreneurs. The fact is, in just a few years, crowdfunding has already proven itself to be a successful alternative in acquiring or investing money. More than hundreds of campaigns were launched every day, whether its reward based or equity crowdfunding. The reward based (pre sale) campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo had pledged over $3.8 billion dollars and many millions more via equity crowdfunding. The crowdfunding projects ranges from everything from technology, music, art, design, clothing, and many more.

Marketing is the key to unlock the door of success of your crowdfunding campaign. There are several marketing channels that include press release, media outreach, email marketing, influencer marketing, and lots more. All these marketing techniques are quite effective in bringing a campaign successful, but the one that beats them all in terms of effectiveness and the one thing that no crowdfunding campaign can succeed without, is the social media.


Most of the crowdfunders use social media platforms to spread about their crowdfunding campaign. Social media is one of the easiest ways to promote and spread your crowdfunding campaign. Social media is crucial to the success of a crowdfunding campaign as it helps a campaign to go viral. One of the key strengths of crowdfunding campaign is its ability to leverage the power of social media to build widespread support for the project. While planning for running a crowdfunding campaign, make sure to focus on the social channels that will provide the most impact. There are so many social channels, but some of the main channels were Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.

To be successful in crowdfunding campaign, the effective use of social media is critical. But the successful crowdfunding campaign through social channels requires planning, determination and dedication. The using of social media for crowdfunding starts months before the campaign goes live and building more followers before launching is quite more important. Social profiles should be up to date and among the various channels, two major channels are Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook and Twitter are the main channels for getting more exposure of your campaign. And in order to get more exposure, posts need to be frequent. While making posts, make sure to include links, photos, videos, and updates to your campaign. Posting on social media doesn’t mean each time you post; you’re asking people to pledge your campaign. Only one of your four posts, you should directly ask for a pledge or help and the remaining post should look at more meaningful things like campaign update, people reviews, etc. If you continually ask people for help, then they will get bored and finally they will leave your page. You can also run Facebook or Twitter ads for more exposure if you are not satisfied with the organic visits.

Interaction is the key to successful social media engagement. It is important to keep a good interaction with your followers, not by just telling or updating what’s going on, but also to talk directly and to respond them as quickly as possible. Even if your campaign ends, if your campaign was a success, then stay in touch by highlighting the progress of production. And if your campaign fails, then thank your followers for their support and also keep updated as it will help you if you are planning to run a campaign in the future. 

For more tips on crowdfunding campaign, check http://www.crowdfundcenter.com/blog/


Tuesday 7 February 2017

How to Promote your Crowdfunding Campaign

You may have a great crowdfunding idea or story, but if people are not aware of it, then your campaign may fail to reach the goal. So knowing how to promote your crowdfunding campaign is the main task for running a crowdfunding campaign. Many startups run crowdfunding campaign, but the majority of the campaign becomes unsuccessful. As crowdfunding may seem simple, but the fact is more than 60% of the campaign fails to reach their goals.


Marketing is the key to unlock the door to fund your campaign. So if you’re planning to run a crowdfunding campaign, then make sure to spend plenty of time planning how you’ll market your campaign. In order to run a successful campaign, start planning at least 2 months before the campaign goes live and you must know how to market it. Here are some easy to follow tips that can help your campaign a success.

·         Website

Having a website is important before launching a crowdfunding campaign. The website will be the first impression, and it should be an invitation to your crowdfunding campaign. Having a website validates that you are a legitimate company and that will help you gain more supporters to your campaign. The website should have the basics of who you are and what you do. The website will also notify regarding your upcoming crowdfunding campaign and you may also get early supporters from the website. Also include your social media links to your website as social media is one of the powerful components for a crowdfunding campaign.

·         Social Media

Social Media is one of the easiest and free ways to promote your crowdfunding campaign. Social media will help you to reach more people and spread the word about your campaign. At first, increasing social media followers can be difficult, but if you follow relevant pages and people, as well as interact with the community, your page will be visible in no time. The more people who you can reach, the better chance of success you have.

Share about your campaign every day through image, text or link. People have liked or follow your page as they are interested in what you are doing. And in order to attract more people to your campaign, you must be a part of social communities. Posting on social media doesn’t mean each time you post; you’re asking people to pledge your campaign. Only one of your four posts, you should directly ask for help or pledge and the remaining post should look at more meaningful things. If you continually ask people for help, then they will get bored and finally they will leave your page.

·         Email

In crowdfunding campaigns, social media tends to get all the attention as it helps in getting more exposure to your campaign. However, email marketing can be an even more effective tool for getting contributors when used correctly. More than 30% of your initial donations will come from people you know. That is why it is important to have a strong network before launching a crowdfunding campaign. You must try to have at least 2000 contacts before you go launch and also ask your friends to share the same with their contacts. While sending mail, also include a link to share your campaign. If anyone can’t donate or pledge your campaign, then they can also help by just sharing the campaign.

·         Public Relation & Outreach

The widespread use of social media and email marketing doesn’t mean that public relations and outreach has gone out of style. Before launching a crowdfunding campaign, build a list of bloggers who are dominant with your target audience. The crowdfunding success highly depends on your ability to reach people. Crowdfunding outreach starts with a simple pitch introducing about your campaign and asking help to share or advice of your campaign.
Public Relation (PR) is all about getting media and press coverage for your crowdfunding campaign. If your campaign is picked by the press, then you can get your campaign in various media outlets such as magazines, blogs, newspapers, etc. It is not easy, but if you do it right then your crowdfunding campaign will be in front of thousands, or even millions of people at no cost.

·         Advertising

Small and targeted paid advertising campaigns can be a great way to get more exposure of your campaign into networks that are outside of your reach. Some of the main paid advertising includes Google Ads, Facebook or Twitter ads, etc. The Paid marketing opens the door to reach thousands or millions of people across the internet. However, Google Ads can be very expensive. Facebook ads are a great option if your campaign is targeting consumers, and the social channels allow you to target your best prospects using keywords, geography, gender and other socio-graphics.

To know more about crowdfunding campaigns, visit http://bit.ly/2jWwkoH 

Thursday 2 February 2017

Mistakes that Kill Crowdfunding Campaigns

Over the last several years crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular for raising funds for any project. Many start-ups try to raise money by running a crowdfunding campaign, but unfortunately the majority of crowdfunding campaign fails to reach their goal.  Crowdfunding may seem simple, but considering the fact that more than 60% of campaign fail. In Crowdfunding, around 30% of the campaign hit their funding goal and successful campaigns on Kickstarter have collectively raised more than $1 billion. But on the other side around 70% of the campaign fails to hit their funding goal.


For every successful crowdfunding campaign we hear about, there are many more that have completely failed to meet their goal. There are many challenges while running the crowdfunding campaign. There are many things that kill a crowdfunding campaign, even before getting started. Here are a few mistakes that kill a crowdfunding campaign to get successful.

Ignoring Social Media

One of the key strengths of crowdfunding campaign is its ability to leverage the power of social media to build widespread support for the project. Social media is crucial to the success of a crowdfunding campaign as it helps a campaign to go viral. While planning for running a crowdfunding campaign, make sure to focus on the social channels that will provide the most impact. There are so many social channels, but some of the main channels were Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Youtube, Google+ and LinkedIn. Make regular posts for your crowdfunding campaign, increase as much as followers or likes, try to get maximum reach.

Setting your goal too high

Many crowdfunding campaigns fail because of setting too high funding goal. But it is not the time to go too far about how high you’re going to set your goal. So to avoid the failure, set your crowdfunding campaign to minimum goal you need to raise so the fulfillment of your product is possible. The more reasonable the goal, the likelier fans are to believe it’s attainable and contribute. If people like your campaign and you have successfully reached your initial goal, then you can extend your goal to maximum such as stretch goals or in-demand campaigns.

Set a reasonable price for the product and also set different perks or pledges that will make backers choose their reasonable perks or pledge. Also search for similar projects and compare with them that what goal they have set and what different perks or pledge they have set that make their campaign success.

You Fail to Ignite, Engage, or Connect


There are many crowdfunding campaigns that fail to raise funds, and some of the main reasons behind were lack of awareness, insufficient or ineffectual public relations, marketing, or social media tactics. We’re taught not to ask for things, but while running a crowdfunding campaign try to get it out as many people as possible. If you don’t have a crowd, then how a crowdfunding campaign will be successful. So do as much as exposure for your campaign to reach people around the world that will help your campaign and make it reach the target goal. To get more exposure, don’t just look to social media, but also consider blogging, press release, email blast, team up with other creators, eye catching videos, and much more.

Whether you’re raising money for an innovative product, social cause, creative film idea, or any other reason, working with a team will multiply your network and help make your campaign successful.

Perks

Rewards or perks set by the fundraisers for the crowdfunding campaign make a difference in the success of the campaign. Perks or rewards help to set your campaign apart from the competitors and also raise the chances of success. There are many reasons for people to support a crowdfunding campaign, so a good reward often brings more backers to some campaigns. Perks or rewards are directly connected to your crowdfunding campaign, which let people participate in your campaign and support it. Having an early bird perks is a great way to build momentum. Early bird is a special perks for early supporters with limited number and high discount as compare to other perks. Whatever the rewards or perks are, they should resonate with your campaign.

Having no strategy in place 

Running a crowdfunding campaign needs full time engagement. Most successful campaigners spend months planning their campaigns before the campaign goes Live. Most of the experts recommend at least 2 months before the campaign launch. You need to set or planned everything before the campaign goes live such as marketing strategies, emails list, social channels, decide how and when you’re going to give your backers updates, what if the campaign fails or reached its target. Whether you’re raising money for an innovative product, social cause, creative film idea, or any other reason, you must have a strategy that you need to take to launch and manage a successful crowdfunding campaign.

To know more about crowdfunding, check http://bit.ly/2jWwkoH

Wednesday 1 February 2017

Few Things To Do Before Launching a Crowdfunding Campaign

If you have a great business idea or deal and you finally decided to make it a reality. However, the main obstacle you need to overcome is to find funds that you need to get your idea into reality. Many startups and businesses have raised their funds through Crowdfunding to start their business. The crowdfunding help individuals make their ideas a reality with the help of thousands or millions of potential funders around the world. But, the success in crowdfunding campaign isn’t guaranteed, no matter how good your business idea.

Launching a crowdfunding campaign is not an easy task, as you will face many struggles to push towards your funding goal. There will be many challenges while running the crowdfunding campaign. If you are planning to raise money for your business through a crowdfunding campaign, there are some key steps you need to take before you launch the campaign.
1) Landing Page or Website
It is important to consider a landing page or website design before launching a crowdfunding campaign. But having a company’s website is just a recommendation, not crucial. Having a website validates that you are a legitimate company and that will help you gain more supporters to your crowdfunding campaign. A landing page gives more information about you and your company. The website will notify about your upcoming campaign and you may also get early supporters from the website. And you may also able to explore about your product before the campaign launch, which may help attract more people when the campaign is launched.
2) Planning is critical
Planning is important before proceeding for any work or activity. Before launching a crowdfunding campaign, you need to research and have a look at similar campaigns on different platforms. It will help you to get a feel for how to position your own campaign. Your goal should be the lowest amount you need to bring your project to fruition.
3) Teamwork goes a long way
It’s tough to manage a crowdfunding campaign by yourself. According to research, crowdfunding campaigns run by a team raise over 3 times as much as campaigns run by an individual. No matter what idea you want to fund, big or small, working with a team gives you the opportunity to multiply your network, divide and conquer tasks, focus on your areas of expertise and make your campaign the strongest it can be. No matter how good your idea and planning is, working with a team will give you the opportunity to multiply your reach, divide and conquer tasks, help you reach the target audience and make your campaign the strongest it can be.Getting more exposure and community involvement is one of the main task to make the campaign successful.
4) Social Media Accounts
Social media is an important task for running a crowdfunding campaign. It helps to reach more people and spread the word about your campaign and also reach out to potential backers. The platform that you choose to create accounts for your crowdfunding campaign will depend on the target market of your product or service, as well as the relevancy of the platform.
Increasing social media followers can be difficult at first, but if you follow relevant pages and people, as well as interact with the community on trending topics, your page will be visible in no time. The more people who you can reach, the better chance of success you have.
5) Video & Graphics (Campaign Presentation)
Once your planning is done, your team is set, your database is built, your social media is created, and it’s time to turn your attention towards campaign presentation. The campaign presentation will make or break the success of your campaign.
Crowdfunding campaign is all about your story and graphics presentations. In traditional websites, people more focus on products, but in crowdfunding campaign, people want to know how you turned your idea into reality and why you need their support. Make sure your story is clear, direct and compelling. Most of the successful campaign uses pitch videos, infographics, and high quality graphics to make the campaign more attractive.
6) Perks
According to research and analysis, perks helps increase the chances of campaign success. So spend time in creating a variety of perks to suit every budget and potential backers and that offers real value of your product. While creating perks, don’t forget to introduce early bird offer which is a great way to build momentum. There are many reasons for people to support a crowdfunding campaign, but a good reward often perk up the traffic of backers. 
To know more about crowdfunding, check http://bit.ly/2jWwkoH .