Personalizing communications to donors and supporters is key to distinguishing your crowdfunding campaign from others. Your email, Facebook and Twitter posts should provide direct information about what the crowdfunding campaign entails.
Offer special perks and regular updates to your backers to build community engagement long after your fundraising period has concluded. Doing this may also keep donors involved with your project well beyond its initial crowdfunding stage.
1. Build a Strong Backer Base
Crowdfunding campaigns provide businesses with the support needed for success beyond just friends and family. By increasing reach by encouraging more people to contribute, crowdfunding helps businesses expand funding potential while expanding customer bases.
Satisfied backers are also likely to spread the word about your project, and one way you can ensure this is by regularly posting updates on your campaign page – such as videos, behind-the-scenes photos or any other creative material.
Offering exclusive merchandise can be an effective way to expand your backer base and foster community spirit. A film project may thank these backers in its credits; for a cafe opening up shop this could mean listing them on an internal wall of gratitude.
2. Offer Tiered Rewards
Offering tiered rewards to different levels of donors is an effective way to encourage contributions to your crowdfunding campaign, and also helps break it into achievable steps – research shows that people are more likely to achieve small goals rather than big ones!
Before embarking on your campaign, it is essential to conduct thorough research into similar creative projects to your own and understand what average donors are giving and the rewards being offered by these projects. Furthermore, understanding all costs involved with realizing them such as material costs, shipping charges, taxes and platform fees will enable you to determine an achievable fundraising goal for your campaign.
3. Offer Exclusive Rewards
Offering exclusive rewards can set your campaign apart and attract backers, making the campaign stand out. Reward options can range from social media shout-outs and early access to products to one-of-a-kind experiences like meeting with the founder or photoshoots.
As part of your rewards creation process, consider your audience carefully. For example, if your target market is eco-conscious, offer rewards such as reusable bags or recycled packaging as incentives.
Successful crowdfunding campaigns demonstrate strong public support for your new idea or product, and can also serve as an invaluable way of validating demand before seeking traditional financing sources. But keep in mind that crowdfunding should only be seen as a temporary solution; your ultimate aim should be building an enduring business model.
4. Keep Your Backers Up-to-Date
Communicating with your backers is a key aspect of crowdfunding. People who donate want to know exactly what their money is supporting and where their contributions are going.
Keep your backers up-to-date by posting regular updates on your campaign page or social media platforms – this can create more buzz and encourage more backers to contribute.
Email updates are another great way of reaching out to backers, though beware not to oversaturate their spam folders with too many emails from you! At least send updates out every month; more frequently would be welcome.
5. Communicate with Your Backers
As backers become invested in your project, it’s vitally important that they remain engaged. One effective method for this is responsiveness – backers who feel heard are more likely to back future campaigns or become repeat customers.
Social media and email are great ways to keep backers updated and engaged, from behind-the-scenes posts to addressing backer questions and concerns. But beware: any disagreements online could divide and poison the community altogether.
Use images, videos and text updates to inform your backers of progress and milestones as the campaign unfolds. Include a call-to-action in each update or video: what are they expected to do after reading/watching an update/video? Leave comments/add add-ons/up their pledge level?