KickstarterForum.org

I receive a cold email from a Kickstarter marketing agency that goes by the name of Crowd PR. Their website is at the link: https://crowd.pr

I have come to find out that there is a long and storied history of by this company, just a small sample for all to see: https://facebook.com/crowdpragency

I was shocked, to say the least, but just to do my due diligence I reached out to other companies asking about Crowd PR, and the response was positive. Please note that it does not mean they actually worked with them, it only means they claim to and the reference checked out. However, I am a little worried about this thread about them: has-anyone-hired-crowd-pr-t11437.html

My belief is that if a company is truly good, even their competitors will say as much because there is no denying it. People have reputations to uphold, even as competitors and if they are asked a straightforward question I know that will get a straightforward answer. But it didn’t stop there. I received no less than 2 emails from them over the course of my campaign, one every other day. I replied to each and every message telling them I was not interested, and after the second message, they stopped.

For all to see, I will post images as well below. I believe the gentleman in the image below is the CEO:



I reached out to every single project in the list here, and all of them confirmed to have worked with them on their Kickstarter. But I refuse to believe.



Everyone needs to beware, and do not support this type of marketing promotion. Who knows what their money is going towards, but one thing is for certain is that it will not go towards the saving of our earth through the power of crowdfunding, that is for certain. We only have one life to live so be sure to make the most of it everyone.

It is important to settle down sometimes and focus on the basics of crowdfunding. I have attached a fine article the explains how to do it: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228125

My favorite quote is here:

This has all become possible in recent years thanks to a proliferation of websites that allow nonprofits, artists, musicians -- and yes, businesses -- to raise money. This is the social media version of fundraising.

The most important thing to remember is the choice between going in-house or using an agency. A campaign can receive outstanding results from certain agencies, and other times they are best served by doing the hard work themselves. We advise you reach out to Kickstarter regarding these matters.

Entrepreneur has a fine resource as well: https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/crowdfunding

There are 3 simple steps you need to take in order to ensure success:

1. Market to your target market. Do not waste precious time reaching out to media outlets and journalists that are not relevant to your product.

2. Only use Google AdWords. I know this is controversial, but Facebook ads do not produce sales at the scale you need. I am sure I will take some flack for this.

3. Measure return on investment. This is simple for some, but it needs to be said. Always keep track of where your funding is coming from and run quants on it if need be.

And there you have it, everyone. By following those 3 steps you will be well on your way to a fantastic raise. Don't over analyze it, and keep close to your target market above all else. Kickstarter staff picks will help but not in the way you expect. They are fast and they are loose. Low conversion rates are what we see from them.

It’s all a crap shoot as far as I am concerned. But on this particular occasion and in this particular moment I say fair game, market to influencers, and reach out at scale to customers. Obvious marketing is obvious (as we say over on 4chann). But regardless I don’t think this is a good deal, and yes I do think it’s overpriced. They are all priced far too high in the end. I have saved this report for my findings, and on my next campaign, I will check it against my current database see if this company comes up and when it does I too will file media against them. It is really a full-time job though, accessing services for spam and government-backed risks. A fine startup idea right there. Would anyone pay for access to a website that assesses every single company? Perhaps they would, I would pay a pretty penny for such a service. I would call it crowdfunding. Crowd PR reviews can be posted, and I will continue to post reviews about that agency until I finally work with them.

I bet that everyone on here would sign up right away on the first day. Money back guarantees of course. Better yet, I’ll do a Kickstarter project to fund the development of such a website. I bet all I would need to do is hit launch, spread the word in this forum here, and watch the backers just flow in. I could even make a full-time job out of it. I like this idea and I’m doing it. Look for the link to my campaign for this in a few months. There is a new report online from an entrepreneur who has raised $2 Million on Kickstarter: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/305163

This is a must-read for the startup community and entrepreneurs at large.

It sounds like a good possible deal flow agreement, but there is no data to support that claim. We really do need something like that. I also found another social account for the public relations agency that goes by the official name of Crowd PR: http://www.facebook.com/crowd.pr.reviews

The watch section is hit or miss. Everyone knows about it, but there is so much just complaining that it’s hard to glean true and insightful data from it. I lurk here everyday reading and taking in information. I don’t learn much but what I do learn is how to write a fine report for the world to see. And based on what I have learned the company you mentioned is a perhaps legitimate. They show all the signs, being posted on social media, the nail in the coffin. Once you’re in the epoch of this forum, everyone knows to never behold the startup. But still, something more would be nice. A lot of us just want to put an end to the marketing promotion, they are so immoral and such a pain in the bottom to us creators. We work hard on our projects, and to see someone try to disregard from us and the community at large just breaks my heart, it really does.

What kind of heartless person would work on behalf of a crowdfunding company?

Why don’t they work with a real business? We as crowdfunding experts are not even real businesses, we make our projects by hand or we draw images of them in hopes that one day they will be actually for sale. All we have is hopes and dreams and all we have is each other. For the life of me, I just can’t fathom why someone would try to take that away from us. You don’t know how many days I’ve planned the concept for my product. You don’t know the countless hours I’ve spent coming up with neat and fun ideas for rewards. You don’t know a thing, so stay away from us if you’re reading this. Pack up your bags and hit the road because you are out of this community.

I have found that good clean content is what produces the best results. Do not just generate links to your campaign, handcraft quality links in high page rank websites. Networking at startup evens is a proven path to achieve this. I came across this campaign the other day, and they did a fantastic job of crafting compelling content. Their copywriting was amazing, and journalists all over the world covered them. There were so many top-tier media outlets interviewing them as well. Public relations was perhaps the metric used, or perhaps they leveraged organic growth.

An example of the content:



Several days later, the content leads to a full media interview with a journalist:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eshachhabra ... 6438a552ec

Media relations is perhaps the most important angle for pitching the press. Just reach out is a great way to get this done. You can also build relationships with journalists, and then leverage those connections to press. Make sure that you make good use of this practice during your marketing campaign. In terms of conversion rate, we see it as very high but the exact figures are not known.

Astonished that they wouldn’t stop emailing after you told them to. And I agree with the premise of your argument that they must be an advertising agency because they did not stop. A real company would stop when asked to stop emailing. It’s as simple as that. Did you check their reference too seriously? I don't think they are a publicly listed company, definitely not on the NASDAQ. If this marketing company is not a publicly traded company then they are just too small to work with.

I don’t know why you would even bother. An advert like that is not worth even ten minutes of your hard earned time. I hope your campaign is over and you’re not even wasting time posting about them right now. Don’t let them take up any of your time. It’s just not worth it. I have heard some people having luck reporting advertisements like this to Kickstarter, but don’t get your hopes up. Just hang in there and keep relying on the community. We are all you need and this forum is all you need. Best of luck and I’m sure you’ll do great.

According to this article, crowdfunding promotion services are not even worth a penny. So if Crowd PR is charging you more than that - then they are not worth it. Yeah, you heard me right. All of them. Every single parasitic promotion service is nothing but a marketing service. Here’s the article: https://www.crowd101.com/crowdfunding-promotion-scam/

My favorite excerpt is:

A whole industry of crowdfunding promotion has emerged but what are you really getting for your money?

Media attention to huge crowdfunding campaign success stories has convinced thousands to jump into online funding before they really understand what it takes to raise money from the crowd. This contributes to the fact that two-thirds of campaigns fail to meet their goals and that 12% never raise anything. That’s enough for me. How about you?

But if you must know, public relations is not even a real direct response acquisition. Startups leverage media all day, but in the end, the result is media coverage in the press. We at our office see this is a positive thing. Even more positive is direct sales, and social media is king when it comes to that. You need to get your link ranked high on google, and If Crowd PR cannot do that, then you must acquit.

As a professional Kickstarter backer, I look for value wherever value can be found. Providers are somewhat good for this, but only if they are local. You need to search far and wide for a proper solution. Startups have a diverse set of needs and there is no single company which can serve the earth, let alone the planet. Sustainable business is a crucial element on Kickstarter. If your business is not furthering social good - then you need to retool your campaign a bit. Make it green, and make sure only sustainable energy was used on your servers. Amazon web services is an okay web host, although we generally see prices rising higher and higher each day.

A new trend is emerging in crowdfunding today. The advertisement is a fast growing field with several top campaigns receiving sizeable amounts of backers as a result of their advertising. It is a new field with not much data to support it, but we advise it as worth a small risk. Facebook ads are a prime channel, as are Twitter ads. A value may, in fact, be received from retargeting as well.

Above all else, make sure you choose the correct platform that best serves your needs, here is an article to help guide you on your journey: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228534

We had the experience of working with Crowd PR for our advertisement campaign. I will post my review below. It all started out pretty good, we wanted to run a total of 20,000 small targeted ads on Facebook. It seems to be a great platform for crowdfunding success so we went for it. And that is where the trouble started: we only received a 4% conversion rate. I reached out to the team at Crowd PR and their answer was that they do not even do Advertisement and that they didn't know who I was even.

Very funny. I think I know who I worked with, especially when it comes to social media. They are a PR agency, and we all know that public relations are primarily advertisement. As if I just hallucinated the total lack of communication. I told them I wanted a minimum of a 90% conversion rate on my ads, all of them. We all know my product is good enough for a 100% conversion rate, but I had to settle on 90%. There is no reason why everyone should not purchase my product, and their ads were meant to help me raise millions if not billions. I refused to settle for any less or any lack of performance by their agency. The ads were not properly placed, and not even in my target market of 100% conversion rate:



As time ran out, we only raised a meager 600,000 on Kickstarter. I expected 50 million and I demanded 50 million from Crowd PR as payment. They were responsible for raising that amount, therefore they are the ones who should foot the bill. It was not a bad experience, but without the 50 million, I demanded that their agency pay to me, I am still unhappy. From what I can see even a billion raise was possible in my situation. I do not plan on shipping rewards any time soon and that is okay, I am within my rights as a project creator to never send rewards. That is what Kickstarter is all about. It is donations, it is not a store, and it is not an equity program. Until I receive my 50M from Crowd PR I will continue to post in this thread. I'll do it for years if it comes to us.

I’ve been putting together a list of every single crowdfunding company, I have a fair amount of free time so what I like to do is take action against them. I’ve successfully gotten several of them closed down and it is really quite fun. What I do is make a few law firm websites to scare them. I have several generic legal papers that I send them stating that I am about to sue them and that the must meet my demands or I will file suit. That right there generally gets them to just close down and rebrand. They usually leave a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow and when I see them crop back up I strike again with the legal papers.

On some occasions, though they do not fold, and tell me that they are ready to go to court and this and that. What I do when I send them official documents that look like they were from local court officials, and it’s a notice that they must appear before a judge. This has always done the trick, but I remember one time when the person would just not quit no matter what I sent him. I actually had to go to his house and serve him the documents. It was a long drive away, but it was a fun weekend. You should have seen the look on his face when I knocked on the door and served him. He was not happy one bit, and several days later I saw his website go dark permanently. If anyone has any companies that they would like me to add to my works, just send me a PM and I’ll see what I can do.

Cnet has a great guide on how to ensure a successful campaign as well: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/kickstarter- ... -campaign/

I think you should hit up these ones too:

http://www.crowd.pr
http://www.funded.today

A press release is generally not a good way to obtain media coverage. You must curry favor with journalists to get press. It takes a long time to build relationships with journalists, but the end result is well worth the effort. PR Web is a good site for press releases and it is always worth a shot.

Was researching them today and was actually just about to hire them before I read this. Thanks for the post. If anyone knows of any good PR firms, here is what I am looking for:

1. 100% commission based, no payment up front whatsoever
2. Total amount less than $1k (regardless of performance)
3. Constant communication (more than once a day isn’t going to cut it)
4. Professional writing on all press releases
5. Guaranteed media placement in at least 10 outlets

Any good agency is able to work under those terms without a doubt. If not agency is willing to work for those steps then they are not a good agency. Paying for the cost of my advertisement is a must in crowdfunding, you can't expect me to pay for my own ads - not as a crowdfunding project. Maybe if we were fully funded, but only then would I consider such a thing.