We will find you a crowd for your campaign! umm maybe.
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:27 pm
I have noticed a lot of posts on here about whether or not its safe and a good idea to use crowdfunding PR firms, the top two seem to be krowdster and crowdco. I had some ideas about how to judge if its a good idea.
Imagine that you are hiring a new employee - after all they will be working for you - When hiring someone to work for you the first thing you do is check their references:
Check references
This is easy to do as most of these sites list their clients: So go to the 'Projects page' and randomly pick three or four - the names and contact details of the campaign owner is listed on the site and they can also be contacted through KS. So give them an email and ask:
How much did the PR site contribute to the campaign? Would you recommend using them? ....
If the product owner had a good experience they will tell you and if not they will tell you that too.
We have a database of 500,00 willing backers!!! (Really?? ask them)
If they claim to have a massive database of crowdfunding clients that are just desperate to crowdfund - then ask for a sample, maybe 5 random names --- If they actually have 500,000 then a small handful will not be a problem or negatively effect their business plan. Once you have some names - send those people an email and ask if they really want to support KS campaigns --- remember if they have signed up to be on a database they will be very willing to answer these emails - if not then your just spamming random people.
Are you a real business?
As with any company you are going to use: Check that they actually exist: There are several ways to do this:
1: Ask them for their company address, name of their parent company?
2: Search for their company name - all US and EU companies have to be registered on an open register which means things like contact name and address are openly available - I'm not sure about the rest of the world but it seems to be constant.
3: Check to see who owns the domain name or the company trademark
I have followed this procedure for the 'PR' companies that have contacted me (not crowdco) and have not had a very positive experience.
Remember you are hiring these companies to work for you - you are giving them your money - if the are legitimate businesses (which they may well be) then they should be happy to give you their details.
Hope this is helpful.
Imagine that you are hiring a new employee - after all they will be working for you - When hiring someone to work for you the first thing you do is check their references:
Check references
This is easy to do as most of these sites list their clients: So go to the 'Projects page' and randomly pick three or four - the names and contact details of the campaign owner is listed on the site and they can also be contacted through KS. So give them an email and ask:
How much did the PR site contribute to the campaign? Would you recommend using them? ....
If the product owner had a good experience they will tell you and if not they will tell you that too.
We have a database of 500,00 willing backers!!! (Really?? ask them)
If they claim to have a massive database of crowdfunding clients that are just desperate to crowdfund - then ask for a sample, maybe 5 random names --- If they actually have 500,000 then a small handful will not be a problem or negatively effect their business plan. Once you have some names - send those people an email and ask if they really want to support KS campaigns --- remember if they have signed up to be on a database they will be very willing to answer these emails - if not then your just spamming random people.
Are you a real business?
As with any company you are going to use: Check that they actually exist: There are several ways to do this:
1: Ask them for their company address, name of their parent company?
2: Search for their company name - all US and EU companies have to be registered on an open register which means things like contact name and address are openly available - I'm not sure about the rest of the world but it seems to be constant.
3: Check to see who owns the domain name or the company trademark
I have followed this procedure for the 'PR' companies that have contacted me (not crowdco) and have not had a very positive experience.
Remember you are hiring these companies to work for you - you are giving them your money - if the are legitimate businesses (which they may well be) then they should be happy to give you their details.
Hope this is helpful.