KickstarterForum.org

Can anyone offer a referral to a PR person or company that is experienced in crowd-funding promotion?

Are there any opinions about Command Partners?

Thanks,
Darlene

Hi Darlene,

I am looking for a PR firm myself. I do not have anyone to refer just yet, as I have just begun my search. My suggestion would be to contact several firms and discuss with them directly about your project. Make sure they provide specifics that relate directly to your project. Generalizations can be found by yourself.

You may have noticed there has been a change in the overall look and feel of many highly successful projects. It’s no accident. This has become science.

Depending on your project, social connectivity, experience and goals a PR firm may or may not be necessary. Regardless, it is increasingly more and more important to understand which buttons to push and when.

Many here on this forum are finding out first hand how difficult this process is, it certainly has been for me. I believe however, that difficult is a relative term. First if you are solely relying on friends and relatives - this is going to be difficult. But more to the point, everything is difficult until you figure it out. Your JOB is to figure it out.

I do not know Command Partners, but I did take a look at their website for you. They are positioning themselves as a top digital agency emphasizing social media marketing, SEO, lead generation ... These are certainly the type of activities that a successful crowd funding campaign requires.

Their COO appears to have a good grasp of Kickstarter. He blogs about it and apparently has spoken at a Charlotte Business Fair discussing crowd funding. In addition their team is well credentialed with several masters degrees in communications / PR from UNC which is highly touted in this area.

The days of running a successful crowd funding campaign are no longer left to chance. Today’s campaigns are executed with military planning and precision. What you are looking for is a firm that can not only define your strategy, but ensure it’s implementation.

One final note, for now, keep in mind that a successful crowd funding campaign should be viewed not as the end game, but the beginning.

I hope this helps, please feel free to contact me if you would like.

James

Thanks James. I totally agree with.

Darlene

Hey guys- If you are having trouble finding a PR company, shoot me an email and I can recommend a few to check out. As a disclosure, I do make a small commission if you find one of the companies to be a match. I usually use this commission to re-invest in the websites and produce more helpful content for yall .

You can also check out http://directory.crowdcrux.com (not officially launched yet - but a few firms on there).

I've looked at a number of firms, but the sad fact is that many of them just don't respond unless they're actively looking for business. Or in other words, they're fairly small operations and have limited bandwidth.

Note these were distinguished primarily because they appear to be Tech Kickstarter focused:

Dynamo
Agency 2.0
Blast
Vantage

I can't remember any others, but I notably only even received a response from a couple.

Also, you should be aware that the costs associated will be $5K or more.

Does anyone know anything about crowdfundbuzz.com? they have a $68 $78 and $98 plan. They show they have some successful projects they have promoted but it doesn't show anything about a success rate.

Has anyone used them before or heard of anything about them good or bad?

Have heard mixed things about CrowdFundBuzz. I know at one point they were using fake follower accounts for their twitter, which rubbed me the wrong way (to appear like they were bigger than they were). At the end of the day, would contact them and ask how many clicks you can expect for a promotion or how many visits to your campaign page and do the cost breakdown as to how much you are spending per visitor. I believe they have a contact phone number.

I would not go with Agency 20 (Agency 2.0) unless you are OK with a large amount of money going down the drain.
Short of calling Agency 20 a scam I would suggest contacting other companies first.

Hi darlene,

Did you end up going with Command Partners? If so, how were they?

Or who did you use in the end?

Cheers,

Anhtai

I almost went with command partners about a week after I posted my campaign in 2013. Because I was inexperience and was didn't know much about marketing etc. I we went as far as negotiating the terms and pricing, and I almost signed a contract.

I did not however follow through because for me, the bottom line was this: their structure is based on an upfront cost + percentage based on the funds raised.

At the time I felt that it was not fair for me to have to pay them the upfront (nonrefundable) fee regardless of how the campaign did. We all know there are no guarantees, and it's a risk to work with these companies, and they were not willing to forgo that fee. I would have been perfectly fine with the percentage based on performance. The more money they can help raise for me, the more they get.

They mentioned they have to cover the overhead costs, but I looked at it in the sense that worst case scenario, my project doesn't get funded, and I lost the money that went to that fee. And as a solopreneur, at the time, that was too big a financial risk for me.

Unfortunately this is all I can contribute, since I didn't end up actually working with them. My campaign ended up getting funded though, mostly through my network of friends, family, and friends of friends.