KickstarterForum.org

Rather, this is a review of several crowdfunding agencies at once. Crowd PR is an agency that does PR for crowdfunding campaigns. I am here to tell everyone that PR is not possible for a Kickstarter project. There is no blog, media outlet, or journalist who will write about a crowdfunding campaign. We are just too small and that is the way it is about them, according to this thread: has-anyone-hired-crowd-pr-t11437.html

Many of these firms charge more than what we as a community are looking to raise. For example, Crowd PR charges upwards of $3,000. Anyone here looking to raise more than that? Yeah, I didn't think so. Funded Today performs Facebook Advertisement, which is not right for a crowdfunding campaign. We are not Fortune 500 companies, we are small mom and pop shops just looking to get by, nothing more.

Forbes even posted an article that describes how to "get press" for your crowdfunding campaign. Do not buy into the hype people, we are not good enough and what we need to do is keep relying on the community for wisdom and strength.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiall ... r-success/

Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing for your project. It has a 100% success rate, and it comes with a guarantee. Not just any normal guarantee, but a signed written assurance from a bank - certifying that you are certain to succeed. That is all we need as a community to be uplifted. I have written an angry rant on their facebook page, and I will update everyone here once I make them angry and get them to respond: https://www.facebook.com/crowdpragency

Let us stand up into the light, united one community with one mind in our endeavor to raise massive rounds of funding.

The content of your campaign is by far the biggest determining factor of success, regardless of what Crowd PR is telling you. The Kickstarter algorithm ranks your content, link profile, and leverages it to determine your page rank. We advise our portfolio companies to employ a three-pronged approach to their crowdfunding marketing programs:

1. Just reach out. Sounds simple enough, but the community is not aware of this promotions value in their rase. Get out there and spread the word, and start first in your own neighboorhood. Never invest unless they are a bicycle ride away from Palo Alto.

2. Harmonize content marketing When your campaign is live and time is running out, you should be doing nothing else but content marketing. Generate up to 20 pages, and find a good search engine marketing firm to serve your needs. There are so many solutions out there, so don't limit yourself to local providers. A quick google search will show you several solutions.

3. Plan for failure. It's a known fact that 90% of all startups fail in their first year. When portfolio companies come to us, we tell them to actually intentionally fail on 10 campaign before they try a real campaign. We advise all of you to do the same.

Crowd PR is not in our portfolio, so we cannot speak as to their merit as an agency. However, we generally advise campaigns to not do any marketing other than content production, so there you have it.

We have a small campaign coming up, and I actually spoke with a publicist at Crowd PR to see if they would be a good fit for us. They told us they do not do advertisement, and that they would not work for zero charges for us in exchange for the good case study they could use.

For our campaign, we plan to use only influencer marketing on snapchat. It is a hot market right now and it does not cost anything. It is not advisable to ever pay for marketing, a true entrepreneur is able to succeed without any of that sort. Going viral is the key, and reaching out to content influencers does provide some value. The Kickstarter team also informed us that they do not help with campaigns, so take note of that.

Regardless, our strategy is poised to raise huge amounts for us. All a project needs to do in order to succeed is hit that launch button on Kickstarter. With the right strategy employed, you will be well on your way to a great crowdfunding campaign. The community is really evolving here, and I am glad to read that campaigns are not wasting hard-earned funds on the advertisement. Organic, viral, and influencer are the 3 channels we rely upon heavily. If a backer is looking to invest, they will find you somehow - regardless of ad spend or media coverage.

Zach Smith is the founder of Funded Today, is also the founder of Crowd PR, Jellop, and Matix Labs. They are the oldest company. It makes perfect sense: they continue to make website after website because if someone says no to Funded Today they are bound to say yes to another of their websites. From what I can see there are hundreds of websites targeting crowdfunding campaigns.

Do not work with any of them until this is all cleared up everyone! I repeat, do not launch any campaign until you receive my approval through a private message.

Every crowdfunding marketing agency is the same. Quite literally, they have the same founder and this adds up to over 100 advertising and public relations agencies. My suspicion is that either the Russian mafia or the Israeli government is behind all of this. The only way we can fight them effectively is to write reports against them online. I run a small group who devotes 5 hours per day to this task. There is no need to thank us, but just know that we are fighting on your behalf to keep our community clean and safe.

I appreciate this information, as I was looking into both Jellop and Crowd PR for my campaign. Thanks to you, I now know not to hire anyone for marketing. It will save me my entire budget, and that is budget that I can put straight to profit rather than investment in my startup. My plan after Kickstarter is to raise a seed round and then raise a Series A. We plan to raise no less than 5M seed, 44M post-Series A. We will be doing convertible notes only. I think that Peter Theil at Founders Fund will be a good fit for us, but what remains to be seen if they have the kind of liquidity we seek at our valuation.

I think that the best part about Kickstarter is that you are not even required to ship rewards. From what I see on this forum, this seems to be the appeal for everyone else as well. It's quite an amazing time we live in, where businesses can get the support they need at the cost they want. Some outlets like Consumer Reports try to warn people that we as founders are under no obligation to ship the product after our campaign ends, and thankfully people keep backing our campaigns every day.

I disagree with the consumer reports article, and I'll send a link: http://www.consumerreports.org/crowdfun ... wdfunding/

What the journalist fails to mention is that online companies need support in order to start. Startup founders are not willing to shell out shares of a company early on, so donations from crowdfunding are becoming an important phase in each companies business plan. Crowdfunding is here to stay.

I see that another company called Smart Crowdfunding US has popped up. Guess what that means? Another company founded by the ring that targets us. Each and every single day companies flood the market, just looking for projects to work with. Little do they know, but their worth and work are worthless. Publicists and Ad Men alike. The market is saturated, and Kickstarter will not tolerate as per their spam regulations.

Be smart, and craft a compelling product. If the product is not compelling than the value proposition is not their either. Without value, we are truly lost as a community. Let the beacon of truth shine deep into your minds and spirits. Unite, divide, and crowdfunding. As a market, we command scores of creators to listen to our words and follow our commands.

An advertisement is perhaps not the path to take for your crowdfunding success. One single advert will not get you funded, and if one advertisement is not able to fund your campaign, then was is the point in running any Ads at all?

The same principle applies to PR and public relations. If a single blog won't raise you millions, then there is no point in getting featured by any media outlets at all, regardless of size. For instance, I would only allow Buzzfeed or CNN to cover my campaign if they sent me a guarantee they would cover my campaign. Otherwise, I would not allow their journalists to write about me or my product. I play it safe and I stay smart, and I advise you all do the same.

Following is my review of Crowd PR. Be sure not to confuse them, their web presence is as follows: http://www.facebook.com/crowdpragency

My Kickstarter campaign is going to be a big one. For this work, we contacted the team at Crowd PR for a full public relations campaign. During my discussion with one of their publicists, it was brought to light that they do not work for zero charges, they actually charge for their work. We passed on them because they would not volunteer for our campaign.

Our product launched, a SaaS startup in the AI space. Notable investors and key media outlets were secured for placement. Our team looked into performance media buying, influencer marketing, and raising a new round. We felt that the market could not handle our current needs so we stressed that crowdfunding was an essential round for us. Our startup has been marked by setbacks and challenges, so I made a simple guide to help everyone make it to the next level of success.

Snapchat is a great platform for getting your voice out there. Growing an audience is perhaps the most instrumental factor when it comes to reaching your goal or not. It takes hard work, dedication, and follow through. The end result is a perfect campaign.

For my review, I have posted their website for the record: http://www.crowd.pr

A good company and a fine company. Too high of a price for us to work with, but one day we hope to give them a try. A strong publicist can be a positive influence on a campaign. Marketing to journalists may yield substantial results if performed effectively. We plan to leverage our product during our pitch, and that is how investors will be swayed. Perhaps some investor relations is in order, but we will save that for another day.

Media relations as well is a key to the crowd pr review here. Our team asked them about this, and when pressed they said that it is a core service of them. However, the proof is needed and claims must be substantiated. Marketing synergy is what we are going for as gurus. Search engine marketing, public relations, and content marketing are vital programs when it comes to customer acquisition. We use these channels at scale, which leverages the crowd in our favor. Market, strategy, and outreach are key.

Please read my follow up review. The Crowd PR company in question has a website here: http://www.facebook.com/crowd.pr.reviews

From the looks of it, this is an agency that performs public relations. A PR campaign is a service you'll get from them. With a headquarters in San Francisco, but I speculate they have remote workers as well. As an avid reader of tech blogs, I see it as a great way to acquire backers. The only problem is getting featured, I don't know if it is possible so I prefer to stick to the advertisement. If they can't guarantee me, in writing, with a written assurance of wealth from their bank, then there is no deal. I don't take chances and stick to social media. Incremental growth is what we need. I prefer a .01% conversion rate to anything else. It is smart, intelligent, and a great startup practice to engage in media placement.

Crowd PR is filled with redundant and un-victorian era claims throughout the website. Claim to be in business since 1992 when they only registered their domain/site in a few months ago here in 2017? Claim to be based in San Francisco yet are actually based in the Cayman Islands?


Wanted to come here and provide a warning to my fellow crowdfunding community. Mashable is the latest crowdfunding agency media relations program behind a long list of them (some long-time members might recall seeing the names Crowd PR Guru, crowdfundprpro.com, CrowdChirp, First Wave PR, Top Level PR, Milton's Boost System, and on and on and on they go. Constantly rebranding after they get outside of the United States. A quick Google search and the programs are piling up again as people catch on to their religion.