by DaveGarber1975 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 4:41 pm
Thank you, Cristina.
We don't have all the answers, either, but we've definitely enjoyed a lot of experience. If it's alright, then perhaps I'll share some of what we've learned here, as well, on this subject, for whomever it may benefit.
Campaigns typically enjoy nice pledge-spikes for their first few days that begin to dwindle afterward, although there are definite exceptions. Creators who want to enhance those spikes, and to keep them from dwindling, will usually need to rely upon at least a little marketing, if not a lot.
For pre-launch campaigns, it's good to persuade family and friends to pledge. Even if they only pledge $1 each, they'll still affect Kickstarter's popularity algorithm about as much. Creators can also engage in social-media advertising to generate leads. And use social-media pages to gradually build an active community of fans. Either/both of those two marketing techniques will help enhance that first-day spike in pledges. So can pre-launch PR, althugh that's generally more challenging, but it doesn't hurt to try. Whenever a campaign making rapid progress toward (or especially beyond) a minimal goal, this fact inspires other people to feel more confident supporting it who might not support it otherwise. Crowdfunding marketing is generally synergistic, so an increased flow of pledges from one source will encourage an increased flow of pledges from other sources, as well. It's ideal to reach your goal within your first few days, although not always possible.
As that pledge-spike begins to dwindle, creators will need to turn increasingly toward other marketing techniques to reduce or even reverse that decline. My employer, after working with nearly 2,000 crowdfunding campaigns, has noticed that the most effective ways to raise pledges are usually, in decreasing order: (1) social-media advertisements, (2) cross-promotions, (3) affiliate marketing, and (4) public relations. Individual campaigns may and sometimes do vary from these norms, but it's statistically true.
PR is both popular and powerful, but it's also slower to drive sales than other marketing techniques, which renders it a great investment for established companies, but somewhat less effective for fleeting campaigns that have only 30-60 days to raise funds.
As for affiliate marketing, the current industry leaders are arguably Kickbooster and Funded Today's Cashback Network. The latter is part of Funded Today's full marketing suite, and Funded Today's clients might not get enrolled in it unless they first prove that they respond well enough to Funded Today's ads and/or cross-promotions. The former is better for creators wanting to hire services a-la-carte, and is also more flexible at working with creators' profit margins.
As for cross-promotions, those are arguably both underrated and underutilized. We've found tremendous success with them in general. They're generally best arranged between similarly-sized campaigns that either offer complimentary (not competing) products/services or appeal best to similar demographic segments.
As for social-media advertisements, they generally work best when they work at all. And they're more likely to succeed on Facebook than on any other platform. Their image is most vital, and their text is secondary. And they're generally most effective when they're not obviously advertising anything, but instead look more like something that someone's friend would post. I might share more, but I don't want to give away any "trade secrets" or whatnot.
Because crowdfunding marketing is synergistic, as I mentioned above, it's generally best to involve as many techniques as possible. It's naturally good to focus one's efforts on what will likely produce the best results, but the others should not be neglected, either.
In any case, I hope that information will help some people.
I work for Funded Today, which has helped hundreds of crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter and/or Indiegogo to raise over $175,000,000 altogether. How may we help you? Please learn more at
www.funded.today and/or
www.fundedtodayreviews.com…
