How To Market And Finance Your Crowd Funding Projects And Business On A Shoestring Budget

Historically, the only funding options available to entrepreneurs to finance their dreams were bank loans or the angel support of friends and family. Today, thanks to crowd funding:

• just about anyone can raise the money he or she needs to finance ones’ education, personal projects, a business, an event, music, films or any other idea;
• most institutional discriminatory barriers to success from race, to age or sex are quickly becoming a thing of the past—and success is in reach of just about anyone willing to work hard.

It's a brave new world, where everyone has equal access to opportunities. Now is the time to brainstorm new ideas, organize your thoughts and execute your success plan. We have listed some of the steps you should take to ensure that your crowd funding campaign is designed, implemented and deployed successfully.  Use our tips as a starting point on your journey to realizing your goals.

1. Prepare: Develop Your Idea
2. Strategic Social Media
3. Find Ubiquitous Product/Service With Great Appeal
4. Great Design: Produce A Great Video
5. Prepare Helpful Media Page
6. Don’t Ask For Money Immediately
7. Build Interest Before You Close
8. Communicate Often & Keep It Personal
9. Appeal To Your Existing Fans
10. Appeal To Everyone Else With Great Rewards
11. Offer Complimentary Rewards
12. Target & Connect With Business Supporters
13. Secure Partnerships That Will Enhance Value You Offer Supporters

1.0     PREPARE: DEVELOP YOUR IDEA

Your idea should be thoroughly thought out or vetted before you design, implement and deploy your crowd funding campaign. Validation of the idea using crowd funding is acceptable but if your audience see it as incomplete they will not support it.

2.0     STRATEGIC SOCIAL MEDIA

You do not require a social media following the size of Kim Kardashian for your crowd funding project to succeed. However, it is important for you to select blogs, social media networks and social influencers that match your marketing & content strategies—where potential supporters are most likely to be found.

For some really great tips on where to promote your crowd funding project please click here or visit index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=395

3.0     FIND UBIQUITOUS PRODUCT/SERVICE WITH GREAT APPEAL

A ubiquitous product is a product with mass market appeal, a product that everyone will find a use for. This is important because Kickstarter and other crowd funding communities are quickly morphing into online stores that focus on one of a kind, or exclusive consumer products. By supporting a Kickstarter Project you gain access to consumer & business products and services, and related offerings before the general public, often at highly subsidized rates.  Therefore, the more compelling your project is, and the more it contributes to the enhancement of a person’s life or business, the greater the likelihood that it will be financially supported. Furthermore, if you are able to deliver samples of the project immediately, and or within weeks of the campaign closure, you dramatically enhance your ability to receive financial support.

In fact, once you have completed your crowd funding campaign there are many great websites that will gladly promote your product either for free, a commissioned basis or for a small fee. These websites include:

• TalkPix
• Outgrow.me
• Gadgets Go
• GadgetFlow

For submission guidelines visit index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=407

4.0     GREAT DESIGN: PRODUCE A GREAT VIDEO

By a rate of 50 percent to 30 percent crowd funding projects with a video component succeed at a higher rate than those without. This is due to the fact that video clips are displayed extremely prominently on the page and give visitors a better appreciation for the project. However, preparing video content is time consuming and costly; therefore, they are clearly a barrier to entry for some crowd funders. Nevertheless, the Food Hugger Kickstarter Campaign is an example of effective design.

The Project Managers took the time to create a professional video and produced original artwork that demonstrated the product’s value proposition. The video and corresponding images effectively conveyed the utility of the product, while alleviating the concerns that supporters may have as to whether the project will be completed.

Review an example of a niche-based crowd funding portal that is using video to highlight its services at http://universalloveorder.info/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=195&Itemid=365

You can review the Food Hugger Kickstarter Campaign at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1055691335/food-huggers?ref=discover_pop

5.0     PREPARE HELPFUL MEDIA PAGE

Some crowd funders have been very successful at securing media publicity—a factor that is of crucial importance if you wish your crowd funding campaign to go viral. To ensure that journalists can effectively review and, or write about your project be sure to create a media page with high resolution photos, videos, testimonials and related content. It will make sense to draft a news release to promote your project.

6.0     DON’T ASK FOR MONEY IMMEDIATELY

Successful crowd funders understand that building relationships is key. Therefore, it is crucial that you take the time to network—but do not ask for money or even request the sharing of your message immediately. Give people time to review your project, get to know you and make a knowledgeable decision. Unfortunately, most crowd funding platforms only give you 30 - 90 days to move potential backers from education to donation.  For this reason, it is extremely important to reach out to potential alliance partners that can help you to supercharge your campaign and quickly disseminate information to media and financial supporters.

Potential partners include social rewards, fan acquisition and backer acquisition networks. Many of these vendors like the Pamper Me Network are powered by affiliate marketing technology and will encourage you to offer potential donors something of value—in return for sharing your campaign with a friend. Others like Sociafy, BackerDatabase, CoPromote or Backercamp will simply help you to build a network of potential donors or share messages that their followers appreciate.  

If you would like to review some of the vendors that offer this service including their submission guidelines please visit index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=408 or a complete list please download the “Better Way To Crowd Fund Directory” at index.php?option=com_jmarket&view=display_one_category&controller=catalog&task=category&eid=28&Itemid=1046

7.0     BUILD INTEREST BEFORE YOU CLOSE

Most major films are introduced to the public 1 to 2 years before they are released to the public in theatres. The objective is to build interest before the film opens in theatres. The same formula works for crowd funding. It is essential that you build interest in your project before you attempt to close the deal—by asking for a donation or recommendation.

A great way to build interest is through media publicity or by designing and implementing a public relations campaign.  The Pamper Me Network publishes a detailed list of websites, journalists, bloggers and related influencers that will cover your crowd funding related projects. You can also take advantage of free and affordable news release distribution services offered by the Pamper Me Network. To learn more visit index.php?option=com_sppagebuilder&view=page&id=89&Itemid=974

8.0     COMMUNICATE OFTEN & KEEP IT PERSONAL

Crowd funding is highly reliant on trust and relationships. You can gain the trust of supporters by keeping them in the loop, introducing all of the players involved in the project, tweeting often, posting comments on the campaign page, adding testimonials, updating donor lists, posting successful media placements, product updates and related, pertinent messages.

9.0     APPEAL TO YOUR EXISTING FANS

According to the book Marketing Metrics a repeat customer has a 60% – 70% chance of converting. This is great news if you are a business launching a rewards-based crowd funding campaign or seeking pre-orders for your new product launch. If you don’t have an existing customer-base your best bet is to target existing including fans, friends, business partners, suppliers and related supporters. Pay special attention to the supporters that you have the most in common with.

10.0   APPEAL TO EVERYONE ELSE WITH GREAT REWARDS

Of course there is no way of guaranteeing the success of your crowd funding campaign; therefore, it is wise to broaden your base by reaching out to journalists, social influencers, associations and related stakeholders. This can be achieved in many ways including creating a reward schema, or reward level relevant to the appropriate target audience.

In fact, for projects focused on deliverables, you can have amazing crowd funding success if you reward donors with something they actually want. This variable will ensure that your campaign will go viral as supporters will be compelled to share. And sharing your project, expanding your network is the MOST CRITICAL variable in the success of any Kickstarter or crowd funding campaign.

The fact is you can convince friends and family to support your project out of the kindness of their hearts, but this isn’t sustainable.

To go viral, you must offer interesting, valuable, exclusive rewards that will compel supporters to share and in doing so extend your network.

11.0   OFFER COMPLIMENTARY REWARDS

If Kickstarter is morphing into a community where consumers go to gain access one of a kind, exclusive products & services, then it goes without saying that a successful Kickstarter Project must offer each supporter complimentary items.  

This is the case with Food Hugger which offers supporters a set of its Food Hugger products, in the colour of their choice when they support the project.

12.0   TARGET & CONNECT WITH BUSINESS SUPPORTERS

For your crowd funding project to be successful you cannot just rely on individual consumers to pledge their financial support. To succeed you need to identify a unique way to provide value to businesses. For example, Mazadia Games, an innovative Florida Games developer built an entertaining street game and integrated billboards in the GUIs landscape. Smaller billboards are displayed while a player is enjoying the game and a large billboard is rendered when a player is making the transition to the next level. Mazadia Games offer business supporters permanent advertising on the said billboards, with a pledge of $500 or more.

   13.0   SECURE PARTNERSHIPS THAT WILL ENHANCE VALUE YOU OFFER SUPPORTERS

Partner with organizations like TalkPix (www.fanrewardsnetwork.com) that will offer value-added benefit to your business supporters including news release distribution, sales lead generation and related advertising services.

OTHER VARIABLES TO CONSIDER

The table below highlights some tertiary variables to consider when designing, implementing and deploying your crowd funding campaign.

MORE GREAT ARTICLES TO READ ..

If you would like to learn more about Crowd Funding and how it can be used to grow your business we encourage you to review the following articles and ebooks:

• Where To Sell Your Successfully Financed Crowd Funding Projects Or Gadgets?
• How To Market Or Finance Your Crowd Funding Projects On A Shoestring Budget
• Crowd Funding Is The Next Best Hope For The Caribbean And The Rest Of The Developing World
• Crowd Funding Is The Greatest Con In History Or The Greatest Opportunity - What Do You Think?
• Submit Your Crowd Funding Services For Free Listing In Better Way To Crowd Fund Directory
• Crowd Funding Is The Greatest Con In History Or The Greatest Opportunity

• Social Networking Is The Greatest Con In History Or The Greatest Opportunity

• Who Is Winning The Social Media and Crowd Funding War: The Battle For Good Vs Evil

• DIY Crowd Funding Opportunity Kit

• DIY Crowd Funding Public Relations Kit
• 101 + Websites And Media Outlets To Promote Your Crowd Funding Campaign Or Business