What are some good techniques for marketing a crowdfunding campaign?


4

Question: What strategies have been proven to work in marketing a crowdfunding campaign?

Background: We/I have a project called WikiSeat, and we have tried (unsuccessfully) to run a campaign on Indiegogo. We are going to hide this campaign and have stopped advertising for it. The project is a maker education initiative, the core concept behind this project is to bring a shop class like experience into any classroom, at a reasonable price that requires little-to-no special training on the educators part. The last point being the most important component of this project, and it's future success.

We have a large number of educators on board for the project that we were hoping to mobilize, but we didn't manage to get enough active participation for the fundraiser from them. How do I get them to feel completely included in the project?

We are planning on re-launching on Kickstarter in a month, as we have been told that this isn't really the best season for fundraising, the idea is:

Imagine I am selling you something and you are supposed to meet me, but you're late and I leave. After that you feel like you owe me something, though you may not be sure what that thing is.

At least this is the method we are trying now. Plenty of people, experienced folks and friends, have told us this would easily be funded, but obviously that is never the case. So now we are trying to elicit help from any-and every-one we can.

Marketing Crowdfunding

asked Dec 4 '12 at 05:46
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Apis Girl
38 points
Top digital marketing agency for SEO, content marketing, and PR: Demand Roll
  • Please let us know what you have tried, what you are thinking of, what it is you want to market. While we are here to help and answer questions - yours is incredibly broad and does nothing to show what challenges you are facing. – Tim J 11 years ago
  • I have edited it to address these issues, I think. – Apis Girl 11 years ago

1 Answer


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PandoDaily had a good article on a companies successful kickstarter campaign memoto. Also - here's a good study titled The Dynamics of Crowdfunding:
Determinants of Success and Failure
with data to review.

Takeaway from the PandoDaily article can be summed up as follows:

  • The video is key. It doesn’t necessarily have to be super slick, but it needs to align with what you want to say and stand for.
  • The project page needs to say it all. If there are questions your potential backers don’t find answers to, the risk is that you’ll lose those backers.
  • Once the project is launched, it needs constant care. You need to post updates to keep the project alive, keep backers in the loop about the project’s progress, and curate discussions in external channels.

As for the Study, IMHO there is too much to summarize - worth reading the whole doc to gain insight. One of the determinants is the size of the social network of the founder.

Good luck.

answered Dec 4 '12 at 07:49
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Jim Galley
9,952 points
  • Can you add some information from these articles to your post, so it's not a link-only post? – Zuly Gonzalez 11 years ago
  • added - but I believe the best insights are found from reading the links vs summarizing them. The study is 33 pages long & full of interesting data. Would rather give the credit to the source. – Jim Galley 11 years ago
  • Thanks. What you added is fine. Just needed to add something to keep it from getting flagged as not an answer. Also, if the links ever break, your answer will still be helpful. – Zuly Gonzalez 11 years ago

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Marketing Crowdfunding