Crowdfunding: Five Tips for Creative Campaigning

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A successful funding campaign is crucial to getting your creative endeavor or project off the ground. But you may be surprised to know that the heavy lifting for a campaign comes in the months leading up to the launch and less during the actual campaign itself.

Paris Gramann, founder and owner of Empower Creative Agency, LLC, has created and run funding campaigns for her own projects as well as for nine clients. And while most of the campaigns have been successful and reached the funding goal (eight out of nine succeeded), she knows that preparation is key to sustaining energy throughout the campaign.

Five Tips for Running a Successful Campaign

Having participated in many crowdfunding campaigns, Gramann has five tips for innovators looking to launch their projects.

1. Set a funding goal that can easily be reached within a couple days.
   This may not be your whole funding goal, but it helps guarantee a successful campaign, increases chances of your campaign getting highlighted by the platform, and helps you play the psychology that drives human brains. Even though a campaign will stay live on Kickstarter or Indiegogo for up to 60 days, entrepreneur Abhishek Singh said the goal should be to reach 80 percent or more funding on day one. While this may seem counter-intuitive, given the duration of the campaign, a popular and successful campaign gives confidence to more backers and has a better chance of getting additional publicity from the platform itself. When your initial goal isn't your complete funding goal, make sure you are transparent about which piece of your project will be funded with that portion, then outline your stretch goals so that backers and potential backers see which pieces of the project they can fund by going above and beyond the initial goal.

2. Use a video to market your campaign.
   By the time you launch your campaign, you should already have a prototype of your product to show potential backers that the concept is sound and possible, Gramann said. A video of you working on and demonstrating the product can generate interest and excitement in your campaign.

3. Talk constantly about the story—yourself and your mission.
   Your project has some impact both locally and on a bigger scale. You should be confident in speaking about those impacts, Gramann said, as well as why the project matters to you and why you chose to undertake it.

4. Don't overwhelm them with tiers.
   Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo allow you to create funding tiers with perks for your backers to choose from. These are great because they let your backers get something tangible for their support (usually a preorder of the product), but too many tiers can overwhelm people. Gramann recommends between 3-5 tiers, with no more than 7 if you have enough unique perk packages. Some tiers may be reserved for stretch goals, extra perks or products you can make if your campaign surpasses the initial funding goal.

5. Make a prediction/participation list ahead of time, then work it.
   By considering who you think will back your project and what tier they are most likely to be comfortable with, you create a mini campaign for yourself to work by asking those people to support you. This is most effective when done before the campaign launches.
   “That's scary but it will help you activate your network early,” Gramann said.
   After you've asked people to support you, remind them of their pledge once the campaign launches and also ask them to share it on their social media platforms or with specific people they believe would be interested in backing you.

Market, Market, Market

To run a successful campaign, you have to be willing to put yourself out there on social media platforms to market and publicize your project, Gramann said.

“You will be a little bit annoying right before your campaign and during your campaign,” she said. “That's something you'll want to be comfortable with, just really being excited about your project. That's what everybody is gonna hear about from you.”

Although some crowdfunding platforms highlight successful or interesting campaigns or recommend them to backers of similar projects, in general people won't just stumble upon your campaign and decide to support you, Gramann said. A successful campaign takes a lot of advance marketing and preparation, and then reminders during the actual campaign.

“It doesn't market itself,” Gramann said.

She has her clients begin marketing their project and campaign two or three months before the campaign goes live to help drum up excitement and get people thinking of how they want to be involved. Additionally, Gramann recommends thinking outside the box to capitalize on any and all publicity you can get, as any publicity lends some credibility and interest to the project. From local newspapers or radio interviews to podcast interviews and social media live streams, publicity helps your campaign reach an audience that might be missed if you only stick to your existing network.

Learn from Experience

The first campaign you run is going to be challenging, full of unexpected hiccups and things you wish you'd known before. 

For example, when entrepreneur Abhishek Singh decided to crowdfund his robotics project, he opted to use Kickstarter because he was more familiar with the platform and had connections within the organization.

He set a goal of $75,000 dollars to build kits for a desktop assistant robot akin to products such as Alexa, Google Home, and Siri, only more interactive and personal. Despite his listed goal, Singh knew he would need somewhere around $300,000 to fully fund his project.

The goal he initially listed was intended as a means to play on the psychology of potential backers. Singh knew that if he listed his full goal it would overwhelm potential backers—many of whom might wait to commit until the project was closer to being fully funded. His full goal would run the risk of a failed campaign. What Singh encountered was too low a goal, one that didn't allow him to actually accomplish the project goals he had.

So even though Singh's campaign was well on its way to being successful—he'd raised more than $72,000—he ultimately canceled his campaign. It wasn't a complete bust, though. Singh reached out to his backers individually and ended up doing a limited run of his robot.

Even though the campaign didn't go the way Singh wanted it to, he learned a lot about early marketing and building a successful campaign.

Gramann also learned several things from her first campaign that she has been able to share with her clients moving forward.

Her first campaign was the launch of Just Be Books and the first book in the series. Her perk packages included copies of the book, sticker packets, and a pair of felt Albert Apple toys. Gramann spent a lot of time prepping the perks, but it ultimately ended up making more than she needed.

She said she wishes she'd allowed more time for fulfillment so she could have prepped the perks during or after the campaign. That would have allowed her to spend her time focused on planning and scheduling campaign updates and on preparing marketing materials.

In the early stages of planning your campaign, searching the Internet for “oops” stories and experiences other creators have had with crowdfunding can give you a leg up when it comes to running your own campaign.

Knowing When to Spend and When to Save

One thing to be wary of are the messages you may receive from individuals or agencies offering marketing assistance for a fee or cross-promotion trades. While it may sometimes be worthwhile to consider or agree to something like that, you've got to be aware that some agencies will take a fee from any backers or pledges that come from their promotion, Singh said. This may be worthwhile if you're struggling with marketing, but it will change the amount you need to actually reach your goal when the money is transferred from the platform to your account.

Running a successful crowdfunding campaign takes more than just putting together a page and letting the campaign run its course. In some cases, you may want to hire outside help to ensure that you get the most possible out of your campaign.

Empower Creative Agency, LLC, has helped people fund their small businesses and passion projects through crowdfunding campaigns. A project manager can help you create a marketing plan, plan your perk tiers, and prepare a list of potential backers you can contact before launching your campaign. Schedule a discovery call to see how we can help you get your project going!