How to Market a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

When it comes to making your first venture into crowdfunding, it’s common to feel overwhelmed. Deciding which platform to use and which of your campaigns you would like to feature are difficult decisions which may involve many stakeholders. Many first-time users may completely overlook critical success-drivers. At Make Giving Happen, we know exactly what it takes to drive a successful crowdfunding campaign. Here are some tips and tricks that will help you make the most out of your first campaign.  

Yay! It’s Live! Now what? 

You have done it! Your first crowdfunding campaign is live. You have made a huge leap and incorporated digital crowdfunding into your traditional fundraising mix. No doubt, this was not an easy project for your organization to accomplish. It may have taken years to get the buy-in and resources you needed from all stakeholders.  You should be very proud of this achievement. 

Now that you have your first active campaign, it will be very tempting to assume you have reached the finish line – but you haven’t. Unfortunately, this isn’t Field of Dreams and just because something is on the internet, this does not mean anyone will visit it. You have put a lot of effort into getting to this point on your digital journey, let’s make sure you are set up for success. Let’s make sure this campaign exceeds everyone’s expectations. 

Tell a Great Story 

Generation X & Y are no doubt the most likely demographic to give online rather than making traditional gifts. These generations have grown up in a world of uncertainty – economic, political and social. More than prior generations, they are placing greater demands on major public and private institutions for accountability, transparency, and fairness. In short, they need to understand why you are requesting their gift and what impact it will have. 

The great advantage your new digital platform has over traditional marketing is that it gives you the ability to employ many different story-telling techniques and tools within one single communication. Use photos, video and whatever content you can to communicate the reason the campaign exists and the impact reaching your goal will have. Bonus points for if you can tell your audience the exact impact of specific gift levels. 

Tell Everyone You Know 

There is no doubt you already have an existing network of donors that have supported you up to this point.  Wherever you traditionally communicate with these donors, make sure you are using those methods to tell them about your great new digital venture.  Send them a them a letter, send them an e-mail... and don’t forget to leverage your existing social networks. 

Tell People You Don’t Know 

Ok, so you have a great campaign and you have a great story to match. You have a list of traditional donors that you have reached out to and asked for support. Now, we need to understand how we will grow your donations, email and donor lists. 

Part of the reason crowdfunding is so effective for growing lists is that it has embraced the online phenomenon of social media. Make Giving Happens platform allows donors to share out a campaign across their social networks, increasing its reach by an order of magnitude. Even better than Facebook’s giving platform or GoFundMe, the donor information captured through a Make Giving Happen campaign will be captured by you, the administrator. 

Due to changes in many social media platform policies, posts from friends and family now receive priority – so that’s great news if your campaign is being shared through organic networks.  However, paid ads (PPC) are a guaranteed place in a user’s feed. Despite the noise of the larger social platform, this gives you a direct window to drive traffic to your campaign and donations. 

Ask For Some Help 

If you still feel like you need more information to make the most out of your crowdfunding campaign, don’t be shy to ask for an expert’s advice. Make Giving Happen offers plans that are flexible and suited for types of campaign goals, no matter what size. 

We help:

  • Create A Custom Branded Donation Platform
  • Provide Analytics
  • Provide Digital Marketing Strategy
  • Enable Manual Donations
  • Provide Tax Reciepts
  • and more!

Contact us to learn more and get started with your own successful giving campaign!  

 

 

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