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Building a Crowdfunding Marketing Plan for Success

Building a crowdfunding marketing plan that is consistent and compelling is crucial to campaign success. Here are some tips to build yours.

 

Implementing communication efforts for your campaign may fall low on your priority list as you prepare and build out all the steps necessary to press launch, however building a crowdfunding marketing plan is crucial to your success. When it comes to the time requirement for crunching numbers, managing a team, and creating a compelling and informative campaign video, making plans for daily Facebook posts and weekly email check-ins can seem like the farthest thing out of reach. However, a routine and thoughtful marketing plan can work for your campaign, building your audience, carrying you through slumps, and celebrating big wins along the way. 

Content is often unseen by your followers because of social media algorithms, so it’s important to plan daily posts on the platforms you’re opting to use to ensure that a stream of information is flowing and stands its best chance to be seen.

Also, you can make a calendar for publishing press releases, schedule email campaigns, and book any radio, newspaper, or digital advertising you budgeted for with the ad representative in your area.

In addition to routine updates on the status of your campaign, content topics can include behind the scenes looks at what your team is up to and announcements for new rewards or incentives. Be sure to carve out time to respond to comments and messages from your community to demonstrate that you care about them and are grateful for their interest.  

Last but not least, it is important to remember that this is no time for modesty, but rather a time to celebrate your efforts enthusiastically; lead your messaging with confidence and certainty that your project is gifting your community as much as they’re gifting to you!

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6 Ideas for Irresistible Crowdfunding Campaign Rewards

A library of fun and useful rewards with offerings that intrigue a variety of lifestyles within your audience is an essential element of a crowdfunding campaign’s success. If you’re feeling stuck on where to look next for offerings that will delight your potential backers, here are six creative ideas for irresistible crowdfunding campaign rewards!

  1. Offer presales of your product to create hype around the launch and ensure you have the funds to move forward with production like DirtBags did for their custom bike packs. 
  2. Create a collection of rewards based on a theme like The New Hampshire Bee Initiative did with honey and ecology themed products in support of a community mural raising pollinator awareness. 
  3. Offer an experience–an art class, tour, sports tickets, or a farm to table dinner and drinks like Monroe Downtown–and create an opportunity to reach those who aren’t looking for extra swag. 
  4. Look to the calendar and create themed rewards or baskets that appeal to gift-givers for the holidays on the horizon, whether Christmas, Mother’s Day, or Valentine’s.
  5. Much like Butte’s high-five offering for five dollars, you can create a low-dollar option for those with tight budgets and provide an opportunity to contribute without a burdensome commitment and reward them with something as simple as a heartfelt note or sticker for their good deed.
  6. Orchard Hill Breadworks created a reward for a custom catering event, appealing to locals with plans to host a wedding, reunion, or large gathering in the near future. Preselling your company’s services to those looking to book their upcoming projects is a great way to create higher dollar rewards!

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Democratize Access to Capital with Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding can “democratize” access to capital–fueling entrepreneurs locked out of traditional funding like women and BIPOC entrepreneurs.

 

Crowdfunding can “democratize” access to capital — fueling entrepreneurs locked out of traditional funding channels such as women, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs. The Local Crowd continues its work to bring the power of crowdfunding to more and more communities. One such community, represented by OmniWorks, serves BIPOC entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. Their online incubator program just attracted their largest cohort yet.

“By focusing on entrepreneurs that are often overlooked by other incubator and accelerator programs, we are democratizing access to capital, markets, and financial and business education, resulting in more sustainable community-based businesses, quality jobs, and wealth generation,” said Brent Imai, OmniWorks Founder and CEO.

TLC’s intentions include melding this benefit, access to capital for individual entrepreneurs, with another crowdfunding outcome — strengthening social capital, beyond each individual entrepreneur, and into the whole community.

At TLC, we believe that humanity is at its best when we care for one another. We work hard to make sharing and caring easier for you.

 

Learn more about how The Local Crowd is working to support all entrepreneurs and neighborhoods in our newsletter with the form below and follow along on Facebook to stay connected.

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5 Ways to Build Your Crowdfunding Contact List 

How to build your crowdfunding contact list with a diverse pool of contacts to reach out to throughout your campaign and ask for support.

 

After you’ve cleverly crafted your story and made strategic plans for making the ask to bring your project to life, launch day is just around the corner and it’s time to build your crowdfunding contact list! At this point, it will be vital that you have a lengthy and diverse pool of contacts to reach out to throughout your campaign, whether via email, telephone, or in-person visits. Begin by creating a spreadsheet to organize names, contact information, and record correspondence as you start to send personalized notes requesting support. Below you’ll find five ways to begin building that spreadsheet into a rich and powerful tool that will help you push toward your campaign’s success. 

  1. Dig into your pre-existing contact lists on your smartphone, email accounts, and any professional networks and begin organizing groups of friends, family, close peers, and community connections. 
  2. Just as you have combed your resources for contacts, ask the members of your team to do the same, allowing your campaign to reach into different affinity groups beyond your own. 
  3. As you attend networking events, meetings, and conferences, and share your upcoming projects with peers, collect names and contact information with a notebook or tablet to keep them up-to-date as you move forward.
  4. People are more prone to sharing their contact information when they feel it is a mutually beneficial exchange; offer a freebie download or swag item to incentivize your community to sign up and stay informed.
  5. Use your personal and business social media channels to gather email subscriptions from people interested in what you have in store, and double down by asking your close contacts to share the same call to action on their pages as well.

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