Start Your Campaign Off With a Bang
On average, campaigns that reach their goal on the PleaseFund.Us platform raise one-third of their funds within the first quarter of their campaign lifetime.
If you’ve read our Project Incubator pages, you’ll know we emphasise that a crowdfunding campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. Keeping an interest in your project and keeping it alive is crucial. There will be a dip in activity in any project and this is more often than not somewhere in the middle stages of your timeline. The vast bulk of support often occurs at the very beginning and very end of a project; it’s exciting when it’s new and it’s exciting when it’s all coming down to the wire. However, whilst it’s imperative to have a strategy that keeps your campaign active and alive for its entire lifespan, it’s just as important to get it off to a good start.
Campaigns reaching their goal have an average lifespan of 52 days; most of which raise a 1/3 of their goal in less than two weeks. Here’s 3 ways how you can start your campaign off with a bang, and 3 reasons why you should do it.
Garner the support of your own crowd.
For most project owners, support comes from within their own networks and their networks’ networks. Your friends and family should be your immediate first point of call. Aim to raise the first 25% of your funds from close friends, family, and fans. A project that appears to already have a following with numerous backers will help resonate a degree of credibility and will help encourage people beyond your inner circle to start contributing to your project. Early success adds credibility to your project and gives your campaign legitimacy.
Share your project.
Make the most of your project page and the PleaseFund.Us features. The ‘Embed’ tab should not be ignored. By using this feature you can embed your projects’ widget (page or video) on any website which will help drive tons more traffic to your campaign and help secure early support, more facebook shares and tweets.
By raising a significant amount of funds in the early days of your campaign, you will quickly increase the visibility of your campaign on our website. The more traffic /support you can generate to your page, the more chance your project has of becoming featured on the PleaseFund.Us homepage. Featured projects are programmed with a popularity index that gives increased exposure for projects with the most amounts of pledges/page views during the previous week.
Update your fans.
Outreach to your fans right from the word ‘go live’ and post a couple of video updates. Make your campaign into a story. You want your supporters to be eager to find out what happens next.
Campaigns with momentum are more likely to reach and even exceed their goal. People often start updating their fans as a last resort, when their campaign has become slightly stagnant, but a story should be told right from the beginning and not the middle! This will help harness the engagement of your fans and will help retain their interest in your campaign.
Not every project will secure early success. If your campaign is already more than 2 weeks old and you haven't raised 1/3 of your goal… do not fret! Remember that every campaign is unique. Plenty of campaigns get off to a late start but still meet their goal. If your campaign is off to a slow start, try adding a new pledge, sending out some more updates, or even posting a new video.
If you’ve tried this and are still struggling, get in touch with The PleaseFund.Us Team and hopefully we can help.
Author: Ben Hamilton, PleaseFund.Us Community Manager
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