If you have been following along with our blog, you understand how important the planning stage of a crowdfunding campaign is. You’ve done your homework, made a plan and finally hit the LAUNCH button on your campaign. However, to really succeed, the work doesn’t stop there. Now that your campaign is live it’s time to boost it toward your goal. Even if the pledges are pouring in, there is no time to rest, early momentum is everything and you should aim to hit your goal quickly and gain as many backers as possible during the first 48 hours. A campaign that gains a lot of momentum and earns a lot of early traffic and backers will get the attention of the platform and may result in your campaign being featured in a platform email, newsletter, or placed on the front page. This can be a huge boost to any campaign and help you blast through your funding goal and beyond.  

Let’s get started! The following is a proven strategy and actions to take to ensure that your campaign meets and then exceeds your funding goal for crowdfunding success.  

1. Landing Page Update‍

Your landing page has been the foundation of your email list-building efforts and the destination for your marketing funnel but it doesn’t stop working just because your campaign is live. Now is the time to update the page to let visitors know they can see your project in more detail and make a pledge. Link to your campaign directly from your landing page and keep pushing traffic.

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2. Engage Your Inner Circle‍

The people closest to you have been following your project for weeks or months and are most likely to support you. Reach out to them. Start with friends, family, and your close personal networks. They may already be on your email list but let them hear about it directly from you first. Craft a special email for your personal network and ask for their support. Send them right to the campaign and gain your first backers. 

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3. Email Marketing‍

You have spent weeks or months building your email list, now is the time to engage it. If you are using part email marketing tool, it will be easy to set up your first audience outreach campaigns.  During your planning phase, you should have created email templates that will apply to different stages of your campaign. You understand your audience profile, so speak to their needs and let them know it’s time to get behind your project. Start your email marketing just before your launch, on the day of your launch, and one week later. Let your list know it’s time to take advantage of early bird specials and launch-day deals. Get them excited and send them to your new campaign page. 

4. Outreach to Media‍

You’ve made a list and checked it twice, now it’s time to make it work for you. Blast out a press release with news of your launch and the latest details of your project. Then, reach out to journalists you have identified that would be most interested in your product. Let them know your campaign is live and send them your link. Use influencers and bloggers in your area of interest to leverage their audience to get more eyes on your project. Now is also the time to let product reviewers know that your project is online. Preferably, you have sent them a product for review several weeks or even months before your launch. It takes time for them to produce and release the content. Work with them to time the release around your launch date.

5. Get Social for organic traffic and paid ads.

Social is not just about making connections and staying in touch with old friends. It’s a digital meeting place where people learn about new products and get trusted advice from friends and people in their extended network. Engage your Facebook page and the audience you have built, and let them know it’s go-time. 

Then, boost traffic with Facebook’s extremely powerful advertising platform. Apply your audience profile to aim your ads based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. Take advantage of their excellent targeting tools so that you can deliver ads to the people most likely to back your project. Not all ad spending is equal. Test and optimize, look for the highest conversion rate on your ads then repeat what works. 

6. Engage with your Backers

‍Keep your campaign fresh, make regular updates, change up the visual assets, post behind-the-scenes information, and document your ongoing product development. Backers like to feel personally involved with the projects that they put their money behind. Respond to all questions and comments and take an interest in your backers. Be the campaign that listens and responds promptly to queries. Ask questions to encourage engagement, it’s a way of demonstrating that you are 100% committed to your backers. Build trust, and you will gain a loyal community of followers and always remember to thank your backers when they pledge.  

7. Work with the Best

‍One of the best ways to boost your campaign visibility, gain early traction, and achieve success is to work with the experts. An agency that specializes in crowdfunding can make a massive difference in making or breaking your funding goal. PledgeBox's twice-weekly newsletter has over 400K subscribers. We know what products work with different audiences and often have access to a large built-in audience that you can leverage.  We’ve already filtered our mailing lists for technology, design, and gaming categories. We have the tools and know-how to offer unique insights that can take you to the top. 

For example, we recently raised $166,184 for Haxson, $142,540 for YesWelder, and CA$40,543 for Orijin Design. As a result the spots always need to be booked in advance.

The newsletter self-appointment service is LIVE now. Follow the instruction to process your Newsletter order.

8. Create Add-Ons & Stretch Goals

‍Keep your campaign going by creating more ways for your backers to add value to their pledges. Add-Ons boost overall spending of individual backers and Stretch Goals engage with people who have already backed the project and are a great way to keep your campaign fresh, communicate with your backers, and encourage sharing.

9. Create a Referral Contest‍

People trust people that they know. If you get your backers to talk about your project with their friends, they are more likely to get interested, check out your campaign, and become a backer themselves. Give people an incentive to share your campaign with their friends, a referral contest can give you an excellent mid-campaign boost to keep your project trending. 

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Viewed from the outside, running a crowdfunding campaign can look easy. There are millions of dollars changing hands every day, turning innovative ideas into problem-solving products. However, true crowdfunding success takes a specific set of actions to achieve the goals of the campaign. Once you take that giant step and launch your campaign, keep it going! The results are well worth it.

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