Are you currently running a Crowdfunding campaign? Is the campaign falling short of your goals and expectations? If so, you may need some tips and advice that could get your campaign out of a rut to reach the desired funding goal.
There are a couple of different scenarios that campaigns can face while running:
- It starts well, but you lose the traction slowly over time.
- The campaign does not get any traction at first, then after some paid marketing advertisement, the campaign starts to gain real traction.
In the second scenario, you will need to continue to get as much traction to the campaign as possible, as you may be behind on the campaign, to begin with. It is not easy to reach the funding goal for the Crowdfunding campaigns, as over 60% of campaigns are subject to failure on such platforms as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Keeping this in mind, this article will also be applicable to your situation as well.
If you are in the first scenario, it is very hard to keep and make sure that your campaign will gain the right traction that is needed to succeed. You have probably made the right decision to run a proper pre-launch campaign in order to gain the appropriate amount of attention to the campaign before the launch date in order to get a substantial amount of donations on the first day for the campaign.
After using the correct method to reach your first donations, you could potentially be experiencing a dip or decline in the donations that you are receiving. Why is this? There could be several reasons, some obvious, and some not so clear. It is good to first understand how platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo provide more backers to your campaign.
Understand the popular Crowdfunding platforms
If you are using a platform like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or perhaps GoFundMe, you may realize that they’re promoting specific campaigns. The campaigns which are being promoted may not be your top picks, but they are the ones that are going viral. These platforms do their best to be perceived as the marketplace that is the most popular with successful campaigns. Their duty is to only display the campaigns that have the highest chances of succeeding. This is why you will see specific campaigns on the home page of the site. They want to direct their audience to promising products and services as they also want to deliver the best experience to their backers as well. If you have not already been featured on the platform, you may not likely be featured unless you get more traction, and are near to the funding goal.
If you are a campaign creator that has experienced scenario #1 as mentioned above, you will likely not be able to get the type of attention that is required in order to gain the spot for your campaign on the popular platform. This is why it is best to use other platforms such as Reach since you can get on the home page and receive free marketing for the campaign if you are a legitimate potentially successful campaign, even if you are not viral at first. Now that you understand how the platforms will work, how do you gain more traction without the help of the platform?
Methods for gaining traction
If you have not already tried it, one main method is to use a paid advertisement. There are many different media platforms that offer the opportunity to target a specific person or group of people that may be interested in your product. These methods can work if you are using them correctly. For example, there are advertising strategies called re-targeting ads. This could be useful for those that are in scenario #1 where you are losing traction. Typically, someone will not buy the first time, they may need to be asked several times before they buy or donate to the campaign. You now have the opportunity to ask that person who may have seen your campaign and thought about donating to the campaign to donate again. This way you can capture more of the donors that were “on the fence” to at least take another look at the campaign and increase your chances to get another donation. They may have seen the campaign when it was first starting with little support, but now that you have more donations, they may consider contributing. This is one of the best strategies that you can employ to get another surge of donations before the end of the campaign.
In addition to retargeting those who have seen your campaign in the past and did not donate, you can also ask the backers who have already supported you to support you again and offer more incentive for them to give you a second donation. This is also effective since these people have already been interested in the campaign.
Besides embarking on the mission to find new backers. It may be best to save your campaign by relying on those who have donated to the campaign, and those who have already seen the campaign. Finding new backers is not as easy as it sounds, this is why you can use the strategies mentioned here to save your campaign from failing.