In an earlier post on creating a successful crowdfunding campaign, I wrote about the differences between some of the major crowdfunding platforms, and what we as filmmakers should keep in mind when choosing which site may be the best crowdfunding platform to use. I wrote about Kickstarter as the main example of a platform that relies on the all or nothing approach, Indiegogo as a platform that opens the door to what is often called the flexible funding model (where you as a filmmaker get to keep whatever you raise, regardless of whether or not you reach your funding goal) and Tubestart, a smaller startup that offers both of these options as well as a recurring payments option. as well as an interesting “pledge” model which allows backers to opt for a system that charges them each time new content appears on your YouTube channel. As we dig deeper into the weeds, though, there is a much bigger issue for anyone who is choosing to incorporate crowdfunding into their strategy, because choosing a platform is hardly a guarantee of success. It doesn’t even get you to square one. When it comes to tips for crowdfunding, as important as the choice of platform is, the real issue is how you’re going to get traffic and dollars to your campaign. We’re talking about the difference between having a tricked out home theater and whether or not you’ll just end up watching movies by yourself. Kind of apples and oranges.
So let’s talk about a successful crowdfunding campaign and crowdfunding strategies.
A successful crowdfunding campaign depends on a powerful prelaunch
The truth about a successful crowdfunding campaign is this: it all comes down to the prelaunch – the weeks or, even better, months before your crowdfunding campaign goes live. If you are planning… And I use that word loosely… To just throw out a crowdfunding campaign and see what happens, you are going to fail. You will not be the one in ten million potato salad viral success stories. If you’re telling yourself you’re more of a big picture, fly by the seat of your pants person and details aren’t your thing, get ready to join the crowd of crowdfunders who are disillusioned with crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a business, and like any business, it needs a business plan.
The prelaunch involves a lot more than filling out the essay boxes and routing system for your donations. A successful prelaunch boosts your chances of asuccessful crowdfunding campaign because you begin with buzz, and will give you the head start you need to put the odds of success in your favor.
Evaluate, really evaluate, the strength of your social media
If you have fewer than 500 Facebook friends.fans and fewer than 10,000 Twitter followers, you need to face the reality that you have a tough slog ahead of you (and if you’ve purchased those Twitter followers, it doesn’t count), and that your personal social media may only be a secondary player in a successful crowdfunding campaign when it comes to your crowdfunding strategies. Studies have shown that you are likely to have only one to five engaged followers on Twitter for ever 1,000 people who follow you. That does not bode well for your campaign if you are relying on social media for success.
However, tThe silver lining around this rather dark cloud is that you can at least directly engage the committed followed you do have, because you likely know who they are. You will need to take a hard look at who regularly shows up on your Facebook feed and who regularly responds to your tweets. Those people should be part of your advance guard for your campaign.
Don’t just live in the cloud
Are you planning to throw a prelaunch party? If not, why not? Prelaunch parties are essential to your successful crowdfunding campaign. They help provide a concrete place for people to be, to have fun and to donate to your campaign at a specific time. Your prelaunch or launch party should be timed to a New Year’s Eve style countdown moment where everyone there can donate the moment your campaign goes live. When your campaign begins with a sizable percentage of the goal already met in the first few minutes, it creates buzz on the platform, not to mention a sense of buy-in from your backers, a sense that they are part of a suchssful crowdfunding campaign.
Not just your boots on the ground
Who is helping promote a successful crowdfunding campaign in addition to yourself? If the answer is “I’m not sure,” you need to go back to the drawing board. If you’re a filmmaker, this is a no-brainer. Your crew is your tam, and they should be working the room, both virtual and real, as hard as you, and if they don’t want to… well, you have bigger issues. During my last Kickstarter campaign, my cinema photographer worked his social media contacts and his professional networks as much as I did, and we achieved a successful crowdfunding campaign with days to spare before the deadline.For the lifespan of a successful crowdfunding campaign, even before that campaign begins, everyone should know where they’re going to go to get backers, what the average pledge from those backers should be and when they’re going to pull the trigger on getting those backers onboard… as well as getting them to be new preachers for your gospel.
You should also make it one of highest priorities to have at least one persona in the media part of those boots on the ground. I use the word “media” broadly, because when we’re talking about media coverage for your campaign, we’re not talking about the New York Times. We’re talking bloggers Tumblrs, winners and posters. You’re reaching out for that magic and buzziest of words… Influencers. And I think you know this, but it bears repeating, crowdfunding is a buyer’s market, especially when it comes to publicity. I blog (doesn’t everyone) and even for my relatively small audience, I get pitched by crowdfunding creators three to five times a week. I could run a piece every day on a different crowdfunding campaign if I wanted, and so could everyone else.
But you gotta do it. And you gotta do the legwork. Choose your bloggers, tweeters, pinners and chatters carefully. Nobody wants to hear there are no shortcuts… but there are no shortcuts. Take the time well in advance of your campaign to get to know the content of your target media writers. When you contact them, it at least increases the odds somewhat that you aren’t just mass emailing them as part of a solicitation to 1,000 sources you downloaded from a krowdster.com list you purchased.
I hope you’ve absorbed the overall points that have been woven into each element I’m writing about. You certainly can cut corners and get your crowdfunding campaign launched, and many do. You can hope for the best by hoping that lightning will strike in the world of viral success, and many people do. And your campaign could very well fail because of these half measures… And many do.
But if you take the time to manage your prelaunch, the campaign part of crowdfunding could be the easiest part of the whole process, and you’ll be able to count yourself as one of the few, the proud, the successful crowdfunding campaign planners.
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