How to… Inspire Contributors in Crowdfunding

Looking to inspire contributors with your crowdfunding campaign? Well, you’ve come to the right place! 

So you have your wonderful idea bubbling away in the back of your mind, and now you need the funds for it to reach the next stage of its development. You stumble across Pozible and know this is the right place to gain your funding.

So, how do you make the most of your time on Pozible? By inspiring contributors! Here are a couple of tips and tricks on how to help make that inspiration flow!

FIRST and FOREMOST: Treat your time on Pozible like a project within itself

Creating enough verve and excitement so that people wish to support your project takes time every single day your Pozible campaign is running. Just like a creative project, it requires time and effort and attention to detail. Part and parcel of making your campaign a success is making sure you have the time and effort for the following:

a)      Getting over the stigma of asking for help. That may sound silly, but especially if this is your first project, it can be really intimidating plugging yourself to your friends and colleagues, let alone asking them to support your project financially. Make sure you are able to do so without cringing, stalling or giving up otherwise you significantly decrease your chances of success. Be brave, believe in your idea and be assured that if you know you’re on the right track, people will follow you if you project that.

b)      Using Social media. Don’t just assume going onto Twitter once and a while or occasionally linking your project on Facebook will cut the mustard.  It won’t. You need to allow time to identify proper targets on Twitter who may be interested in sharing your project and establish contact with them. You also need to Tweet and Facebook every day as a minimum, but also make them count. Use social media prior to your campaign to ask people about what rewards you should give, to tell them what you are doing, to ask them if they will back you if you are on Pozible. Use it during as a way of thanking people, updating on progress and generally keeping them involved in the process.

c)        Creating and following a marketing plan. Think of your marketing and plan it out before you kick off your campaign. That way you can manage the lifecycle of your project on Pozible more efficiently. Take into account things that may tie in during that timeframe and make use of them. Don’t just get to a stage where you need crowdfunding and then just jump in without planning it out. Marketing is a creative pursuit and the ONLY way you will stand out is if you use creative and innovative ways of tapping into an audience you understand and can speak to. If you don’t think of it in the proper terms and do it “just because” as you go along, you will not reach the audience you want in the way you intend.

d)       Blogging, updating and thanking. As your supporters begin to drop coin into your project updating them, blogging and thanking them becomes part of not only taking care of those who have contributed to your project, but also inspiring others to do more of the same. It can be great to talk about your journey thus far with your project and explore aspects of it with people, or you can equate the current dollar amount of your funding total with what that provides for your project. Or you can simply share how the support makes you feel and what it inspires you to do in the future. Tell your story!

e)      Being a little bit obsessed with your project. Live it, love it, become it. When something asks you what you have been up to or how you are, relate to your project. If someone gives you $5, shower them with praise and love as soon as you can. Keep following your marketing plan but also be in tune enough to know what your audience is responding to in case you need to change tack. Think of new and creative ways to get the social media word out there. Become a champion of your own cause.

SECONDLY: Push the envelope

Guess what? Being successful creatively means either being a shameless self promoter, or getting someone to do it for you. At this point in time, it’s up to you! But there is no shame in adopting the following ideas to get the word out there about your project:

  • Going to events that tap into your project and promoting it
  • Leveraging old contacts from previous creative projects and letting them know what you are up to
  • Emailing old uni, school or work buddies and telling them the “where are you now?” story of the awesome project you are doing
  • Plugging into the old alumni. University’s love hearing stories about ex-graduates- write your own press release and send it to your favourite lecturer (no matter where they teach now), your old uni, the department you did your degree under and the uni newspaper telling them what you are up to
  • Contacting places where you have done short courses or volunteer/intern work
  • Telling family not to give you birthday or Christmas presents, sending your project URL and asking for a contribution instead
  • Speaking to your boss and create a “swear” jar at work which can be given in the company’s name as support to your project
  • Approaching community radio and TV, SBS and ABC and let them know about your project. You’d be surprised at how many will help with some publicity
  • Creating “Super Supporters” amongst your potential supporters. The more people who have incentive to push your project for you, the wider your net will get- so don’t be afraid to offer a reward for getting the word out there (it works for Tupperware!)
  • Creating your own line of “support me” stickers, badges and tee shirts that you and the people involved in your project can wear. Any Spotlight store has all the kit and caboodle you need to make yourselves a temporary team uniform
  • Baking cupcakes with your projects name on it and giving them to people who contribute at places like work, school or uni and making a show of it
  • Making people feel awesome because what they have done for you is a huge favour… it is!

THIRDLY: Remember it isn’t over til it’s over.

In the immortal words of Yoda “there is no try!” Be prepared to commit yourself to the funding lifecycle and go, go, go. The worst thing that can happen is you don’t reach your target, the best is that you exceed it. So make the most out of the time you have. Keep plugging away as much as you have to in order to get the desired result.

After all, isn’t that what being creative is all about?