Good news – more artists are raising money than ever before using crowdfunding!
I’ve had a lot of them come on my podcast and share exactly how they’re doing it.
When it comes to crowdfunding, your fundraising strategy will differ depending on the category you launch it.
What I mean is that if you’re raising money for a technology gadget, then your marketing campaign will look very different from an artist’s crowdfunding campaign (see the stats).
That being said, you might end up wasting a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to launch a killer campaign, only to have it all go to waste.
Rather than going down that path, I want to save you a lot of time by sharing some of the effective crowdfunding tips that I’ve collected over the years for artists, creative types, and musicians.
These are surefire strategies for raking in more funds, without having to spend too much extra money on marketing. If you’re on a budget, you’ll want to read through this article in-depth.
1. Show, Don’t Tell
At the end of the day, what are people buying?
As pleasant as your personality may be, they’re probably not paying attention to you for it, like the way people will watch talk shows just to hear witty banter.
Likely, they aren’t paying you for your advice either. Most people will listen to music, look at art, or read poems to get away from the monotony of their daily routine.
So… what are they buying when they consume your art?
They’re buying an emotional experience!
Rather than logically explaining what your project is that you’re trying to raise money for, you should first seek to arouse their emotions. You do this by showing off your existing art, and showing them some of the cool ideas that you have in store to take it to the next level.
If someone doesn’t know you and has never experienced your art before, then they probably aren’t going to be willing to fork over $25 for it. Right?
The only way you can turn strangers into fans is to give them a taste of what they’re missing. That’s why bands are happy to let DJs play their music for free on the radio. Yes, they’ll make a little money, but really it sells concert ticks and fuels album sales.
You can give people a sample taste of your art by:
- Embedding video or audio into your crowdfunding page
- Curating high quality images that show off your work
- Giving people a behind-the-scenes look at your creative process
- Show the reaction to your work, be that crowds of people, facial expressions, or testimonials.
For example, take the Saint Vitus Stays Home Kickstarter project, which has raised over $90k.
These guys not only pitched their project, but they also gave a particular “feel” to their project, showcasing some cool images.
You can see all the people they are playing for, and a very simple testimonial to remind people why their work is valuable.
They did this throughout the project. It really instantly makes you think back to memories that you may have had attending their concerts.
All of the above ideas are designed to reel viewers into what you’re doing. To peak their curiosity a bit so they want to learn more about this new project that you’re launching.
This is one of the easy and effective techniques that you’ll find in the Artist’s Guide to Crowdfunding Domination, written by Ian Anderson.
Have you ever been to an artist exhibit? A museum? What about gone to see an Opera?
Before doing any of these activities, you’ll read up a bit first on the artist you’re seeing. You’ll learn about the significance of the work, what its influences are, and the underlying themes of the pieces.
By doing this, you actually increase your appreciation for the artwork, and hence you enjoy the experience more. Similarly, when you give potential backers a bit of context about your work, it will allow them to appreciate it more.
2. Build a Launch Coalition
It’s in the nature of a creative type to want to go it alone. It’s one of the aspects that’s so appealing about the creative life. As a writer, painter, or musician, you only need your instrument to create art.
However, many of these solo acts also go unnoticed by society. Writers like Edgar Allen Poe or painters like Vincent Van Gouh weren’t recognized in their time. This is because they didn’t have a coalition behind them.
Contrast those remarkable artists with the creative celebrities who are famous now a days. I’m referring to the singers, bands, and writers that we all hear about. What do they all have in common? They have a team behind them!
A launch coalition, or crowdfunding street team, will serve a few purposes including:
- Diving up the work of setting up the campaign
- Diversifying outreach techniques and strategies
- Giving you a larger net to cast your reach
- Help maintain the momentum behind the crowdfunding fundraiser
I’m going to be real with you.
It’s a lot of work to put together a good crowdfunding campaign. You need the video, story, rewards, marketing strategy, pr outreach, and the list goes on
Instead of having the weight of all of these tasks on your shoulders, you can divide up the big project into smaller bits and assign them to members of your team. This makes the process much more manageable.
Now, you don’t have to be an expert at everything. You just have to focus on being good at the one thing you’re going to do. Maybe that’s writing the campaign text, or being in the pitch video.
A crowdfunding coalition fundamentally will give your project a stronger foundation so that you raise more money, attract more backers, and get more exposure for your work.
To get started, all that you need to do is break out a notepad and start writing down the people that you think could help with your campaign. You can also bring in external help with coaches and consultants.
3. Master The Video Pitch
Every crowdfunding campaign has a video that is used to explain the project, sell the story, and get potential backers interested in what you’re trying to do.
There is a step-by-step formula for putting this together, which I documented in the Kickstarter Launch Formula. But, let’s explore a little bit of what we already know.
When it comes to the video pitch, you’re going to want to keep the length around 3 minutes and to use a few different visual devices to keep people’s attention engaged. These include:
- B-Roll to visualize your storytelling
- Music to encourage emotional response
- Multiple camera angles to maintain attention
- Simple transitions to add production appeal
It’s not enough to just create a talking-head style video. That type of video, when selling a product, will not maintain someone’s attention (unless you’re a selling wiz).
The video pitch should point out some of the benefits of the product that you’re bringing into the world. If that product is a new album, why are the songs any different? How will they make you feel?
Along with touching on the meat of the project, great videos also include an element of storytelling, where you’re sharing just why you’re so passionate about this new thing. The story helps strangers resonate with you, even if they don’t know you.
Storytelling is an easy way to create a relationship with someone who doesn’t know you, because that individual will feel the emotions that you felt in a particular situation.
For example, if I was trying to tell you why I wrote a book called the Kickstarter Launch Formula, I could go the logical route and just say… I wrote the book to bring new crowdfunding tips and strategy to the world.
That logical explanation isn’t all that compelling. It’s kinda dry. The way you might sell a textbook.
How would the appeal change if I was to tell you a story…
I wrote the book the Kickstarter Launch Formula because I freakin’ frustrated. When entered the industry, back in 2012, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how these six and seven figure crowdfunding campaigns raised so much money.
It was a big mystery. I had so many readers sending me emails with one word…. HOW!?!
No one else was putting out quality education on this subject, and because of my readers, I felt an obligation to figure out the real answer.
I spent the next six years documenting Kickstarter launches, interviewing creators, and tracking the tools, resources, and strategies that these crowdfunders used.
Some days, I would be up until midnight, working seven days a week.
Eventually, I began to unearth pieces of the puzzle. Over time, I actually discovered a formula behind all of the successful crowdfunding raises. Every single project touched on this simple step-by-step process that anyone can use.
That’s what birthed the Kickstarter Launch Formula.
Then…. I met Ian Anderson, who infused these ideas with his own and created a comprehensive strategy specifically for artists and creative types.
He called it the Artist’s Guide to Crowdfunding Domination. It’s a complete game changer!
So…. telling you that true story was much more interesting than just logically explaining what my book is. Right!?
This is the power of storytelling. If you don’t include it in your pitch video, make sure you do in your campaign text.
4. Create a Compelling Offer
Your “offer” is synonymous with your perks or rewards when it comes to a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign. It’s what you’re offering people when they become a backer of your crowdfunding project.
This is probably the most overlooked part of the entire shebang. A lot of artists just grab low hanging fruit, like the idea of offering mugs or t-shirts.
The truly successful creative types (like this one) are able to harness their creative mind to come up with interesting rewards that make you perk your ears up when you hear about them.
For example, I had one creator on my podcast show who raised $327,407 from 3,998 backers for MURDER BY DEATH’S NEW ALBUM “THE OTHER SHORE.”
They held a real CAVE concert. Literally, a concert in an actual cave. That’s pretty original.
If you don’t plan to offer anything original, at least make sure that you make it sound cool. One of the rewards for this Kickstarter campaign was a “BADASS 12’ WHISKY CREW PATCH.” Dive into that literary vocabulary and find a unique way to position your rewards.
Along with simply listing out the rewards that you’re offering, make sure that you also include images to make it “more real.” This increases the perceived value of the rewards. It makes backers feel like they’re really getting something when they pledge to your project.
You can go as far as creating an entire graphic that displays what the rewards look like at each tier, to make it easier for backers to make a decision. Who knows, you can even “suggest” a tier, where they will get the most bang for their buck.
After looking through the project, your potential backers should feel like when they give you $50, they’re getting $150 worth of value. Not only that, but this is an exclusive experience that won’t happen again. It’s a limited time for them to become a part of your project.
I’ll tell you a little secret.
Most people who like what you’re doing probably want to give you money.
I mean, heck, if I was a billionaire, I would have no problem giving money for many of the “offers” that I come across.
If someone resonates with your crowdfunding video, then they probably already emotionally want to become a part of your project. Only, something is holding them back.
Their critical faculty is stopping them from making a dumb decision. Logic will step in and say “Wait… hold up! Let’s see if we’re getting a good deal.”
If there was no logical faculty, then all you would have to do is make someone want something, and they would instantly buy it. But, humans don’t work that way.
A potential backer must make senes of your offer. Otherwise, they’ll feel like they’re not getting a good deal or that something is off. They won’t be able to wrap their head around it, and out of confusion, will not take action.
Make an irresistible offer, and supporters won’t be able to resist becoming a part of your project.
5. Take The Job of Your Label/Publisher/Agency
As an independent artist, you don’t have to go through a major label, publishing company, or other form of intermediary in order to get your work out there. Isn’t it a blessing?
Except, those intermediaries do provide a service. Typically, they handle the marketing and promotion for the “talent.” They line up radio or podcast interviews. They pay for advertising and help with distribution.
If you’re not making use of those services, then you gotta form them yourself. You’re basically firing the intermediary, but now you have to take their place. You have to be the one tooting your own horn.
Thankfully, there is a bit of a marketplace dynamic on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, so you won’t have to fully do this. But, you certainly must jumpstart the fundraising process for your crowdfunding campaign.
This can be difficult to do if you’re a creative type and one of the reasons I recommend following a blueprint for setting up your page and your marketing strategy.
Basically, you need to take off your artist hat and put on your marketing/business hat.
I think that Wendy Ice is a great example of this. She really led the charge when it came to her Alice in Wonderland book, which raised $83,732 on Kickstarter.
She documented this in an in-depth blog post, but basically, her work enabled her husband to be able to reach more fans than he ever imagined possible. She wrote a very interesting article on the topic of Symbiotic Patronage, which you can read here.
6. Harness The Power of Facebook Ads
A lot of creative types that I come across are great one one platform. They may have a big email list, twitter following, or have lots of fans on Facebook.
The good news is that no matter what platform you are strongest on, you can make use of Facebook ads to reach your existing fans and new ones.
For example, a month or two before you launch your project, you can run a FB ad campaign to get more likes on your page, and then invite everyone who likes your page into a personal Facebook group where you do livestreams, share your art, and eventually launch your project.
You could install a Facebook pixel on your website and then re-target everyone on your website. You’d ask them to join a pre-launch email list which you would draw on when you go live with your crowdfunding campaign.
You could even simply do a boosted post to make sure that everyone that likes your Facebook page will see the announcement that you have, which is that you’re coming out with a new project.
Facebooks ads result in guaranteed traffic, but ads don’t guarantee conversions. That’s up to you, and that’s where the secret sauce really comes in.
How disappointing would it be to send 10,000 visitors to your page, only to have none of them convert into backers? That would be a lot of money spent for ineffective results.
It’s not terribly difficult to get eyeballs onto something new. All that takes is an investment in ads. It’s hard to get people to act. To get them to do what you want.
There are so many ways that you can make use of Facebook ads, but unless you do it intelligently, you might end up wasting a lot of money. I’d recommend getting some help on this if you don’t know what you’re doing.
7. Copy What’s Already Working
I can’t say this enough.
When you first dive into the marketing and crowdfunding field, you’re going to be inundated with lots of strategies, service providers, experts, etc.
The best thing that you can do is go deep on a few, and when it comes to marketing, do more of what’s already working.
Most campaigns will see 2-3 major revenue streams work in their favor. For some projects, it’s email marketing. For other’s it’s Facebook. For some, it’s the fact they’re trending in the Kickstarter or Indiegogo marketplace.
Double down on what’s working. It’s the best return on investment for your time spent, and your money invested.
For example, if you don’t believe that you’re going to be able to wrap your head around the marketing of your project, then focus on the creative side. Focus on the video and the illustrations for the page. Let someone else handle the marketing, or follow a proven plan that works to get funding.
It’s really that simple.
When a creator fails to do this, they usually will end up waiting money on strategies that don’t bring extra revenue into their project. They also typically will be very inefficient when it comes to completing tasks that are out of their comfort zone.
Everyone’s resources and budget are different. Use them wisely.
This axiom also extends to your research efforts when looking into other projects. If you see one that is similar to yours on one of these crowdfunding platforms, then pay attention to what they did right!
Why not even go so far as to reach out to the creator and ask them? Back their project and see how they do communications.
If your page design, reward tier structuring, and video doesn’t match up to theirs, chances are that you have some room for improvement.
You can use the crowdfunding campaign pages of other creative types as inspiration for your own work. Why not? You can already see how much money they raised, and even get analytics using simple apps like BiggerCake or Kicktraq to really see how their funding meter progressed over time.
I hope you found this article to be helpful, and if you did, I think you’ll love Artist’s Guide to Crowdfunding Domination by Ian Anderson. You can pick up a copy here.
It’s really good! Some of the best work out there in this field. Promise!
