There are a TON of ways to get PR attention for your Indiegogo campaign.
Before you know it, you can have articles going up on different publications around the web.
I know that trying to get a reporter to write about you can be super frustrating… especially when they won’t respond to your emails.
I’m going to walk you through several essential ways to break through the noise!
If you go about applying some of these techniques, you’ll get more press coverage for your crowdfunding campaign, and hopefully, blow past your goal on Indiegogo.
1. Develop a Relationship BEFORE You Need It
If I’m reaching you in the preparation stages of your Indiegogo campaign, awesome!
This is the best time to about forming relationships with journalists in your niche.
Why?
Because you don’t need anything from them!
You can send them a sincere complement or a genuine email commenting on their work.
We tend to do business with people that we know, like, and trust, and this extends to the realm of PR and press coverage.
Before you know it, you’ll have built up a list of journalists that know who you are and therefore will be far more receptive to your future pitch!
2. Target Relevant Publications With This Technique
Google is going to be your best friend as you’re creating a media list.
What’s that?
Basically, a media list is a list of all the relevant publications you’re going to be reaching out to with your campaign pitch.
Likely, these publications or reporters have written about this topic in the past, and maybe even covered a similar product or campaign.
One thing that I like to do is plug the name of a similar campaign or product into Google. Then, you can filter the search results by “news” or within the last six months.
You’ll quickly see which journalists have been writing about this product. They’ll be much more receptive to your pitch, because that’s the type of story they cover!
3. You Must Send Samples For Product Reviews
Gone are the days when you could have a blogger write up a product review by just checking out your demo video.
With so many failed Indiegogo campaigns, you now gotta send the blogger a sample of your product. They need to be able to play around with it before they’re gonna write about it.
If you haven’t already, I’d recommend making this a part of your budget. Have a handful of sample products that you can send out to YouTubers, bloggers, Instagram influencers, and journalists.
Once the journalist gets the product, don’t forget to ask for their genuine feedback. Everyone has a busy life. Quite simply, sometimes they’ll entirely forget about the product unless you remind them.
Journalists are interested in a STORY that will drive traffic to the overall media publication. That story doesn’t have to put your product at center. They can also write about you.
If you have a particular expertise, you can position yourself as an expert in the eyes of the media. You can:
- Comment on a story
- Share your personal journey and what you’ve learned
- Reveal a new trend in your industry
Typically, you’ll also get a chance to plug your product, project, or website.
5. Be Willing to Advertise and Promote the News Article
This is one special technique that was discussed on my podcast episode with a fellow crowdfunding expert.
Naturally, a journalist wants to look good in the eyes of their boss!
If you’re willing to advertise the article on Facebook, or if you’re willing to drive traffic via other means, then they’ll be far more likely to see the decision to write about you as a “no-brainer.”
This is one of the reasons that major media publications are more than willing to write about controversial figures and celebrities. There is a built-in audience of people interested in that news, meaning there will be plenty of traffic.
6. Send out a Press Release!
You can use a free or paid media service to send out a press release for your campaign.
This is an easy way to gain access to the email inbox of journalists that have opted-in to receive news updates. Some press release services will also syndicate your news around the web.
While a press release should not read like an advertisement, it’s actually a tad similar. You’re trying to convince a journalist to write about you based on your web copy.
To give you an example, you can send out a poorly written press release to ever journalist on earth, but it doesn’t mean you’re gonna get a story. You can also send out a well-written press release to 20 journalists and get a few stories.
7. Consider Hiring a PR Agency
A PR agency will do all of the legwork for you. They’ll write your press release, reach out to journalists, send out press releases, and do their best to get you any form of coverage.
This all sounds great, but you’re also gonna be paying a hefty fee, as you’ll be retaining the services of an expert and staff helpers.
There is the rare occasion where a PR agency has a special relationship with a blogger or a YouTuber, but in my experience, the relationship doesn’t matter as much as the story.
Now… you can honestly do everything that a PR agency does yourself.
That’s why I’ve put together a free course that walks you through how to get press coverage.
I’ll share with you some of these pitching secrets and also ways that you can get more backers for your Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaign.
8. Your Goal: Get Your Email Opened
One of the things that you will notice about online marketing is that your goals change as you go. Your first goal might be to get traffic. Once you’ve figured that out, the you’ll need to convert that traffic into leads, and finally into sales.
The same works for getting press coverage. First, you must get the journalist to actually open your email. Reporters get TONS of emails every single day. Yours can easily get lost in the heap.
Once you get that reporter to open the email, then your goal is to either get a reply or have them so intrigued about the story that they contact you.
In order to get a journalist to open your email address, you’re going to need to use an app, like Boomerang, to actually tell whether or not they have!
Otherwise, you’re flying blind. You can’t tell if your actions are effective or ineffective.
I’d recommend making your subject line similar to other articles that they’ve written in the past. The more that you personalize the message, the better.
9. Find Relevant Journalists with Images
An easy way to find relevant journalists that you can pitch regarding your Indiegogo project is to plug the image of a similar popular Indiegogo product into google.
You’ll then be able to quickly see all of the other publications that have used that image. They may have written a review of the product or announced the campaign launch.
10. Trade Up The Value Chain
This is a technique that’s very common among PR professionals. In simple terms, once you get a media hit in a smaller publication, you can use the influence of that hit to get even more hits.
You can plug the URL of that publication in an application like SimilarWeb to find sites that are similar and in the same niche. You can then reach out to them. Since you’ve been written about by a publication in the niche, the chances are higher you’ll get coverage.
Once you get a bunch of these smaller blogs to write about you, you can then bring this emerging story to a larger publication.
11. Spike Intense Emotions
The only reason that news is reported is because it spikes a high emotion in the viewer. That emotion could be:
- Fear
- Anger or outrage
- Disgust
- Happiness
- Inspiration and hope
- A feeling of similarity to the story
There are many more emotions that can get you into the media. For more, check out my course on how to get into the press.
You could strategically seek to spike one of the above emotions. Maybe your product is controversial. Maybe you have customers in the community with inspirational stories.
12. Capitalize on a Trend
Trends flow through the media landscape all of the time. Typically, a trend is a piece of news or a story that every publication is writing about. It’s a part of the global conversation.
When you attach yourself to one of these trends, you’ll instantly become relevant. You’ll also be another angle that the publication can use to highlight the trend.
These trends don’t necessarily have to be innovative or huge. You could even just capitalize on the trend around summer time to talk about beach-going products (Hint: Coolest Cooler).
13. Contribute Value
Finally, the best way to get press release coverage for your Indiegogo campaign is to contribute value to a publication. You can also contribute value to an individual reporter.
What do I mean by that?
Journalists, bloggers, and reporters are just like you and me. They’re inherently lazy.
If you can write the majority of the story for them, they’re going to see it as less work to write about you.
By this I mean… you’ve giving them a clear angle, lots of assets to make the story interesting, and even text that they can literally just copy and paste to get the job done.
Now, not every bloggers is like this. For example, if you try to write a story for me, I’m going to ignore you.
However, if you pitch me with a bullet point list of different things you can share on my podcast, I’m more likely to pay attention to you.
It gives me an idea of how the interview could go and the value that you can bring to the listenership.
Conclusion
I know that these are a lot of techniques to apply and it can almost feel overwhelming.
There are so many things that you can do to stand out on Indiegogo and other crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter.
That’s why I’ve put together this step-by-step course to show you the absolute BEST ways to get in the media and blow past your crowdfunding goal.
Believe me, you’re gonna be happy you enrolled. Just one of these techniques could mean the difference between a failed campaign or thousands of dollars raised.
