When done correctly, your crowdfunding campaign will see an influx of pledges when you go live on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.
This critical period is where many projects gain the critical mass necessary to rope in strangers, gain the attention of super backers, and get featured by the larger media.
You’ll see this spike in pledges because of the anticipation that you build up for the launch. Ideally, you have a bunch of early-adopter customers eagerly awaiting the announcement of your Kickstarter or Indiegogo project.
With this article, I’m going to outline a few different ways to accomplish this enormous task. I go into more reasons in my book, along with the different sources of pledges for crowdfunding campaigns.
1. Curiosity Leads to Anticipation
Let’s take a look at the dictionary definition of the word anticipation. Anticipation is the “the act of looking forward” to something or “pleasurable expectation.”
Before you begin to look forward to something, you first need your curiosity aroused as to what’s about to happen. It’s the same feeling that you might get waiting in line for the opening of an Apple store, wondering “what a new product is gonna be like.”
To get someone into that mental state of “anticipation” you first have to gain their attention by evoking curiosity. Curiosity is a code word for “interest” or “attention.” You gotta let them know that something is coming (and why they should care).
If you picture your customer sitting at home, they might be thinking “Hmm… I wonder what Bob is going to announce next week?”
These are a few easy ways to do this including:
- Hinting at your product, without giving away all the information.
- Secretive images or descriptions
- Saying how you’ll feel, but not why you’ll feel that way Ex. “you’ll be so surprised?”
- Showing parts of the finished process, like 3D renderings, mockups, prototypes, etc.
Rather than unveiling your product or project all at once, you’re giving someone a glimpse of what it could be. By withholding some of the information, it evokes curiosity!
This is also a great tip for when you’re your pitching your project to the media.
2. Make Attractive Promises
The next way to build anticipation leading up to a product unveiling is to make attractive promises. These should be promises that make your customers’ ears perk up.
When someone hears what you promise that your product can do (or do for them), they should think, “No way…. really?”
You’ll find that a lot of Buzzfeed headlines do this. A lot of news stations also do this before they go into a commercial. They’ll say things like “And after the commercial break, you’ll see why so many kids are getting addicted to this new game (and how to keep yours off it)”
This promise that “you’ll see why after the break” is what builds anticipation to hear the story and is what maintains your interest throughout the commercial so that you don’t go and watch another channel.
Your new invention, product, or project should DO something. It should either do something directly for your campaign backers or it changes the world in some way.
If you make attractive and bold promises leading up to the announcement, then you’ll get people to “tune in” when you go live!
P.S. The Quartz Water Bottle team did a really good job of this.
3. Build Social Buzz
Another extremely effective way to make people anticipate your launch is to build social buzz. No, I’m not talking about social media.
I’m talking about underscoring what OTHER PEOPLE are saying about your product, or how they’re behaving with regards to this upcoming announcement.
Let’s say that you’re trying to raise money to fund the mass production of a new product. You show the prototype around, and people love it!
They’re saying things like, “Oh my gosh, that’s really cool.” or “No way! Where can I get one?”
You can use these early testimonials to build even more buzz for your project. I don’t know about you, but if a ton of people are loving a movie that’s playing in theaters, then I’m definitely more likely to see it.
We use other people to help with our decision making. If other people are loving a product, we’re going to spend some time looking into it. If other people are excited, we get excited.
Anticipation Will Get You Funding
Anticipation is a very powerful emotion. It will get you funding. In fact, the entire crowdfunding campaign launch process is based on this emotion. Your product isn’t built yet, you’re just raising funds for it!
People are anticipating that once you get funding, you’ll go out there and make this bangin’ product that does all of the things you PROMISE.
Another definition of this word is the “visualization of a future event or state.” People expect that they’re going to get all of the benefits you promise when you make the product. They are visualizing their life when they have your product in their hands.
If you find this insight to be useful, then you’re gonna love the stuff that I share on my weekly newsletter. You can join that below. I also have a book out there called the Kickstarter Launch Formula which goes through easy ways to get funding.
Drop me a line and let me know a little bit about you and your project. I want you to seriously think about how you can build anticipation into your launch.
Let me know what you come up with!
