It’s no secret that social media is a powerful tool in your crowdfunding marketing arsenal.
In fact, if you’re not using social media to its fullest advantage, you severely risk falling behind.
Here at CrowdCrux, we recommend budgeting about 20-30% of your funding goal for marketing. But the beauty of social media is that you can also drive organic traffic that doesn’t cost a dime.
And in this article, we’re giving you 7 proven ways to do so.
You’ll come away with strategies to get dedicated followers who are primed to back your campaign by the time you click ‘Go Live!’
Let’s dive right in!
1. Get a Healthy Head Start
When it comes to executing your Kickstarter or Indiegogo pre-launch strategy, it’s all about planning ahead.
Most successful campaigns get to work 3-6 months (or more) in advance.
Why?
Because it takes time to build an organic following. You don’t want to be the Instagram account that has 18 followers when your campaign is live. You want to build social proof.
As soon as you can, create a Facebook Page, Facebook Group, and Instagram account — at minimum. You could also consider using platforms like Twitter, SnapChat, Pinterest, and Tik Tok if you believe that they could be good mediums for communicating your messaging.
2. Deliver Value Through Social Media
Why do people follow brands on social media?
For one of two reasons:
- To learn
- To be entertained
You can’t just post pictures of your prototypes and expect people to care. Instead, you have to deliver value through your accounts — which is primarily done through content marketing.
Post entertaining, funny, and engaging video content. Direct people to blog posts and articles that communicate relevant information and ideas.
When people feel like your brand is interesting and/or informative, it becomes bigger than the product itself. You assert yourself as a trusted resource that makes people feel good. Capitalize on that opportunity, and you’ll see more followers fast!
Especially on platforms such as Instagram that are so visually-focused, it can be tempting to post content without critically evaluating your captions.
Don’t make this mistake.
You should put specific keywords relating to your product / business in both your captions and your bio.
It also helps the algorithm if you set a location.
And of course, you gotta hammer those hashtags. Instagram allows you to use a maximum of 30 hashtags on each post. Use them all.
You never know what hashtag someone could be exploring before stumbling upon your account. That could then lead to a follow, which could lead to backing your campaign. Every backer matters. So even if you’re at 23 hashtags and you can’t think of another, keep brainstorming.
4. Direct People to Other Channels
Let’s say you’ve just obtained a follower on Instagram. That’s great. But, you want to keep on moving that person through the sales funnel.
That’s why you should always be cross-promoting with your content to direct people to the Facebook Group, email list, etc.
A simple way to do this is to use a tool such as LinkTree, which allows you to post multiple links in your bio. Some things that you could include:
- Your website or landing page
- An email opt-in
- The Facebook Page / Facebook Group
- Content Marketing materials such as blog posts
Make it as easy as possible for your followers to find more ways that they can get involved!
5. Team Up Through Cross Promotion
A great way to attract organic followers is through cross promotion. This can be done by teaming up with:
- Your personal social accounts. Ask your core circle to go follow your exciting entrepreneurial venture!
- Other businesses / brands in your niche who aren’t direct competitors. Ask them to post about you, and in return, offer to do the same.
- Influencers. Some of these might charge you a little bit to promote your social accounts, but these trusted voices can mean a big dump of eager followers looking to be on the cutting-edge of whatever niche you’re operating in.
Cross-promotion is important in social media, but it’s also important once you go live. To learn more about cross-promoting your campaign, visit this article.
6. Engage Your Audience
You’ve heard it before but we’ll say it again: it’s all about engaging your audience.
So how do you do this?
- Encourage people to comment with their thoughts / opinions. And then, respond to each comment.
- Ask questions that evoke emotional responses. (e.g. How will you put this amazing product to work to solve X problem in your life?)
- Do a give-away that incentivizes people to take action.
- Once a week, tag each new member in a post in the Facebook group welcoming them to the community, and thank them for their support.
- Directly message people who are highly active in the group / comments section, and ask that they be an ambassador for your brand. People like to feel like they’re contributing!
An engaged audience is a passionate audience.
And a passionate audience leads to conversions!
7. Call Upon the Experts
At the end of the day, if you don’t feel totally comfortable with social media, it can be a great investment to hire someone who is trained to manage your brand’s accounts.
This can be done by hiring a freelancer through platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
Or, you could team up with a crowdfunding marketing agency that knows what it takes to execute a successful campaign social media strategy.
Conclusions
We hope that this article has been helpful for you in identifying strategies to grow an organic audience for your Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or equity crowdfunding campaign.
Here at CrowdCrux, we specialize in all things crowdfunding marketing and pre-launch, including social media.
Use us as a resource as you embark on your crowdfunding journey. Here’s some things that could help you out:
- Subscribe to the CrowdCrux email newsletter and Youtube Channel for all the best insider tips, tricks, and secrets.
- Check out the Crowdfunding Demystified Podcast and this book for interviews with wildly successful creators who have run six-figure campaigns.
- For in-depth insights on an A to Z crowdfunding strategy, check out: The Kickstarter Launch Formula — through this book or this course.
You could also book a coaching call with founder of CrowdCrux Salvador Briggman — who has helped tons of campaigns just like yours smash their funding goals.
Good luck with your crowdfunding journey!
