Over the course of our 100 Kickstarters to Learn From series, Levi and I have interviewed close to 200 artists and two of their main concerns are:
- What to do when you don’t have a fan base, and
- How to best use social media in your Crowdfunding Campaign.
These are highly valid concerns, and I’m guessing you’ve had these thoughts.
But the answer to your concerns is surprisingly simple.
As a matter of fact, the answer is so easy that if I were to tell you the biggest mistake that musicians make in driving traffic to their Crowdfunding Campaign, you might not believe me…
First-time Crowdfunders’ Biggest Mistake
They place too much emphasis on developing assets that they don’t have instead of concentrating on the assets they do have.
In other words, they try to court strangers (people they have no preexisting connection to) instead of simply reaching out and contacting their inner circles: family, friends, and turbo fans.
The people most likely to back your project are those who are most likely to get your back in everyday life.
Go ahead. Smack yourself on the forehead and say, “Duh, gee!”
Without a doubt, spending your effort on your inner circles will bear the greatest return of all your funding efforts.
3 Ways to Drive the Best Traffic to Your Funding Project
It’s not so much about using social media in your campaign as it is about reaching those people who are already connected to you.
Amazingly, you don’t even need a mailing list or an existing “fanbase” to successfully crowdfund! You already know the people who will fund the large majority of your goal amount, so now you need to focus on getting them to your project page with the intention of backing you.
Here’s how…
1) TALK IN PERSON
Talk to those closest to you in person if at all possible.
Give them a chance to understand your purpose, passion and vision.
Use the discussion not only as a way to introduce people to your Campaign but also as an opportunity to refine your story.
2) TALK BY PHONE
You undoubtedly will not have time to track down your 100 closest friends and family for in person discussions.
The next level is contacting them by phone.
It is important to take the time to make contact because these are the people who already believe in you; you just need them to buy into your current project as they digest your story.
It is also important that you practice your Call to Action during these conversations.
Be absolutely certain to let them know specifically how they can support you by telling them where to find your project, when they can find it, and what to do when they visit it.
3) PERSONAL EMAIL or MESSAGE
Of the three, this is simultaneously the lowest and highest priority.
It is the lowest in the sense that you should be doing your best to contact your inner circles face to face or by phone.
It it the highest in that, even if you have talked to them face to face, you should deliver a personal email or message that either introduces or reiterates your Campaign and delivers your Call to Action.
This should be as personal as practically possible, NOT just a form letter or mass Cc to your address book.
Completing These Steps WILL Help You
Once you have worked your way through your inner circles using these three techniques, you should feel like dancing around and giving yourself high fives!
For one, you will gain backers to your Campaign. Remember, these are the people most likely to convert from viewer to backer and propel your Campaign to success!
Second, your inner circles will give you support and encouragement that will flat out feel awesome!
Why?
You’ve been plotting and scheming in your head for months. The first time you get the idea out of your head and talk to people about it can be earth shattering. Their excitement is contagious and it will give you a much needed confidence boost.
Now Get to Work!
While the basic idea of a Crowdfunding Campaign is simple, the actual execution can feel surprisingly complex.
But don’t overthink it.
Engineering a ground-breaking social media strategy is not likely to happen. Your inner circles coming through for you is.
No matter what your project looks like, make sure you contact your inner circles personally through face to face conversation, by phone, or by email.
Oh gee my own friends and family, now why didn’t I think a that? Duh. Lol Fail.
you’d be surprised just how many campaigns fail b/c they don’t. no, it’s not rocket science but people who skip friends and family, for whatever reason, are skipping the group of people with the absolute highest likelihood of backing. we have to remind artists of this more often than not.
Not everyone has family and friends, many people are too poor. So just a few are lucky, top 1%
The whole reason I started a campaign was because so many people around me were asking about were to get my product and how much they loved it, where can they get it, etc. So, I started a campaign and I felt so hopeful about it. Not one of them donated anything and I think there are several issues involved from not wanting to use a credit card on a website, not currently having the funds, wanting the product when it is done, saying they will but they keep putting it off (and not all of us like to chase our friends and family for money) etc.
So, I guess you have to have friends and family who are the approachable type. Truth is, for some of us it is going to be easier to market to complete strangers than to family and friends because strangers don’t know us so it is easier.
With crowdfunding, however, I’m learning that unless you have a ton of supporters your campaign looks like a dud so strangers are less likely to support it.. So I guess the point is that a person shouldn’t start a campaign unless they have a warm circle of friends and family to support them who can kick things off and then strangers can come in and help after there your campaign shows it has a few backers.
Great Tips! Thanks.
If you don’t mind, I am a young entrepreneur trying to make my campaign happen, Would be great if you guys pay visit and support. http://igg.me/at/Kainda/x/6424983
we deal pretty exclusively with music so don’t have much to say about personal care products but good luck giselle!
Very sound advice! I have been spending too much time trying to attract new people, but I’m going to take your advice and start contacting my peeps today!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/206676344/shawni-westmorelands-full-length-album
Hi Ian,
Very informative. It’s true you need to remind campaign owners not to forget the close ones. You might want to take a look at my Indiegogo campaign. It’s an awesome new NFC tag, with customization.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/wafer-an-inexpensive-customizable-nfc-tag-sticker/
(sarcastic) Dang you’re right, it sure isn’t what I thought…>DDDDDDDDDDDDDUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHH
I think that idea works if you’ve got a good family and good social circle around you, but there are plenty of people who had the misfortune of growing up with bad or unsupportive family members and don’t have many friends. So that idea only works if you’re lucky enough to have both things going for you. Sadly, there’s quite a bit of people in which those options don’t exist.
You are right about that, good point! In the end, doesn’t really matter if somebody is family, a friend, a fan or some combination. If you know the well enough to speak to them , you can’t forget them.
But so many musicians get caught up in the game of “getting in front of more people” and forget to talk to the people they already know who are THE MOST LIKELY to back the campaign in the first place.
Thanks for your thought!
Hey this is great when your own people support your campaign. What do you do when they don’t support you? Please look at my campaign and let me know what can be done to make my dream come true.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1890958854/altino-brothers-live-at-carnegie-hall
altino, i’d like to say that great ideas and great art gets funded by strangers and by “reaching more people” but it really doesn’t. music is very similar to the non-profit, charity world that way. for most projects, 90-95% of their funding will come from people they already know: fans, friends and family… if a project can’t get support from people that the creator knows, it is not likely going to get support from people you don’t know…
your project is super-ambitious and it’s possible you’d get more than 5-10% of your funding from new faces. but even then, you’re going to need to figure out where to get your first $75,000 or it’s not likely to work out for you.
so in your case, you have to figure that out. not to be condescending b/c you probably know this, but for others that come later and read this, there just aren’t magical crowdfunding ferries out there waiting to give you money. THERE ARE people who will give you money but you’re still going to have to work for it… chances are you know these people and you’ll have to communicate your Purpose and how the campaign plays into that….
Thanks I appreciate you reaching out!
Please help support a great cause!! gofundme.com/p4h5mw
Ok this is old news. But is there any advice for the rest of us? Most do not have that inner circle of friends and family yet they have great ideas. Instead of the typical “sorry that’s the only way it will work”, can the rest of us get some ideas or strategies to reach the broader crowd? I have seen crowdfunding campaigns that reach millions of dollars. There is no way that you can tell me that all of those successful campaigners had swarms of friends and families to support their ideas.
Any idea how many crowdfunding campaigns reach “millions of dollars”? Waaaaaaaay less than 1%. The thing those campaigns have in common is that they either A) DO have a swarm of fans, friends and family (mostly “fans”, i.e., customers) and/or B) the end result of the campaign scratches some giant itch that the “public” has in general… soooooo, you got either of those? because once you do, you can use marketing techniques that are widely known to your benefit. you can find those all over the google. problem for most campaigns is (over 99%), they don’t have either of those two things.
I know this is not real new, but:
If most of your money comes from friends and family, why not just ask them? If you get almost all your backing from them, what you’re doing is giving away money to the crowdfunding platform that you could just as easily get yourself. Fact is, it’s not friends and family. Same thing if you have a lot of customers. It’s just dumb to do it that way. It is supposed to reach people you don’t know, not the people you already do. Why do you need to set up a campaign just to ask some relatives to help you out?
Friends, family, and customers should be for promoting the campaign, not for getting the funding. If that’s how you’re getting the funding, you’ve just wasted their money and yours.
And actually, the campaigns that reach millions of dollars do have something in common, but it’s neither of the things you mention. It’s usually an agency behind them. There are big ones, look them up. The ‘friends and family’ thing is just drivel that people who have basically ruined the crowdfunding system parrot.
And since people like you keep repeating it over and over to the public, the public repeats it back, because that’s what most people do. You are convincing them that it’s the truth, then they nod their heads and say ‘yes it is.’ Than you pat yourself on the back.
What you’re promoting is a fake crowdfunding campaign.
Ever looked up the word crowd? It doesn’t mean ‘a few friends.’
I would disagree by a long shot. If what you say is true, then you have yourself a business model that is sure to make millions. Go for it! But there are a couple of assumptions you make that I have not observed anyplace in the sphere of music crowdfunding. (Neither have other “people like me”. If they [or I] had observed it, they’d [or I’d] determine how to replicate, scale and make millions. Sorry bro or sis, the social proof is not backing you up here.)
1) Crowdfunding isn’t “supposed” to do anything other than raise money to invest in your project. You can look for that money anywhere you see fit but the real world experience of 99% of campaigns is that 80-90% of their funding comes from people within 1 degree of separation from them. In other words, the people who pledge to you know you whether that’s a personal relationship or a professional one. (P.S. Ever looked up the word crowd? “A large number of persons especially when collected together.” Nowhere does it say that people have to be strangers to qualify as a crowd.)
2) You seem to be assuming there is some massive sea of strangers that a crowdfunding campaign has access to and can convert into backers. That holds in theory but, in reality, getting in front of people isn’t free (guess what, Facebook charges for advertising!) and convincing other people to do your advertising for you (“Friends, family, and customers should be promoting the campaign.”) will not happen to any extent that allows a campaign to scale organically (i.e., without paying for it). Even if you do get that group of people to promote your campaign, the conversion rate on those strangers will be dismally low and will not scale UNLESS you have some incredible unique value proposition (which musicians don’t, basically by definition).
3) Related, sure, hiring an agency is a no-brainer assuming ROI is going to be positive. I’d suggest that you go find the agency that will prove out ROI to the musician and then start taking a commission on sales. Remember, I’m talking ROI here not a bunch of marketing features like “sharing you with 200 media outlets”. Awesome agencies who can provide positive ROI are generally either working in crowdfunding genres such as tech and design OR they are working for campaigns with enough reserves to make an both the up-front investment in the agency’s services and the back-end percentage that the agency will recoup from the campaign. So, if you find yourself in the situation where you can afford to spend that money plus assume the risk that the ROI is zero, then you can also go to town.
For the majority of artists who are crowdfunding, which is who I am writing to, none of the three prior assumptions hold. So if those assumptions aren’t true, what are they left with to do?
But before I go, one more thing. Your idea is to cut out the middle man by skipping the crowdfunding platform and doing it yourself. THAT’S A GREAT IDEA! No sarcasm here. Some people are able to pull that off and save themselves 5%. They need to be super-organized, super-focussed and have amazing commitment and follow-through. For those people, who also usually have experience with campaigns and releases, it is totally within the realm of possibility to do it themselves.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people who don’t have the skills and experience to do that. And that’s okay. That’s why the idea of a website like Kickstarter took off and that’s why platforms like Kickstarter are in business. They are providing people with a service that those customers find value in. You can’t just sit there and troll crowdfunding and reality because it doesn’t fit with your biased opinion. Look at the facts and figure out why it is like it is. And if you can improve the system b/c you recognize an obvious flaw or limitation, frickin’ go to town! Everybody will thank you for it. Good luck 🙂
I launched my campaign after writing down my strategy for reaching out. I have a good extensive network made up of family members, old classmates and coworkers, as well as a vast network of other people in both my fields (translation and dance), so I felt like I had a very solid warm market. I emailed my closest friends and acquaintances, sent them private messages on FB and tagged them on several FB publications. I was able to raise 8% of my goal within the first 48 hours, but then I am seeing it get stuck and there’s been zero activity. It’s frustrating that many of the people I contacted congratulated me and supported me with words, but not one of them has made a contribution. The ones who didn’t respond with words at all are the ones who forked out the cash. I am trying to figure out whether they’re just waiting to get paid or if they’re going to contribute at all. What else can I do?