Marketing your project | Diaries of a crowdfunder
by siri | Sep 24, 2024 | Learn
Now your project is live it’s time to build as much traction as you can, this part we call ‘marketing your project’.
Marketing your Crowdfunder project is multi-faceted, consisting of a few key ways to promote your fundraising efforts. I will break down these areas and give you my expert opinion on how best to reach your crowd.
You don’t need to be a social media whiz or marketing genius, just be committed and ready to put yourself or your project out there.
For 2nd Hand Sundays, we already had social media platforms but since starting our Crowdfunding journey we have upped the amount we post and even tried out some new ways of trialling content.
What we noticed was more engagement from our crowd and a few extra hundred followers joining in on our journey.
Before I go into each avenue to market your projects it’s worth mentioning a few things that are consistent across all.
- Tell your story: Take people along on the journey from launching your Crowdfunder, to updating them on your milestones, if and when you add rewards tell people about these, and make people feel like they’re invested in your journey and story.
- Be brave: Be willing to put yourself out there, as cliche as it is, the saying “nothing gets done in your comfort zone” rings true here.
- Be consistent: Don’t neglect your marketing efforts, it’s a key way of engaging your current crowd and growing your crowd so put the time and effort in and it will pay off.
Now let’s go through the different ways to market your project and what you should do on each of these platforms.
1. Social Media
There are the main social media platforms you need to be aware of; Instagram, X (was twitter), Facebook and Linkedin. If you’re savvy and feeling up to it, try out TikTok. These platforms are a great way of reaching your current crowd and a new crowd.
If you don’t already have social media accounts for your project or the thing you are Crowdfunding for, think about setting those up as you can also link them on your project page.
You don’t need to create crazy high-brow videos or in-depth info-graphics, sometimes just a quick video of you updating the crowd is effective.
To boost reach, we recommend tagging us and inviting us to collaborate on Instagram posts @CrowdfunderUK, tag local influencers or MPs, hashtag, and get your local crowd to share share share.
A few projects that I think have smashed their social media efforts:
2. Email
Emailing your crowd is a successful way to reach people, emails go direct into inboxes and have a much higher open rate than social media.
You can also go into more detail in an email than a social media post and include direct links to your project page.
It’s a fab way to tell more of your story in a descriptive long-form way.
3. Press
Let’s call this your PR, how to utilise local or even national press to help you reach thousands of people through the art of storytelling and journalism.
As a previous local journalist myself, I understand the logistics and tactics to get your story in front of local journalists.
They can come in the form of print, broadcast, radio and even blogs. Do some research to find out who your local publications or radio stations are, find their contact details and get in touch with the local news desk or news editor, emails or even telephone numbers can be found easily.
I also suggest going on X, Instagram or Facebook and finding the reporters there and dropping them a message.
It’s also worth writing a press release, you can find great templates online or even use AI to help you write one. You can then send these to multiple email addresses to speed up the process.
We have had some wonderful press for projects, big and small that have helped them get over that line.
4. In person
This aspect will be different for every project and in some cases it might not be as necessary as others.
Some ideas might include: raffles, quiz nights, fundraiser events, special events, posters around your town, ask local community centres to have window displays, leaflet, have a stand at local market days, the possibilities are endless and need to be catered to your resources and needs.
One project that stands out for me here is The Peninsula Trust in Cornwall. They already have a community centre with a shop front in the village centre, but they used this opportunity to dress the window with promotional content related to their Crowdfunder, including a giant QR code so people can use their phones to scan and donate there and then.
This was a visual and effective way to capture attention and support while utilising a resource they already had – a shop front window!
If you’ve missed any of my previous diary entries, find links to everything I’ve covered so far on the Diaries of a crowdfunder page