When it comes to raising money online, crowdfunding provides probably the best avenue. Crowdfunding campaigns, however, are often fraught with overlooked details that could drastically limit your success. What many people do not realize initially is that crowdfunding campaigns entail more than just setting up a project and waiting for donors and sponsors to pour in. The most effective campaigns involve creating a long lasting community instead of creating a short term audience. So, what steps should you follow to create an effective crowdfunding community?
1. Follow up communications
Communication is the key to maintaining meaningful connections and meaningful connections are what lie at the heart of every great community. Ideally, you should contact each of your investors as soon as they pledge funds to your business in order to reinforce the idea at the core of your campaign and begin the process of connection through communication.
Staying active and consistent in this area will help investors avoid any feelings of “buyers’ remorse” where donors ask themselves whether their pledge was well placed. This can be done with an auto-response or if you want to go the extra mile you can even write a personal note to each investor. It doesn’t have to be long. Even a couple sentences expressing gratitude will go a long way to build this connection between you and your investors.
2. Don’t ignore the power of social media
Social media networking provides a the largest opportunity to build your crowdfunding community if used correctly. Social media is the place where every one already exists online. Your task as the crowd funding campaign owner is to locate your potential members, get their attention, and move them from the big pool social networks (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram etc.) and move them into your specialized crowdfunding community.
This can be accomplished in many ways. There are new and unique tools popping up every day to help you locate and call your potential members to action. Some of the more tried and true methods would be purchasing ads through Facebook and Twitter, reaching out to influencers in your community’s sphere and asking them to post about you, or even the good old grass roots method of finding three friends and asking them to share your project with three more. The possibilities are virtually endless and extremely powerful.
3. Employ Virtual support technique
The community member must feel supported if there is any hope for them to stick around. In the first point of this artilce we talked about how you can reach out to your community. This point deals with the opposite. What about when they need to contact you? You can and should provide a method of contact for any support inquiries a community member might have. This will allow your community members to make their voices heard as well as encourage other potential donors to take your project seriously. This method of contact could take many forms. It could be a simple email address posted somewhere on your page, a contact from built into your site or even a live chat line. No matter what form it takes, however, make sure your customers know you are there to help them and listen to their feedback.
We hope we were able help clear some things up or maybe even spark some inspiration! If you have any questions please feel free to contact us for more info on developing your own crowdfunding community!
