Did you know that over $34 billion has been raised via crowdfunding campaigns worldwide?
That’s right – crowdfunding can be a great way to raise the funds needed to launch a new business or product, but only if you have the right marketing strategy.
The most successful crowdfunding campaigns use buzz marketing to build hype around their campaign and encourage people to pledge.
This type of marketing doesn’t cost a ton, but it does have some pretty impressive results when it’s done right.
Not got a clue how to generate a buzz or get your campaign to go viral?
Don’t worry – we’re here to teach you.
Read on for five essential buzz-generating tips.
Release Teasers of Your Campaign Rewards
Releasing teasers is a great way to get people excited about your campaign before it even launches.
Decide on the rewards you’ll offer, then create text and image teasers to share on your website, mailing list, and social media pages.
You might show small snippets of images, use text hints or clues, or create a virtual treasure hunt, hiding rewards around on your site.
When they’ve spent time guessing what your rewards will be, people will be extra hyped when they’re actually released.
Run a Competition with Cool Prizes
Not seeing much engagement in your crowdfunding campaign?
There’s one surefire way to change that – by running a competition.
Choose an awesome prize, then set up different ways to win entries. You might include sharing a link to your crowdfunding campaign, retweeting a message about your campaign, following you on social media, or signing up to your mailing list.
Make the competition prize relevant to your campaign and it will serve a double purpose – to build hype about the campaign and show off your awesome product/reward.
Share Behind the Scenes Snippets
Everyone loves feeling like they’re in the know – crowdfunding fans in particular.
Part of the thrill of supporting a crowdfunding campaign is the knowledge that you’re helping something grow from the ground up, so feeling involved is key.
Share behind the scenes images of prototypes, updates on progress, and other snippets to get people excited about what you’re doing.
Film a Launch Video That Highlight Your Uniqueness
According to one crowd funding study, tech campaigns with a pitch video raise eight times more funds than those without.
That’s a huge difference, and we can see why.
The best crowd funding campaigns involve products that are super-unique, interesting and unusual, and this kind of product is often best explained using video.
Rather than reading a wall of text or looking at complex diagrams, your potential backers can watch a short clip and instantly understand what you’re all about.
An awesome video pitching your product is an essential buzz marketing tool.
Create a Thunderclap for Your Campaign
Never heard of a Thunderclap?
It’s pretty simple – ask your fans and followers to sign up to send a social media update at a specific time, using a certain word or hashtag.
When enough people sign up, there’ll be a huge blast of simultaneous messages, which is sure to generate plenty of hype on social media, exposing your campaign to lots of new users.
Why Use Buzz Marketing in Your Campaign?
Buzz marketing is the best way to get people excited about your crowdfunding project – it drives engagement, promotes your rewards, and helps you reach a larger audience.
Using the tips above will help you generate some serious hype and start reaching your goals.
Get inspired by checking out the latest crowdfunding trends.
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I like to see short, to the point commercials posted on YouTube. fun to watch, easy to navigate and even easier to share right from the site.
The way buzz works around the internet is sort of funny. It can change in an instant and when you are looking at something “viral”, you have to wonder how that is possible. Then all of a sudden, a listical is one of the best things you can read about on the internet that day and those were annoying 5 years ago.
Thunderclaps work well, when done properly. I have also seen them fail. Its a fine line and a company can be boosted, or buried.
I have seen those work, as well as the giveaways. There are so many fake giveaways online today that you cannot really ever trust them. Good luck with your campaign.
All of these ideas are great! Thank you for the write up and giving me something to keep in mind the next time I think about marketing my own business, or products.
Personally, I do not think it is hard to tease a new product today. With YouTube and people wanting to share everything with everyone they know, the right product can travel around the internet like wild fire.
We should not forget that in order for you to have a successful giveaway, you need to have people to show that giveaway to. Without a proper following, regardless of how yo build that, the contest or the marketing behind a giveaway is NOT going to work.
Viral is a term that is thrown around a lot and it does happen on a daily basis. the one thing that makes the difference is whether or not you can capitalize on the virality of your business, or video or photo or whatever.
1 thing that you have to remember is that your giveaway cannot be held over a long period of time. Even though entering these can be easy, some people want to know they have a chance to win within 7 days or less.
Companies that are going to leverage YouTube with a great video for the launch are going to get a lot of attention. News outlets from around the world pick up on trending topics and things like that, so throwing a video out there like that would be perfect to get the ball rolling!
Why use Buzz marketing? Because, just because that is the only way to reach the consumers these days!
Exactly. So many things are based on what is HOT RIGHT NOW. Buzz marketing will leave you behind if yo are not going to get on track with it!
About 5 years ago I noticed that competitions like the ones you can run with Gleam and Rafflecopter were picking up steam. Then all of a sudden, they were gone. Now again, we are talking about using them to gain some traction in your market, I think that is neat.
I really like the competitions idea. It is a great way to get your business out there and one where you can be 100% transparent about the winner, the prizes that are being offered and what they have to do to help you out.
as a consumer, and potential investor, I would like to be teased with the rewards before you release the campaign. It will help to build excitement and keeps my mind in the game the entire time. Good point.
Going on YouTube , Twitter or Facebook are great ways to make sure things are easy to share and will help with being viral as well. I see the competition stuff is back in full swing on just about every single platform, so we’ll see how long that lasts and whether it is really a good idea or not.
i think we have all seen the thunderclaps that have hit social media over the years. There are some brilliant social media officers out there and what they come up with is one of a kind in most ways.
I have never heard of them before now. Very interesting concept.
I am in the same boat as you. Never heard of a thunderclap, but I see now that I look at my twitter feed, they are popping up everywhere.