This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
All right, let's talk about crowdfunding. How can you ensure a crowdfunding campaign gets funded? Welcome to Side Hustle School. In this episode, we're gonna explore effective strategies to ensure a crowdfunding campaign gets fully funded and attracts attention. What do you do if you're out there and you're like, I wanna start a Kickstarter or an Indiegogo, a GoFundMe, something else?
How do you create a compelling campaign page, engage backers, and leverage social media for maximum visibility? Well, there's three clues right there, actually, like how do you create a really successful crowdfunding campaign? You do those three things. You make a compelling campaign page, you try to engage backers to the best of your ability, and you use social media. But let's talk about the details.
Whether you were just starting out or looking to expand your current side hustle, our goal is to provide you inspiration and tools you need to succeed. Every single day, new episode. Every single day, a tip, a story, question and answer, some kind of feature, all designed to give you some motivation, inspiration, and a practical tip. So let's hear today from this listener. If you've ever wondered how to make sure a crowdfunding campaign actually works, 'cause there's so many Kickstarters and Indiegocos and so on that don't work, how do you make sure it works?
Let's talk about it. Their question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hi, Chris. I'm considering launching a crowdfunding campaign for my new product. I've seen some campaigns skyrocket to success while others barely make a dent.
What are some effective strategies to ensure my campaign gets fully funded and attracts a lot of attention? Specifically, I'm looking for tips on how to create a compelling campaign page, engage potential backers, and leverage social media to boost visibility. Any advice on common pitfalls to avoid would be greatly appreciated. Your insights have been incredibly helpful in shaping my side hustle journey. So thanks for all the inspiration.
[Music]
All right, so I touched on a couple of things in the intro. Let's break it down into more detail. A compelling campaign page. Now, visuals are gonna be super important here. You have one chance to tell your story.
So you wanna make sure you've got professional photos, a really well-produced video. Don't have any shortcuts in that process. Your video has to be really good in this case. In some cases, it's totally fine to have a good enough video or something else that you're just like, "Okay, let's move on." But this is something you want to invest in. And then also make sure your value proposition is really clear.
What is your product? How does it solve a problem? Why is it unique? Highlight the benefits rather than just the features. That's always like basic copywriting 101, but it's worth paying attention to.
Benefits rather than features. How's it gonna change someone's life or be really fun and really cool? Not just, "Oh, it does this, it does ABC." Well, that's great, but what does that then allow me to do in turn? Next, engage potential backers. And you actually wanna do this early.
You wanna do this before the crowdfunding campaign is out. So start engaging with potential backers before you launch. Build up some interest. Tell people what's coming. Don't just pop up one day with a crowdfunding campaign, at least not for your potential true fans or people who might support it early on.
Let them know what's coming so they can be part of it from day one. That's gonna help a lot. With crowdfunding campaigns, they really take off when they get strong day one support. So if you get day one support, there's a lot of pledges, then a lot of other people see it in the days and weeks to come. That's what makes all the difference, that momentum.
So don't shortcut that either. And then of course, social media, strategic posting, plan your posts in advance so you're just kind of ready to go. Don't just be making them up on the fly. You wanna have a plan for when your product teasers, testimonials, behind the scenes content will go out over the course of a multi-week typically campaign. And the thread that ties all these three things together is preparation.
A detailed plan in place before launching that campaign page, that marketing strategy, that potential interest building up from true fans or people that might support, even your family, right? Your friends, your close friends, your family who might support your project, make sure they know about it. So that again, day one support is key. I think that's the right approach, but let me know of course how it goes. And listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects. I'm so grateful for you. Thanks for tuning in today. My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
