By Charlotte Squire – projects and marketing lead, PledgeMe.
So you’re finally live! You’ve crafted what you hope is a strong project description and now it’s time to get the word out to your crowd. For some, this moment can feel a little ‘deer in the headlights,’ AKA freaky, because now it’s time to put yourself out there and ask for money.
Take a deep breath and put on your strategy hat. A little planning now is going to support you to stay steady and consistent throughout your journey over the next month or so as you roll out your campaign.
If you haven’t already, write down a plan to reach out to your crowd every day of your campaign. By reaching out I mean you’re basically saying the same thing every day: ‘Fund My Campaign! But in a myriad of different ways.
So what do I mean by this?
The story of your campaign
Let’s look at your campaign – who are the key people involved? Do you have some juicy rewards? What are five reasons you’re doing this? What are three key messages you’d like to share about your campaign? Who could your project help? How could it make the world a better place? What benefits could this bring to your community? What are some special aspects of your project that you love? What would it mean if your campaign was funded? Who are the special people you’ve come to know through this project?
The answers to these questions could provide enough material to promote your project for the duration of your campaign.
Take the time to answer those questions. Just dump them onto a page willy nilly. Ideally you’ll come up with at least 30 answers. Basically you’re looking for a story to tell about your project campaign, via one key message per day, for the duration of your campaign.
Planning the story of your campaign
Then, break your answers down into one interesting point for each day of your campaign, that you can then share with your crowd via your social media platforms (daily), through your email list if you have one (weekly), and via one on one conversations.
Tag @pledgeme and other supporters, on social media
Each time you post anything on social media, tag in @pledgeme. Also tag in any team members or people in your crowd who have agreed to help you with your campaign. Each time you or your crowd post one of your daily stories about the campaign be sure to: 1. Invite people to pledge, 2. Include a link to your project campaign page and 3. Invite people to share your message with their crowds. In this way, word keeps spreading.
Inspiring story: Neko Ngeru
Neko Ngeru cat adoption cafe used a similar approach. They carefully pre-planned their social messages every week, featuring their gorgeous cats as the stars of very short videos, then they shared them and tagged @pledgeme in so we would hopefully share or ‘amplify’ them too. While it certainly wasn’t always easy for them, they stuck to their plan, and their steady perseverance eventually paid off. In their last week they received some media attention too, because they’d activated their crowd and were clearly making progress. They passed their minimum target of $50,000, reaching $57,125.
Use the PledgeMe updates
One more thing – once a week until the final week, post an update on your PledgeMe project campaign page. Then in the final week, post two or three updates via both your campaign page and your email list. You can use the material I’ve mentioned above. The purpose of this is to literally update people about the progress of your campaign, sharing stories, telling them what percentage of the way you are towards your minimum target, and inviting people to pledge and/or share with their crowds. For the people receiving the updates it can feel like being kept in the loop about an interesting project.
Breathe
So take a deep breath, and create your 30 day strategy. Stay calm, follow your plan, trust those moments of inspiration, and go tell the world about your awesome project campaign!
