Top 10 Tips to Crowdfunding Campaign Page Success

Your crowdfunding campaign page is critical to converting visitors to backers. You’ve only got a few seconds to reach them, do it right with these top ten tips.

Frequent readers will know that I’m a stickler for pre-launch crowdfunding as the most important part of your crowdfunding campaign. True as it might be, your crowdfunding campaign page is still going to be the first impression for many would-be backers.

Fail to develop a stellar crowdfunding campaign page and you can kiss all that hard work done in pre-launch good-bye. Besides turning off new visitors, you could lose traction with the community you built over pre-launch crowdfunding.

That’s why I reached out to all my crowdfunding expert contacts to get their top tips for launching an awesome crowdfunding campaign page. Many of the experts are the same that contributed to our massive resource list of expert tips to boost fundraising ideas and crowd campaigns.

Check out the ten tips below from the experts then unlock my own critical crowdfunding campaign page tips at the end of the post.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel with your Crowdfunding Campaign

Building a great crowdfunding campaign page can be a tough process but you don’t have to go it alone. Make other campaigns your teammates by working off the best parts of their crowdfunding campaign pages.

Manolis Sfinarolakis, Reality Crowd TV

The most important part of the crowdfunding campaign page or fundraising marketing material is that it is modeled after similarly successful campaigns or fundraisers, meaning that the creator must meet the quality of video, infographics, reward levels, and clarity of description as the successful campaign being modeled.

Too often, people try to reinvent the wheel in their own campaign when the secret of fundraising success is right in front of them in the previous success of others.

Robert Hoskins, Front Page PR

The single best thing that a crowdfunding campaign can do to improve their chance of success is to perform a competitive analysis of current and past crowdfunding campaigns on sites like GoFundMe or Kickstarter.

While very few campaigns are the same, looking at the difference between how successful campaign videos, profiles, infographics, timelines and perks are written compared to campaigns that failed. This type of research can be an eye-opening experience to even a novice with no marketing experience.

Google can help people find a large number of articles on how to plan a successful crowdfunding campaign, but it is surprising how many people do not research articles or read any books prior to launching their campaign. They truly believe that if they just throw a campaign together with four or five hours of effort, the sky will open and it will rain a million dollars into their crowdfunding coffers.

As more than 60% of crowdfunding campaigns can testify, not doing the research is a big reason that causes first-time campaigns to fail.

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Does your Crowdfunding Campaign Page tell a Story?

Janet Fouts, Tatu Digital Media

Great landing pages engage visually with an image or video that draws us in and a very short, clear call to action.

Hopefully you have attracted people to the page with a story. Follow through with the storyline and then ask for them to take action.

I see a couple of great ideas in here for crowdfunding campaign pages. First, make sure you are keeping a consistent message across all your marketing materials. There is a reason your social media or other marketing drew someone to your crowdfunding campaign page, make sure you amplify it on the page.

Also, don’t forget to ask for support with a strong call to action. It’s a shame but people do so much to market and draw people to their campaigns but then get shy about asking for support.

David Khorram, CrowdfundingPlanning

Start up and entrepreneurs are very good at telling you what they have and how it works . The same must be covered in their crowdfunding campaign page.

‘What’ they have and ‘how’ it works is usually well covered in the content but they often forget the ‘why’ of the argument. The ‘why’ is the real story. A good story is like a drug to the brain, evoking an emotional response.

If your story focuses on the needs of the audience, then there’s a good chance for success. Features and benefits tell, story sells.

Tim Wright, Twintangibles

The most important part of any campaign page and material is to ensure that your messaging is clear to and resonates with the crowd. Way too often we encounter campaigns that offer their pitch to us and, frankly, we don’t get it.

Our blank expressions at the end of the pitch can bemuse project owners who are, naturally, very close to the campaign. But it soon becomes apparent that, in many cases, they have not tested their message, narrative and pitch, on anyone with a wholly subjective view point.

These are people without lots of additional contextual information unlike, say, the campaign team, friends and family or those already sold on the idea. You cannot speak to the crowd and engage their support if they don’t get it. So test it, check it and change it and ensure that, hand on heart, you can say that those who have not already drunk the cool aid do genuinely get it.

Crowdfunding Campaign Page Essentials: Transparency and Credibility

Justin Rogers, The Freshpreneur

I see several elements that build credibility and legitimacy when I browse crowdfunding campaign pages. The first is the video. It can be shot in a studio or on an iPhone but the sound needs to be clear and free of white noise. The video also must follow a solid storyboard; product promotion, why crowdfunding is necessary, the team, and the ask. The video should be about three minutes give or take a minute.

Photography would be the next element that can make or break legitimacy for a crowdfunding campaign page. Cameras are ubiquitous and many editing software packages are free, leaving poor photography excuseless.

A third element is linking the campaign to a proper website and company email. If there is no company website and the email is something to the effect of mycompany@freemail.com then it lacks legitimacy.

AdaPia d’Errico, Patch of Land

One common thread that runs through all aspects of Patch of Land’s communication – from internal culture and processes to external promotion and client services – is transparency. At its core, the success of the crowd relies on its collective vision in order to attain a destined goal.

If walls or inhibitions emerge, the effectiveness of the crowd begins to break down. We consciously infuse transparency to ensure those efficiencies are upheld. It holds everyone accountable and as a result creates an experience our partners and clients understand, and most importantly, value.

Design and Video on your Crowdfunding Campaign Page

Jenna Taylor, GrowthFunders

The first thing anyone visiting your campaign page will see is your video. A good video stands head and shoulders above a bad one and can be spotted just a few seconds after the play button is pressed. Potential investors or backers usually want to meet the people behind the business or product and a video is the quickest and most effective way to do this.

Beyond the crowdfunding campaign page, use wider fundraising marketing material. I’d suggest using content, or inbound, marketing. If you have a blog, focus on content creation. Evergreen posts are fantastic but try to tie them into your campaign and make sure the call-to-action buttons lead people to your pitch page. Tying your campaign together in this way means that people can get a feel of your overall business as well as being able to find you from different sources like social media, Google search and a website.

Natalie Jonk, Walacea

The most important part of the crowdfunding campaign page is… all of it!! Some people like to read, some people like to watch videos, some people want to pledge small amounts while others will go big. The best crowdfunding campaign pages will appeal to all these people by providing content for all of these personality types.

The most important part of any crowdfunding campaign is thinking of ways to drive traffic to your page. In most cases it is not a case of build it and they will come, crowdfunding involves reaching out to your target audiences and encouraging them to first view your campaign page and then support it. Making sure the content is clear and engaging is key.

Lyn Blanchard, YourCapitalEdge

The most important part of a campaign page is designing it by keeping in mind these important principles –

• Use social proof to create herd mentality, halos and credibility about you and your project on your crowdfunding campaign page
• Make sure you understand the importance of context, contrast, and color
• Use text and images in ways that aligns with the psychology of your campaign page visitors

There is both an art and a science in campaign page design and it should not be taken lightly. A strong video isn’t enough anymore, you have to design a campaign page by getting into the psyche of the people you want to fund your project.

We’re not done – Check out these critical crowdfunding campaign page essentials

The ten experts above provide some great tips on what your crowdfunding campaign page needs to draw and convert backers but I wanted to add a few of my own. Some of the tips below are part of our 15-point crowdfunding campaign page checklist, part of our four-part crowdfunding checklist series, while a few are brand new.

Here’s an old blogger’s trick. You’re title is the biggest factor in getting people to click through from the crowdfunding platform. It has to be exciting, informative and maybe even a little crazy all at once. The website Upworthy.com does a great job of creating eye-catching titles, check out some of their titles while writing your own. Test out at least ten title ideas on your friends before making the decision.

Offer multiple ways to support the campaign. You want people to back you with a pledge but you should also be asking for social media sharing and skills support as well. Let people know on your crowdfunding campaign page how easy and important it is to share. Reach out to backers to see how their special skills or experience can be a bigger part of the campaign.

Do not overlook the importance of updates on your campaign page. These are notes you send out to backers through the site and are usually shown on your campaign page. Having regular updates shows new visitors that you are present and keep communication open with backers.

You’ve got about 15 seconds to grab most people’s attention when they come to your crowdfunding campaign page. That’s the average amount of time people spend on a webpage. Make it count with bullet points of your strongest features right under the video.

Rewards! A lot of crowdfunding backers are in it for the cool rewards and gadgets. One way to do this super-cheaply is to offer rewards that get backers involved in the project. Offer rewards like a character part in the story, input on development or naming rights. It costs nothing and is a big ego-pull for backers.

Got your own crowdfunding campaign page tip? It’s your turn to be the expert. Add yours to the comment section below.