Set the Campaign Timeline
Lesson 8 from: Launch a Successful Crowdfunding CampaignChristopher Hawker
Set the Campaign Timeline
Lesson 8 from: Launch a Successful Crowdfunding CampaignChristopher Hawker
Lessons
Class Introduction
07:56 2What is Crowdfunding?
32:23 3Is Crowdfunding Right for Me & My Project?
21:22 4How to Build & Manage a Team
12:23 5Choose a Crowdfunding Platform
11:44 6Create the Campaign Page
12:49 7Campaign Page Examples That Work
29:44 8Set the Campaign Timeline
08:18Determine the Perk Strategy
12:04 10Campaign Goal & Referral Strategy
11:31 11Produce a Campaign Video
02:23 12Campaign Videos That Work
46:59 13Pre-Campaign: Build Email List & Buzz
41:50 14Pre-Campaign: Social Media Strategy & PR
08:36 15Launch Your Campaign
07:57 16Live Campaign: PPC & Facebook Ads
12:08 17Live Campaign: Email Updates & Adjust Goals
18:32 18Post-Campaign: Workflow & Delivering Your Product
23:47 19Post Campaign: Obstacles & Backer Communication
07:01 20Your Crowdfunding Future
02:22Lesson Info
Set the Campaign Timeline
So now we're going to talk about the key elements of the campaign. This is really what drives the campaign more successfully, so we've got all the components you've done your time you've written the copy, you've got the imagery, but there's a few really key components that I want to cover first is like timing. One of your launching the campaign turns out to be really important. Secondly, is your duration how long the campaign has been run? Is it fifteen days, thirty days, sixty days, the's air, all options that platforms give you from zero to sixty? Some campaigns never have to end like patriot, and then also on indiegogo you can go into in demand and then it's never stopping. But being this or campaign can go for up to sixty days. Park strategy, what perks are you offering? And why goal setting what's the goal that you're going after you fixed or flexible funding? And then what is that number and that's? The whole thing and I've had eight our strategy sessions with six people kind of ...
set the goal for one campaign, so it's, like seems like that should be easy and you could make it easy to just say, I'm just getting put it so and so and that's putting it a twenty thousand just cause. And then you can dispense with the six hour call, but way put a lot of thought into how we're setting our goals and we want to understand our goals, and we've got some great work sit around that and then lastly, referral strategy, which is, are you going try to create a system that is going to incentivize people to push your campaign and tell their friends about it through social media? So there's a few possibilities there, so first, let's talk about launch timing when are you going to launch your campaign? So this turns out to be critical, and the best story that I've heard about it is the coolest cooler again. He actually ran two campaigns in the first campaign didn't succeed, he had to go it like one hundred twenty five, one hundred fifty thousand raised one hundred thousand didn't meet its goal. He came back later, re launched the campaign with a few key differences, and then there is thirteen million dollars. One of the key differences is the first campaign he launched in the winter thinking or what doesn't matter like they're gonna get their cooler, you know, a year down the road or whatever, so it doesn't matter when I'm funding it like they're gonna get it someday, but it turns out no one's thinking about coolers and the beach in the middle of winter eligible I am, but not not because I'm there, but because I wish I was there. And so it's very important to think about because the second campaign he launched, the one that did thirteen million dollars he launched in the summer when everyone is hot and everyone's thinking about the beach so it can make a big difference that, like, you know, you're talking about doing a rain collector, and I think you said fourth quarter, but to me, I hear fourth quarter and I think rain, you know, people are thinking in most parts the country in the fourth quarter, they're thinking more about snow been there about rain, and it may be like some level you don't think it matters that much because that's, you know they're going to get the rain collector whenever they get it. But the truth is when when it's snowing out, people are thinking as much about rain, so you may want to consider having your campaign launch in the springtime either than the first or, you know, late first quarter early second quarter, even though that delays your launch, but it does put you in the middle of, like when people are actually you know, thinking about rain and collecting rain more just just as a possibility think where is like a fitness product if it's an indoor fitness product and may matter less because it doesn't matter and if it's a performance or whatever it may not matter so not every product is subject to those considerations but if it is a seasonal product you want to think about that you also want to think about holidays christmas isn't necessarily a great time to be running a crowdfunding campaign cause people want to buy stuff they're getting now to give put under the tree so there's a lot of money being spent but I'm stuff people want sooner than later so christmas isn't necessarily going to be a good time you want to think about that or on a holiday where people aren't shopping like memorial day or labor day may not the great taste wants you want to just be cognizant of when the holidays are and how those might impact you when you're launching your product especially around christmas which isn't to say you shouldn't do it then you just want to be clear that it may impact your results now you may have other circumstances that drive you to do it in potentially a non optimal time but you want to know that you're doing that and make that conscious choice rather than be like what's going on here and like, oh yeah that holiday furthermore, what time of week you want to do it based on what we've learned you know mondays are not generally good tuesdays and wednesdays are what we've been told her the best times to launch products so on the campaigns because people are already settled in wednesday's or kind of ideal and indiegogo in particular where we have the most experience if you launch a project on a tuesday and you get fast momentum, you could potentially make it into that weekend newsletter and the newsletters are really what drive a lot of the sales especially organically like indiegogo newsletter is going out to millions of millions people and like I said with quickie, we made the newsletter and boom one day we did like forty thousand dollars and that changed my life because because of that it created a huge momentum which led it to do two hundred thousand dollars and which is why we turned the company to focus so much on crowdfunding so that worked because we started on a tuesday and by the time the weekend rolls around we showed momentum if we lost on a thursday or friday well that weekend newsletters already set so there's a value to starting earlier and then time of day we like to do it late morning so that its landing and people's box before they go to lunch but it's not buried when they show up in the morning so in the morning they look they make flag it but maybe they don't get around to it if it's there at lunchtime like they can take action on it now question when you say late morning what time zone you're talking about well usually eastern time zone you know, work so like it's hitting it like noon in um pacific time and around nine eastern time is usually when we it's not perfect, but I wouldn't do it later in the afternoon or in the evening and I wouldn't do it in the morning to you initially early momentum next pieces duration how long? Like in terms of days do you want it to go? There's been a lot of studies on a lot of data and actually you can do it up to sixty days long but the truth is it's a like your spring king during you know if you're trying to drive a big campaign it's like a thirty day sprint our sixty day sprint it's hard to keep momentum for sixty days and the vast majority you see this little graph here the vast majority of contributions happened at the beginning and then you get a little surge at the end and this is a little misleading because the surge is probably a little lower at the end but you get a little surge of the end and the vast majority happens in the first few days so doing a longer campaign just makes this long part longer and then generally because of lost momentum you get a smaller upswing at the end so the data shows a thirty day campaign does the best now indiegogo gives you the option you know you can reach out to them you have the option to extend the campaign after you know if you see it's going well you can contact them and if they're convinced they're like extended for you up to sixty days total and if you've got a campaign that's just like clockwork producing five thousand dollars a day in the low then why wouldn't you extended as long as you can and make an extra one hundred fifty thousand dollars? But if it's in the low ones not doing much, then you're better off just bringing it to a close because you're not going to get paid until after the campaign is so I think, you know, usually about two weeks after the campaign ends that the fund's drop into your account so you don't want to delay that the next thirty days for a very little extra income plus losing the mo mentum and now you've got another thirty days where your marketing and putting energy and focus on it so there's a value to getting in getting it done and getting out and then seeing where it leads so our recommendation typically is going to be, you know start with thirty days and potentially consider extending it. But generally, you're going to wantto ended at that point.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Dyan deNapoli
Really helpful class for anyone planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign! Christopher was a great presenter (very comfortable and relaxed), and he clearly knew the topic extremely well. His presentation was very thorough and well thought out. One thing I would've like to have seen is more questions taken from the virtual audience. There were quite a few on the thread, but the moderator only passed along a few of them to Christopher to answer. Another thing that would have been very helpful is advice about creating successful crowdfunding campaigns that are for projects or experiences or ideas, rather than for physical products (which this class was focused on). Maybe Christopher can do a short crowdfunding part II class?? But I still give this class an A+!
Elizabeth Best
This was very helpful. I feel like it answered so many of my questions. It made me realize what a huge commitment crowdfunding is! As an entrepreneur I can see how this video saves trident a lot of time on calls and emails explaining what needs to be done. Great idea! I am amazed at how much technology is involved and online or social media marketing. I better develop a stronger team with millennials who know how to make it happen. Thank you.
a Creativelive Student
I was fortunate to be part of the live audience for this course. It was truly amazing! Chris does a great job of providing tactical and strategic insight behind crowdfunding campaigns. One of my favorite tools was the spreadsheet he has developed to determine crowdfunding goals. I also think Chris is a very humble, knowledgeable guy who genuinely wants you to succeed in your crowdfunding efforts. I highly recommend this course of anyone who is serious about crowdfunding.
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