NCFA Guest Post
When you run a successful crowdfunding campaign, as you are probably aware, keeping the people interested in your project up to date on developments, milestones and other news is vital.
It allows you to keep them engaged, and also gives them the sense of being a part of making your project a reality – one of the strongest motivators people tend to have for supporting crowdfunding campaigns.
But once it’s all over, and you have raised your money, provided your funders with their promised rewards, and moved to trying to sell to a wider audience, what many people forget is that keeping in touch with the people who supported them at the start is still very powerful for ongoing marketing.
Email Marketing Is Still Effective
Many people believe that in the social media age, email marketing is outdated, and so the list of email addresses for the people who supported you in your campaign doesn’t really offer a particularly profound way of promoting yourself. Well, actually, this isn’t the case.
Studies have shown people can see 2000 promotional messages on average a day, and the majority of those are on social media, websites and search results. Where email is being used less, it actually presents a better opportunity – people still check their emails, and with spam filters and less email marketing activity in general, promotional messages received this way are more likely to be ones they will read. Ecommerce and marketing experts eventige.com recommend using email marketing with your marketing mix, and unlike many new businesses, you already have a list of email addresses for people who are interested in you!
But My Funders Already Own My Product…
It may seem strange to focus marketing efforts on people who have already received your product as a reward for funding you, however in most cases, this isn’t the case for every campaign. Some people will support a campaign with a small donation at a lower reward tier because they do want the product if it is made however don’t want to commit too much money at this stage. These people will be an easy sell when the product is finished.
Equally, even those who do own your product can be useful to market to, as if they are happy with it, they are more likely than normal consumers to talk about it to friends, as they played a part in funding it. Keep them involved and they’ll be happy to spread the word!
Brand Reputation
Another reason to send email updates, offers and newsletters to your initial funders when your business is more mature is that it gives a good sense of your brand remembering its roots and the people who made it possible. Nobody likes to think a business will simply take their crowd funding dollars and forget about them when they are a success, after all!
Make sure you treat your funders’ contact records as incredibly valuable data, and use it intelligently once your products are on the market.
You may also be interested in: How to get your message out there
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with both social and investment crowdfunding, alternative finance, fintech, P2P and online investing stakeholders across the country. NCFA Canada provides education, research, industry stewardship, and networking opportunities to over 1600+ members and works closely with industry, government, academia, community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding industry in Canada. Learn more at www.ncfacanada.org.
