Category: Start-ups

Crowdfunding Campaigns

Part Four: How to Write Copy for a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

What you write for your crowdfunding campaign has a lot to do with its success. Nobody wants to support some shoddy cause. Here are some ways to have your crowdfunding campaign’s copy stand out.

Invest Time in Great Writing (Headlines + Body Copy)

While word-of-mouth advertising is important to your success, your written copy will be the most widespread communication method. Crowdfunding platforms, commercials, and most other forms of advertising use written copy to convey information. The writing you have done to promote your cause needs to be high-quality. Most people cannot write on the level needed to create effective, high-quality written copy. Invest in finding and hiring someone to do your written copy who has the experience and the skills to do the best job possible.

This is especially true for your crowdfunding platform and other online channels. They have the potential to reach people around the world and convince them to donate without ever talking to you. You want your headlines and body copy to be the highest quality that you can get to ensure your success.

Describe Exactly What the Money Covers

One of the best ways to ensure that people will donate to your campaign is to tell them exactly what their contributions will do. People don’t donate to problems, they invest in your solutions. You have to explain to them how your solution works and how their donations can help you develop it. Many organizations do this by providing a detailed description of their operations detailing what the organization is doing and how it channels donations to facilitate it. If you can show donors how their efforts will help you solve a problem, they are more likely to donate to your cause.

Use Excellent Photos in the Campaign, Reminder Emails, and Social Media

Next to your written copy, your imagery is the strongest method of communication. People often connect more with pictures than they do with written text. So, you want to use powerful and descriptive photos in your marketing efforts. One good picture can be the difference between a successful campaign and a failing campaign.

Social media and reminder emails are great ways of disseminating information through pictures. Social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter are exceptional methods of distributing pictures with text that can get donors’ attention. Take advantage of your social media platforms to grow support for you cause by periodically sending updates with eye-catching pictures to get people involved.

How to Promote Your Cause on Social Media

Social media is great for promoting your cause, but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. You want to focus on providing images and text that can draw a viewer in with a positive mindset. You also want to do it in channels with appropriate context. Sending pictures that are off-putting and negatively provocative in the middle of an Instagram feed for funny memes is the wrong context for your advertisements. Instead, focus on using imagery that gets people interested in a positive way in the channels that your target market uses. Tailor your content to your audience so that you are drawing more people in rather than scaring them away.

At Triassic Media Group, we love writing crowdfunding campaigns. Email us at info@triassicmedia.com for a custom quote for your project.

Crowdfunding

Part Three: How to Get Your Donors Excited About Your Crowdfunding Campaign

It is entirely possible to find funding for your cause. People generally want to help solve problems, especially your family and friends. If you go about it in the right way, you can easily find the support that you need to raise funds for your cause. Crowdfunding is a valuable source of support, and will likely continue to be a major influence around the world. Here are some ways that you can keep your donors excited about helping you.

Set Clear Goals and Timelines

Supporting a cause is much like any other action that you take in your personal and professional lives. You need clear goals and timelines so that you can efficiently manage your efforts and produce results. Set clear and achievable goals so that you have something to aim for. In a way, it gamifies your efforts by giving you something to achieve. This works for your donors as well. People are more willing to donate if they feel that they can help you achieve a tangible goal. You are most likely to get donations when people see that you are close to reaching your next goal. It helps them see that even though they can’t donate a lot, the little that they can donate will make a big difference in reaching your next goal.

Thank Donors

Donors want to feel involved and appreciated when they contribute to your cause. When a donor sends you money and support, be sure to thank them immediately. A simple thank you note is enough in most cases and has a big effect on whether that donor spreads the word about your campaign. The more positive feedback that you can give donors, the more likely they are to donate higher amounts, donate multiple times, and tell others about it.

Crowdfunding platforms automate this process for you by automatically responding to donations. You can design a thank you note or gift to send to your donors as a way of giving back to them. The message or gift depends on the campaign that you started. If the campaign is focused on creating a product, you might send them one when it is finished. If the cause does not have a tangible product, then a well-designed thank you note is appropriate. The point is that you want them to feel appreciated for helping you.

Keep Thank You “Gifts” Low in Value

Regardless of the size of the campaign or the donations, thank you gifts should have a low monetary value. Expensive gifts cut into your donations and rub donors the wrong way. They don’t want to feel like their donation is used to send people fancy gifts. They want to know that the money goes towards the solution that you presented that convinced them to donate. Simple, thoughtful gifts are the key to creating a successful thank you gift. For example, a heart-shaped gift with a thank you note on it is appropriate for a campaign that is focused on solving heart-related issues. It is easy to find or design a heart-shaped gift that is relatively inexpensive. The fact that you put in the time and effort to create a relevant gift shows donors that you are more focused on the cause then other things.

Take advantage of this growing trend to make the changes in the world that you feel are right. Don’t forget that your family and your friends can be your biggest supporters if you give them the opportunity. Give everyone the opportunity to support your cause by setting up a campaign and spreading the word.

Kickstarter

Part Two: How to Pick Out the Right Crowdfunding Platform

If you want to collect donations for your cause, then you should use one of the popular crowdfunding platforms available online. Crowdfunding platforms make it easy for people to send you money for your cause. Without one, people won’t know where to send the money to. They also help you spread the word about your cause to a wider audience which increases your chances of getting the funding that you need.

In recent years, crowdfunding platforms have made it possible to raise billions-of-dollars for different causes ranging from helping people to creating new products. GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and Patreon are three of the leading platforms, and they each focus on a different type of cause. Here is some information about the most popular options available.

GoFundMe

GoFundMe is likely the leading crowdfunding site for personal causes. If you are looking to find support for a cause like paying medical bills or taking a trip for yourself, then it is the best option. It focuses on the personal cause funding market and has raised billion for these personal projects.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a leading platform for funding creative projects. It doesn’t allow you to fund personal projects, but you can use the funds for developing products or starting your business. It is a great way to get started if you want to make a product that can help people, but you lack the funding to finish its development.

Patreon

Patreon is used mainly for creative work that does not produce a purchasable product.  Podcasters and other entertainment creatives use it to fund the development of their shows. It is a great way to find funding without having endorsement deals with major companies. Instead, you can get the funding directly from the people that enjoy your form of entertainment even though it’s on a platform where you cannot charge for it.

There are many other platforms that you can choose from. It’s important to read the fine print about these platforms first. All crowdfunding platforms charge fees for their services. Some charge you while others charge your donors. All of this information should be listed on their site or in documents when you sign up.

Growth creates risk

How Business Growth Creates Risk

Developing an adequate growth strategy when you are an entrepreneur running a small start-up or business can pose several difficulties. While you expand your business, it is important to keep a few ideals in mind to prevent growth-related issues.

Keep in mind that:

  1. Growth can be great, but it also can create a sense of uncertainty. It is important to remember that being better is exceedingly more vital than being bigger. The fact that growth creates risk, is inherently a worry of any entrepreneur.
  2. Growth is a complex learning process. Considering that success is so dependent on human nature, it is important to note that it is not a mechanistic, linear, or predictable process.
  3. There is no black and white when it comes to a successful business growth plan. It requires leaders who can adapt and improvise when something isn’t working. This, combined with a cohesive internal environment, and solid customer approval and rate of return is a way to prevent the risks of growth.

If you grow too quickly as a business, there is the definite risk that it can stress employees, processes and controls, and even dilute the company’s brand, culture, and customer satisfaction. Make sure you have a solid customer base as well as a specific identity as a brand before you embark down the path of expanding your small business.

If you feel your work is becoming unmanageable, why not ask for help? The Triassic Media group provides professional services for all your editorial and marketing needs from content development to complete website maintenance. Let us take care of your marketing strategy so you can focus on your clients.

Start-ups

3 Misconceptions About Start-ups

Whether it be online or offline, aspiring entrepreneurs are constantly generating creative ideas; gathering groups of friends, colleagues or investors; and starting a business, hoping to generate revenue and shock their industries. With this ongoing start-up boom, various misconceptions and myths begin to arise about the method of beginning, maintaining and succeeding at running a start-up business. If you’re thinking about finally giving your start-up idea a shot, here are the top 3 misconceptions you should watch out for:

1. Success is all about money

Now, the goal of most businesses is to generate some level of profit, otherwise it wouldn’t be very financially viable, but that can’t be the only focus. Some start-up ideas can take a little more time. However, focusing on the impact that is made over the long-term will eventually generate the income one desires.

2. First idea is the best

Sometimes, going with your gut instincts can go wrong. It doesn’t mean that your gut is wrong, it just means that at this moment, the idea you came up with just doesn’t work. Now, the first idea may not be the best but it’s worth the try as you can learn from your mistakes when applying the next idea.

3. Passion is enough

Yes, it’s great that you’re passionate, but what if your product doesn’t sell? What if your idea isn’t as great or as creative as you thought it would be? Even if your great idea had a team of financial investors behind it, passion isn’t going to sell them on why they should invest in your start-up – results will. Don’t automatically assume a great product will sell itself. The execution of your success strategy is just as important as coming up with the business idea.