How to Spread the Word About Your Crowdfunding Campaign
In her book Cash From the Crowd, Sally Outlaw, founder and CEO of crowdfunding website peerbackers, reveals the secrets of funding your business with help from colleagues, peers, family, friends and even perfect strangers through a crowdfunding campaign. In this edited excerpt, the author offers tips for driving traffic to your project.
Crowdfunding is not a “post it and forget it proposition.” Running a successful campaign requires a major time commitment in advance of, during and post campaign. It also requires that you be fearless in getting out and spreading the word about your venture.
Some crowdfunding entrepreneurs boast that they’ll “shout from the rooftops” about their company and promote their fundraising efforts far and wide, but later, when asked how many friends and family members they went to for support, their response is, “Oh, I don’t feel comfortable approaching my own contacts.”
If that sounds like you, here are two important considerations to help you get over that discomfort. First, be honest about your passion and excitement for what you’re doing. Is it enough to drive you to tell everybody who’ll listen? If not, then why are you doing it at all? It has to be a passion that will sustain you through the startup’s challenging times. Second, if you’re not going to get the buy-in from your own inner circle — the people who know you and most believe in you — why would you expect strangers to get behind your venture and give you money?