A total marketing plan is essential if you’re trying to build a brand. It lets you see where you’re going and what you need to do to get there. Having specific goals will help you guide your team and achieve long-term, lasting success.
In a recent webinar, we outlined a high-level marketing plan to help you map out your crowdfunding path. This is the same process that we use with all of our clients, and we recommend it to everyone planning out a crowdfunding campaign.
Ready to find out what your total marketing plan should be?
Contents
Pre-test
Your first step is to create assets and messaging that you can use in your pre-campaign stage. You’ll want to test different graphics, photos, copy, and videos, so don’t just make one thing and assume it’s going to be a winner right away—give yourself some options in the early stages of planning so you don’t have to scramble later.
TestBoom
During the TestBoom phase, you’ll be determining whether or not there’s a market for your product. You’ll do this by running ads directing people to your landing page, where you’ll collect email addresses and reservations. Test different assets at this time. Run different images with different copy to see what combination works best. You can use your results from this process to determine if it’s worth investing the time and money into a full campaign, which can be very expensive.
We recommend that you work with us for your pre-test and TestBoom phases; we’ll do everything for you, from creating and testing your assets to seeing if your product has market viability. Book a call with us today so we can see if we’re a good fit!
Prelaunch
Now that you’ve tested to see whether your product has the chance to succeed and run different ads to see which works the best, it’s time to focus on building your email list. You want to make sure that you gather enough leads and reservations to blow your first day out of the water.
LaunchBoom
Time to launch your campaign! Hold off on this until you know you can meet your goal on day 1. No matter how large or small your goal is, hitting it day 1 will take a lot of stress off of your back and will lead to better opportunities for your campaign as you go along. You’re more likely to get featured by your platform if you meet your goal quickly, and that could lead to things like newsletter placement or recommendations on the front page of the website!
Campaign advertising
Don’t stop advertising just because your campaign is live! You’ll be able to reach more people as your campaign goes on, so don’t turn your ads off. You’ll spend more money on ads, yes, but you’ll raise more money through your campaign.
Post-campaign survey
Once your campaign is over, send out a post-campaign survey that helps you increase your average order value. You can upsell your backers at this point, offering them add-ons that they couldn’t purchase before or letting them purchase additional units of your product.
This can be a huge boost to your overall crowdfunding total. When we worked with Ecoqube C, we had several decorative add-ons available for people to purchase through the survey, and we raised an additional $250,000 through those after the campaign was over.
Launch on InDemand
You should plan to launch on Indiegogo InDemand the second your campaign is over. InDemand lets you keep the lights on and continue raising funds even after your original campaign has wrapped up. Whether you keep running ads or not, using InDemand until you set up your eCommerce site will let people continue to learn about and order your product.
Equity crowdfunding
Once you’ve built your community and launched your product, you can move into the equity crowdfunding space. Equity crowdfunding lets you raise money by turning your backers into investors in your company. That investment helps make people into true supporters, since they have a stake in your doing well—so not only will you directly receive funds from equity crowdfunding, you’ll also develop an inner circle of supporters who will buy your products and spread the word about your company.
Pre-eCommerce
While you’re on InDemand, you should be testing your messaging for your eCommerce site. This means that when you’re ready to move into eCommerce, you’ll already have the best possible messaging in place to continue driving sales.
eCommerce
Moving your product from InDemand to your eCommerce website is a big moment! This is where you can start really driving people to your site and scaling your business into whatever you want it to be. Don’t rush this process; you can stay on InDemand for as long as you need or want to, so you can make sure to perfect everything before you make the move.
Pre-test
No, you’re not seeing things: once your product is live on your eCommerce site, you should start the whole process over again with the next idea you have. The more products you have in your ecosystem, the more successful your business will be. What’s more, the community that you built for your first launch is still there, and if you delivered a great experience with your first campaign, they’ll be ready to back your second, or your third, or… you get the point. This is a process that can and should repeat itself over and over again so your business can thrive!
Using this outline to plan your crowdfunding campaign will set you up for success in the long run. You’ll know what each step is before you have to take it, and you can use the system again and again to launch product after product. This is the total marketing plan that every crowdfunding campaign should have, whether you run it yourself or work with an agency like LaunchBoom. If this seems overwhelming, get in touch with us today to see if we’re a good fit!
