6 Actionable Digital Marketing Strategies for Crowdfunding Campaigns

Planning a crowdfunding campaign? 

Whether you’re opening an online store or designing a new fitness app, you need actionable strategies to drive maximum engagement, attract backers, and reach your funding goals.

Thankfully, we have just the tips you need to supercharge your fundraising campaign.

Let’s take a look at six strategies you can use to plan digital marketing promotions that attract aligned supporters for your crowdfunding projects.

1. Conduct a competitor analysis

Setting your crowdfunding campaign apart from the rest is pivotal for success in 2023. To maximize the impact of your crowdfunding efforts, create a high-level overview of your competitors. 

You can do this by conducting a thorough competitor analysis and preparing a competitive intelligence report. 

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These reports unlock valuable insights about your rivals’ strategies and audience engagement tactics. For instance, you might learn that one campaign’s gamification techniques are upping its donations. Or you might learn that another competitor is finding success by sharing compelling videos.

This strategy also provides a roadmap so you can refine your digital marketing approach and fill in the gaps where your competitors fall short.

For example, you may find that most of your competitors have great visual content and calls to action, but lack partnerships. With this in mind, you could work to secure partnerships with micro-influencers, local vendors, and affiliate marketers.

Or you might learn that your competitors are offering great products but lack the social proof to back them up. With this in mind, you could set up user-generated content campaigns with positive brand mentions to build trust with your target donors.

2. Get clear on your ideal audience with a customer data platform

Within the myriad of digital marketing tools available for crowdfunding campaigns, the customer data platform (CDP) is a must-have for understanding your ideal donor. A CDP centralizes user data from all sources, allowing campaign managers to understand their audiences better and tailor marketing efforts more precisely.

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For instance, you can discover your audience’s:

• Top pain points
• Ideal preferences
• Buying history
• Core needs

Use the information you find in your CDP to create a buyer, or in this case, “donor,” personas.

Refer to these personas when creating your digital marketing copy, strategizing campaigns, and planning your ads. This is key to refining your message and choosing tactics in line with your target audience.

3. Capitalize on current events, trends, and recent buzz

Encourage virality and audience engagement by capitalizing on social media trends, current events, and the latest buzz.

For example, YUPLAY, a PC gaming site, continues to capitalize on the buzz surrounding Fortnite with its Fortnite Spiderman collection. This isn’t just a random video game collaboration — it’s a strategic move to piggyback on the success of a viral phenomenon in the gaming industry.

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To follow suit, start by listing current events, online trends, and recent buzz that are relevant to your offering and fundraising goals.

For example, if you’re raising money to grow your online toy store, you could find ways to showcase the new Barbie Movie in your social media campaigns. Or, you could create a product page in your online store showcasing your complete Barbie collection.

Then, focus on creating engaging and shareable content related to your project. Use social media and automated email campaigns to promote your content.

And speaking of email, never underestimate the power of email marketing. This digital marketing favorite can keep your backers in the loop and gives you an ongoing platform to offer exclusive deals and gifts in exchange for donations. You can always use an AI writer tool to instantly generate engaging copy for your email marketing campaigns.

4. Lock arms with micro-influencers and affiliate marketers

Consider collaborating with micro-influencers and affiliate marketers in your niche to boost your reach. You can use a social media analytics tool to get some Facebook and Instagram insights to make sure you choose the correct micro-influencers that will present the best return on investment.

Not only are micro-influencers cheaper than mega-influencers, but they also have a knack for curating highly niche and loyal audiences.

Affiliate marketers are also great because you only have to send them a commission if they successfully bring in donors or partnerships.

5. Use social proof and trust elements

To run successful marketing campaigns, spend time collecting and infusing social proof and trust elements.

These valuable additions are key to building trust with top-of-the-funnel leads who are still getting to know you. They’re also great for bottom-of-the-funnel leads who need that one final push to donate toward your cause.

If you decide to partner with affiliates and influencers, consider asking them to help you run user-generated content campaigns. These assets can help you gather a significant amount of positive brand mentions and visual products you can infuse throughout your campaigns.

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If your business has been around for a while, you can also showcase existing testimonials, reviews, and ratings. To collect even more social proof, use a social listening tool to uncover missed brand mentions and positive comments.

As far as trust elements go, make a list of companies and partnerships that are currently backing your project.

Sprinkle these trust elements and the social proof you’ve gathered throughout your social media campaigns, email marketing campaigns, landing pages, website, and crowdfunding pages, where relevant.  

6. Offer incentives for referrals and additional donations

Nudge prospects to donate by sending emails offering free gifts, services, or products in exchange for their donations.

Choose incentives in line with your campaign goals and target donor’s likes and preferences.

For instance, if you’re raising money for an investment property, consider sending all donors a comfortable t-shirt with your company logo. You could also invite them to the open house after you’ve remodeled it. Or, if you’re raising money to produce an album, consider giving donors a copy of the album.

Here are some other types of rewards you could offer in your campaigns:

• A generous coupon for your most expensive product bundle  
• A free three-month subscription to your app
• The product itself
• Customized coaching or consulting sessions
• Acknowledge their name in the credits
• A shout-out on social media
• Free merch in any color or size they want

To take this tip up a notch, give extra incentives for referring friends. For instance, “refer three friends and get a free one-year subscription”.

Wrap up

Planning a crowdfunding campaign can be challenging, but with the right digital marketing strategies, you can amplify your chances of success.

In this post, we explored six actionable strategies to supercharge your crowdfunding campaign, including:

• 1. Conduct a competitor analysis: Understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses to differentiate your campaign.
• 2. Get clear on your ideal audience with a customer data platform: Use data to identify and target the right audience for your project.
• 3. Capitalize on current events, trends, and recent buzz: Leverage timely topics to capture attention and engage potential backers.
• 4. Lock arms with micro-influencers and affiliate marketers: Collaborate with influencers and marketers to extend your reach and credibility.
• 5. Use social proof and trust elements: Highlight testimonials, reviews, and endorsements to build trust and credibility with your audience.
• 6. Offer incentives for referrals and additional donations: Encourage your backers to share and refer others by offering rewards and incentives.

By implementing these strategies, you’ll enhance your chances of attracting aligned supporters and successfully funding your crowdfunding project.

Good luck with your funding goals!

PS: Need a crowdfunding platform? Take your crowdfunding business to the next level with IgnitionDeck. From equity crowdfunding to supporting causes like the arts, healthcare, poverty alleviation, and animal welfare, we help people pursue diverse crowdfunding opportunities.

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