Crowdfunding campaigns: Keeping momentum

I've decided to follow up on my post on the rules of crowdfunding, and make it a series. So let's talk about the ways to keep momentum going.

Most campaigns have their strongest days at the beginning and the end. The first and last three days of the average campaign account for one half to two thirds of the support the campaign raises.

But what to do to make things move a bit during the fallow times?

There are two tried and true methods, each of which has its place.

1. More Rewards

You start the campaign off with a set list of rewards. At the end, you should have more. There are two basic kinds of rewards you can add:

A. Supplying demand

Say you have two different rewards, and people ask for combo packs. Offer those.

Or maybe people ask for ancillary rewards. For instance, the books of my publishing house, Nova Press, have lovely covers. There was interest in merch with those covers. Late in the campaign, we added cups with the covers, and those did INCREDIBLY well. Just be sure to price the merch before offering it, so you don't end up losing money.

B. Contributions

Friends and colleagues may offer to contibute rewards. For some, it's purely an act of friendship. For others, it's part of their branding strategy. The reasons don't matter. As long as the reward is relevant to your campaign, you say "thank you" and take it.

Those rewards can have a small or large effect, but they keep the interest up.

While some rewards are offered, you can also ask friends for rewards. This needs to be done delicately, politely, and with the understanding that no one owes you anything. As a publisher, I asked author friends, some of whom I do not publish, to contribute rewards. Those were significant pieces of my campaign's puzzle. I'll talk more about one of them in a future post.

2. Stretch goals

I talked some about those in my first post, but wanted to elaborate and stress my points.

A. When can I stretch?

Don't announce your stretch goals at the start. It seems presumtious and also robs you of annoucement opportunities later on. Do say you HAVE stretch goals. And as I wrote in the previous post, PLAN them out in advance.

The time to announce stretch goals is when the original goal is in sight. When you're about 10-15 percent to the goal.

B. How do I stretch?

It is crucial that stretch goals be something you want to do. I'll give another example from my last campaign. I've known for a while that I wanted to add a YA line to Nova Press. But when do I add it? Without the extra money, I couldn't do it in 2018, but it was definitely a goal. So, I made it my stretch goal. Which was achieved.

A stretch goal can't be a reward before it is reached, obviously. You can't offer a reward if you don't know you'll be able to fulfill it. But it CAN be an add-on. For my campaign, everyone who supported above a certain level will get the first YA novel in ebook format, for free. This gives people an incentive to both raise their support AND to spread the word out.

These strategies will help your campaign move along, and can help you achieve your goals. In the next crowdfunding post, I'll talk about the emotional toll of crowdfunding, strategies to deal with it, and also tell the amazing story of the contributed reward that funded nearly half of my original goal.