Frequent and transparent communication with your backers is vital to the success of your crowdfunding campaign, and will keep your backers supportive even if you don’t reach your funding goal. This article provides some useful advice and basic templates for communicating with current and potential backers.
Typically, there are two types of communication with backers:
Successful creators are constantly in contact with their backers through both of these channels.
Launching your new product into the world is going to produce some questions. While contructing your campaign page, try to anticipate any questions backers could have and make sure your copy provides answers. Avoid creating a generic "FAQ" section and instead answer questions in-line and in context.
You will also receive questions from backers and prospective backers while the campaign is underway. These will come to the email address you provided when you set up your campaign. You should answer questions as soon as possible and, with particularly good or common questions, add the answers to your project copy. Do this frequently and quickly. You can be certain that for every one person who writes in with a question, many more have the same question but don’t bother to write.
Both during and after your campaign, keeping in regular contact with your backers is absolutely essential. Campaign updates are the easiest and most effective way to do this. If there’s a single factor that drives the success of a campaign, it’s campaign updates. They are the fuel that keeps the marketing engine running. They give CS, CS partners, journalists, everyone, really, a reason to discuss and share the campaign again. Sending out the same message over and over is spam. Sending out new information about the same campaign is interesting, valuable content. Remember, a potential backer might need to be exposed to your campaign four, five, even six times before they finally make the transition to an actual backer. Campaign updates are what allow those touch points and make that transition happen.
Get ahead by planning your updates for the campaign before your project even launches. Plan on two updates per week during the campaign and two updates per month after the campaign’s conclusion.
In particular, be sure to share any delays or changes to your original plans. Most backers will understand if your shipping is delayed a bit, but they will begin to worry if they do not hear from you after a deadline has been missed. Keep your updates short and compelling, just a small handful of paragraphs at most. Keep them simple and focused.
Great updates can include topics like:
In addition to the above, you should:
The last two items are especially important. Keeping your backers up-to-date about when you plan to ship will help to reassure them and will greatly reduce the volume of email, etc. from concerned backers who want to know when they’ll see their goods. Your first customers are your most important, don’t let them feel neglected by not communicating with them. A simple sentence or two along with an image goes a long way!
Here are a few campaigns that have done a particularly good job with backer communication.
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Getting Started
Before Your Campaign Launches
During Your Campaign
After Your Campaign Concludes