Top 5 Tips for a Successful Mobile Crowdfunding Campaign
Crowdfunding was made for a mobile world!
Crowdfunding is online fundraising housed on a platform that is built to be social – it has all the elements that “feed the herd” mentality and get people to give when they visually see others giving.
Features like a goal thermometer, recent activity feed and social media buttons can be key indicators of a campaign’s popularity.
These days, people never leave the house without their phones, whether good or bad, and spend any given free moment heads-down, surfing social media for the latest scoop, checking email or sending a quick text.
If someone’s got 2 free minutes, a credit card, their phone, and are presented with a campaign they can’t say no to, they can easily give on the spot.
Take advantage of the fact that these days people love supporting personal and grassroots initiatives, which is often what you’d find in a crowdfunding campaign.
If you’re looking for more information about mobile giving, check out this guide!
Pick the Right Tool
Your mobile crowdfunding campaign is only going to be successful if you have the right tools in your toolbox.
There are any number of mobile fundraising tools out there, but it’s crucial to pick the one that’s right for your nonprofit’s needs.
If a mobile crowdfunding tool has more bells and whistles than you need at a price that’s on the higher end of your budget, maybe you should look at a simpler service.
On the other hand, you want to give your staff, volunteers, and donors the support they need. A mobile crowdfunding tool that can’t handle the demands of your mobile crowdfunding campaign is going to end up frustrating your donors and limiting the success of your campaign.
Remember you’ve only got 3-5 seconds to capture their attention.
You need to get your audience engaged as well as have 2-3 well-written sentences with an undeniable emotional hook.
If when you read your campaign, you can’t answer the question: “Why must I give today and not tomorrow?” then keep working on it.
Be sure to get to the point right away when it comes to giving background about what you’re raising money for and how you’ll use it.
This is known as imbuing your campaign with a sense of urgency.
Keep in mind that we are a generation of multitaskers hooked on visuals, so capturing people’s attention is challenging, yet critical.
Beyond an engaging story, try to establish a connection via a personal photo or compelling video representing your cause.
Inspire with your passion and gratitude.
It’s been said that people support causes that they feel most passionate about so it’s your job to inspire them to show their support!
They want to have the feeling that their contributions are actually making a significant impact on your mission.
People give in order to make themselves feel like they’ve made a difference so this is your chance to help them do so.
Be sure to remind them of that in your marketing communications!
Motivate others to give by posting weekly updates on your social media to keep the fire going.
The more hyped you can get the community, the better response you’ll receive.
Be sure to say thanks to all who’ve supported you!
Showing gratitude can be a strategy unto itself.
Use a show of thanks as another excuse to communicate with supporters personally and ask them to share the campaign – this is the best way to get viral momentum.
And since this post is all about running a successful mobile crowdfunding campaign, keep in mind that your phone makes it easy for you to show gratitude both personally and publicly, very easily: via quick text message, as a tag n’ thank in social media and as a personal email message.
Hopefully this gets your juices flowing on how you can leverage mobile for successful crowdfunding. Want more tips? Email me for personal coaching and support: dana@depositagift.com
Dana Ostomel is the founder and Chief Gifting Officer of DepositaGift.com, the crowdfunding platform that allows anyone to easily create an online fundraising campaign for any organizational, school or personal need. She is a frequent conference speaker and webinar presenter in the nonprofit sector.
Dana is a marketing and branding expert with over a decade of experience developing integrated marketing solutions for brands in a wide range of industries, from Snapple and CENTURY 21 to The Home Depot, DIRECTV and MasterCard before she left to launch Deposit a Gift 8 years ago. Since then she has been advising organizations, schools and individuals on the best approach to setting up and marketing their campaigns.
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