Online and offline campaigning: how do you do it?
Creative, fun and inspiring crowdfunding campaigns will steer the attention towards your project and will make it interesting for potential donors to contribute. In order to tempt and involve people in your project, your activities need to be spread out during your campaign and need to be connected to your project and your target audience. What activities would your supporters like? This article provides an overview of handy online and offline activities that you can use to make an easy start!
Online activities
Schedule at least two online activities every week during the course of your campaign. Online activities will mainly take place on social media, the advantage being that people can share your message easily. But you can also use a newsletter or an email to attract donors from within your own network. Read more about the kind of messages you can share and make sure you always add a link to your campaign page.
1. Post updates and refresh your messages
Find new and interesting ways to keep the focus on your initiative. Use your Facebook page to blog and keep people informed about a planned picnic or an article in the local newspaper. Keep people updated on activities and events, so they can see how much time and effort you put in your campaign. Upload pictures of offline activities and show the development of the project.
2. Celebrate milestones
Part of updating your campaign is about sharing milestones. Share the status of your campaign with your supporters and followers. Show that you already have 20 supporters or have collected 25% of the target amount. Radiating success will make it easier to attract further supporters, because people love to join a success story.
3. Talk about rewards
Talk about those fabulous rewards you offer your donors. Share pictures of those rewards and inform. For example, you can talk about one or two rewards every week.
4. Thank your donors and share you call for help
Share the gratitude towards your donors on social media too! Post pictures of the moments when you receive a check or talk about how many people chose which specific reward. Also, you can talk about the different volunteer tasks and ask for help. For instance, the initiators of the Natuurspeeltuin Voorschoten chose to recruit handymen that could assist in their Nature Playground.
5. Create a sense of urgency
Is it the last day of your campaign, the last unique return benefit, or your chance to visit a party for free if you donate now? Use these moments to create a sense of urgency to contribute to your initiative. So count down! Not only on social media, use personal appeals via email too.
Initiator Heleen van Praag sent a ‘now or never update’ on the Bruisplaats:
“ The most successful activity during the campaign was the now-or-never update that was sent three days before ending the campaign, to all 800 member of Gouda Bruist. According to Heleen, this was mainly because of the different tone: more attention was paid to the expression than with previous updates: does this stimulate people enough? The message was clear: this is your last chance to join. The people who wanted to donate but hadn’t come around to doing it were activated because of this last email”.
Be creative!
If it fits the project, then be funny. It holds the attention of the readers and creates a positive atmosphere around your campaign. Use funny quotes, share ambassadors’ videos and share hilarious anecdotes from your campaign. Show variety in your reporting and use the above mentioned tips do that!
Offline activities
Offline activities are those visible activities every campaign needs to succeed. To stimulate people and involve them in your project, your activities need to be well paced during the campaign and also need to be connected to your project and your target audience. At least try to do one offline activity each week, during the course of your crowdfunding campaign.
A personal approach
A personal approach is one of the most effective campaign tools you can use. Tell everyone you talk to about your project and how you are working on a specific activity. Then, send a link or hand out a flyer. A crowdfunding campaign will not happen by just sending emails to your network. Make everyone in your team approach at least three people personally every week and make them ask for a donation.
Event
Organize an event to collect money for the campaign and to generate more awareness for the project. Think of a dinner, auction, sponsor walk, launch event or party!
Playful activities
Hit the streets and make your project visible! Go and hand out flyers, rent a stand on a market (use a collection box), raise money by offering services (like face-painting, collecting bottles or singing songs). A spontaneous fun action that fits your project or your target audience will generate positive attention.
It’s important that your activities fit your project theme, like in the way beekeepers Marcel and Peter did:
“We showed up at the New Year’s reception of the district in our hooded white beekeeper suits. This way you really stand out and you get to talk to the mayor and the counselors. Other people notice you too and are curious who you are.”
Esther van Duin started crowdfunding for a school garden and thought of all kinds of activities in and around the school:
“We organized a lot of visible activities: the hallway was filled with 600 returnable bottles, arts and crafts projects were sold and down the hall the days of the crowdfunding campaign were counted down. Also, our kids sang on the market one morning and collected €150.”
Visualize your crowdfunding campaign on location
Maybe you could install a counter at the local supermarket of schoolyard that shows how much money you’ve already raised? If your campaign concerns a tangible location or place then use that location to show that you’re crowdfunding. Put up a poster and mention the link to the campaign page. And, if possible, install a collection box.
Approach (local) press and blogs
Send a nice and direct message about your project to the local newspaper, so everybody in the neighborhood can read about it the following week. Do it in the last stage of your campaign.
Initiator Margreet Pruijt had this to say:
“We asked for an interview ourselves. That’s a good tip for other crowdfunders. Make sure you are well connected to the local reporter of the local press. This way you can approach them whenever you have news. Local newspapers use a lot of freelance journalists. They’ll be happy when you approach them because it’s more work for them. That’s how you create a win-win situation. You’ll help the journalist and the journalist in turn helps you on your project. And the newspaper will be happy to report some really local news.”
