Indiegogo marketing mistakes that can ruin a campaign before it begins

Oct25

Since I launched the crowdfunding marketing consulting arm of my business, I’ve been fortunate to be involved in a number of very successful crowdfunding campaigns (mostly on Indiegogo, a few on Kickstarter).

Due to the massive success of the crowdfunding industry, the perception is that it’s “easy”. Many individuals and businesses are jumping on the bandwagon, anticipating their idea on the back of a napkin will have brought in six-figures in funding by the end of next month.

Unfortunately, this leads to much frustration and many failures. In fact, almost 80% of Indiegogo campaigns fail.

There are a number of core elements required for a successful campaign, from marketing to manufacturing, and the mistakes I’ve seen made could be a book.

In this post, however, I wanted to offer an insight into a few key questions that ought to be asked right at the start. Questions that, if asked, can prevent a campaign being doomed before it even begins.

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Marketing secrets of the leading 25 nonprofits

Aug17

I discovered the 2016 M+R Benchmarks Study last week. It looks at a broad range of marketing data from participating nonprofits, such as email messaging, email list size, fundraising, online advocacy, web traffic, Facebook, Twitter, and mobile programs.

The findings of this study are fascinating. It’s concise and easy-to-understand (you can download it for free here), and offers great insight on what today’s nonprofits are doing when it comes to digital marketing.

My favorite section is when it transitions from discussing average benchmarks and explores the exceptional. What are the best of the best doing to drive fundraising and engagement through their marketing?

For the purposes of this analysis, they look at the 25 organizations with the largest year-over-year growth in total dollars raised online and assessed what makes their marketing strategy so effective. Let’s dig in…

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What are the most underrated marketing skills in successfully scaling social impact?

Jun25

Before I quit the 9-5 to launch my business, I interviewed 22 entrepreneurs from either the marketing or social enterprise space. My goal was to gain insight into the attributes, strategies, and skills I’d need to succeed.

There were a handful of pieces of advice I heard on multiple occasions, but only one that was brought up time and time again.

“Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.”

While I understood, at the time it was just theoretical for me. Now, I see it in practice. Many of the social entrepreneurs I speak with are pound foolish – from a marketing standpoint – every single day.

This means underrating skills that are critical to their growth and not investing in them as needed, whether that’s a financial investment (personnel or external support) or a time investment (personal development and training).

social impact scale
There are three marketing skills that I consistently see a lack of awareness for among social entrepreneurs. Or worse, I see them dismissed.

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3 wildly success nonprofit marketing campaigns that drove massive impact with no budget

May24

In our small – but growing (join us!) – private Facebook group for socially-good marketers, we often discuss successful nonprofit marketing campaigns.

Particularly, those with a little-to-no budget.

Seeing how others drive massive impact with minimal resources is something we can all learn from, and take back to our own organizations and marketing campaigns.

We’ve had a few pretty incredible examples referenced recently, worth highlighting outside of our private group. Laid out below are three wildly successful nonprofit marketing campaigns that drove massive impact with no (media or advertising) budget – and what we can learn from them.

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No budget? Here’s how to accelerate word-of-mouth marketing for your social enterprise

Mar12

According to a study by Nielson, 92 percent of consumers believe recommendations from their friends and family over all forms of advertising. Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful, and lucky for those with limited budgets, it can also be free.

Nielson Piechart
In a crowded space this is a huge opportunity, and you ought to be taking advantage of it. Here’s how. Continue reading “No budget? Here’s how to accelerate word-of-mouth marketing for your social enterprise” »