1. Find Partners
All crowdfunding websites face the challenge of having few running campaigns, especially start-ups. The more active campaigns your website has, the more likely new users will sign up. The less active campaigns your website has, the less likely new users will sign up.
To get users, especially in the beginning, you need to find partners who are willing to create campaigns on your website. If you are a start-up, you can then release your site with existing campaigns created by your partners. A partner can be anyone you can think of - friends, family, colleagues, organizations, companies, charities - who would benefit from running a crowdfunding campaign on your website. Contact potential partners, tell them how they can benefit from your website and consider giving them an introductory discount.
2. Advertise In Social Media
It can be a disastrous mistake to think users will come flowing in through search engine hits once your website is up and running. They won't. After you have become an established website, they can, but in the meanwhile, you must advertise.
Using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, is a cheap and efficient way of advertising your website and your users' campaigns. Social media marketing is not posting as much of your stuff on as many different walls as possible or tweet every update. This could be considered spam and backfire. Social media marketing is more complex, but everybody can easily learn the basics. To get you started, read 21 Social Media Marketing Tips From the Pros.
3. Get Media Attention
Getting attention from the media can be a huge boost for your website. You must not wait for the media to find you, you must actively advertise yourself to the media. Follow these simple steps:
- Identify a media channel - newspaper, website, TV channel, radio - which you think might be interested in your website or one of your user's campaigns.
- Write a short message and send them an e-mail letting them know about your site or campaign.
- Expect 10%-20% of the recipients to respond. If you want two articles, send 20 e-mails.
5. SEO Your Website
Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing the visibility of your website for search engines. In short, the more easy you are to find on Google, the more traffic your website will get, the more users will sign up. SEOing your website is not a one-off job, it's a constant process. Whenever you modify your website, keep SEO in mind.
So how do you optimize your website for search engines? The topic is too long for this article, but I'll point you in the right direction. SEO is not rocket science, in fact anyone can learn the basics easily. Having web design skills is an advantage. To get started, read How to Optimize Your Website for Search Engine Use.
6. Care For Your Users
Having excellent user care will have two important benefits for your business. Firstly, a user who has had a positive experience with you is much more likely to come back. Secondly, there are few - if any - advertisements working better than a recommendation from a friend. If you provide an excellent user experience, the user is more inclined to speak positively about you to others, which again increases your chance of gaining new users.
7. Care For Your Users' Campaigns
Only around half of all crowdfunding campaigns reach their funding goal. Both you and your users will benefit from successful campaigns. You must therefore help your users to create campaigns which are more likely to succeed. To learn how, read How You Succeed With Crowdfunding.
JudithFord