How to use traditional PR to boost your crowdfunding campaign

Traditional PR and crowdfunding success

If you have a great product or business idea you may be trying to raise funds to take it to the next level, or simply to go into production by starting a crowdfunding campaign. You know that you need to drive people to the campaign portal to get them to donate. So how can you use traditional media and PR to boost your efforts?

If you are a start-up or entrepreneur and you are trying to do something a bit new or disruptive, something that’s a little bit outside the square, then you should be able to attract mainstream publicity. But why would you use traditional media rather than just relying on digital and social media to get the word out? And how do you go about running your own publicity campaign anyway?

traditional news and pr

Well, let’s start with ‘why traditional PR’?

 

“A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a full page ad.”

– Richard Branson

Traditional media such as TV, radio, glossy mags, metro newspapers and weekend inserts still has enormous reach. Google absolutely loves mass media sites as they rank online presence using metrics that measure content changes and traffic, something that this media has in spades. Other non-traditional media such as social, blogs and podcasts tend not to have the same reach (although there are always exceptions).

So how can you use the power of traditional media to drive people to your crowdfunding campaign? Well, first you need to craft a story around your business or product idea to make it appeal to the consumers of traditional media. That means that you need to have some advice to offer, or your business needs to be solving a problem, or you need to be doing something that is innovative or unusual. With PR you can’t just write about how great your business is and why people should use/buy it. That won’t fly.

Try googling ‘newsworthy story angles’ to see how to ‘spin’ your story. I also offer tips on my website. See how to make your story into something that the media will be able to use. Having coached a number of crowdfunding campaigns now, I can tell you that you will need a compelling story and if you can get free media coverage, it will make a huge difference to your campaign.

Here are some tips to get you started:

  1. Work out your timings and approach the media that will be able to deliver publicity during your campaign. Be aware of media lead times and work within their parameters. If your campaign is starting next week and running for a month, then there is no point approaching monthly magazines. Their stories won’t be published for 3-4 months.
  2. Know your target market. What media are they consuming? Would your story work well in the weekend newspapers, in the business section of weekly metro newspapers or on radio? Perhaps you have something that is very visual and would work well on TV? If you know who your target market is then you can tailor your story to appeal to that market.
  3. What are your secondary markets? Can you get to your target market by appealing to secondary markets – for instance, if you have a product for blokes, could you also do a campaign to women (they often make the purchase decisions for their partners), or if you want to get to CEOs, can you appeal to them via their EAs or PAs?
  4. Have you got a beta site or micro site set up where people can go to get more information? If it’s an app, can you offer it to a journalist to try and then review?
  5. Have you got some fantastic photography? If not, it’s probably worth investing in good pics – particularly if you have a product, or perhaps you want to get publicity by using one of the founders to seed the story? If so, the media will want photography – and of good quality – to run the story.
  6. Work out the media you want to approach, ensure that your story will be compelling to their readers (and remember, you need to be offering information or advice, not just telling them about your campaign) and send it to them!radio is traditional pr

Short on time?

If you haven’t got much time before your campaign starts, then go for radio interviews and the online versions of big media outlets. Often they are happy to put stories up online only, and forget the print version, and you can get a story up on a major website within days rather than weeks or months.

Traditional media is a great way to get the word out about your crowdfunding campaign, you just need to know how to go about it. It’s not rocket science!  To learn more about building and marketing your crowdfunding campaign, visit our resources pages or get started today.

 

“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.”

– Seth Godin


For more information on using PR to boost your crowdfunding campaign, you can talk to the writer of this article, PR expert Jules Brooke, at +61 409 494 490 or send her an email.


If you'd like to see more of our essential tips for managing and promoting your crowdfunding project, you can grab our Guide To Crowdfunding here.

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About ReadyFundGo

ReadyFundGo is a crowdfunding platform and community of social entrepreneurs, business owners, change makers and innovators who have a great idea they want to get off the ground or grow. If you are interested in the world of innovation and ideas, or want to find strategies for raising funds for your own project or expansion, ReadyFundGo can help. To begin your own crowdfunding campaign, start your draft here.