4/18/24, 7:30 AM A Pre-Launch Guide For Successful Campaigns + Free Campaign Prep Calendar and Checklist - Indiegogo Education

iegogo Education Center

A Pre-Launch Guide For Successful

Campaigns + Free Campaign Prep
Calendar and Checklist

Every day, the User Research and Campaign Strategist teams at Indiegogo work with real
campaigners and analyze campaign strategies in order to find best practices for running a
crowdfunding campaign. We’ve put together a campaign prep and management calendar and
checklist to set you up for success. Not only will you find day-by-day instructions on how to prepare
for and manage your project, you’ll also find helpful links to additional content that will provide all
the information you need to run a successful crowdfunding campaign – all in an interactive and
printable calendar and checklist!
Most successful campaigners spend months planning their campaigns before actually launching.
We recommend beginning the process at least two months before your launch date – the
minimum amount of time needed to build a community around your idea and create a strong email
list – two key factors in your campaign’s success. Remember that these are general
guidelines; take your time properly preparing and setting yourself up for success. If you have a set
launch date, we recommend starting as early as possible. Ready? Let’s get started!

Build Your All-Star Team

Did you know that crowdfunding campaigns run by a team raise over 3 times as much as
campaigns run by an individual? No matter what idea you want to fund, big or small, working with a
team gives you the opportunity to multiply your network, divide and conquer tasks, focus on your
areas of expertise and make your campaign the strongest it can be. Your teammates can be
friends, family members, colleagues – anyone that you trust to help make your vision become a

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reality. Once you have your teammates established, you can invite them to be team members on
your campaign page.
In addition to your core campaign team, you’ll also want to think about who you can invite to help
you with things like your pitch video, product shots, infographics and any other assets that will help
make your campaign page more robust and engaging. Of course, you can always opt to DIY these
things, but you might consider outsourcing to a professional contractor to help ease the workload.
Select a photographer and videographer to use for product shots and your pitch video. You can
also DIY infographics and other engaging graphics, or select a designer to create them for you.

Misfit Shine

Create Your Social Presence

Creating Accounts
Social media is one of the best ways to spread the word about your campaign. Start by creating
social media profiles for all of the channels relevant to your target audience that you and your team
are comfortable with (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.). Depending
on the type of campaign you’re running, some of these channels will be more relevant than others.
Think about which networks your target audience is most likely to be active on and start building an
online presence in the appropriate spaces.

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Social Media Scheduling Tools

Once you’ve created the accounts you want to use, we suggest choosing a social media
scheduling tool to help you create a schedule of regularly rotating content, such as news, blog
posts, images, videos or quotes. Consistently posting interesting, relevant content will help you
engage with your followers and start to build an online community. You can also identify and reach
out to influencers in your space to help build awareness about your campaign.

Sample Facebook and Twitter Posts

Here are a few examples of social media posts – customize them to fit your campaign!
Facebook
Twitter

Build Your Community and Email List

We mentioned that having a strong email list is one of two key components to launching a
successful crowdfunding campaign. Therefore, it’s important to collect emails of people who you
think might be interested in your idea when preparing for your launch. Using a variety of different
tools, such as landing pages, events, social media and collecting contact information in-person, will
help you collect emails from many sources, expanding your potential network. Create a landing
page with an email capture form offering more information if people subscribe to generate buzz and
interest in your idea. Then, you can start sending emails to your list and ask them to engage with
you on social media, at events and other offline connections.
Once you’ve started building your community with an email list, read our Email Outreach
Success document. This will help guide you in building your outreach lists, designing email
templates and creating an email outreach schedule. As you build your outreach list, you can make
a list of your biggest supporters, also known as your “host committee.” These are people who will
contribute first and enthusiastically spread the word about your campaign.

Create Perks Your Audience Will Love

Perks are an excellent way to incentivize people to contribute to your campaign. When organizing
and preparing for your campaign launch, it’s crucial to create perks that your audience will love.
Start by designing your campaign perk structure and make sure fulfillment is reasonable so your
backers receive their perks in a timely fashion. You should also decide which special perks you’ll
introduce later on in your campaign to keep the momentum going.
Need inspiration for what types of perks to offer? Project Hyena Diorama and Greycork both did a
great job offering accessories and add-ons to their core perks.

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Tell Your Story and Draft Your Campaign Page

With your base community and social presence underway, it’s time to start planning your actual
campaign. Write 10 to 15 different 3-sentence descriptions of your project and conduct surveys to
determine which is most engaging to your target audience. Now you can start your campaign draft
by adding a title, goal, and campaign length. Setting a feasible and achievable goal will help you
gain credibility, since it demonstrates that you’ve carefully considered the costs of bringing your
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idea to life. Choosing a realistic campaign length will give you and your community enough time to
rally behind your cause and reach your goal. If you’re running a Flexible Funding campaign, you
can also choose to receive funds via credit card if you prefer. You can also design stretch goals so
that you’re fully prepared when your campaign is a success. Then, tell your story on your campaign
page.

Pitch Text
Remember that your campaign and pitch text are your chance to engage the reader and really
explain to them why your campaign is important and why they should contribute. A couple
examples of campaigns with excellent pitch text are Canary and Misfit Shine – check their
campaign pages out for inspiration! Once you’ve settled on your perks, you can also fill them in
and all other campaign draft details.

Pitch Video
Campaigns with pitch videos raise four times more funds than those without, so you’ll want to
maximize your video. Start storyboarding your video by creating a script of all of the stats and facts
you want to include. Think about what product shots, b-roll and interview sequences you’ll need to
film to convey your message. Watch these pitch videos for inspiration, and if you’re running a
hardware campaign, make sure you include these things in the first 30 seconds of your video.

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Press Releases
After writing all of this copy about your project, you should be well-positioned to start writing press
releases for local media outlets. Check out these 7 tips on how to get the media to cover your
campaign and fill out our media outreach worksheet to get started. Use feedback and comments
from your smaller press releases to draft press releases for larger media outlets as well as blog
posts.

Engaging Your Community

You’ve created the framework for a strong campaign with your social media pages and email
landing page. Share them with your host committee and early supporter network. Ask them to
engage with and share your content, sign up for your email newsletter and share with their
networks.
To make things easier for your network, draft at least 10 Tweets, Facebook posts and short emails
for them to share. Remember to keep Tweets short – you only have 140 characters total, and you
need to reserve 24 characters for a hyperlink and 24 characters for an attached image. Tweets
with images receive 35% more Retweets than those without, so try to keep your messages short
and sweet so you can include an image. Videos uploaded natively to Facebook receive 62% more
engagement than photos, so consider including videos to increase community engagement. Once
you have your email list built and host committee locked in, you can share the drafted emails and
social media posts you created with them and ask them to create their own email lists they’ll share
to as well.

Preparing your campaign’s outreach early ensures that you’re effectively managing your time
during the campaign when there are updates to post, comments to reply to and social media to
keep fresh. At the end of this first month of organizing and preparing, are you feeling ready to
launch? Use this email calculator to see if you have enough emails to truly move on to the next
step.

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