As the popularity of crowdfunding has grown, PRUnderground.com has seen more and more entrepreneurs use a press release to help publicize their campaigns. After watching many successes and failures, here are a few tips before you publish your crowdfunding press release.
- The product must be good. If your product has no market, is priced too high, or is low quality, it won't raise crowdfunding capital no matter how much marketing or publicity you do. Period.
- Pitch before the press release. PR pros know you first pitch your story as an exclusive to one writer at a time, working down a target list until someone takes it — personal emails, no copy-paste spam. Reach out personally to influencers in your space too. Then publish the release.
- A press release is not enough. Don't assume an online release alone will make your campaign succeed. Build a mailing list, post in relevant forums, run some targeted ads, speak at local events, and network. Make your crowdfunding page the ultimate landing page.
- Price it right. A great product priced too high won't fly. Crowdfunders like being first on a new product, but they also love a deal for funding something still at the blueprint stage. Price it fairly.
- Excite with your announcement. Your headline should include your product's name and what it does — catchy, with long-tail keywords (see tip 7). The body should link to your campaign, describe what makes your product special in 2–3 sentences, include a founder quote, and maybe some backstory. If people feel a connection to you and your product, they're more likely to fund it.
- Get social. Use social media to promote your campaign release — that's why we post it for you as well.
- Work the search engines. A good headline with a strong long-tail keyword phrase brings targeted searchers to your campaign. The headline is the single most important component for both attention and indexing in Google and Bing — it can stay near the top of Google News for important keywords for weeks or months.
- Re-use the press links. Once your release runs, pick a link or two from the media sites that picked it up and add them to your campaign page — a version in IndustryWeek, DigitalJournal.com, or a regional paper lends credibility.
- Announce your progress. Announcing milestones works — when you reach half your funding, hit your goal, innovate, or get ready to ship.
We love crowdfunding as a way to fund niche products that would never get the attention of VCs or large manufacturers at such an early stage. Many campaigns still fail to reach their goal. A press release is one small cog in a successful campaign — but keep the nine tips above in mind to improve your odds.
Speaking of successes, here are a few of the fully funded campaigns that ran a release on PRUnderground.com. (Their success wasn't because of us — we played a very small part in getting the word out. The entrepreneurs are the rock stars.)
- Evil Dead 2: The Official Board Game — raised $448,799 on a $70,000 goal.
- MonoCharge: Wireless Charging Reimagined — about halfway to a $50,000 goal at the time.
- Pry.Me: World's Smallest Bottle Opener — raised $17,023 on a $3,200 goal.
- Kasia Smart Home System — raised $30,727 to bring the project to life.
- Crowd Colour: Personalised Makeup Palettes — £7,367 pledged of a £5,000 goal.
- Legendary Worlds: Adult Coloring Book — raised $21,326 on a $7,500 goal.