For crowdfunding campaigns, email marketing is a great channel to inform, educate and—if done well—convert your leads to backers. Enventys Partners shares the top 10 email marketing commandments that will take your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to the next level.
Top 10 Email Marketing Tips When Launching on Kickstarter in 2021
As a powerful marketing tool, email can offer substantial support throughout the entire lifecycle of a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign.
That’s why it’s crucial to begin your email marketing efforts early, even before the campaign starts. This can help drive considerable conversions and gain the momentum needed to lift your crowdfunding project to the next level.
In order to set your email marketing off on the right foot, here are ten tips that will ensure your crowdfunding campaign attracts the most amount of backers to help you reach your funding goal.
1. Test Your Subject Lines During Pre-launch
Collect emails before your crowdfunding campaign begins through lead-generating tactics, then send them nurturing emails leading up to launch day. During this time, subject lines will be your first and sometimes only opportunity to impress your readers before they scroll by, leaving your email campaign unopened.
Brainstorm possible subject lines, keeping in mind how it will be seen from the inbox against the other emails vying for your subscriber’s attention. Then A/B test a variety of possible subject lines along with preview text, which is the supplemental text displayed directly underneath or beside the subject line in the inbox.
Pinpoint what your audience connects with. Does a question work better than an urgent statement? What important keywords should be included to resonate a response? Emojis add color and draw the eye, but is it an appropriate use of precious subject line space? Learn what invokes the most interest by looking at engagement metrics, especially your open rate. Then use this knowledge for launch day and beyond.
2. Test First-person Versus Brand/Team
Creating a relationship with your subscribers is incredibly important. Engaged recipients are more likely to become backers and refer your campaign to their friends and family.
Most recipients connect better to individuals, so it’s usually best to have your lead project creator become the voice of your campaign. Have the emails come from this person and written in the first person.
However, sometimes brand names will resonate more, and signing your emails from a team of creators lends more validity and authority to the campaign. Emails from “the team” or “the brand” can be written in the third person.
Early in your campaign, test both of these options to see what works best, then roll with the winner for the duration of the campaign and as you continue to grow your brand.
3. Appeal to Human Interest
There is a saying in the copywriting world that you can’t write a bad headline if it starts with ‘How to’ and this holds true to emails. People love to learn new things. “How To’s,” or other question words in your email entices potential backers to learn more about your product while maintaining excitement for those who already committed to backing your Kickstarter.
Another way to appeal to human interest is by personalizing the email with the subscriber’s name. Then, towards the end of the campaign, let your subscribers know your Kickstarter project will be closing soon. Create a sense of urgency in your content language to remind people the time to back won’t last long.
4. Learn From Other Channels
Are you running Facebook Ads? Using social media? Do you have videos on YouTube?
If so, what image is performing best in your ads? What questions or comments are coming in from your social posts? What video content is generating the most engagement?
Learn from all your channels and use that information to create better emails. Recycle top-performing images from your ads as your email headers. Address questions from social media in your email content. Include the videos (or link to them) in your emails.
Emails should not be in a silo all by themselves. They should be part of your overall communication strategy.
5. Make it Easy to Share or Refer
Do you want to get your subscribers to promote your campaign for you? Give them an easy way to do so.
In your emails, include social sharing links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or other social media platforms your audience frequents. Note that the majority of sharing takes place on Facebook now, so always include a “Share on Facebook” link. Then ask subscribers to share with their friends and family.
Reward Sharing with Giveaway Contests
Want to take it to the next level? Reward sharing with a chance to win your product, and use a platform like Viral Loops to create a referral contest.
We’ve found that subscribers who share campaigns are 1.6 times more likely to become backers. So watch who shares your campaign (and how often) because it can give you insight into how well your campaign will perform!
6. Take Advantage of Animations and Video
Would you rather read six paragraphs of text or watch a video? Would you rather see a product demo as animation or read how it works? I think we all know the answer.
We’re visual people. We like to see things in motion so we understand how products work. Make your emails more engaging and memorable by using videos or animations.
If you’re sending to Gmail recipients, you can embed a YouTube video within the message itself. For everyone else? Post a video thumbnail image, then link to the video content.
7. Use Effective CTAs
Your CTA (call to action) is typically a button or text link. It should direct the recipient on what to do next. Not sure what copy to use on your button? Finish this phrase… “I want you to ______”.
Whatever you use to fill in the blank, make it your call to action. Do you want someone to watch a video? Put “Watch the Video” on the button. Want someone to back your campaign? Use “Back This Project” on your button.
Make your buttons big, clear, and ensure the color stands out from the rest of the message. Test the buttons to make sure they work (and are easy to use) on desktop and mobile.
8. Send More Emails After Launch
Every email you send gives you another chance to generate a conversion. When your campaign launches, send at least one email a day for the first few days of your campaign. It’s important to start your campaign off strong by getting as many backers as possible in the beginning.
After the first week of launch, send a minimum of one email a week to all your subscribers, plus keep your backers informed through backer update emails.
Remember, you can’t get an email conversion if you don’t send an email. More emails equal more opportunities.
9. Re-send to Non-opens
Many recipients miss your emails or are simply busy at the time you send them. Since you’ve taken the time to put together a great email, make sure it gets opened!
After sending your initial campaign, resend it 24 to 48 hours later to anyone who didn’t open the first message. Just make sure you change the subject line so it doesn’t appear to be the same email if the first message is still in the recipient’s inbox. Also, send it at a different time than the first message since people are routine-based and might be busy at that same time on another day.
10. Learn From Your Results
You can’t fix problems if you don’t know they exist, and you won’t be able to replicate success if you don’t know if you’re successful.
Use the analytics from your email service provider and crowdfunding platform to learn what is working, what isn’t, and identify areas of weakness.
Once you spend time reviewing your results, implement fixes or tests for the things that need improving. Then continually repeat this process throughout your campaign.
Final Note: Email is an Amplifier
In our experience, we’ve found that nearly identical emails sent to pre-launch leads from overperforming and underperforming crowdfunding projects resulted in numbers that mirror their campaign’s respective success.
So no matter how creative your crowdfunding emails are, they are not going to generate conversions for an undesirable or overpriced product. However, if you have a product that is desirable and at a price potential backers are willing to pay, your emails will convert well.
Email Marketing with Enventys Partners
At Enventys Partners, we use these ten commandments for all of our client’s crowdfunding emails. For those of you going at it yourself, these tips should help you achieve better results.
Implementing these commandments takes time and practice, and every campaign and audience is unique, so be patient. If you’re looking for email marketing services for your Kickstarter or Indiegogo project, we’re here to help.
Work With Us
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