We've analyzed thousands of campaigns and have broken down the campaign into 4 circles - family and close friends, colleagues/teammates, friends of friends and the crowd.
Here we'll walk you through a procedure you can use to spread your campaign from your close friends all the way to the crowd. Here is a quick video with a write up below:
1st circle - Family and close friends
You'd be surprised how little your close friends and family are aware of your aspirations. The first thing that you have to do is to reveal to your family members and closest friends that you are indeed running a campaign to raise funds. Your family members are going to be your biggest fans and strongest allies in helping you spread your campaign. Your most important mission is to get those people aboard your team. The easiest way to do that is simply by telling them and asking them to support your campaign. Pick up the phone or write an email. Going to social media first might be a mistake because your social media friends will be reluctant to contribute when your family has not yet jumped in. Therefore, before you do rush of to social media make sure your campaign is off to a good start with contributions from your family and close friends. Therefore we recommend to reach out to family within the first 24 hours of your campaign and aim to raise about 20% of your goal.
2nd circle - Colleagues and friends
These individuals are the ones that you went to school with or the ones you work with. The best way to reach them is through social media and email. If you can send an email to your co-workers thats great, otherwise hit up the social networks. They are there for a reason.
Go ahead and update your status on Facebook/Twitter and wherever you have follower. Next, directly messages your friends on Twitter or Facebook and ask them to share your status. This will get the ball rolling. Once contributions start rolling in make sure to thank your contributors public (learn how here). We recommend to reach out to colleagues and friends within the first 72 hours of your campaign and aim to reach 30-50% of your campaign goal. Doing this properly will increase the odds of your campaign succeeding dramatically.
3rd circle - Friends of friends
Essentially, your promotion has to be strong enough for your friends to share your campaign. Once thats done you can hit as many view as 100,000. This is not difficult because we get at least 100 of our friends to share your campaign, they each have 1,000 friends. Once you reach the friends of friends you'll be able to reach around 75% of your targeted goal. Here you have to make sure that you connect with your contributors. Find them on facebook and on twitter and add, say thank you and you'll grow your network of supporters by large numbers!
4th circle - The Crowd
The crowd is not some elusive entity that only few campaigns reach. You have a high chance of reaching the crowd if you take the right steps.
First, make sure that your story enticing and exciting for the contributors - never beg in your campaign, seek to inspire!
Second, make sure you've reached the first, second and third circle of contributors. Once you've done that, the crowd will be convinced that their support is necessary.
Third step is setting up the rewards in unique way. The first type of rewards is non material rewards. You have to be creative with these rewards and you should look to bond with your supporters. The second type of rewards are physical rewards. To make these enticing you might want to contact a sponsor. The sponsor can offer discounts, sample products and discounted merchandise to the contributors. The sponsor can benefit from increased exposure and also potential clients.
Fourth step is to reach out to the media. The media includes bloggers, journalists and even sport organizations. If your local newspaper finds your story interesting they might be willing to publish a story about you and your campaign. Reaching out to your sport organization can have a lot of benefit as they might do a press release about your campaign.
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