Log In
Members
Home
Add Reply
Add Topic
Topic RSS
7:13 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
QuoteHi All,
As I mentioned in another thread, I'm doing crowd-funding to raise money for radio promotion, which is not something generally recommended around here for the purpose of selling CDs. I have a specific reason, and it's a calculated gamble I can afford to make. But I don't see why the same strategy can't be used to raise money for PPC ads or other traffic-generating sources.
Here's my page: https://igg.me/at/charleylanger. I'm doing this in conjunction with the release of my new CD. My purpose in this post is just to give you an update.
I launched the campaign on October 26, 2016. Today is the fourth day of a 40-day campaign. I'm 10% done. I've raised $1,011 of my $7,500 goal, which is 13%. That could be a bit scary. However, I have not emailed my mailing list yet. My email list is getting a broadcast email tomorrow at 10 am. Also, I set the $7,500 as a flexible goal, which means it's not "all or nothing."
My thought in delaying an email blast was: I don't want to send my list to a project that looks dead. So, I emailed and messaged people that I know are supportive of me so I could get some traction before I sent people from my list. Nobody told me to do that, but it intuitively seems like a nice thing to do for your fans.
Whenever I spend time and money on marketing, I try to put myself in my fans' shoes and ask, "What would I want to see if I were a fan?" I'm not inspired when I go to a crowd-funding site and nobody has dipped their toe in the water yet.
So, I'm off to a fair start. Tomorrow is a day of reckoning. I'm frankly scared.
I have a good-sized list, but it's a little stale. "Stale" is internet marketing lingo for, "I haven't emailed some of them in a while, and so they've had time to forget or lose interest." Some of them are die-hard fans, for sure, but... we'll see how it goes... I'm just being transparent with you.
It's not easy to keep sending your list good content. It's harder if you're not touring or regularly releasing new music. I play mostly California and Nevada, my last CD is a few years old, and a huge part of my list is in other states and countries. It starts to feel awkward telling non-locals, "Come hear me on the west coast. And hang in there... I have a new CD coming out soon..." It's not an insurmountable obstacle, but it takes some work. It's something we all need to think about, and it's not something I have done well.
As for the 40-day campaign. Why 40 days? Well, Indiegogo said that was, in their experience, an optimal time length. You have to keep momentum going, and it's hard to do that over a long haul.
I will keep you posted. I will have more to say.
10:59 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Thanks for posting the details Charley. Your idea to delay the big blast for social proof sounds really smart to me. Good luck with the blast and let us know how you do. Fingers crossed for you.
I would also be sure to do some selective Facebook advertising. Target just people who are on your list and who have been on your site in the last few months. It won't cost you much and those repetitive impressions are really important.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
11:02 pm
June 10, 2011
Offline
John Oszajca said
Thanks for posting the details Charley. Your idea to delay the big blast for social proof sounds really smart to me. Good luck with the blast and let us know how you do. Fingers crossed for you.I would also be sure to do some selective Facebook advertising. Target just people who are on your list and who have been on your site in the last few months. It won't cost you much and those repetitive impressions are really important.
That is an awesome idea!!! Thanks! It's been going a little slower than I anticipated, but I'm determined to make my goal.
11:07 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Best of luck with it!
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
3:04 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
Well, I'm still chugging along. I'm 20% through my campaign, and I'm at 20% of my goal. I expect it will probably taper off some and then I will get a big boost at the end. I still feel like I'm on track to hit $7,500. I'm absolutely 100% glad I did this! Even if I only hit $5,000 -- that's still darn good! If somebody were to do this and have $5,000 for PPC ads... they could do a LOT with that!!
One of the cool things about this is that people are buying high-end things that only cost me a little bit of time -- Skype calls, birthday videos, cover songs, hand-written thank you notes. Some people are buying signed CDs, but EVERYONE gets a download of the album, and it seems that the physical CD is not the main draw. I'm waiting to sell my first painting! lol!
The combination of my broadcast email (I haven't done a follow-up yet), and targeting Facebook ads to my list (cheap), is working well. So, yeah, I'm at $1,500 and have plenty of time to go. And I have some ideas that I think are going to work well, and I'll share them later! 😉
7:07 pm
June 9, 2011
Offline
Hi Charley,
Steve here. This is awesome. I'm really happy to hear this is going so well for you, so far. I've been seeing your FB ads as well in my feed.
Keep us in the loop.
7:42 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Good to hear Charley, I have less experiences with crowdfunding campaigns but I would expect a big surge near the end as well. Just make sure you hit it hard with emails and ads, to let everyone know that time is running out. I'd probably email around 5 - 7 days out, 2 days out, and on the final day. Just like a normal LTO. And back everything up with FB posts and ads.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
9:40 pm
June 10, 2011
Offline
Steve Rodgers said
I've been seeing your FB ads as well in my feed.
Oh good. Thanks for letting me know. So far I've spent about $20 on FB ads, and I've brought in over $500 from FB traffic. I think that's about right anyway. I was going to let you know more precisely, but the analytics page is temporarily down.
9:57 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Stellar profit margin there Charley. I crack up sometimes when I hear about the returns that some artists get on FB advertising, especially retargeting. Imagine if your average giant corporation was getting a 2500% return on their advertising?
For example. Coca Cola spends about 3 billion in advertising annually and makes about 7 billion in profit. Even if you look at their total revenue which has an extremely high percentage of costs to deduct, their advertising to revenue ratio return is only 1400%. Fortune 500 Charley.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
1:18 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
John Oszajca said
Stellar profit margin there Charley. I crack up sometimes when I hear about the returns that some artists get on FB advertising, especially retargeting. Imagine if your average giant corporation was getting a 2500% return on their advertising?For example. Coca Cola spends about 3 billion in advertising annually and makes about 7 billion in profit. Even if you look at their total revenue which has an extremely high percentage of costs to deduct, their advertising to revenue ratio return is only 1400%. Fortune 500 Charley.
I tried to upload an attachment that shows traffic sources. Anyway... Facebook has been a huge help, and I'm not spending much. I've spent $20.39. I've brought in $602. The combination of Facebook ads and the mailing list has been good.
10:25 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Awesome. Great to hear. No upload came through.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
4:07 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
Ok... another update! I'm 85% done with my fundraising. In other words, I have used 34 of my 40 days. I am at 50% of my $7,500 goal. I could be bummed because I may not make $7,500 in the next 6 days; or I could say, "This is the easiest $3,771 I've ever made!!" I've decided to go with the latter.
I think people on this forum should go to my Indiegogo page and just see what people are buying: https://igg.me/at/charleylanger. I'm not asking anyone here to donate, but just go and see! It's interesting. And, no, the biggest purchases were not relatives.
Check out the graphs that I uploaded as images:
The first graph is Dollars vs. Time. The spike at the end is because I sent out another email to my list this morning. I plan to do two more LTO-style "last call" emails. I've had 54 backers over 34 days bring in $3,771, which is almost $70/person. I think that's actually fairly typical. A huge chunk of what you see at the end of the graph is a single house concert purchase. But, again, I hear that's actually typical.
The second graph is Traffic Sources by percent raised. "Direct" is primarily my email list, which accounts for most of it. "Facebook" is Facebook ads and promoted Facebook posts. I spent $64 and made $666. My percentage gain is 940%. However, I know anecdotally that some of my direct sales were increased by my Facebook ads.
"Indiegogo (email)," still looking at the 2nd graph, is from promotional emails sent out by Indiegogo to their subscribers -- i.e., it's free marketing. The sales from "Indiegogo (email)" just came to me without any effort on my own. They send out more promotional emails for products that are performing well.
So... I'm pretty happy about all this. I hope it's interesting. And I hope it shows you that you can raise money for promotion with crowdfunding.
With Indiegogo, it's not an "all or nothing" prospect. I have a flexible goal, which means I keep everything, even if I don't make the goal. And I still have six more days, and some other things I'm thinking about to help make that final push.
That said... I'm still going to bust my ass to make the next 50%, even if I have to sell lemonade or rent out my children.
6:34 pm
June 9, 2011
Offline
Hi Charley,
Really great stuff, man! I love how in tune you are with your metrics. I'm interested in popping over to see what people are pledging for.
Good job!
10:43 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
That's all great stuff Charley. Thanks for sharing it. I'm seeing this a few days late because I've been swamped with the MAW launch, but you should see a last minute spike so long as you email the list on the day before the end and the final day. Those are usually big days of any promo, as you know.
Good luck in the final stretch.
One thing that always bothers me about IGG is that (at least for me) it takes about 10 seconds for a page to load. I get a default IGG page and I always assume that I cant see the content unless I login or something. I usually leave. I only recently realized that it was the load time. In part that would be because my internet is a lot slower here in NZ. But it's not that terrible. And it's not just your page. It's all of them.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
1 Guest(s)
