Top Five Ideas for Your Band’s Next Kickstarter Campaign
Hey, guitar nerds, it’s Shane, the cigar box guitar guy. Are you planning on crowdfunding for your next album?
These Kickstarter campaigns can really help finance an album, tour or other project by getting your fans involved in the process. However, with so many other campaigns out there, you’ll need to keep peoples’ attention.
Here are five ideas I’ve used for my current IndieGoGo campaign. Steal ‘em, tweak ‘em and use ‘em as you want.
• Give your campaign an easy-to-remember link: I created a unique web link, CigarBoxGuitar.info, that directs people straight to my campaign. I bought the unique domain name to easily direct people to my page. It’s a simple trick with domain forwarding at GoDaddy. Now I can just tell my fans to go to CigarBoxGuitar.info when I’m talking about the campaign. Domains are cheap. Find a creative one that’s easy to share and then tell everyone.
• Hidden video lessons or “Easter egg” content: I built up my fan base by posting free how-to-play cigar box guitar video lessons online. Before I launched my crowdfunding campaign, I filmed four new lessons. When I set everything up in IndieGoGo, I hid those new lessons underneath the main pitch video. My fans don’t know it yet, but I’ll be sending an email blast later this week, telling them to revisit the campaign and find these little extras.
• Spread the word: You should be utilizing every email list and social media site your band has in its arsenal. My fans will be receiving one email a week for the duration of the campaign. I’m also posting daily updates to Facebook (including live videos), Instagram, Twitter and other sites of interest.
• Clear out your closets: Create perks and raise money by offering your old equipment. Several perks in my latest kickstarter are instruments or merchandise that I don’t use anymore. My campaign has only been live for two days and fans have already scooped up two stage-used cigar box guitars that I don’t perform with anymore. Do you have broken cymbals? Autograph them. A retired band name backdrop? Again, use your creativity.
• Offer one insane perk: My current crowdsource has a $9,000 perk that says I will play a solo show anywhere on earth. Will anybody buy it? Nah. However, it’s goofy and it’ll create some word-of-mouth. These campaigns should be fun, so make one perk a little crazy with a high dollar amount.
The more creative you get with your campaign, the easier it will be to promote. I can’t stress enough how important your email list and every social media platform will be. Use them.
To see my campaign, go to CigarBoxGuitar.info. (Make sure you check out the one-string guitars crafted from 2×4’s!)
Shane Speal is “King of the Cigar Box Guitar” and the creator of the modern cigar box guitar movement. Hear the music, see the instruments and read about his Cigar Box Guitar Museum at ShaneSpeal.com. Speal’s latest album, Holler! is on C. B. Gitty Records.
Source: www.guitarworld.com
