Crowdfunding first started as a platform for creators and makers to share their brand new ideas to the world. Platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo have created an ecosystem providing both tools and resources to streamline every step. By 2018, Kickstarter is estimated to have fully funded over 135,000 projects while tapping into over 13.8 million early adopters. With successes like these, crowdfunding is quickly becoming the preferred go-to-market strategy for creators and enterprise alike. But with thousands of campaigns launching every day, how can your project shine above the rest?

To help answer this question, I will be sharing the top marketing secrets behind the most successful campaigns Crowdcreate has launched. As the co-founder of Crowdcreate, I’ve personally raised over $25 million through crowdfunded projects. Whether you are trying to reach your very first customer, or launching a new product line globally, these are the definite must-have secrets behind every million dollar crowdfunding campaign.

1. Build Your Community Before You Launch

Every successful crowdfunding effort begins with a strong community of supporters. The larger the initial audience, the better your chance of creating a buzz and start trending on Day 1 of your campaign. Having launched over 35+ successful projects, the number one driver to campaign contributions is through your emails; PR and paid advertising serve only complementary roles. More importantly, emails will also be the most effective way to reach supporters during the first 24 hours of the campaign. This initial list also boosts the effectiveness of other efforts such as paid advertising.

For example, this is what the campaign activity looks like within your Indiegogo dashboard. In this example, Capsule by ANKER a portable project which raised over $1.2 million in contributions launched with an initial 24 hr raise of $212,000. The bathtub effect commonly seen in crowdfunding shows that the first and last 5-7 days of the campaign are the most critical.

2. Listen To Your Customer

In the months leading up to the campaign launch date, this list also serves another important role. Learning critical feedback from your customers is both more engaging and more valuable than trying to guess. Crowdcreating your product can often lead to a better product that your customer is more interested in purchasing. When you involve your customer in the design and feedback process, they’re more likely to support your project.

For Mokacam, a tiny 4K action camera, over 6000 customers voted for the top colors since the creator could only provide a limited number of color variations. Especially for creators in the early stages of ideation, this list of interested customers can become a valuable tool to test and listen to ideas.

Crowdfunding is a unique opportunity to tap into minds of your customer and to iterate on your product. In many crowdfunding projects we have worked on, quickly adapting to the feedback can result in significant boosts in support.

ChargeTech, a global leader in charging solutions launched PLUG, a portable AC power supply battery and successfully raised over $1 million through crowdfunding on Indiegogo. One of the major milestones during the live campaign was when the team reached out to their 3000+ supporters to crowdcreate a new feature. Fast forward 8 months after the campaign completed, PLUG is now an Amazon top seller with the two top Crowdcreated features (1) LED digital display, and (2) TSA approved model for travelers.

3. Invest In Your Own Campaign

Launching a brand new product is already an extremely daunting task. Although crowdfunding platforms and social media has made it much easier to facilitate, it should never be the only source of funding. There are many hard costs to build these customer lists, and build the crowdfunding campaign. While there are many partners to help you along the way, the investment you make upfront can return exponentially when executed right. It’s important to tap into existing communities of early adopters, called super backers, who are the most likely to pledge in the beginning.

To put this into perspective, prior to crowdfunding, getting a product to market involves taking a product to final production, courting distributors and buyers, with the hopes that your distributors will successfully reach customers and build a sustainable model to continue placing orders. This means that all the upfront investment for research, development, and tooling must be paid for before selling a single unit.

With crowdfunding, you now have access to a customer list, valuable feedback, market and press validation, and most importantly money to finance research, development, and tooling… even before you ship a single unit. Reolink, a manufacturer of security cameras, partnered with Crowdcreate to launch their latest wireless security camera called Argus. In 45 days, Argus pre-sold over 6000+ units at over $1 million proving a strong market demand for a product that hasn’t even finished development. After successfully delivering their crowdfunded security camera around the world, Argus is now one of the top selling wireless security cameras on Amazon.

The opportunity to grow a product and brand through crowdfunding is here. Take into consideration these key marketing secrets and maybe you will be launching the next big crowdfunding campaign. Crowdfunding is the single most influential technology that is changing how we innovate.