Kickbooster's referral tool is a wonderful compliment to your existing marketing strategies.
In addition to advertising your campaign to our network of affiliates via our Marketplace, you need to let people in your network know about your referral program!
Who should I invite to participate in my referral program?
If you're hoping to tap into anyone's audience— whether it be the friends and family of your backers, or bloggers and press outlets— you need to actively invite people to participate in your referral program.
Incentivizing others to help you spread the word about your campaign will increase your chances of being able to tap into a much wider audience than you may not have otherwise had access to without these referrals. More eyeballs on your campaign should ultimately result in more pledges, as long as you have a great project!
First thing's first— take a good look at your campaign and ask yourself, "who is the audience for this?" Then... MAKE A LIST!
Once you've narrowed down your audience type, do some research for popular venues in those areas and build a list of people that can really help you get the word out to their like-minded audience. Here's a list of avenues to explore:
General publications with large volumes of users (e.g. sites like The Verge, Mashable, Lifehacker, etc)
Targeted blogs - depending on what audience the product appeals to
News and Media sites
Specific journalists that have written about similar products in your niche
Online communities - like forums, message boards, or Facebook groups you know will care about your project
Social Media followers on platform such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Relevant YouTube channels
Your pre-launch subscribers
Your existing backers
Any supporters you already have or people that have previously purchased from you
Tip: Don't focus solely on large publications. Small, focused blogs usually have some pretty dedicated followers.
Check out other successful crowdfunding campaigns and make a list of people/companies that wrote about them
It's very common for campaigns to advertise some of the outlets that featured their product as it adds a lot of credibility to their campaign. It's always a good idea to check out similar projects and see who wrote about them as they may be great outlets to reach out to.
e.g. "As Seen On"
Okay I have a list... Now what should I say to them?
You've prepared a great list of potential Affiliates and you're ready to reach out to them about your campaign and referral program. Check out this article for some tips and templates!
Other Tips
Reach out to people and sources you know are interested in topics like yours.
Be specific with what you are asking people to do. If you're reaching out to the press, don't ask them to buy your product. You're simply asking them to grab a Kickbooster affiliate link and share your campaign to their audience.
Remember that many media outlets use various affiliate tools to earn a revenue for efforts, Kickbooster is the solution for them in the crowdfunding space.
Post regularly about your referral program on social media to keep it top of mind for your followers.
Be sure to visit our general Crowdfunding tips page for more advice on running a successful campaign and also how to get Top-Performing Affiliates to Join Your Referral Program.