Frequent and transparent communication with your backers is vital to the success of your crowdfunded product. This article provides some useful advice and basic templates for communicating with current and potential backers.
Typically, there are two types of communication with backers: answering campaign questions and project updates. Successful campaigns are constantly in contact with their backers through both of these channels.
Launching your new product into the world is going to produce some questions. While having a Frequently Asked Questions section on your project page is a good idea, you will also receive some questions from backers and prospective backers during the campaign.
These questions will be emailed to an email address of the creators choosing. These campaign questions should be answered as soon as possible.
Both during and after your campaign, keeping in regular contact with your backers is important and necessary. Project Updates are the easiest and most effective way to do this. Get ahead by planning your updates for the campaign before your project even launches. Plan on two updates per week during the campaign and two updates per month after the campaign’s conclusion.
Your first customers are your most important, don’t let them feel neglected by not communicating with them. A simple sentence or two along with an image goes a long way!
To post an update, email your project manager. Provide them with the update title, text and any images or videos, if applicable. Your update will then be posted to the site and emailed out to all of those who have signed up for notifications or have supported your project.
Regular updates go a long way with backers. Share your progress, insights, lessons learned, milestones and more. Be sure to also share the delays or changes to your original plans. Most backers will understand that your shipping is delayed a bit, but many begin to worry if they do not hear from you after a deadline has been missed.
Here are a few campaigns that have done a particularly good job with backer communication.
Whether you're a consumer or a producer of goods, tariffs will almost certainly affect the availability and pricing of those goods, either directly or indirectly. Crowd Supply offers project creators several mechanisms for handling tariffs, all geared toward making it as easy and inexpensive as possible for both creators and backers.