The Crowd Supply Guide: Marketing and PR


Behind every successful crowdfunding campaign you’ll find more than just a great product, there’s also a solid marketing strategy. But probably the most frequent lament we hear from our creators is “I’m no good at marketing.”

Don’t worry, we’re here to help. Below you’ll find:

  1. a list of the things Crowd Supply can do for you and
  2. a list of things you can do to best market your product.

We’ll also provide help and advice throughout your campaign in the form of coaching, editorial support, and general support and guidance.

Getting an early start on marketing is very important. Some things, like community building, will take time and effort. Other things, like your campaign page and early updates, need to be ready on campaign launch day. That’s why one of the first milestones in preparing for launch is defining your community by understanding your users. At the very start of your campaign, we’ll ask you a series of user-focused questions so your messaging is clear and defined at the outset. Please take some time to carefully work through these Messaging Issues, take a look at the resources linked there. Your responses will shape the entirety of your campaign.

Things Crowd Supply Does

Crowd Supply will help every campaign by providing the following:

Some other things Crowd Supply can do, but which may not apply to every project, include:

-Discord Platform Crowd Supply has a busy community server hosted on Discord, where backers and other creators can discuss projects, challenges, problems solved, and more. (There are also some cat pictures.)

Things You Can (and Should) Do

Tell a Story

You know why your product is awesome, you created it to fill a need or achieve a goal. But you need to help everyone else see your vision. Sound messaging and an effective storyline are critical to a great campaign. Think of your product as a hero on a quest to solve your users’ problems. This is an important exercise that will become the foundation of all of your marketing materials, your product campaign page, general website copy, and so on.

The “Write Your User” Guide page looks more closely at this topic. The Issues in the GitHub Messaging Issues are there to help you put its advice into practice.

Activate Your Personal Network

Develop Your Community

Community development should start well before your campaign launches and will serve you well both during and long after your campaign. "Community members" are fans of your product, your customers, influencers in your product’s market, and vocal champions who will share the product with others. Think of them as collaborators in your product’s development.

Social Media

Like it or not, social media is an integral part of your marketing plan. Outlets such as Reddit, Hackaday projects, Hackster projects, Discord communities, etc. can do a lot to boost your visibility, so it’s worth taking a little time to improve your social media practices. Be careful and purposeful with what and how you post. Post frequently, but be sure to provide good, informative content with each post.

Media Outreach

Pitch the press to let the world know about your product. Here are some best practices for pitching the media:


Question not answered here? Contact us to see how we can help.


The Crowd Supply Guide: Table of Contents

For Everyone

For Backers

For Creators

Getting Started

Before Your Campaign Launches

During Your Campaign

After Your Campaign Concludes


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