Setting your target

Do the math

Alrighty. Every campaign starts with doing your sums. Which is where the Boosted success equation comes into play:
 

[$TOTAL] you need in pocket
_______________________________         = Your [$Boosted target]

                      0.9

Algebra. We are here for you.

 

Find your funding target

So, you know how much money you need for your art project.
You also need to account for the Boosted fee. Remember, you receive 90% of the total funds raised. 
Here’s our equation to work it out.

PRO TIP. It can help to share your project budget during your campaign, so people see what you’re spending their money on. Transparency builds trust, y’all.
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How many givers do you need?

The average gift on Boosted is $50.
To calculate how many people you need to give, take your fundraising target and divide it by 50. This will tell you the approximate number of donors you need.

How many people do you need to ask to get that many gifts?

Not everyone you ask to give, will give. It’s a hard, old world out there.
Research on successful Kickstarter projects indicates that between 1.5% and 5% of the people who know about your crowdfunding project will give you money.
 

Anecdotally, Boosted conversion rates are higher, because the artists that use Boosted are promoting their project to people who know and like their work. But we don’t have the stats to back this up, so we’re going to play it cool and not over-promise.
 

2.3% is the average website landing page conversion rate across all industries, so we’re going with that to help us work out how many people you need to ask to give.
Take the number of donors you need and divide that by 0.023. This gives you the number of people you need to contact to make your fundraising target. Don’t know that many people? Don’t panic. We’ll get to that.

How many times do you need to ask?

Those of you who do a lot of marketing may be familiar with the old adage that you have to ask seven times to make a sale. Nothing’s changed in the brave new digital world. It still takes six-eight contacts to generate a sale online.
Crowdfunding’s no different. Even if people know you and like you, they still have busy lives, and you’ve got to cut through that noise. Plan to ask people to give five-seven times.
 

So, to sum up, not only are you going to be contacting thousands of people. You’re also going to contact them multiple times during your campaign. And you’re going to keep things fresh by contacting them in different ways.

Ways to engage people to give:

• Personal phone calls.
• Personal emails.
• Face to face meetings.
• Bulk emails.
• Social media.
• Asking other people/ organisations to spread the word to their community (including your early givers).
• Joint promotions / partnerships.
• PR (talking to the media).
• Boosted project updates.
• Shout outs through Boosted and Arts Foundation channels.
• Flyering
• Posters, stickering and guerrilla street art (always ask permission).
• Events that you host.
• Activations at other events (markets, shows, conferences etc.).
• Public speaking.
• Check out our article on planning your content (Link: planning your content) to find out more about all the ways you can inspire people to give you money.

How long should you campaign for?

Campaigns should run for 30-40 days. 
We don’t recommend you try do it in less than 30 days unless you reallllly like having no fingernails. The exception here is if you have truly outdone yourself in your planning phase. You can choreograph a shorter campaign if you put in more time in the lead-up.
 

Running a campaign for more than 6 weeks can mean that you oversaturate your community with your ask, become wallpaper and lose the sense of urgency that’s a proven driver to giving. 
For the purposes of this guide, let’s call the optimal length of a campaign 30 days.
Now here are a couple of important funding milestones that influence your campaign.
Hit these and you’ll be well on your way to success.

• Aim to raise 10% of your target on day one.
• Aim to raise 33% of your target by the close of your first week. 

When should you campaign?

Avoid summer because everyone is at the beach and broke from Christmas. February through November are all hot to trot. People are more likely to give during the week so aim to start and end your campaign between Tuesday and Thursday.