How you can get FREE advertising from your network!

Today’s THROWBACK THURSDAY is dedicated to my friends, family & the strangers who shared posts about my RestoPresto Kickstarter campaign. This “free advertising” contributed to my campaign being overfunding in 2 weeks. SUCCESS!

“Word of mouth advertising” and social media are powerful! The collage above is of a handful of the many Facebook posts by people who spread the RestoPresto love on my behalf. I remain grateful for ALL of these. Some of the shares were complete surprises and unprompted while some were in response to my request to share.

It’s important to engage the people in your network, who enjoy helping to spread messages, to help YOU. My #1 tip to get FREE ADVERTISING from your network is: make it VERY easy for these fine folks to promote your message.

  1. Invest time to personally reach out to your reliable friends (including colleagues) and family via email, text & old-fashioned phone calls.
    Do this with EMPATHY! How much more do you appreciate a personalized message from someone asking you for a specific favor than a mass, impersonal one?
  2. When reaching out: explain your project as briefly as possible and clearly state your request for help.
  3. Then, provide “easy instructions”. This should include text that can be cut & pasted into emails and social media posts. Keep it concise. Your easy instructions will make executing your request seamless. With respect to Facebook, ensure that your settings are edited so that your posts can be shared by others.

My disclaimer: this process must be authentic. Please manage your expectations that if someone does not believe in your “message” or is incredibly busy* then she/he will most likely not share it. Additionally, I have not “paid for play” with respect to publicity for RestoPresto. This is an entirely separate conversation and while paid advertising can be lucrative, it has not been a factor in my own business marketing plan.

*Folks are BUSY so follow ups are important. Your original request may have been inadvertently unread/deleted/overlooked. If you have not received a response follow up, respectfully, 3-5 days later.

Are you thinking of launching a crowdfunding campaign and want to know about the process from someone who has “been there & done that”? Do you have questions about grassroots marketing on a budget? One of the services I offer as a part of my advisory business is sharing what works and what does not work in the creation process, including crowdfunding, based on my #IRL experiences to help others work more effectively.

Contact me to see if we should work together. candi@candiobrentz.com

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