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How To Write An Indiegogo Pitch That Turns Readers Into Backers

Help the start-up team to start their crowdfunding project

Picture this: People are clicking on your paid ads. You get their email with a slick Indiegogo page. You build a relationship with them by sending personalized emails. Launch day arrives. And… Crickets. Imagine how disappointed you’d be after building up excitement for your campaign with a well-crafted pre-launch strategy, only to lose your audience with a lackluster pitch. Your ‘pitch’ (AKA the words on your Indiegogo page) is the centerpiece of your crowdfunding campaign. Sure, you can always count on friends and family to support your project. But a compelling pitch is what actually converts people outside of your immediate circle from curious followers into full-fledged backers. You can’t screw this up. So how do you write your own crowdfunding pitch? Here are a few simple hacks you can use to make sure that you’re doing it right.

It Starts With a Good Structure

A good structure is a framework that holds everything together. Having this lets you organize your pitch in a logical sequence and group ideas in a way that makes sense. Typically, your pitch formula should consist of:

• An engaging hook
• The character or product introduction
• Your plot points
• Closing section

The Most Important Part of Your Pitch

“On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” – David Ogilvy. After people land on your page, it only takes them a few moments to decide whether they’ll keep on reading or not. Your headline acts as the hook that reels your audience in. Make sure it does. No matter how good your idea is, people won’t stick around to hear it if you can’t capture their attention. Which leads us to the next tip…

Keep it Simple 

Holding your reader’s attention is easier than you might think. For starters, try making your sentences simple. No one wants to read l-o-n-g paragraphs with highfalutin words. You’ll sound like a college professor giving a lecture that lulls everyone to sleep (no offense to you professors out there). Lead your readers from one sentence to the next. The easier it is to understand, the better. Pro Tip: Write like you’re speaking to a friend. Still finding it hard? Run your pitch over this tool: http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ Aim for a grade 5 readability score.

People Love a Good Story

Stories engage your audience. It’s a powerful device to getting your point across with minimal resistance. Think about it. Most influential people we know are good storytellers – Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Tony Robbins. Even Jesus spread his word through stories in the form of parables. Still not convinced on the power of stories? We opened this blog post with one.

The Right Approach to Competitors

You can see your competitors as a threat, or you can take advantage of them. Let me explain. If someone is already successful in their campaign, they must be doing something right. All you gotta do is model (NOT copy) what works and apply it in your campaign. Doing so saves you time and costly mistakes because they’ve already done the trial and error for you!

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