Key Points:
- Less than 1 in 4 campaigns reach their fundraising goals, and many campaigns no doubt fail for lack of insight into their backer
- Millennials are the most likely age group to participate in the average campaign, followed by GenXer
- The average crowdfunding participant earns a middle-class income, according to Fundera
Who is your ideal backer? Where are they online? What messaging will effectively persuade them to pledge? The answer to these crowdfunding marketing questions can be found in your crowdfunding demographics.
Crowdfunding demographics are statistics that correspond to the characteristics of people likely to support your campaign, including age, income level, as well as platform-specific data. When you’ve got a clear picture of your target customer, it's much easier to effectively reach and acquire them.
Campaigns use demographic data to achieve a range of mission-critical goals, including:
- Craft an effective marketing campaign
- Create persuasive content
- Target advertising and social media
- Refine the product to your audience
This blog discusses how to target your campaign with backer personas based on crowdfunding demographics, plus highlights seven key demographics.
Before we dive in, remember that you can use Easyship's free crowdfunding calculator to estimate your campaign's shipping costs.
Table of Contents
Why Crowdfunding Demographics Matter
Knowing your target audience may not feel easy, but it’s necessary. Less than 1 in 4 campaigns reach their fundraising goals, and many campaigns no doubt fail for lack of insight into their backers. By contrast, effective campaigns have a clear sense of their audience and articulate their value clearly to drive success.
Rather than rely on guesswork to guide your marketing, you can use crowdfunding demographics to gain insight into your audience and guide your messaging. Before we talk crowdfunding demographics, here are some basic demographics to understand about your audience:
- Who they are: age, location, gender, income, etc.
- What they want: desires, pains, challenges, vision of a better world.
- When to reach them: the best time to send outreach to get a response.
- Where they spend time online: who they follow, sites they frequent, platforms used, etc.
- Why they prefer a crowdfunding site: different sites cater to different projects, people
- How to persuade them: compile your data to create a persona-based marketing plan
All these data points, when compiled in a buyer persona, provide a snapshot of your ideal backer. You’ll want to research your customers and compile their crowdfunding demographics into a useful marketing persona, such as:
- College-educated, city-slickin’ tech bro
- A long-haul trucker who loves dogs
- Artsy mom who lives in the suburbs
You’re more likely to reach and acquire support from your audience if you market to them specifically. Nearly 7 million campaigns raised $17.2 billion last year. All those pledges came from people who really believed in the project – more than all the rest.
In other words, your campaign has competition and people resonate with content that’s geared to their unique circumstances. Use your demographic data to craft a robust customer persona, then create content that’s uniquely appealing to your backers, including
- Web pages
- Social media posts
- Emails
- Videos
7 Crowdfunding Demographics To Know
As you create your backer persona, the first step is to flesh out the basics that we listed above. You can wing this avatar together from guesswork at first, but make sure to refine it as your campaign progresses and you gain insight into your audience. Here’s a bunch of data points to factor into your crowdfunding marketing persona.
The Most Common Age for Backers is 24-35
Millennials are the most likely age group to participate in the average campaign, followed by GenXers. These age groups are more likely to have an expendable income and know what they want, but also young enough to be in the tech sphere.
For example, here’s the average age of an Indiegogo backer:
- 18-24: 11%
- 25-34: 37%
- 35-44: 28%
- 45-54: 10%
- 55-64: 9%
- 65+: 5%
Your product is made for boomers or tweens? Okay, you should target those age groups. For most campaigns, though, it’s best to set your sights primarily on Millennials and GenXers who make up most of the pie. For best results, you’ll want to create a campaign that speaks to the widest audience.
Half of the backers (53%) make less than $50,000/year
The average crowdfunding participant earns a middle-class income, according to Fundera. Most millennials, they’re in the beginning stages of their career. GenXers likely have more disposable income but they’re also more likely to carry a mortgage payment.
Affordability is a factor for all crowdfunding demographics, really, so the more cheaply you can make your product, the wider your audience. To cut costs, you can use different materials, cheaper suppliers, or look for discounts on shipping and fulfillment. For an instant estimate on your shipping costs, try our free crowdfunding calculator.
Maybe you’re making a tech gizmo and can’t avoid making an expensive product. You can offer discounts to early joiners or those who make referrals. Acquiring backers early makes your campaign appear trustworthy, which helps to attract more buyers. It’s a smart growth strategy to shave margins on a few pledges to gain the interest of the many.
Related post: How to Create a Pricing Strategy for Your Campaign
88% of Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers are college educated
The crowdfunding ecosystem is larger than Indiegogo and Kickstarter, but this trend appears to be universal. College-educated is a trait that corresponds with other traits, such as having a job, disposable income, and living in a city. This also makes your customer more likely to use social media, according to Statista.
Speaking of, take these factors into account as you consider paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, etc. Social platforms offer robust targeting capabilities, allowing you to get granular about who you reach. Knowing your audience’s age, location, and tendencies helps you spend less and get more from your investment.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach would-be backers, especially those at work. According to Fundera, 53% of email shares for crowdfunding campaigns convert into donations, compared to 12% of Facebook shares and 3% of Twitter shares.
Best practices for email marketing suggest you mail people when they aren’t actively working, like during the morning or evening commute or afternoon coffee breaks.
Crowdfunding backers tend to live in US Cities
The most support for crowdfunding campaigns comes from large American cities, followed by Canada. More populous and more diverse by default, cities also tend to attract those who are open and ready to support new ideas. Here’s are the top 10 US cities for crowdfunding:
- Los Angeles
- New York City
- Houston
- San Jose
- San Francisco
- Collingswood
- Cincinnati
- Washington, D.C.
- Seattle
- Chicago
If you live in a city, local marketing campaigns can be effective, especially for campaigns based on social causes, trends, or entrepreneurial ideas.
For example, you could launch a Meetup group or host an event at a co-working space, then drive traffic to the event with organic and paid social. In-person events are an opportunity to make a strong impression on backers, drive buzz, and even net some free press. You can learn more about where to find crowdfunding backers in this blog.
Roughly 7 in 10 backers are men
The specifics vary by platform, but in general, men make up the majority of crowdfunding backers as opposed to women. Though the reasons are unclear, this doesn’t mean you have to focus your campaign on just men. It’s just a good idea to keep this statistic in your mind as you craft your campaign messaging.
Campaigns with personal information get up to 79% more support
Ironically, your own demographics may be essential to your crowdfunding success. One study found that campaigns that offered basic demographics for the founder – age, name, picture – received 79% more backers than campaigns with an unidentified recipient. Unsurprisingly, people want to know where their money is going and it's more satisfying to help a real person to achieve a personal goal.
To generate max support, create a full profile for yourself. Adding a video to your campaign has also been found to double your likelihood of a successful campaign. The more heartfelt, humorous, and unique your video – the more you’ll resonate with your tribe and gain their support.
For example, BoneDaddyBladeWerx released a campy hero-damsel vid that proved effective in helping the blade company to reach its goal. People like to share funny videos, which no doubt helped.
Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to fly your freak flag in your content. Being open and out there will help you tap into your deepest base of support.
Crowdfunding Demographics: The Bedrock of Success
Your challenge as a crowdfunder is to identify, reach and woo your target audience. Sure, you can get lucky and wing it. A broken clock is right twice a day. But perhaps this explains the high failure rate of crowdfunding campaigns.
You’ll want to research your customers and compile their crowdfunding demographics into a marketing persona for best results. Use this resource to guide your crowdfunding marketing strategy and content creation to success.
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