It is our pleasure to announce 'Amazon Payments' as IndieGoGo’s new payments solution partner. Over the past few weeks we have transitioned IndieGoGo from PayPal to Amazon to bring you a better payments platform.
NEW BENEFITS INCLUDE:
Direct deposit of fan contributions (no more waiting!)
No more fundraising time limits
Donations for 501c-3 and fiscally sponsored projects
Direct Deposit: Fan contributions will now get paid directly to projects. Project owners will no longer need to wait until the end of their project's funding period to receive their projects’ raised funds.
No More Fundraising Time Limits: The 45-day funding period has been eliminated. Fundraising successes will continue to be recorded and prominently displayed in list-form on a project's profile no matter if a round took 3 days, 30 days or 300 days. Therefore, we continue to encourage project owners to break down their funding needs and raise money in rounds in order to build a track record of successful fundraising and execution on their profile.
Donationsfor 501c-3 or fiscally sponsored projects: Filmmakers whose projects are incorporated as a 501c-3 or fiscally sponsored by a 501c-3 organization can now collect donations by registering as a non-profit merchant with Amazon.
We at IndieGoGo are truly excited about bringing IndieGoGo’s members Amazon Payments. Please feel free to email: support@indiegogo.com should you have any questions.
Here's "IndieGoGo 101" - the basic "How-Tos" of all things IndieGoGo.
Production is the New Promotion: It's never to early to start building a fan, audience or customer base... even if the project is still an idea. The more your share your vision the more people will sense your passion and want to be part of the action.
Fundraising is the New Marketing: By engaging fans and enlisting their support, you're also building loyalty and a viral marketing army. When someone has "bought-in" to an experience (even if it's just a few dollars); they will talk about about, defend, and evangelize it to all their friends. The buzz building that happens might even be more valuable than the actual dollars that they contributed.
People Like to Be Influencers: People love to brag about cool stuff they discovered first. Let them brag about being a funder of your project to all their friends and colleagues at the water cooler. That's great viral (and FREE) marketing like I mentioned above. (Also read: Turning Your Viewers into Promoters) So give them a cool perk to brag about... which leads me to:
Be creative with your VIP Perks: Every person has different assets to offer. It can be a credit (film), a Free download or album (music), a signed copy of your book (writing), an invite to a launch party (venture), a person recipe (food), a private lesson (art), etc. Don't limit your imagination, and ask your fans what they would want in return for a contribution if you're stumped. Read Want Ideas for VIP Perks? Listen to Nine Inch Nail's Former Drummer. Also, whether it's discount they get "if they buy now" or a signed limited edition version that won't be available later, give funders an incentive to contribute and "lock-in" a the perk now versus later.
Be Specific & Transparent with your Use of Funds. The more specific the use of your raised funds the better as funders are more likely to take action when they know exactly where the money is going. For example, you could raise $500 toward the general budget of your project or you could raise $500 to pay for the music rights of a song in your project. Who will sound cooler at a cocktail party. The gal who says "I purchased the music rights for XYZ film so they could premiere at ABC festival" or the guy who says "I gave some money to a film." Read: The Value of Specificity and Transparency in Fundraising for Art.
Audience-Building is a Marathon... Not a Sprint. Building your fan, funder and customer base happens one person at a time, one email at a time, one event at a time. Always Always Always get an email address no matter if its the grocery store clerk who asks you what you do for a living, your former high school classmates you ran into at your reunion, or the conference attendee who asked you why you were at the conference. Also read: Can I Get Your Email Please?
Identify your Customers EARLY: Before you even begin development, identify which niche groups are your "low-hanging fruit" AND reachable fans, and right-size your project's budget accordingly. It's OK to have a small audience. It's not a bad thing if you make $100,000 selling your film direct to fans if your budget was $10,000. It is a bad thing if your film's budget was $300,000. It's also OK to have lots of niche audiences. If your book is about a group of teenagers climbing Mt Everest, your "low-hanging fruit" customers could be high school counselors (always looking for inspiring material to give to their students), mountain climbers and mountain climbing camps, REI shoppers, members of wilderness associations, outdoor-themed blog readers, etc. So how do you reach those customers? See the next few bullets... (Also read: Finding Audiences )
Go to Influencers: Organizations and bloggers with members and readers who are already interested in the types of topics, themes, characters, stories, causes, issues, etc. your project addresses are great partners. If your project is relevant to their goals and missions, you could help them bring interesting content to their followers. Identify, reach out and ask them what they think of your project and what their needs are in bringing new content to their followers. If they like what you're doing, perhaps they offer to promote your project. If not, offer an acknowledgment in exchange for them endorsing your project to their members and followers. Once again, there's no one right way. The key is to recognize who are the influencers that your future fans and customers listen to/read, learn what their needs are and figure out a way to work with them. Also read: How to Market to Bloggers
Go to Where Your Customers Are: go to the online and offline locations that your fans and customers frequent... whether it's a niche topic forum online, a blog, a convention, or event. Location doesn't have to be a physical or geographic place. Meet the YouTube Filmmakers
Raise Money in Rounds: Don't get caught up in trying to raise 100% of your project's budget all at once. Build a track record of success in both fundraising and execution by breaking your funding goals into mini-goals aligned with milestones and tracking your progress along the way. Execution builds fan loyalty and will help with future funding rounds.
Hybrid Financing is the Future: Don't limit yourself just to crowdfunding, or just to debt, or just to angel investment or just to any type of money. Piece your funds together through a variety of approaches as each has its own benefits. Also read: Execution Speaks Louder than Words
Embrace technology: use widgets, twitter, and all the other social media tools out there. Don't be afraid to experiment and learn. And don't wait to master everything to get started. Trust that you'll figure it out as you go, and look to us to bring you many of those tools. If you want something, just let us know. We're building new functionality every day, and we decide what to build based on what our IndieGoGo members request.
Keep your fans and funders entertained and engaged throughout the production: Check out 4EyedMonsters and their video blogs for a great example of filmmakers who kept their content on their fan hub fresh. People may not be willing to pay for as much anymore, but the opportunity to be a patron or fund an important or cool project is an opportunity that is no longer possible only for the super-wealthy. Now someone with $5 can put their money to work. Let them! Also read: The Importance of a Pitch Clip.
Lastly, no matter how creative and industrious you are with an fan-building campaign, you still need to make sure of 2 things:
Your content is great and totally "you"
Your Calls to Action are clear in every opportunity you have interacting with a potential fan (whether it be press, a YouTube video, at an event or with the person sitting next to you on the bus).... Sample Calls To Action include:
Crowdfunding involves audience-building first, and fundraising second. The key to building an audience is NUMBERS... reaching as many people as possible and then of course giving them a clear Call-To-Action once you've grabbed their attention.
Bloggers Are Influencers...
One key tactic filmmakers can use to build their audience over time is to work with bloggers who write on the same topics, themes and opinions that are addressed, reflected, reinforced or simply explored in their films. Bloggers are influencers... people who through the consistent delivery of interesting and quality content have built and continue to build a loyal readership. They are trusted sources of information and thus great partners for filmmakers if they believe in the filmmakers' work. A blog entry that not only discusses a filmmaker's project, but also includes a Call-To-Action message and a GoGoWidget so the readers know what action to take when they click into the filmmaker's IndieGoGo profile, is a powerful opportunity for a filmmaker to find and engage new fans.
Not a One-Way Street Relationship...
The best part is that it does not have to be a one way street -- i.e. a blogger just doing a favor for the filmmaker. In fact it shouldn't be just a one-way street. Bloggers also have needs - one of which is to consistently provide intersting material for their readers. So the opportunity here for filmmakers is to figure out a way where your project CAN be that interesting piece of content to which the blogger will feel excited about sharing with her readers.
... Rather it's a Symbiotic Relationship
A key take-away here is that a filmmaker / blogger relationship can be quite symbiotic if it's not forced. Both individuals have to genuinely respect and want to help the other. So how does a filmmaker begin to develop these real relationships? Through time, outreach and starting NOW.
How To Market to Bloggers: Tips
Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur and author of NY TImes bestseller "The Four Hour Work Week." In a Mashable post today, he breaks down some simple tactics for approaching bloggers. His comments are geared towards entrepreneurs, but I think his advice is quite useful to all our IndieGoGo filmmakers as a DIWO Filmmaker is by default an entrepreneur.
Use his advice to help you think about, identify and reach out to bloggers where a symbiotic relationship is truly possible.
Tom's key pieces of advice include:
Start Before You Need Something
Meet Bloggers in Person
Don't Be a Promoter
Don't Join the Crowd
Be Part of Something Bigger
Read the article HERE or watch Andew's video below for a full explanation of what he means be these tips.
The 2008 election was an especially historic one for a
number of reasons, but it's not what you are thinking. Yes, Barack Obama was
the first African-American to be elected into office. But the importance of the
election last Tuesday reaches into how he got elected, not who was
elected. Obama completely changed campaign strategies and campaign
financing, and that's one of the biggest reasons why he beat out John McCain
for the presidency. Filmmakers can take these same strategies and apply them to
mobilizing their fans and fundraising:
Social
Networking presence (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter)
Online Grassroots
campaign effort to mobilize voters
Small donations (<$1000) raised online
Obama had a clear advantage on the Web compared to McCain. He was able to use
the Internet and social media to reach out and gain traction among potential voters.
Obama's presence on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter were clearly felt. The
New
York Times chronicles how Obama successfully used social networks in his
campaign. On MySpace, Obama had over 800,000 supporters. McCain had over
200,000. Videos on Obama's YouTube channel got over 18 million views, while
McCain's channel had just 2 million. While it is true that Obama's voter
demographic matches with Internet users, Obama's overwhelming advantage
suggests that the Internet will play a huge factor in future elections. This
grassroots campaign effort mobilized millions of voters and led to a record in
voter turnout, which led to an eventual victory for Barack Obama.
What does this mean for filmmakers? It shows that the Internet has the power to
mobilize. You, too, can lead a grassroots effort to gain traction for your
film. If social media can play such a huge role in this election, it can
benefit filmmakers by connecting them with their fans. Facebook, MySpace,
Twitter, and YouTube are a few places to start building your fanbase. IndieGoGo
is a great place to aggregate all these social media tools. You can emulate
Obama's tactics online and produce the same results.
The President-elect also revolutionized campaign financing. In previous
elections, candidates typically get money from their own political party, or
from wealthy donors and corporations. McCain elected to go with financing from
the GOP. Obama raised a record amount- $600 million. But he did it
through crowdfunding—small donations from many people. Millions of Americans
contributed small sums of money to Obama's campaign. Most of his money came
from sub-$1,000 donations. In September, the Obama campaign reported that
the average donation was $86. Filmmakers can also emulate Obama's grassroots
fundraising campaign. This has been one of the driving forces behind IndieGoGo.
Once filmmakers mobilize their fanbase, they can raise small sums of money to
get their project made.
Barack Obama was able to take advantage of the Internet to win the 2008
election. Filmmakers can use the same tactics to get their projects made. Read
more about Obama's social media advantage here
Minna Packer is a successful filmmaker having already written and produced Back to Gombin in 2002. Her latest project, The Lilliput, follows the life of a Jewish dwarf as he survives the holocaust by hiding in garbage cans. The filmmaker from Hoboken, New Jersey has been able to assemble and international cast and crew, while using the latest innovations on the Internet to bring her project to life.
1. What are the goals for your project, The Lilliput?
MP: Ultimately my goals for The Lilliput are to make a movie that is riveting and complex. The main goal is to make a great film, of course.
2. What tactics have you used for financing? Any advice?
MP: I just returned from Poland, where I was based as an American Fulbright scholar. I was awarded a grant for research and that allowed me to work on the film with an affiliation to the University of Lodz. I also worked with the Lodz Film School in putting together a film crew. So the first step in financing was the Fulbright grant.Then the Gombin Society gave me grant which helped. Until my co-producer, Sharon Levy came on board, I was mainly financing this through grants and personal financing. Sharon handled much of our successful IndieGoGo.com campaign based in New York, and I pitched in from Poland. We raised $10,000. on IndieGogo, and were one of the first projects to raise that much, so early at IndieGoGo.com. Currently we are in talks with several studios in Poland, Israel, and in the US. We are also writing grants and planning a few fundraising social events in New York.
For advise I would say that having the sneak peek with such measurably beautiful production values from shooting in 35mm movie film, on location in Poland, is a great tool for opening doors with the people and studios who have shown interest in working on this.
3. How do you identify and reach the audience?
MP: In my previous documentary, Back To Gombin, I chronicled the return to Poland by a group of descendants and children of Jewish Holocaust survivors. This is now in distribution through the National Center for Jewish Film, and has been broadcast in Israel and in the US. This is how I initially identified the Jewish film festivals and Jewish audiences. With this project, The Lilliput, identifying an audience began again with a Jewish audience, but this broadened to include a more varied audience including little people, young adults and a middle age demographic, as well. I've shown the sneak peek to diverse audiences, that have included younger people in Poland, the US and Israel, of different religions and backgrounds. The fact that this is intended as a European- American co-production, gives this film access to different audiences in different countries.
4. What role does the Internet and social media play in your DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) filmmaking?
MP: In addition to our website at IndieGoGo.com/thelilliput, we have created a website for the film at http://www.thelilliputmovie.com. The sneak peek is also available on line at www.thelilliputmovie.com/sneak.html.
5. Can you recommend resources for fundraising and promotion?
MP: Both fundraising and promotion are a continual process. They consist of grant writing, inquiries and relationship building in the industry, with individuals and with producers and organizations! For promotion, I recommend the web. I've used it to send out announcements the sneak peek, photos from the set, to my entire database.
6. What is next on your radar?
MP: My co-producer and I will be flying back to Poland for Camerimage in Lodz, which is the "academy awards" for cinematographers. It's a great networking event for filmmakers, in that part of the world. I saw Polanski there last year, and listened to Ang Lee in seminar, and made some excellent industry contacts. We have appointments with several studios there to discuss the project further and make plans for shooting the full film.
Sarah Evans manages a PR and Social media blog. Her latest entry outlines 10 Steps to building a community using Twitter. I've highlighted five steps below. Read her entire entry on Mashable HERE.
Create a user friendly Twitter ID
Search for people to follow
Add your Twitter ID to all your signatures (I recommend adding your IndieGoGo url as well if you want to drive folks to your project directly)
THE NEW CROSS-PLATFORM FINANCIERS: AUDIENCES, SPONSORS AND BRANDS Presales, MGs and advances are becoming a thing of the past for independent films. Who will the new financiers of independent films be? This session of Power to the Pixel looked at the power of the audience in crowd-sourcing, the power of brands and of sponsors in financing new work.
