Warning : the following tips could help you increase the amount of funds you raise!
Too often, we see great campaigns with great stories that simply do not create the impact we thought they would.
On the other hand, a title should not try to draw pity but rather it should inspire. A powerful title should seek to inspire supporters to contribute and join the athlete's journey. Later on, supporters and journalists will reuse the same powerful title when writing about your campaign.
Our Research = Your Success
We took the most successful campaigns (those that reached 100% or more) and we compared their titles with the titles of the least successful campaigns (raised less than 30% of their goal). What we found out was a bit shocking - there are clear patterns - clear steps that you can take to create an incredible title.
Here are some examples of highly successful titles :
- Lets get Gold at the 2014 World Muay Thai Championships!
- Help Strike Team Take on the World!
- Rowing for Gold at World University Championships!
We broke it all down for you below :
Short and Powerful
Highly successful campaigns have an average length of 7.5 words. On the other hand, unsuccessful campaigns often have extremely short titles or very long ones.
- Extremely short titles such as "New Equipment" or "KARATE JR TEAM" get little to no contributions. It's probably because friends and family just don't see the point.
- On the other hand, long titles get one or two contributions but have a hard time taking off, such as "Help us to attain all of the tools we need to succeed at the Canada Winter Games!"
- "IBJJF World Champion Heavy Weight Adult Purple Belt 2015 California Long Beach" is loaded with keywords, however its too much information for supporters and hardly a memorable rallying cry.
Mention your event
82% of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns mention a specific competition such as "Rowing for Gold at World University Championships" or "Slide with me to World Champs". Others were looking to fund their dream or passion. Only 1 was looking to fund their season.
Unsuccessful campaigns do not have a reference to a specific event. When they do, they mention training camps or vague titles such as "Help offset the overwhelming expenses of my fight camp."
Note : If you are raising funds for a world championships or Olympics, make sure to mention it because 48% of the most successful campaigns have World championship or Olympics in their title. Only 6% present a national or continental champion.
We learn from this that supporters prefer to support specific competitions especially international ones rather than vague goals or passions. Leverage this point by mentioning your competition in your campaign title.
Use a verb - create action
74% of the most successful campaigns are using action verbs at the beginning of the title such as Send, Get, Join, Rowing, Striking, Slide, etc. Only 21% of unsuccessful campaigns use a verb.
Mention *WHO* is involved
68% of successful campaigns reference the athlete or the team, using either me, my, us or directly the name of the athlete. Unsuccessful campaigns only reference the athlete in 17.5% of cases.
Mention your sport
36% of the most successful campaigns find a way to reference their sport. Although this helps, it doesn't make a dramatic difference as unsuccessful campaigns also reference their sport 28% of the time.
Join my Journey
Of the most successful campaigns, 34% reference "journey" or "road". 18.5% of unsuccessful campaigns also reference a journey however.
Careful use of an exclamation point
30% of successful campaigns use an exclamation point to end their title. On the other hand, only 10% of unsuccessful campaigns also have an exclamation point. We recommend not to overuse punctuation. A well-placed exclamation point can transform a weak title into a more powerful title!
Is a good title enough?
There are clearly more factors playing into the success of a crowdfunding campaigns. For example, the top 5% campaigns are shared 4.4 times more on social media than average campaigns. The athletes generate more engagement (likes, retweets, comments etc.) than their "unsuccessful" peers. Their video is better made, and the text & rewards are more convincing. However, a good campaign title clearly present your crowdfunding goal in the best light possible. Beyond the title, here are some things that you can do to reach the crowd with your MAKEACHAMP campaign.
Ready?
Let's get crowdfunding success at your next world championships!