There are many different factors that have an influence on your crowdfunding success. Obviously one of the biggest ones is the merit of the idea or product that you are looking to raise funds for. Some creators have large budgets for PR that help them get the exposure they need to make it big, while others spend their time on social media and put in the hard work to keep their campaign ahead of hundreds of others.
Of course, there are a lot of smaller things that you can do to help attract backers to your project. In this blog post I’m going to go over a few different tricks that many companies use in their advertising to encourage more sales. Human beings are intelligent creatures, surely, but these tips can help change their perception in small, unconscious ways by taking advantage of human psychology:
1. Colors
Color becomes an important choice to make when designing your advertising because it can subconsciously affect people’s emotions. Choosing your colors wisely when putting together your campaign video, ads, logo, and other content can help you keep the general image of your campaign consistent. It also helps you evoke the kinds of feelings you want your potential customers to have while checking out your campaign page.
For example, the color blue can help increase feelings of trust and welcoming. Red is a color that causes feelings like excitement, danger, and urgency. Green makes people think of things that are fresh, or natural, and yellow encourages feelings like happiness.
For a more extensive list of colors and their meanings check out this post.
2. Right Hand
Some suggest that people are attracted to objects being held in the right hand. As noted in a video by Business Insider, since most people are right-handed advertisers tend to focus on that because it is something people tend to respond and relate to.
3. Word and Image Placement
Generally, it is recommended that images be placed on the left of the advertisement or content that you are creating, with text placed on the right. This is done for a couple reasons, as outlined in Pro Blog Design post.
First, Westerners read from left to right so it makes sense to look at an image on the left and then continue to the right to look for more information. Also, it is a more natural transition because your eyes would have to glance farther for the beginning of the text if the image is on the right.
4. Rounded Corners
It turns out that when it comes to advertising, people don’t really like to look at sharp corners. Rounded corners are now very commonly used as a technique in advertising, from the product design itself, borders of ads being rounded, and also by using fonts with rounded corners.
A UX Movement article suggests that the dislike of sharp corners is because they make content harder to focus on visually, while rounded corners direct attention to what is inside. We are also conditioned to like smooth edges more than sharp ones because they evoke ideas of real sharp objects and pain.
5. Large pupils
Large pupils are featured in a lot in print ads because of their association with arousal and liking (among other things – as mentioned in a post by The Scientist). This is another small tip that can be used when editing photos that advertise a product for your crowdfunding campaign.
6. Music
Almost everyone has a favorite music genre, and often people have different preferences based on their mood. Music can lift us up, make us feel sorrow, give us energy, or relax us. This knowledge is used in the advertising industry to subconsciously affect the way we shop and perceive products.
According to a Digital Synopsis infographic, classical music makes people feel like products are higher quality. The use of slow, calming music increases time any money spent in stores. Faster, more upbeat music on the other hand is used to encourage customers to make their purchases and leave faster.
Conclusion
These tricks are not fool-proof tickets to success; crowdfunding still requires a lot of hard work and promotion. Still, these tips can help you design your campaign page in a way that has a look and feel similar to real advertising, with some of the same effects. By adding small things music and colors that suit your campaign you can make potential backers feel more welcome and encouraged to support your project.
