What are some of the best marketing techniques that you’ve seen used for crowdfunding campaigns?
The key lesson I've learned over the past decade in the industry is that your campaign needs a marketing budget. I believe that with rare exceptions, a successful campaign needs a marketing budget equivalent to at least 10% of the total raise. One-third to half of that will need to be spent relatively early in the campaign.
Given this requirement, it is important to price your offering in such a way that you factor this in upfront.
Interesting question. We primarily conduct Reg D 506(c) offerings (not Reg CF so for accredited investors only), and have found that, done properly, cost of a paid ad campaign will run upwards of 4% of the amount raised. This number goes down as the amount to be raised goes up - so anything into the mid-tens of millions or higher will see it tending closer to 3%.
As far as marketing techniques - there are some fundamental principles if you want a high converting campaign; one, you need a solid, lead-generating website as the mother ship of all prospecting, two, provide prospects with extensive, authentic, educational resources that pre-empt all questions they may have (all with lead-gen forms), and three, you need high visibility online, positioning yourself as an/the industry authority.