Crowdfunding Success Stories of 2019: Hayley Marsten
2019 continues to be an absolutely stellar year for crowdfunding, so much so that it’s becoming hard to choose which campaigns to profile in this series. In our 2019 Crowdfunding Success Series, we have had a look at a charity campaign (Freyja’s Make-A-Wish), an art campaign (Mirka for Melbourne) and an agriculture campaign (Taranaki Farm).
We thought it was time to fly our music flag high with a look into how Hayley Marsten funded her debut album whilst making our weeks a little brighter with her social media content.
Hayley Marsten
How to best describe Hayley? Well, in her own words she’s a “Country Singer, Song Writer, Dog Enthusiast, Boot Addict, Shopaholic, Cheese Lover, Queenslander, dork.”
The Campaign
Hello, it’s me again, bursting at the seams with new music to share…I’m so proud of this collection of songs and I think its finally time to bring it all together for my debut album!
Hayley ran her first campaign with us in 2016 to fund her second EP ‘Lonestar’ which was an absolute ripper! The public seemed to agree with the EP reaching #8 on the ARIA Country Charts and #1 on the Australian Independent Records Chart.
Whilst the campaign for ‘Lonestar’ was super successful with Hayley shooting past her $3k target to raise $3,850 we’re going to be having a look at how her most recent campaign to fund her debut album took this success to a whole new level.
Rewards
At the close of the campaign, 253 people had jumped on board and pledged to one of the 11 rewards up for grabs. Let’s have a look at why these rewards were so popular:
A Digital Love
In any campaign, it’s important to have a base reward that is reasonably priced for most supporters, $15 is a great example of this. A digital download is almost a must have these days in music campaigns as anyone can receive these and it’s pretty cheap to distribute.
Real Touchable Album
A physical album is always a great idea for those that like something tangible and as you can see, 91 people chose this option which was huge. Hayley added a more personal touch of a handwritten note which is fantastic as this little bonus was exclusive to the campaign.
A Few Of My Fave Things
This reward was fantastic as it balanced offering something personal with great value. When setting up rewards it’s great to personalise them as much as possible as this adds value and a connection with your supporters that’s key in creating and maintaining relationships.
Let’s Write A Banger
This was a great example of an experience based reward. Not only was this reward really personal, it also doesn’t cost much but time so is a great option. 7 supporters ended up choosing this which accounted for a whopping $2100 of the amount raised.
Promotion
Hayley was without a doubt the queen of social media marketing during her campaign. She was active on Instagram and Facebook almost everyday with target updates, countdowns (as the beaut photoshop above shows), thanking and tagging supporters and the fan favourite — posting dance videos for reaching campaign milestones. The latter was genius as she asked people what song they wanted to see her dance to and once she reached the milestone, would upload an outrageously good dance video. This was fun, creative, incentivised people to pledge and created more content than simply “pledge to my campaign.”
There were also some really great Facebook videos covering how crowdfunding works, Q&As and Facebook live videos regarding the campaign.
In the vein of social media, a number of other artists also posted on their channels about Hayley’s campaign which was fantastic as it created a really lovely and supportive community.
The Result
We hit the target!!! It’s here!! We’ve smashed it!!! Thank you so much for pledging and having faith in me to make this album, I promise I am working my butt off to write my most amazing songs and sing the bestest!
At the close of the campaign, 253 supporters had jumped on board to raise $17,110 — smashing past the original $15k target.
The result was truly testament to the love and support people have for Hayley as an artist and a person. Without the hard work she put in promoting the campaign, it definitely would not have been as successful as it was.
We cannot wait for the new album to come out — especially if it means more dance videos 💃
Feeling inspired? Check out the Hayley’s campaign and start creating your draft today 🎧
