Avoiding & Managing Burnout when Crowdfunding for Audio Drama
Making an audio drama is hard. Crowdfunding is hard. Crowdfunding to make an audio drama? You guessed it. Hard. In this article, we’re gonna talk about how to avoid and manage burnout while doing it.
Now it’s important to note that I said avoiding AND managing. There’s a lot you can do to make crowdfunding easier on yourself, but no matter what, it’s going to be exhausting. You can’t entirely avoid the exhaustion, but you can make it happen less.
The first thing you should do when crowdfunding is research the space. What have similar crowdfunding campaigns done? What’s their goal, their perks, how are they promoting it? What gets engagement, and what gets ignored? You are about to market your podcast like it’s never been marketed before, asking people to not only listen but to fund it. You shouldn’t walk into that situation unaware.
You need to research campaigns so you know what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to focus your efforts on what has the biggest payoff. This will help you a lot in the long run! If you’re not sure where to start, search “audio drama crowdfunding” on google. The biggest mistake I see in audio drama campaign is creating a campaign, posting about it once on twitter, and then being shocked that it’s not getting support. 10 minutes of research would have helped them avoid this fate.
The biggest hurdle of crowdfunding is getting your campaign out there — the more people that see it, the more people that can support it. This means you need to have two things: (1) engaging text/visuals and (2) a social media presence. Audio drama can be rough to crowdfund because sharing audio is difficult. A picture is easy to see on a twitter feed or crowdfunding campaign page. Audio or video usually takes a few clicks, which prevents engagement Personally, when I’m on my phone, I never listen to videos with sound (and when I’m on my desktop, I rarely do). You need to cater to people like me. If the only media for your crowdfunding campaign is a trailer video, it’s not enough. There are people who won’t play it.
But! You can spend time before the campaign working on your engaging texts/visuals and your social media presence! If you’re funding a new show, create accounts on the platforms you want to post on well before the campaign. Got that already? Make posts teasing the show. Build up your audience. Scheduling social media posts is your friend. I spent the month before WWBH went live creating graphics on canva to post during the campaign, and then scheduled a twitter post each day.
In general, the best way to avoid crowdfunding burnout is by getting as much done as you can in advance. Write copy. Schedule social media tweets. Make templates for the milestones you want to hit. The less you have to do while the campaign is live, the lower your stress levels will be.
Another way to avoid burnout is a simple one: Ask for help! Crowdfunding is ultimately a numbers game. More eyes on the campaign mean a better chance of getting funded, so ask people to share it! Don’t just assume they will. And definitely don’t assume word will get around on it’s own. You should also make it easy for your cast and crew to share posts about the campaign. Directly give them the info they need to do it — don’t assume they’re keeping up with everything, folks are busy!
Be prepared to spend a lot of time working on and sharing the crowdfunding campaign while it’s live. If you can take a break from production while it’s happening, you should do that. Because if you’re doing it right, crowdfunding is exhausting. The way you manage burnout for it is the same way to manage it for any other exhausting task: take breaks! You don’t need to be online all the time. In fact, half the reason for doing so much in advance is to give yourself the ability to check out when you need to. Make plans to walk away from your computer, turn off your phone, and do something fun. Don’t sit there refreshing the page 24/7, it will drain the life out of you.
It’s also important to remember to celebrate the small milestones! 10% funded is something to be proud of. So is reaching 50 supporters. Be proud of yourself for every minor goal you reach, and it will take some of the stress off of hitting the “big goal.” Have fun with it where you can, too. Make silly posts. You’re not a big serious brand, you’re a person — and that’s great! Lean into it. You’re allowed to be human.
TL;DR — Avoid crowdfunding burnout by:
- Researching similar campaigns and making a plan for your own
- Doing as much in advance as you can
- Asking for help sharing the campaign
- Celebrating the small milestones and having fun
- Remembering your worth is not tied to monetary gain
This article is adapted from my twitter thread on the same topic.
