Informational or emotional appeals in crowdfunding message strategy: an empirical investigation of backers’ support decisions

Different types of crowdfunding backers adopt various social and economic roles, beyond just financial support. Yet the most appropriate message strategy for attracting these different types of backers remains unclear. To fill this gap, using insights into advertising appeals and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we propose a conceptual framework reflecting how the emphasis of the appeals in a crowdfunding message might influence support decisions by two types of backers: consumers and investors. Objective data from a crowdfunding website reveal that appeals that emphasize information (emotion) exert more positive persuasive effects on consumer (investment) backers than on investment (consumer) backers. When devising the appeal emphasis, entrepreneurs thus must make a trade-off while also considering contingent factors such as decision control, social orientation, and reward tangibility. The practical implications of these findings suggest that entrepreneurs should activate backers’ information processing routes differentially, using distinct appeal emphases, rather than relying on an undifferentiated message strategy.