Six Steps for a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Six Steps for a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
1. Share your story.
Let your potential funders know how your project or business idea can benefit them. Share who you are, what you’re planning to do, where the crowdfunding idea came from, what your budget is and why you’re passionate about it. This shows that you’ve actually put some thought into the idea, which helps prove the legitimacy and credibility of your project.
2. Offer great rewards.
People will back your project if they think it’s worthwhile, but it’s always good to have great perks for your funders too.
You want to be fair with your rewards in terms of price points, and make sure that you can actually fulfill them.
It’s fine to promise your pledgers big rewards, but don’t forget that delivery can take considerable time and effort. Be realistic with your rewards.
3. Set a funding goal.
If you’re launching your campaign on Kickstarter, you should be aware that they have an all-or-nothing funding model. If you meet or exceed your funding goal, you get to keep the money. If not, you don’t get anything. Of course, there are platforms such as Indiegogo that work on a slightly different model where you get to keep the funding regardless of whether you reach your goal.
At this point, it’s important to think about how much money you need to get your business up and running, and how many people you know that would be wiling to pledge. Although you may attract the attention of new people with your campaign, most of your support is going to come from those who already know you. Be realistic.
Also, keep in mind that you can’t change your funding goal once you’ve initiated the campaign.
4. Promote your campaign.
There are many different ways to make people aware of your crowdfunding campaign. Here are several tips for getting the word out there:
- Utilize social media to spread the message.
- Reach out to the media and bloggers to get coverage for your campaign.
- Host a live event to drive up interest and engagement.
Keep in mind that your campaign is unlikely to succeed without a 100 percent commitment on your part. You need to think of it as a your full-time job while you’re driving toward your campaign goals. Leverage every relationship and marketing channel available to you.
5. Update your backers as your project progresses.
You need to keep your project backers in the loop as you move forward with your campaign. If you don’t share regular updates with them, you could lose their interest and you may not be able to attract as many pledgers as you would like.
Fortunately, crowdfunding platforms generally have built-in tools that allow you to update your project backers and send messages out to them. Take advantage of these tools and keep everyone in the loop.
Hype is unnecessary. Be honest and regular with your updates. If things aren’t going exactly as you hoped they would, be transparent. Backers want to know that you can actually deliver on your project and the rewards that you promised them.
6. Fulfill your promise.
Crowdfunding campaigns aren’t over if and when you reach your funding goals. They’re over when the creator has fulfilled their promises. This means completing your project. This means delivering on your perks or rewards, and making sure that you’re communicating with supporters every step of the way.
You can also use surveys to collect feedback from the pledgers at this stage, and this will give you the feedback you need to improve upon your crowdfunding processes in the future.
Only when fulfillment is complete can you truly say that you had a successful crowdfunding campaign. Until then, there are still a lot of things up in the air, both for you and for your backers.
