Today’s time can easily be called the age of startups. There’s a new business springing up almost every single day. With this huge amount of startups, not to mention the number of areas that they’re spread across, the real question is not how to start, build or maintain an already established business, but how to make it stand out from the rest of the crowd. It is here that the idea of crowdfunding comes in.
Crowdfunding is the method of raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, for a project or a venture. Although it can be done through mail-orders and so on, in the virtual world today, the internet stands as the most used and the most beneficial platform for crowdfunding campaigns.
Today, with invaluable ideas from experts, TYS presents to you 6 tips for launching your very own successful crowdfunding campaign.
1. PICK THE RIGHT PLATFORM
Image Courtesy: cuttingedgecapital
No venture can ever be successful until and unless it is presented carefully and in the right way. It is very important to pick the right platform to host your crowdfunding campaign as it will determine the amount and range of people your campaign reaches out to. Your campaign might be meticulously designed and have all the necessary pointers, but without a suitable platform, it will fail to come across people.
2. CREATE BUZZ BEFOREHAND
“I like to think of creating a crowdfunding campaign as building a rocket. The fate of the campaign is mostly determined by the work you do before you launch, especially in terms of marketing, and your ability to influence the outcome after you launch is limited. It is not worth doing the campaign at all if you are not going to do it right, because anything less just won’t work. Take the time to build a good lead list and generate buzz in your network and make sure each of the components of the campaign, the video in particular, are executed with excellence,” says Christopher Hawker from Trident Design.
Images Courtesy: huffingtonpost
One of the very best crowdfunding tips is to have presence on all important social media platforms even before you actually start the campaign, or otherwise, no one will know or be that bothered to take a look at what you are asking for.
3. MAKE IT PERSONAL, TELL YOUR STORY
Image Courtesy: brandsmark
Make them want to contribute to your venture.
There will be no successful campaign until and unless you make the viewer truly understand and connect with what you have to say. Make the description of your campaign tap into the viewers’ emotions, connect with them on a personal level.
Salvador Briggman from CrowdCrux says, “Crowdfunding comes down to developing relationships at scale. The single best question to ask yourself of your video, marketing, website, and press release mentions is “What emotion does this evoke in the reader or the viewer?” Do they feel excited, amazed, or touched? We buy into the vision of individuals that we feel we know, like, and trust. We buy products that we’re genuinely excited about.”
4. THE PERKS OF BEING A CONTRIBUTOR
Image Courtesy: diggov.org
The thing about human nature is that we tend to question what’s in it for us in everything. And this happens in crowdfunding campaigns as well.
Your campaign might be related to a great cause, or have a solid or exciting base, but until and unless the viewers feel like they are the winners as well, it will turn into a half-baked success story. So make sure that you give out rewards, which can be monetary, in kind or even simple social media shout outs, but make sure you give the viewers a sense of receiving something in return for what they give.
Clay Hebert from Crowdfunding Hacks puts it this way, “The backer should feel like they’re getting a great deal, not like they’re overpaying to support you, the creator. Price your rewards “below MSRP” to account for fulfillment risk. Your backers are the people who are willing to pay you cash today for the promise of you and your team fulfilling your campaign at some point in the future. They’re not just backers, they’re your first, best customers.”
5. MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING
Image Courtesy: mspdesigngroup
This is an area which has brought down even the biggest and best crowdfunding campaigns across the globe. Just creating a talking about an upcoming campaign and then launching it will never get you any results. You need to plan and strategize every single day. Market your campaign across all media platforms- social as well as digital as much as you can. Without you doing that, due to the never-ending sea of new ideas and news coming up every second to the viewer, your campaign will be lost, even before it can make an impact. And as you will market it everyday, keep it simple.
Michael Raven of Blazon PR says, “You should be able to describe your product in a sentence no longer than a tweet.”
6. ROOTS OF THE CAMPAIGN: THE POWER OF INVESTORS
Images Courtesy: perspective.hu
Although this is something which should be kept in mind at the beginning itself, but it should be maintained throughout the time period of the campaign as well. The campaign needs to be based on a firm and solid basis, something concrete. It is preferable to have some sort of backing or investors in the beginning itself, who will support you throughout the duration of your campaign and not back out.
People need reassurance, and seeing that your campaign is backed firmly will increase the trust that people have in you.
Robert Hoskins of Crowdfunding PR puts it this way, “Crowdfunding campaign managers should spend at least two months of prep work to build a solid foundation for their crowdfunding campaign. The 1st month should be focused on perfecting social media profiles and increasing followers on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The 2nd month should be focused on issuing four press releases to generate news stories prior to a crowdfunding campaign’s launch. This will establish trust with solid social media credentials and generate hundreds of news stories to be Googled by potential buyers.”
But even with all the above given points, your campaign cannot be a success unless you work, work, work. It is not an easy task- starting a successful crowdfunding campaign, but if you have the right tools, ideas, plan and hard work needed, it surely is not an impossible task as well!
