My writing here aims to answer the top question you’ve had after reading the last 4 or 5 articles you have read explaining to you how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign. A few of those might even have come from our site, as we have been guilty of the same bullet point as others (like here) but have failed in to detail what we consider to be the #1 key to a successful campaign.
The crowdfunding campaign question you have:
“OK, All these informative articles are telling me I need to prepare for my campaign 3-6 months prior to launch but What do I do for that time? My product (or service) is awesome, people are going to love it, Why can’t I just type it up and post it today?”, You know you were thinking that!!
Here is a short list of the Mandatory steps for that 3-6 month pre-crowdfunding time period:
1. Create your elevator pitch! If you can’t explain the idea in under 2 minutes, you have work to do. Can a child understand what you’re doing, why your doing it and why they want to be part of it in under 10 sentences? Create it, Test it, Fix it, REPEAT
2. Use “Scrap Paper” – DO NOT JUMP on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo or any other platform, type a few paragraphs and “Go Live”. The campaign you create represents You and Your passion. General rule: Your campaign should be re-read (by you AND someone you trust) and re-written a minimum of 1 time for every $5,000 you hope to raise. There is no substitute for other people reading and making suggestions on your campaign prior to public launch. This takes time!
3. Determine a realistic budget. PLEASE don’t believe for a minute that you will post your campaign and it will have much chance for success without investing any money of your own. The only exception may be a “personal need or medical need” campaign with the expectation of raising a few hundred dollars from close friends and family for short term help. If you’re creating a business, a product or a movie, folks expect you have some “skin in the game”. Creating a video, producing perks and campaign promotion cost money. There is no way around it. My experience tells me that at a bare minimum you must be willing to invest 5-10% of your crowdfunding goal to have a legitimate chance. If you are hoping to raise $50,000 expect to invest a minimum (and this is a minimum) of $2,500 to create and promote your campaign. Is this absolute? No, but it is a very realistic number.
4. Banking, YES, Banking! Does that mean you need to run out and open a business checking account specific to your campaign? No, but you need to establish the account(s) needed to accept funding for your campaign. Imagine rushing out and starting your campaign, people love it, they want to make a donate but your Amazon or PayPal account is not set to accept the donations, one word, FAIL. Establish your account and DONATE yes DONATE to a few interesting projects. Even just a $1 or $2 spread across a campaign a week (on the platform you plan to use). Show the financial services provider you are using that you are a real person, operating a real account. It Helps!! (Picked this one up on an awesome Video Series – “Working the Crowd“)
5. “Perks” or “Rewards – Ensure that you have given yourself time to not only think of the perks you will offer but have considered the time of production and how you will fulfill your obligation to contributors. If offering a physical perk, you’ll want to include images in the campaign. If the perk has not been created prior to the campaign, you may find this difficult.
6. Build a website!! Yes, build a website or at least a “landing page”, using a relevant domain (that you own). You just thought “Why, I’ll have a free page on Kickstarter or Indiegogo?” Why…Because you MUST build your email list and Social Media network to have any chance of success. If you’re assuming your campaign is so amazing that it will definitely just “Go Viral”, you’re fooling yourself. When a campaign does go viral, its the greatest thing in the world but it rarely does! We know that at a minimum you will need to raise 30% of your funding goal from your immediate Social Media network (my belief, this number is much higher). That does not mean 30% needs to come from your parents and friends on facebook that you’ve known forever but it does mean you need to have that online connection with a large percentage of future supporters. THIS IS BUILDING THE CROWD!! Underestimate the importance of building the network and your campaign will fail.
Now you have a few ideas of why EVERY crowdfunding consultant and crowdfund professional will advise you to begin working on your crowdfunding campaign 3-6 months prior to launch. Believe me, this is a very short list and there is still more to do!! I didn’t even mention posting (NOT SELLING) on Social Media outlets on a DAILY basis, weekly blog posts, press releases or emails to your contacts to continually build interest.( Remember in Advertising, Promotion and Marketing you need 10-20 impression points before you will even be recognized, let alone see any action taken). Unfortunatley if I ran any longer you would have never gotten to this point, if anyone actually did. Now you have gotten some ideas for the pre-crowdfunding process, campaign creation and promotion needed to manage a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Hope this was helpful! We love feedback (2nd only to Social Media Shares and reposts) Please feel free (and encouraged) to share our writing, it encourages us to give away more free tips đ
GOOD LUCK with YOUR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN!!!
