7 Tips to Have a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign Via Social Media

Kickstarter is easily the most well-known amongst the new breed of so-called ‘crowd funding’ websites.  In case you aren’t familiar with how crowdfunding works, essentially a person can create a campaign on Indigogo, Kickstarter or similar sites in order to solicit the direct financial support of hundreds of thousands of individual backers as opposed to working with a bank or seeking out venture capital. 

This opens up a lot of interesting opportunities; music, film and other art can be crowd funded with support direct from the fans, inventors can bring new products to market without having to deal with venture capitalists, and a myriad of other possibilities open up that simply are not possible under more traditional funding models - thanks largely to social media's powerful reach.

Funding can happen, if...

Let's be realistic: not every crowd funding campaign is successful.  In fact, most of them fail to meet their fundraising goals, and thus never make it to market.  As new advancements in finance technology starts to conquer the world, brand new crowdfunding techniques for promising young professionals are likewise being introduced and used, particularly with the help of different social platforms - this goes for Kickstarter, too.

Your simple, no frills 7 step crowdfunding social success map:

• Set Realistic Goals – “Perhaps the most important part of any Kickstarter or crowd funded campaign is setting realistic, achievable goals,” according to Craig Morris, CBDO at LifeIsASnap.com.  “Doing so demonstrates to potential backers that you have performed your due diligence and research before rattling the cup, so to speak.”
• Partner With Known Entities – Partnering with other highly respected social media accounts, busines entities or those experienced in crowd gathering can also be of great value, particularly if you do not have a social reputation of your own that you can leverage for support.  Being able to demonstrate a working partnership with a well-known and respected manufacturer can help convince donors you are the real deal.
• Do Not Overpromise – One classic mistake that many Kickstarter campaigns make is overpromising what they will deliver.  Before you launch any crowd funding campaign, you should make sure that you will be able to deliver what you are promising to any and all potential backers, or you risk upsetting a very large number of people - and becoming the laughing stock of social circles on Twitter and Facebook.
• Build a Creative Reward Structure – Putting some time into developing a creative reward structure will also help persuade people to back your project.  Offer backers items of real value and interest, structure your contribution tiers correctly, and you will find people much more willing to donate to your crowd funding campaign.
• Promote, Promote, Promote – Once you have launched the campaign, you typically have only a limited amount of time in which you can attempt to secure funds.  If you don’t raise the amount stated within that short period, you lose it all.  This means that during the entire time period your fundraising campaign is live your entire organization should be promoting and prospecting as much as they possibly can so that you can meet your goals and collect the funds.
• Leverage Social Media Wisely - Social media signals help increase the awareness your crowdfunding campaign exists - and helps spread the word virally. The higher the tweets, Facebook Likes and Google+ 1's your fundraiser receives, the greater your chances of being fully funded.  Don't fear sharing pictures of your campaign/project on Instagram, too, and have your kids' large social media following help pass the photos down the line.
• Use Video Content – One final tip for running a successful Kickstarter campaign is to invest in some quality, socially acceptable video content.  Having a video with very good production values gives potential backers a real look into your project and often times is the convincing factor in persuading an individual to make a donation.  They are also great for impressing those deep-pocket backers looking for projects they really support to invest in.

By keeping these six tips in mind when you are designing and building your crowd funding campaign, you will keep the focus of your project very lean and tight, which will definitely help you appeal to potential backers that utilize social media often.  If you’re interested in getting your hands on a professional media toolkit that contains a lot of additional information on Kickstarter campaign successes.

via

Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns

Often entrepreneurs believe that Crowd funding is a platform where they are able to access capital without navigating through the traditional channels such as venture capital, investors etc. which is certainly true, but comes with its own set of challenges. Crowd-funding plays a vital role in creating engagement with customers while getting the product in the market. Inventors and entrepreneurs look to inspire their target market to such an extent, that the people are willing to fund the development of the product in exchange for the opportunity to be among the early adopters and a few bonus goodies.

Here are a few tips which will help you run your crowd-funding campaigns successfully.

1 – Communication

It is important to clearly define your goal before you start. Make sure you send out a clear message telling your customers why you need them, what you are and what you stand for. Clearing out these questions for your campaign will make your work easy and deliver your idea to the customers.

2 – Transparency

Once you begin raising money through crowdsourcing, make sure that you don’t force your audience to donate. Depending on how well you let your passion come across, people will donate and join you in the story of your success. Be genuine and transparent with what you pitch to the customer. Whichever fields your audience may be related to they always have enough experience and idea about how pricing takes place, therefore make sure they are aware of every action taken during the whole process. If your message is delivered with clarity and assurance it gets easier for potential sponsors to find the right place to invest.

3 – Socialization

Many crowdsourcing platforms are heavily linked up to social channels, as it provides functionality that can help get the word out about your fundraising efforts. So if you don’t have thousands of friends and followers, you might need to invest some time to build your network at first. Twitter or Facebook, whichever platform you choose, make sure you find majority of the crowd and people who share similar passion and interests. You can prove to be highly influential once you begin engaging.

4 – Propagation

Before promoting your campaign, make sure you are backed up with some donations since this facilitates building trust for new donators. To create that backup you need to make sure you have a crowd where you can Share your campaign privately first, for example friends, family, followers etc. This will begin the donating process and you will notice that a number of people begin to join even before the campaign goes public.

5 – Costing

While setting goals for your campaign, it is important to realize how much more money is required after completing your project. There may be various other costs coming your way, for example production and delivery costs of the perks. Just be careful beforehand and make sure you have set margins to maintain various costs that come forward later.

6 – Incentivize

Perks have always proved to be the best way to thank your audience for backing up your campaign. But before you set up your perks, make sure to conduct a survey on what kind of perks interests your customers the most. Make sure you choose the options that cost less if not ordered in bulk because at times providing incentives to a less number of people may certainly cost more. Once your audience is paying for your campaign, make sure you reward them, keeping in mind the most cost effective options that may have a stronger value than money.

Conclusion

Crowd funding is about running a campaign on collaboration basis and not just about money. Your success counts only when users begin to be equally active to achieve targets. To achieve a successful crowd funding campaign, you need to make sure that the tasks mentioned above are proficiently accomplished.

via

Crowdfunder Blunder: Leverage Crowdfunding or Waste of Time?

Have you ever heard aspiring entrepreneurs casually say: "Oh I'll just put it on Kickstarter." I've heard that quite a bit recently and I thought I'd investigate.

People throw around the word Crowdfunding like a party favor. Crowdfunding is the networking and pooling of individual funds for a project, often in return for a gift.  Last year "crowdfunding" and "crowdsourcing" were buzz words, and the popularity of Crowdfunding sites still reign supreme. In a recent count, every niche seems to have its own crowdfunding site.

Crowdfunding seems like a great way to fund your startup without the hassle of investors that want their money back, and with instant validation from potential customers. Kickstarter, which has to date provided $786 million (as of Sept 2013) in funding is always a great case study for the benefits of crowdfunding. But what many entrepreneurs don't hear about is the flip side. I recently fumbled across YourKickstarterSucks which shows the sad fate of pitches that should never have been posted to begin with. If you think crowdfunding is the best method for gaining some traction on your business idea, consider the following: 10% of projects on Kickstarter completed their round, without receiving a single pledge, and 56% do not get funding because they don't reach their goal.

The only way a project will be a good candidate for crowdfunding, is if the target investors and donors are both willing and able to align with the project conceptually and financially.

Now, say you do identify a project that makes sense to crowdfund. Here are some guidelines about posting a project on a crowdfunding site to maximize the returns for both your venture and the investors:

1. Be realistic about the total goals 
2. Make project crystal clear, concise and super easy to communicate 
3. Show evidence of potential future success - through past sales or market research
4. Provide compelling gifts for investors/donators 

via