When planning a crowdfunding campaign, it makes sense to reference and follow the methods of other already successful campaigns.
It may be equally useful to note the mistakes made by others, especially those typical of failing campaigns. Here’s the five most common mistakes that you should avoid when creating your crowdfunding campaign.
Setting an Unrealistic Funding Goal
The ideal result of any campaign is to exceed the funding target, but this only happens to those who have set an achievable and realistic funding goal in the first place. Your potential backers (read: investors) will instantly notice if your target amount is disproportionate to the idea you’re selling.
Make sure your goal is reachable according to your audience size and the minimum amount required to realise your project, with all frivolous or unnecessary costs eliminated.
Launching Your Campaign Too Early
Whilst they say it’s never too early to start towards success, the exception to this rule is when launching a crowdfunding campaign before time. As your campaign will have a time limit, the work you do before you hit the launch button will be invaluable in achieving the best outcome.
Plan a pre-launch campaign, in which you research similar campaigns, secure upfront pledges, prepare a list of potential contacts, liaise with the press, build an interested audience on social media, and encourage your friends and family to be your first investors.
Rewards Overload
Having a few exclusive and relevant rewards to offer your potential backers is worth more than dozens of incentives that don’t mean much to you, or them.
Having a cluttered rewards scheme can backfire by confusing and disheartening your backers, not to mention making the rewards themselves difficult for you to fulfil once the campaign closes.
Here, less is more, so make sure to have between 5 and 8 rewards at most. They should be relevant and inspiring enough to ensure your backer keeps your project at the forefront of their mind.
Overdoing it Online
Of course, in today’s predominantly digital world, you would be foolish to overlook the internet as a very powerful tool to engage with your global audience. However, one must be careful not to take on an overwhelming number of digital platforms, each of which will take your time to update and to properly engage with the people it attracts.
The combined time taken to do this could slow you down, and detract from getting your idea out there in person, promoting and pitching your idea offline.
In planning your campaign, choose only the most important online platforms, and consider your time management in terms of updating them versus other promotional tools.
Failure to Engage
Failing to engage with your audience, or understanding them, is the most common cause of failure in crowdfunding. You could have the perfect campaign message, but if it is sent to the wrong people, it will likely come to nothing.
As always, pre-planning is your antidote to this, with proper research into your potential audience. Knowing your crowd’s interests, locations, desires, problems that they need to solve, and so on, is essential if you are to appeal to them and persuade them to invest in your idea.
Plan the content of your crowdfunding campaign so that it is immediately clear and well-organised, with an introductory video that pitches your idea, excellent quality images and concise text. You will then be able to proudly link back to your campaign page on ZAAR, as a quick, easy and professional-looking way of communicating your campaign message to potential backers online.
Also before launch, create a presence for your campaign on select social media platforms, and consider investing in Social Media Advertising to make it stretch even further beyond your own friends and family.