Don’t let the name ‘crowdfunding’ fool you – there’s more to it than simply raising funds alone. Long before you have launched your campaign, you must also consider if your project or idea is worth the long-term effort of fundraising and can ultimately be a success.
When planning your crowdfunding campaign you have the ideal opportunity to perform a background check on your project or idea, which will help you to decide if it’s worth pursuing, as well as guide you towards success as you plan and execute your crowdfunding campaign.
Here are some questions to ask yourself about your idea before you embark on your crowdfunding journey.
Question 1: Does my idea solve a problem?
It’s the adage of most business books, podcasts and media: if your idea can help solve a problem, it is more likely to succeed. Finding a gap in the global, or local, market has always been one of the most lucrative keys to business success, so ideally your idea will offer something new or innovative. Make sure to research similar concepts that already exist and, if they do, try to give it a new spin.
Question 2: Is my idea valuable to others, other than me as the creator?
It’s tempting to crowdfund for a personal project, but the higher the value your project has for your crowd, the more people will be engaged and possibly interested to support it. Before you even consider launching a crowdfunding campaign, testing the water and the general feeling towards your idea in your target audience is a worthy exercise.
Question 3: Is my project/idea unique or different?
Much like solving a problem with your idea, making sure that it is different in some way to what is already available will help it to catch and keep your crowd’s interest. Make sure that your project is detailed and highlights your goals – and not just your funding goals but what you are really aiming for. A unique and specific proposition will increase your potentials backers’ confidence in your project.
Question 4: How have similar projects performed on the ZAAR platform or other Crowdfunding platforms?
Thorough research is your best weapon in your crowdfunding arsenal, particularly when looking at similar projects who have already launched crowdfunding campaigns. Analysing how these projects were planned, executed and received by the crowd will give you a wealth of information that you can then use to plan your own campaign more effectively.
Question 5: Can I easily relate what my idea/project is to the crowd?
Selling your idea is crucial to persuade multiple potential backers to become your funders. In a busy world in which people tend to lose interest quickly, it’s essential that your message is clear, concise, and easy to understand. This is where adding a video story to your campaign is well worth the effort, since having an audio-visual guide to your idea is more interesting to the general crowd than a page full of text.
Question 6: What do my closest acquaintances think of my idea?
It is likely your friends and family will be your idea’s first backers, so sharing and validating your idea with them before you even launch your crowdfunding campaign will give you their realistic and valuable feedback when it matters most. If you cannot convince them about your project, it will be even harder to convince potential backers who don’t know you.
Question 7: What does the crowd think about my idea?
Once you’ve garnered the thoughts of your family and friends on your idea, the next step is to gain feedback from complete strangers. Making an outreach exercise of this kind will give you constructive criticism, and their genuine suggestions and feedback will help you to further develop your idea.
Question 8: Am I willing to ask, friends, relatives and complete strangers for money?
The main premise behind crowdfunding is asking people to donate their hard-earned cash towards your idea, and so help you reach your funding goal. If you have difficulties in asking people for money, both online and in person, then crowdfunding may not be for you.
Question 9: Am I willing to put extra effort and time into my crowdfunding campaign?
It’s easy to suppose crowdfunding is simply launching a campaign on an online platform and watching the money roll in, but nothing could be further from the truth. Crowdfunding a project or idea involves a lot of time and hard work from start to finish, in various stages including planning, design, launch, promotion, project updates, communicating with potential backers, managing rewards & customer service. If possible, try to engage a small team to help you along this crowdfunding journey.
Question 10: How passionate am I about my project/idea?
To fully commit to all the hard work required for your idea to succeed, both in crowdfunding and beyond, it is essential that you have passion for your project. Being visibly passionate and motivated about your idea as you promote it will boost your backers’ confidence in it, and likewise a lack of passion will overshadow the value of the campaign. Having passion is the solid foundation upon which your crowdfunding campaign’s success is built.
The good news is: we can guide you! Got questions? Ask us!