It is important to note that half-formed ideas are not the best for crowdfunding. You should be able to sum up your idea clearly and concisely in one to two sentences — if not, it may be worth heading back to the drawing board to work out exactly what you want to accomplish from the project.
Always answer the ‘who, what, when, where and how’ of your project’s vision in the first paragraph of your campaign.
Otherwise, supporters will be discouraged to pledge if a campaign isn’t looking fully formed and fully thought out. Remember that people are giving you their own money to support your project and will be more likely to pledge if they can see a clear vision and trust you know what you’re doing.
Without a doubt, your network or your access to networks is what is going to push your crowdfunding campaign over the line. The foundation of a successful crowdfunding campaign ultimately depends on having an extensive database of loyal supporters both pre-existing, as well as newly-sourced.
If your network isn’t where you want it to be, it may be best to work on this before launching your campaign, but the good news is this can be quite easy to do. Whether it be via social media, attending events, joining meet up groups or simply talking to those in your community — there are so many ways you can expand your network and even if your project does not relate to these people, chances are they know someone who would be interested. We’ve broken this down a little bit in a previous post which can hopefully give you a few more pointers.
Although accessibility is key, please just keep in mind that a large social following doesn’t necessarily guarantee pledges. It certainly helps and makes it easy for people to share the campaign for you, but don’t bank on just this. For any campaign to succeed, there must be a schedule of regular and consistent updates shared throughout the duration of the campaign.
A common misconception is that once you set up a crowdfunding campaign page, that’s it in terms of promotional activity. This is not the case. Whilst there may be people who find your project via the crowdfunding platform, the majority of people need to be told about your campaign and where to find it.
There is a list of required promotional tasks that you will have to keep on top of, such as:
- Social media posting and content creation
- Generating leads
- Organising well-timed cash bombs to keep up the momentum
- Partnerships and event appearances
- Pitching to press and other PR tasks
The work doesn’t stop there either as you still have to complete the actual project and get the rewards to all of your supporters.
If you put the work in though it’s absolutely worth it to be supported by an incredible community who only want you to succeed!