Laying the Foundation: Key Tips and Tactics to Ensure a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

As crowdfunding for small businesses continues to grow in popularity, the battle for backers has become increasingly more competitive. If you are only relying on your campaign being featured on a crowdfunding site, you may be in trouble. 

The only way to succeed is to make sure that you have a clear crowdfunding strategy in place before you launch. Still not sure what to do? Here are some helpful tips to get you on the right path and set you up for success. 

Get Your Team Together

Ensure there are clear roles for all team members so that your efforts don’t overlap. You may need to outsource work where you lack expertise, so getting a crowdfunding agency, graphic designer, product photographer, and other experts on the team are paramount to success. 

Make a Workable Prototype

It is no secret that workable prototypes of your product instill more confidence in potential backers that your project is real and will be sent out to them after production. It also helps to have video footage of the prototype in action. As a matter of fact, some platforms, like Kickstarter, require it, so make sure you have one ready to go before your launch. 

Set Your Goals

One of the most critical aspects of your crowdfunding campaign is your funding goal. As many crowdfunding experts know, how high or low you set your goal plays a large part in determining if you will get the funds that you need. If a goal doesn’t seem attainable, a backer might be wary of backing a campaign that requires so much capital to proceed with production. By the same token, picking a number that’s too low might ruin the validity of your campaign or insinuate that it’s a cheap product. 

Shipping Strategy & Pricing Down For Production

Oftentimes, during the hustle and bustle of planning your campaign, shipping and fulfillment can be an afterthought. It is crucial to be as exact as you can on your calculations to ensure that you end up making a profit at the end of the campaign. Ask yourself if the campaign goals you set will cover both production and shipping costs while still leaving you with a profit. If not, are the shipping costs low enough to pass on to the backer? Make sure you have this all in place before the campaign begins so that you can seamlessly slide into production and/or fulfillment without a hitch.

Get Your Assets Together 

Quality images and video content is what your backers want to see! According to Statista, studies show that 85% of users in the US view video content. Get professional photography and videos created that show the functionality and highlight all the benefits of your product. Feel free to get creative and set a tone or mood that is appropriate for your product. You’ll be using this content not only for the campaign page itself but also for advertising, so It can really make the difference between failure and success. 

Take Stock in what you Need for Social Capital

You’ve heard it from us before, and you’ll probably hear it again: Lack of social capital is the #1 reason why campaigns fail. Before you launch, reach out to friends, family, and investors who are willing to support you and your vision. Factor in a budget for a pre-marketing phase to add to your community and get together an email list.

Envision the Design and Flow of Your Campaign Page 

The flow of your campaign page is essential. You never want to have anything confusing or left up to the imagination – your product content should be appealing to the eye, and the text should be spelled out in a palatable way. Working with an experienced agency is always recommended when creating a campaign page, but you can also gain insight into what works and what doesn’t by looking at recent campaigns on the same platform that have succeeded in your genré. 

Make a Great Campaign Pitch Video

We can’t stress enough how vital your campaign pitch video is! An engaging video that not only shows how your product works and why it “solves the problem” of your target audience is instrumental in getting backers excited and ready to make their order. It’s also a great way to set the tone or share a little bit of your company culture, which goes a long way into humanizing your story and showcasing the people behind the product. Be sure to communicate your most important points in the first 30 seconds of the video as studies show that time frame maximizes opportunity with viewers. 

Make a Plan

It sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many people launch without one. At the Launchpad Agency, our fully managed crowdfunding campaigns feature a  4-phase, integrated approach to strategically plan your crowdfunding campaign to reach backers via multiple channels. 

Make sure you and your team have a timeline of events that include how much time, budget, and assets you have for each phase of your campaign. This way, if something unexpected happens, you can adjust your activities together to help reach the next goal.

Launch With A Bang

Once you launch, it’s all hands on deck! Now it’s time for all the excitement you created to come to fruition. Activate your audience and direct them to your project, keeping up the enthusiasm, and making sure to answer questions and offer excellent customer service wherever you can. 

Raising money with crowdfunding can be challenging – believe us, as a top crowdfunding agency, we have the best success rate in the business at 92%, so we’ve seen it all. However, with the right strategy and implementation, your business has a fantastic opportunity for success with crowdfunding.