How to Plan your Crowd Funding Campaign
like a Pro
By Narek Vardanyan
Crowdfunding is a great way to make your dreams come true. But did you
know that 60% of campaigns fail to achieve their goals? If you want to be
among the successful 40%, then you need to prepare like a pro. Follow my
top tips to get your crowdfunding campaign off on the right foot.
Plan 3-4 months ahead
Success hinges on preparation, which accounts for the vast majority of the
outcome. The ideal preparation period depends on your project. Your funding goal,
expertise, and social network will all determine how long you should invest in this
stage, but an average campaigner should consider starting 3-4 months before
launch.
This gives you time to begin building relationships with the various organizations that
will be interested in your cause or project, as well as the media, journalists, and
friends. There is no best time for your campaign launch, but rumor has it that the
worst months for crowdfunding are July and August, when everybody is out on
vacation, and December, when Christmas and tax season reigns supreme.
Leverage your team power
Imagine yourself as a trainer at a football club. You need the best players to win the
game and inspire people to attend, so you build your dream team. You start with
ten people; they know ten more, who know ten more and, before you know it, you
end up with 1,000 new prospects. Even if you’re starting with just yourself or a friend,
the principle is the same — it’s just a little bit harder.
Organise a party and make a motivational speech about your dream. Build your
team. They will have their own responsibilities, so include only the ones you can rely
on. And make sure you get organised! Free websites like trello.com are a great way
to keep everything on track.
Create a landing page
You need to build an email database since most of your communications will be via
email. Why? Because social media is unreliable: Facebook has decreased the
organic reach of pages, and even if your page has 10k likes, your posts might only
be shown to a couple of hundred people.
Most of your results will come from your emails, so you need to start collecting them
right away. One of the best ways to create an email database is to build a landing
page — a simple page with your pitching video (can be different from your final
video) and photos. Here you’ll tell your audience why you are running your
campaign.
The purpose of your landing page is to encourage people to sign up. If they’re going
to give you their email addresses, you need to offer something in return (ebooks,
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