Crowdfunding how it works: the rules for designing a winning fundraiser. With a 68% growth in the last two years, the crowdfunding system has registered investments for about 41 million dollars in a short time, confirming itself as an efficient and innovative sharing economy. Crowdfunding how does it work? The planning and organization of the campaign are undoubtedly the essential prerequisites for obtaining significant results.
The crowdfunding is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and practical systems of financing: the data emerging from the last survey Sharitaly reported extremely positive results from crowdfunding platforms in the last year, however, paying particular attention to the percentage regarding the success ratio of campaigns, a rate that reaches just 30% due to the lack of attention given to the project planning phase.
In recent years, the crowdfunding system has proven to be one of the most advantageous financing methods for opening a new business: requesting sums of money to subsidize business ideas is the most difficult activity within the path of starting a new business and the system shared financing has proved to be an absolutely winning solution. However, to achieve significant goals through crowdfunding systems, careful planning and campaign work is required.
The inattention in planning the launch of the project and the absence of an adequate strategic plan are the main causes of failure of funding programs: how does crowdfunding work? A winning campaign is simply the result of a careful planning and organization work that first of all includes the optimization of the online reputation and of its presence within the Social Media.
Crowdfunding how it works: 10 rules to start a winning campaign
Do you want to launch a crowdfunding campaign to start or optimize your business? Here are 10 useful tips to design a winning financing system …
1) Identify your target audience
One of the most serious mistakes that can be made when launching a crowdfunding campaign concerns the definition of the potentially receptive public: the first step in creating an online financing project is therefore the definition of the target audience. All communication and marketing activities aimed at sharing the crowdfunding campaign must be carefully planned based on the interests and habits of potential investors.
2) Choose the most suitable crowdfunding platform
To create a truly winning fundraising campaign, you need to select the ideal crowdfunding platform for your services and for your sector: there are hundreds of portals dedicated to shared financing projects and identifying the perfect one for your business is a business indeed essential. To choose your own communication channel it is recommended to analyze the type of campaigns present on each platform and study the scores and reviews released by users.
3) Create a community and plan a communication campaign
Creating a community within Social Networks is essential for achieving success with the fundraising campaign: sharing your crowdfunding project a few months before launching the campaign with your followers could prove to be an indispensable action to achieve significant results. The online community, through a Social Media Marketing activity with respect to the potential campaign, could become particularly attached to the project, thus allowing an average precise estimate of what could be the first accessions / donations. Crowdfunding how does starting a campaign work? One of the recommended activities in the project design phase (60-90 days before the online release) is undoubtedly the creation of a pre-launch page on platforms: a page that announces the crowdfunding campaign allows users to subscribe to the newsletter, thus allowing a calculation activity regarding the potential online impact of the project.
4) Make an effective presentation video
Crowdfunding how does it work? Simple: the most important tool in an online fundraising campaign is undoubtedly the presentation video. The presentation video is, in fact, the communication tool most appreciated by users: it has been proven that almost all video-free campaigns fail without exceeding 20% of the collection target. To achieve success with your project it is not necessary to make videos with special effects, but it is essential to be able to tell your story in less than 3 minutes in a convincing and engaging way. The initial video must be positioned at the beginning of the campaign landing page, it must be clear and intuitive and must contain a call to action capable of inducing users to make a donation.
5) Define the economic goal of fundraising
One of the most important activities to perform during the launch phase of a crowdfunding campaign is to identify the economic goal of fundraising. To establish a truly reachable goal it is recommended to perform some calculations previously: it is, in fact, necessary to determine the costs required for the realization of the same crowdfunding campaign (press office, rewards, preparation of the campaign, etc.) and analyze the potential initial donations members of their community.
6) Plan a series of rewards for your audience
The presentation video and the description of its activity are not enough to convince users to donate considerable sums of money: the rewards, or prizes offered in exchange for the investment, constitute the true march in more than a crowdfunding campaign. Campaigns that do not include rewards, in fact, receive average donations of around 5-10 dollars per person, those that make rewards available to their financiers collect sums of around 80-100 dollars per user. A successful campaign must include different types of rewards, based on the donor’s contribution: symbolic or product rewards for individual donors and extra rewards for large donors such as companies, associations or partners.
7) Tell your story
Crowdfunding how does a successful campaign work? An indispensable tool for obtaining online financing is StoryTelling: the art of telling one’s story in an exciting and engaging way is an important added value for every online funding project. People are ready to invest their money only when they feel involved in the project themselves: trying to interest and excite users is essential to achieve significant results. To reach the desired amount it is necessary to present your project in a clear and transparent way, explaining in particular which activities the resources acquired online will be invested in.
8) Determine the ideal duration for your campaign
To get the most out of a crowdfunding project it is essential to set the ideal duration for your campaign: most successful campaigns last around 30-35 days. It is essential to calculate the strategic timing for the launch, set up all the communication activities and plan in detail the online release of the landing page for the campaign: considering the right planning times and the online promotion of the project can prove to be a fundamentally important activity to get relevant results.
9) Generate expectation, interest and suspense before launch
To attract the attention of new users and visitors, it is essential to create expectation and interest by promoting the campaign within the main communication channels: sharing posts on social networks, creating Coming Soon Page and sharing articles or press releases within the most popular blogs influential in their sector are activities of fundamental importance to carry out successful campaigns. An undoubtedly winning idea is to create and promote a specific landing page, called Coming Soon Page, in which to share with your users some information that can create curiosity and set up a real countdown for the online release of the campaign crowdfunding.
10) Keep the campaign page constantly updated
One last essential advice for a successful crowdfunding campaign is to update the online page: crowdfunding how does the post-launch phase work? It is simply necessary to periodically renew the project landing page to keep its users constantly informed. Another particularly important activity to maintain an active relationship with its lenders is undoubtedly the sending of emails able to update users about the general fundraising trend: people who finance a business idea wish to receive continuously new information as they consider their donation an integral part of the development of the project.
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