If you plan on launching a crowdfunding campaign, there are some pitfalls that you will want to avoid before setting out on the venture. Here are some of the most common mistakes when it comes to running a crowdfunding campaign.
Bad Preparation
With anything important, it’s good to prepare before getting started. It is recommended that you take time to research the best techniques. There are several items that you need to have prepared before you launch the campaign. These items include:
- Campaign Content
- Landing Page
- Pre-Launch Campaign
As obvious as it sounds, you will first need to create the content for your campaign. But that is not all that you’ll need to create. It’s best to build a website or at least a landing page for your campaign as well. Your goal should be to launch a product or service, so you will need to build a website or landing page anyways if you plan on succeeding. So make sure that you are able to purchase the domain name that you would like to use in the future before rushing into a campaign.
Make sure that all of the campaign content and materials look good and will impress those who like to back campaigns. If you do this correctly, you will be able to capture the attention of those who are actively looking to back crowdfunding campaigns.
Lack of Strategy
Lots of campaign creators rely heavily on the platform to provide the majority of the backers to the campaign. There is a misconception that many creators have when it comes to using popular crowdfunding platforms. Many think that a platform will automatically promote or draw attention to your campaign when you launch. This is not the case. Initial success is needed in order to be in the top percentile of campaigns launched that week.
If you do not have a good strategy including a pre-launch campaign, then you may not receive the results you’re looking for. It’s critical that you gain the majority of donations in the first few days of the campaign. This will provide other backers with the confidence to send you funds because your campaign is promising. Not only will it instil confidence in the backers, but it may also look like a promising campaign for the platform as well. In this case, the platform that is hosting your campaign may be compelled to share your results with their community of backers.
A trick that we see some campaign creators do is set their funded amount to be far lower than what they actually need. This strategy has helped the campaign creators receive a higher percentage early in their campaign to be recognized by the platform and subsequently promoted. This method is very risky and is not recommended as you can gain a bad reputation, but the idea is that you will need to get a high percentage of the total funded amount early in the campaign so you are provided with additional support from the platform. Most campaigns fail to get such access at the beginning and that is why they don’t reach their funding goal.
Not Enough Funds
Crowdfunding campaigns are essentially marketing campaigns, which can cost money. This is a detail that many campaign creators miss when planning the campaign. You will be spending money out of your pocket in order to gain the funding that you are seeking. Not only that, but you will also be paying fees such as manufacturing costs, platform fees, cost to build a campaign video + landing page, shipping, and other marketing expenses. These numbers can add up, and if you don’t have the capital, you’ll have a hard time competing for backer’s attention.
These are not the only mistakes that one can make when running a crowdfunding campaign. There are many other issues that you can run into along the way.