Are you considering to run a Crowdfunding campaign? If so, you will need to find a suitable platform to host your campaign. In this article, we will cover how to choose the right platform, and explore other options available to suit the needs of all campaign creators.
Before creating the campaign, and all of the details that are included in creating a successful campaign, you should plan, and choose where you would like to host your campaign. Although many inexperienced Crowdfunding campaign creators believe that choosing the right platform is essential to their success, this is not entirely true. Choosing the right platform plays a small part in the success of the campaign in its entirety. There are many campaigns that raise and surpass their funding goal on many different platforms, some of which are not popular, and some of which that are. Many unsuccessful campaign creators believe that it is up to the platform to generate the donations for the campaign. Keep in mind, you will be generating the vast majority of the donations to the campaign using your own marketing techniques. With an understanding of this knowledge, it narrows down the benefits that you can receive from using a Crowdfunding platform.
Benefits of using a Crowdfunding platform
Using a Crowdfunding platform can help make your job as a campaign creator easier. Platforms can help with giving you the right promotion tools for your Crowdfunding campaign. The Crowdfunding platform can also help generate a small percentage of the backers when needed. For example, many Crowdfunding campaigns will receive their initial surge of backers within the first portion of funding. This surge of backers can last days to even months. At some point though, your campaign may lose its momentum when it comes to receiving donations from new people. This is when a Crowdfunding platform can help. Many of the large, and well-known Crowdfunding platforms can help with the campaign by featuring up and coming successful campaigns on to the front page of the website to help with gaining more backers to the campaign. These types of platforms, however, will only feature a Crowdfunding campaign that is likely going to be successful. In addition, when hosting your campaign on said platforms, it is difficult to be featured, even if the campaign is having success. This is because there are a large number of campaigns hosted on one single site, all competing for a chance to be featured on the homepage. Hosting a campaign on these types of platforms can be a blessing when needing more funding, and also a curse, as it is likely that you may not be featured on the landing page.
How to choose the platform
While in the planning stages of your Crowdfunding platform, you should be shopping around to see which platform you will choose. It is best to research each platform, and know all of the features/modes so you can run your campaign without encountering any issues. Below is a list of questions that will help narrow down the platform:
Raise modes: Can the platform handle KiA or AoN raise modes?
Updates: Does the platform allow updates to the backers?
Niche: Is the platform designed for your niche?
Success: Can you see that the platform has had success in the past?
Transaction fees: How much will the platform charge per donation for the transaction fee?
The above questions will help with finding the right platform for your campaign. Do not hesitate to contact the platform for additional information. You want to make sure that the platform is secure. Although you may be interested in finding a platform, none may suit all of your needs. Not all campaigns are the same, so what type of options are available for those looking to create a completely custom campaign?
Alternative options
For those that cannot find the right Crowdfunding platform, or would like to add custom features/capabilities to their campaign, the options are not limited to the platforms available online. You can try technology such as Thrinacia Atlas to have a completely custom campaign. When using a solution like this, you can completely change all of the wording, functionality, UI (user interface) including colour scheme, and add any necessary logos as needed. This option suites companies that would like to be running “top of the line” custom campaigns, which have requirements for the look, and the functionality. You are not able to do this using other sites, as you do not have access to the front end source code. Another great reason for using white label technology is the access to support, and the developers in case you want to add any specific features to the campaign.