Launching a successful crowdfunding campaign can be a daunting task. You may not know where to start, and when you look up the statistics, they’re not always pretty. (About 30% of campaigns are successful.)
But, don’t let that stop you. Plenty have made successful crowdfunding campaigns and because of that, you can follow in their footsteps. If you do so, you’ll have a much better chance at success.
Multiple Reward Tiers
An important part of crowdfunding is the reward tiers. In fact, these can make or break a campaign. If you don’t have enough reward tiers, you miss out on several key opportunities including:
- Someone willing to back your campaign for $500, but only backs $50 since that’s your highest reward tier.
- Someone only able to back $25, but doesn’t back since you’ve only got a $50 reward tier or higher.
- And the opportunity to sell someone on multiple products (one for them, one for a friend type of reward)
Many successful campaigns have around 9 reward tiers, and this is a good number to aim for. It strikes a good balance of choice without becoming overwhelming.
30+ Day Campaign Length
Limiting yourself to a small window to attract backers is a great way to miss your funding goal. But having a campaign that drags on and on isn’t good either! Instead aim for a campaign length that’s longer than 30 days, but only by a week or two! A 45 day long campaign is a great choice!
Regular Updates During the Campaign
Another trait that a successful crowdfunding campaign will often have is regular updates. You should aim to send an update at least once a week, if not more often. That may sound like a lot, but no worries, here are a few ideas for updates:
- Funding milestones
- When you’re featured on a publication or social media account
- Actual product updates
- Bloopers from your campaign video (If it’s fun/fits in with your brand)
- Even requests to share the project with friends
Solicit and Respond to Comments
Another attribute that successful crowdfunding campaigns often feature is a good number of comments. Generating conversation about your product or story is an important part of crowdfunding, and you should take steps to ensure this occurs.
A simple “Got questions? Ask them in the comments section!” Can be enough to get some comments flowing. Once they’re flowing, don’t leave them alone! Make it a point to reply to every comment. This shows that you’re reachable and will help to dispel any doubts a potential backer may have.
$10-$25 reward level
Rewards again? Yeah, they’re incredibly important to success. Another characteristic successful crowdfunding campaigns feature is a $10-$25 reward level. This reward level will often be your most popular, and it caters to the budget of many online. If your product can’t be the reward at this price level, no worries!
Consider providing merchandise as a reward instead! This can include T-shirts, lanyards, 3D printed objects, and more! Get creative with it!
1000 Social Media Fans
We talked about the importance of reward tiers, but that pales in comparison to your existing social media fans. In fact, the pre-campaign promotion is the most important part of ensuring a crowdfunding campaign’s success.
You should aim to have at least 1000 social media fans before launching your campaign. Not only does this give you a bit of a boost with launch day performance, it’ll help spread the word about your campaign.
3 Minute Video
The last characteristic of a successful crowdfunding campaign is a professional looking, 3 minute long video. This length is important as it’s not so long that a potential backer becomes bored, but is long enough that you can build trust.
Of course, it doesn’t need to be 3 minutes exact, but rather the idea that it’s long enough to build trust without boring the viewer. Remember, not everything needs to be said in the video, and you can use GIFs and videos to supplement text within the campaign page!
Launching Your Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
In addition to the points above, you may want to consider seeking the help of an experienced crowdfunding marketing agency (like us). Launching your campaign with the help of an agency is an easy recipe for success, just look at our 100% success rate.
