Crowdfunding is a great and effective way to raise funds instead of spending time on the conventional fundraising methods. When done right, crowdfunding can bring a lot of benefits to your business idea. It acts as a double media exposure as well as allows you to gain social presence even before your business has launched. Right now there are numerous genres of crowdfunding such as rewards, donation, equity, and so much more!
So today we will discuss the 8 easy steps that you should follow when launching a Crowdfunding campaign.
1. Niche determination
When you are starting a crowdfunding campaign, your first line of action should be planning. Begin your plan by determining your campaign niche. No matter what kind of crowdfunding campaign you want to launch, planning is extremely important.
Niche determination means focusing on the one aspect of your crowdfunding that is unique. Study your campaign audience and try to make the entire crowdfunding campaign relatable to them. This is crucial because it will help you compete with the big crowdfunding players in the market. If you are able to successfully reach out to your niche market, the chances are your conversion rates will be better than the popular crowdfunding platforms. Once you decide on your niche, you can create a crowdfunding site on WordPress that offers and even get Crowdfunding plugins. This will help you launch a modern and professional crowdfunding site easily.
2. Crowdfunding platform
The crowdfunding campaign that you launch needs to have a great technology. This means that you should spend a great time to research where you should launch your campaign.
Investing in a right crowdfunding plugin or site can improve the website experience of your users. Also, if you’re paying for a crowdfunding plugin, chances are you’ll get live support. This means any time you face even minor issues, you have help instead of being left to solve your problems by yourself.
Another reason to avoid most free crowdfunding sites is that they tend to have a lot of bugs. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all free crowdfunding sites are bad but paid ones are more liable to provide you with better quality services. If you’re on a budget you can look into a free crowdfunding plugin that aligns the most with your must required features.
3. Target goals
Target goals are another important feature you should consider when launching a Crowdfunding platform. There are different target goal models that you can choose. Some crowdfunding sites are not so flexible with their target models. For example, in some sites, users can only get a share of the funds after they reach or exceed the funding goal.
It’s more advisable to go for a crowdfunding site that has a lot of target goal settings options. Unlike other crowdfunding sites, WP Crowdfunding has four models to direct your campaign:
1. Target Goal (in terms of funds)
2. Target Date
3. Target Goal and Date
4. Target Never Ends
You are no longer limited to follow a single target criterion. If you’re planning to arrange a lot of crowdfunding campaigns, you can choose a different campaign target for each. This plugin also enables you to decide when and what percentage of funds a user can achieve at any point of the campaign.
4. Payment Gateway
In order to have a successful Crowdfunding campaign, you need a solid payment gateway plan. You can enable transaction fees for your website that will help you to make an income from Crowdfunding.
To ensure that your platform is a trusted one, go for well-established payment gateways in the market. Similarly, also give the users a number of options. When you have a payment gateway that is familiar to the one a campaigner knows, chances are they will contribute funds to that crowdfunding site more willingly.
Stripe and PayPal connectivity are very popular gateways as they are easily available from a lot of locations. You can easily configure Stripe with your WordPress crowdfunding plugin if it supports it. However, a native gateway offers more accessibility to the campaign owners.
5. Content
The content that you add to your site is what will make users really want to invest in your campaign or at least spark up their interest in it. When launching a crowdfunding campaign for the first time, you want your content to appear professional from the get go.
Very few Crowdfunding plugins like WP Crowdfunding allow you to add custom CSS. This lets you manipulate the User Interface (UI) and change the outlook of the frontend. This is very helpful if you’re a developer to create a unique crowdfunding website
If you’re not a developer, you can always try out custom CSS online or ask for them across support forums.
6. Launch Campaign
Now that you have an amazing campaign plan and content to go with it, along with a secured payment gateway, it’s time to launch your campaign.
When you’re starting out your campaign, try to spread the word amongst your close communities. Try to reach out to relevant groups and other crowdfunding platforms to let them know about the launching of the campaign.
Another thing you can do is create a pre-launch campaign before you start your actual campaign. This will help attract a lot of people who are interested in your campaign niche to participate in it. A huge launching campaign means you get more investors from the very start.
7. Marketing and Promotion
After launching the campaign, it’s extremely important to reach out to the right people. If your campaign launch is attractive enough, you’ll have others approaching you to host their campaign on your site. The reason why this is so lucrative is because you can earn a stable income from supporting other crowdfunding campaigns on your site. However, to get there you need to make sure that your Crowdfunding campaign is able to fulfil all the promises you made. One of the main errors when launching a Crowdfunding campaign is a bad marketing strategy so make sure you plan the process efficiently.
There are a lot of ways you can connect with crowdfunding investors. You can spot them out from online groups of Crowdfunding sites, search them on social networks or physical events. You can even go for live events and giveaways to motivate users to join your campaign.
8. Connectivity with investors
The entire success of your crowdfunding campaign is very much dependent on your investors. You need to keep them in the loop and give them constant updates. The feedback you receive from your investors can help you make your Crowdfunding campaigns be even better in the future.
WP Crowdfunding has email addon that lets you connect with your campaign users and investors directly. Make use of these social shares, reports and other connectivity in-built tools. If you’re able to gain the goodwill of your investors once, chances are they would be willing to invest in your future campaign endeavours and even spread positive reviews amongst others.
What features do you think a great Crowdfunding plugin should possess? Share your thoughts on it with us!
