Key Points:
- One of the biggest reasons for failure in crowdfunding is when you are presenting a concept or a product that doesn’t seem to be solving a real problem
- Do not try to sell to the crowd with a product that sounds too good to be real
- Be very articulate and strategic while preparing your campaign story and avoid unnecessary frills and laces
There are hundreds of formulas that bring the ultimate crowdfunding success to you. However, if you study the patterns of the failed crowdfunding campaigns, you can easily find a quick breakdown of what to avoid. Prepare and create your own successful crowdfunding campaign, by picking up a few precious pearls of wisdom from others’ crowdfunding projects mistakes.
Therefore, to guide you on what are the things to avoid while you are working on your crowdfunding stint, we are bringing you this article. Listed below are the top 13 causes behind the unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign:
Table of Contents
1. A Half-Baked Idea
When an idea strikes you, let it sink into you completely before you begin to draw a campaign around it. Thorough market research and study of the potential competition is absolutely crucial.
One of the biggest reasons for failure in crowdfunding is when you are presenting a concept or a product that doesn’t seem to be solving a real problem. Achieving success in crowdfunding demands you to work hard, be methodical, and be strategic. Taking a leeway or a shortcut is sure to doom you.
2. Product With Too Much Icing
Crowdfunding is about convincing the masses about your idea. It is not exactly selling because you do not have a ready product with you in the first place. The product will come to life once it is successfully crowdfunded.
Therefore, do not try to sell to the crowd with a product that sounds too good to be real. People want to support a product that is feasible and achievable within a stipulated period. A product with too many frills and laces may seem unreal to the masses and lose its sheen.
3. Product With Little Value
When you are approaching the crowd for funds to make a product or an idea happen, the first thing you will need to explain to people is which problem exactly is your product solves. Nobody would be interested in putting their money on a superficial product that hardly generates value or meets a need.
Also, if there is another great product solving the same problem as yours, doing rounds in the market already.
4. Rewards With No Appeal
One of the biggest attractions for people in crowdfunding is the reward they will get in return. You will need to be extremely creative here. The reward should lure in the people to your campaign. Think of rewards that money otherwise can’t buy.
For example, first access to the product at a discounted price, your name featured as producers or sponsors of the project, the lead singer of the band singing for one of your private parties, etc.
5. Bad Communication
How are you communicating with your backers or prospective supporters speaks a volume about you? When I say communication, that would include not only what you speak to the crowd, but also if you are getting the expected replies.
Your campaign page should display strong interaction. Understand that the crowd is scrutinizing each and every statement of yours. Instead of communicating what you think, you should aim to avoid any kind of miscommunication occurring.
6. No or Low Promotion
If you believe that you upload your campaign on a crowdfunding platform and your project will be on autopilot, you are wrong. It takes a lot of slogging and preparation to attain success in crowdfunding. Work on creating a potential email list.
You will need to design a very efficient and staunch pre-launch strategy to spread the word about your project. Also, PR and media outreach is imperative in reaching the masses. Just like any other business or campaign, the merrier is the rule here too.
7. Undermining the Power of Offline Promotion
Yes, social media is the exuberant energy these days with a proven track record. But, do not undermine the importance of doing promotion in the physical world.
Attending and conducting seminars, conferences, competitions, and events are significant. On such podiums, you get not just support, but essential insights too that can help you improve your product before you do the official launch.
If you are creating a product and would like to discuss it amongst the real crowd, you can go to the HAX conference happening in Shenzhen city.
8. Picking the Wrong Crowdfunding Platform
Which crowdfunding site you launch your campaign from can be a crucial decision. It literally holds your ticket to success. Carry a thorough study of all the platforms like their success rate in your category, demographics of the backers, total funds raised, etc.
Also, there are various niche crowdfunding platforms like medical research, mobile apps, games, college funds, filmmaking, etc. Going to a niche crowdfunding platform gives you immediate access to thousands of backers who are already searching for you.
9. Unjustifiable funding goals
When you raise funds through crowdfunding, it is not for retreats. It is meant for executing the project and only that. Therefore, calculate how much you need and ask no more than the survival funds from potential backers.
A campaign that cannot justify the number of funds it is trying to raise may look like a scam to audiences. Apparently, in that case, your project may face widespread rejection straight away.
It is recommended to set a lower goal than what you need, no matter the number of backers. In that case, you reach 100% faster and are lined up for getting over funded. That is a thumbs up for your campaign. However, if you aim too high, chances are you never reach the 100% mark.
10. No or Poor Quality Video
Telling your story through a video has a bigger and deeper impact. Therefore, do not give it a miss or you will reduce your chance of success.
Also, your video should be able to captivate the masses. Your video is your opportunity to speak to the audience up front and create a need for it. It should have good sound with no extra noise. The length should be just appropriate. Avoid any kind of beating about the bush in the film and get to the point immediately when raising money. End your video with a candid call to action.
11. Redundant Story
Crowdfunding is an art of storytelling. Your saga should echo your passion and your value system. Lengthy campaign script with no value or sense will fail to attract people.
Keep it concise but comprehensive. Be very articulate and strategic while preparing your high quality campaign story and avoid unnecessary frills and laces. Besides, if you do think that these frills and laces are an important part of your campaign, you can always put them. However, prefer doing it on a separate landing page that is linked to your campaign page.
12. Not Ready With a Lead Line of Investors
If you are not ready with your initial investors, you are making a blunder. Try to fuel at least 30% of the funding goal with the help of your friends and family. As per Indiegogo, 42% of the funds are generated in the first three days and the last three days.
Think of a scenario; you get the first 30% of your funds within the first three days. In that case, you begin to trend faster. Promote this with an impressive PR and media outreach, and you can be almost certain of achieving 100% of your goal. If you fail to attract supporters in the initial days, chances are your project will never see the sunshine.
13. Protect Your Idea
One of the aspects of crowdfunding is protecting your idea. When you go to a crowdfunding portal with your project, the chances of you winning it and losing it are equal.
In case you lose the game, there could be someone else who found your idea appealing and begins to create a project or a product around that. That will nullify your chances to come back with your campaign in the future when you are better prepared.
Intellectual property theft is a widespread problem in Crowdfunding. Therefore, do give the legal safety net to your idea with patent, copyright, or trademark to ensure that no one is able to steal your brainchild.
Conclusion
A good campaign is one that is energetically presenting a cutting-edge out-of-the-box product that people can connect with instantly.
The next essential component for achieving crowdfunding success is a proper promotion of the campaign; not only in the pre-launch stage, but also when the campaign is live and running.
Proposed rewards, setting funding goals, and legal protection of your idea are some other crucial aspects of crowdfunding where you can’t go wrong.