I’ve been a professional crowdfunder for nearly a year now. Along the way I have talked to hundreds of crowdfunders, run several campaigns myself, and worked closely on dozens of others.
I’ve learned that there are a few things that you can expect to encounter in every single campaign. Knowing what to expect will put you in a better position for success.
1. It’s Predictable
There are two types of crowdfunding campaigns.
- 80% of successful campaigns fund within 10% of their funding goal.
- The other 20% are the “run away successes”: campaigns that pull in over 110% of their initial target.
For the most part, I play a numbers game, expecting the vast majority of my campaigns to fall into the first category. To achieve a crowdfunding success – for most projects – the pattern is utterly, totally predictable.
Much like an actor in a play, there are “marks” you need to be able to hit. Failure to hit these markers means that you are very likely to fail.
First 48 Hours – 10%
A successful project will hit at least 10% of the funding goal in the first 48 hours. This means that you need to have your initial backers lined up ready to hit that mark in order to expand your circles of influence later on in your campaign.
End of Week 1 – 30%
Most campaigns that fail, fail to ever pull in 30% of their goal. At the end of the first week your pledges will slow dramatically so it’s important that you are over this mark before that happens.
Getting to 30% means that your crowd will recognise that this thing might actually succeed. It’s recognised as the “tipping point” in the majority of crowdfunding campaigns.
5 days before close – 60%
In a 30 day campaign, this means you have just over 2 weeks to make up the second 30%. You’ll probably find this pretty tough going.
But don’t panic! I’ve seen hundreds of campaigns make their goal in the last 2 or 3 days. Diani and Devine Meet the Apocalypse pulled in the final 40% – a whopping $40,000 in the last 5 days of their campaign.
It’s not the exact number that matters – 40% in your campaign could be $40, $400, $4,000 or $40,000. It’s the percentage. You need to be at 60% before the pledges speed up again.
2. It’s emotional
I don’t care who you are, you have to be aware of, and prepare yourself for the emotional rollercoaster that will come with running your campaign.
This is particularly important if your campaign follows the pattern described above. You’re going to find yourself hit with a raft of emotion which can go one of two ways. You will either:
- Rally: Usually this is what happens if you are aware of, and expecting, the emotional rollercoaster you will experience. It means you’re ready for the negative emotions, and you’re able to harness the positive ones to just keep going.
- Bury your head in the sand: You may very well be making progress but once your campaign slows down, you start to feel like a failure and you stop trying. You stop talking to people about it, stop sending emails, or posting the link. You stop trying, and your campaign dies.
I find music helps me keep going when I’m about to hit the wall. This is why I put together this crowdfunding mixtape. Embrace the emotion and use it to drive you forward.
3. Your success is sealed before you launch
Without a doubt, the amount of effort you put into the planning of your campaign will be reflected in it’s success.
Not only do you need to set up a killer campaign page, but you also need to prepare and gather your crowd before you begin. You need to know where at least the first 10% of your funds are coming from before you launch.
Then you need to organise promotion, build media lists, build press kits, and send press releases.
And that doesn’t even cover the initial work that goes into your product or concept before you can even consider crowdfunding. You’ll need prototypes, business plans, supply chains and to have put in the exploratory research just to justify that you even have a market in the first place.
The more effort you put in before you launch your project, the higher the chances you will succeed. And the more cash you are looking for, the more effort it will involve.
Takeaways
Every crowdfunding campaign comes with a lot of work to do. And it’s never easy.
If you are just looking for money, crowdfunding is not for you. You need to be looking for something bigger: a lasting marketing strategy based on the idea of having a crowd of exceptional fans, ready to rave about what it is you do.
Be prepared. Do the work. Know why you’re doing this. Then go launch the best damn campaign the world has ever seen.
