Understanding Crowd Funding and How to Make it Work

Before the advent of the phenomenon we now know as crowd funding, business owners used to have to beg bank lenders and Angel investors if they hoped to get the funding they needed; provided that they didn’t get the funding they needed from friends and family. These days and thanks to a better worldwide understanding of crowd funding, business owners everywhere have a better and oftentimes more lucrative means of getting the funding they desperately need. Here are a few steps you can put into place right now to get your crowd funding efforts started off right.

Describing Your Business Vision

To further your understanding of crowd funding, think of it as pitching your idea to a roomful of people. If you had to explain your business vision to, say, five people for the purposes of gaining funding, what would you say? This is how you should approach crowd funding. You will get a page to explain your idea and why you think it will be successful and anyone interested in funding your idea will be able to click on your page and read it/view it. The only real difference between crowd funding and pitching your idea to five executives in a single room is that crowd funding will expose you to a global marketplace that could include people from all over the world. No pressure; you’ll do great as long as you use the following tips.

Use Video for Better Results

Crowd funding experts have noticed that business pitches that include videos are far more likely to raise money than pitches without them. A video can be a face-to-face pitch of your business idea, an animation concept of your business plan or a short sketch of someone using your product in action. Be creative, ensure that the video is of the highest quality and you’ll soon find yourself understanding crowd funding and all it can do for you.

Perks and Rewards

When understanding crowd funding, think of it as an extension of social media. People want to feel as though they are part of the creative or developmental process when they contribute to ground-breaking crowd funded projects. Here is their chance to get in on the ground floor, right before things get hopping, and thus people who contribute to projects expect to be rewarded or at least noted for their generous offerings.

For best results, include between two and eight perks or rewards of increasing value. The more people donate, the better the rewards will be. Find out what your audience is most interested and tailor the perks and rewards around those specifics. The idea is to get your audience so excited about your crowd funding project that it becomes almost impossible to resist a donation.

Teams Are Better

According to the latest data on understanding crowd funding, teams with four or more people seem to raise considerably more capital than companies with only one person behind the wheel. Having more people will help you delegate important duties like updating your crowd funding page; which you should do at least once every five days or so. Leave your page dormant for too long and people will think that your idea is a dud, no matter how much you say you have raised. Build enthusiasm by giving regular updates that boast of your recent accomplishments behind the scenes.

Go Big Early On

Studies have shown that crowd funding projects that reach 25% or more of their intended goal within the first week are five times more likely to hit their overall goal. This can be accomplished by making heavy use of other social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and Pinterest. While you’re at it, start an email campaign so that you can trickle market your audience with regular messages that hype up, advertise and keep your readers updated with your crowd funding project in all its glory.

Get A Familiar Boost

Understanding crowd funding isn’t difficult once you jump in; you just have to take that initial leap of faith. Start planning your crowd funding page and use video to make the project more personal for potential investors. Make enticing rewards and have your friends, family members and acquaintances visit the page and, if possible, donate so that it’s apparent that some activity is taking place. You will get far more attention early on if people see that there are actual donations being made to your page as opposed to a crowd funding page that is empty and void of activity.

Crowd funding is all about joining in on the fun, contributing to something great and watching that something grow into something that changes the world. Add your crowd funding project to Indiegogo, Kickstarter or any other sites you prefer and use these tips to achieve your fundraising goals. Your audience is waiting to hear your pitch. Log onto your favorite crowd funding website to get started.

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