In crowd funding
there are no losers. Sure, victory is sweet for those who meet (or exceed)
their funding target first time around. But there are the spoils of war, even
for those who have seemingly lost the battle. A campaign that does not meet its
target comes with many lessons, and when these learnings are applied to the old
adage of “If at first you don’t succeed….” the second bite of the cherry can be
sweeter, and more rewarding, than the first attempt could have ever hoped to
have been.
The holy trinity for
the success of any crowd funding campaign is made up of rewards, project
description, and promotion. Get one of these wrong or neglect to include one of
these, and it has the same effect of omitting a key ingredient when making a
cake – the result is pretty unpalatable. Often, a failed campaign is like a
taste test, and a keen sense of taste will quickly identify what is the missing
ingredient.
The most common
piece of the puzzle that project creators get wrong is that of rewards. When
creating the rewards, a project creator really needs to ask “would I be moved
to pledge to get one of these? Are the rewards enticing? Are the rewards good
value for money? Are there a number of rewards, catering for those that want to
just pledge a little, through to those who might want to pledge a lot?” Well
worded campaigns with a lot of promotion can be let down when they fail to
underpin their efforts with very “soft” rewards like a hug or a certificate –
these are great rewards for charitable campaigns, but don’t cause a commercial
initiative to get the funding they need. The best campaigns offer a great buy,
spectacular value for money, or an experience that the recipient will remember
for a lifetime.
