Given the numerous crowdfunding campaigns competing to be noticed by prospective backers on popular crowdfunding campaigns, the only option entrepreneurs have if they want their startups to get funded is to come up with creative strategies. That isn’t an easy thing to accomplish, but anyone prepared for the handwork stands a great chance of achieving their goals. 60% of projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo are not getting funded successfully. That’s not because their product ideas aren’t great, but it’s because their marketing strategies are not creative enough. Crowdfunding doesn’t work if you only launch the campaign on a crowdfunding platform then just wait for the funds to come. You must have a strategy for getting exposure, and not just that but targeted exposure.
Build relationships before the launch
If you don’t have a strong social media presence, that should be your focus before you think about launching any crowdfunding campaign. A blog or website for your project should be part of your PR outreach and marketing strategy. Make your presence on relevant social media platforms felt, so Facebook likes are not all you need. When you properly target an audience on any social media platforms they use, you should engage them. Share great content in every format that increases interactions with social media users. So don’t share just plain text posts or messages but also images, infographics and videos that best tell the story behind your project in the most compelling manner possible.
The traditional media reporters, online publishers, bloggers and even influencers are always interested in valuable information or news about great stuff happening out there. You need to find out who need what type of information and how you can pitch your project to provide relevant news. Start following them and share any information they provide out there. Contact them directly and let them know you like what they do. That gives you an opportunity to build valuable relationships with them, so that when you have something interesting that you would like to share with them they will help you share it further with their large audiences.
Keep the momentum after campaign launch
If you did well in pre-launch PR outreach required in building relationships and social media following, you will get a significant number of initial backers. But what you do to maintain momentum is critical if you want to hit your funding goal. Make sure to engage with your backers so that they can be part of the community that owns your campaign as their own. Go beyond sending automated thank you messages and get to know what the backers think after donating. Address any fears and ask them to share your campaign messages with their friends and other connections in their social circles. That will get you more backers and when people see you are getting funds faster will believe they shouldn’t miss the opportunity to invest. Keep introducing extra rewards especially if you notice any drop in the number of your funders. Share information about major milestones with your backers to motivate them to keep marketing on your behalf.
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Today crowdfunding has become one of the most popular methods of raising funds for business operations, charitable causes or anything communities care to support. Business startups have turned to the crowds through social media and crowdfunding platforms where they pitch and get backers to raise the capital needed to start operations. First Wave PR Reviews lots of trends in crowdfunding and sorts them to make sure that we bring you the best news and trends around.
However, crowdfunding in its basic definition has to do with any method of raising funds from the crowds whether as donations, loans or investments. It can also be considered as a form of crowdsourcing as it turns to the crowds for help on projects or ventures. Crowdfunding as a type of crowdsourcing can be traced back to the 18th century. In 1714, the British government organized a contest looking for a solution that could make it safer sailing the Seven Seas. John Harrison emerged the winner with his marine chronometer invention and was awarded a big cash prize for it. The solution with the help of the stars made it possible for sailors to determine the longitudes of their ships. Another great example was the oxford dictionary project back in 1858. The project was huge and therefore the group of scholars required to do the work had to request volunteers to write on different topics according to their expertise. The scholars then put everything together after receiving all the work submitted by the volunteers.
Perhaps one of the best early crowdfunding examples comes from 1885 with the Statue of Liberty. The budget initially allocated for the project fell short by about a third. The governor of New York then did not authorize any funds from the city to complete the project. That prompted Joseph Pulitzer who owned a newspaper to start a fundraising campaign that ended up raising $101,091 from not less than 160,000 donors. There are possibly numerous examples of projects from early historical times that may have been done through donations that can be classified as crowdfunding.
Billions of dollars so far have been raised for startups, individuals and existing businesses that today launch campaigns on popular crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter. That is mostly through the reward-based type of crowdfunding, which in its current form began in the US only during the early 2000s. The crowdfunding industry first started to record significant growth in 2009 and in 2012 managed to raise $2.8 billion for different types of projects. An accelerated growth continued with $6.1 billion collected in 2013, $16.2 billion in 2014 and $34.4 billion in 2015. In 2016 the crowdfunding industry growth is projected to surpass venture capital. The JOBS Act in 2013 introduced the equity type of crowdfunding but was limited to wealthy accredited investors until May 16th, 2016 when it legally became open for non-accredited investors.
Equity crowdfunding has significantly increased crowdfunding industry growth in general, but reward-based crowdfunding still remains the most popular way of getting business and entrepreneurship startup projects funded. With the challenges of obtaining funds through traditional business financing options, especially due to the high risks and low success rates associated startups, the crowds have now become the best sources of funds for projects and ideas that are perfectly pitched.
from https://firstwavepr.com/crowdfunding-history-and-accelerated-growth-in-recent-years/ Since crowdfunding has become the most popular option for startups to raise capital, numerous campaigns today are competing on popular crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. That means if you are planning to seek funds for your small business or startup via a crowdfunding platform, it’s not going to be something easy for you to accomplish. There is a lot of work to do that will demand a lot of time and effective strategies for you to realize your goals. You have to think about the strategies that can give your project enough exposure to the right audience that cares about it. That’s where PR and marketing knowledge and experience comes in to help your crowdfunding project. If you have not heard us before, check the First Wave PR Reviews Post, and you can see that we have been around for quite a while and have helped TONS of businesses beat their goals.
Crowdfunding pre-launch
Many people rush to launch their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo or Kickstarter thinking that’s where everything starts and ends. That may have worked for some campaigns before but can’t work anymore because of the high level of competition currently. A crowdfunding campaign on most platforms runs for only about 45 days, a period over which you can’t do enough PR outreach and marketing promotions. A pre-launch allows you to start a lot of activities a few months before the actual crowdfunding campaign launch. That’s necessary in order to do research, outreach and community building. Those are critical pre-launch stages that give you an opportunity to establish strong presence and following from properly targeting audience. It is the best way to build enough momentum that will finally make the actual campaign launch make a greater impact.
Crowdfunding research
With a crowdfunding campaign, you should aim at achieving more than just raising money. Research is one of the most important activities you should do even if you have done that before. There is need to re-examine your overall business strategy afresh during a crowdfunding pre-launch. That’s because you are going to have to tell people what your business is all about and why they should fund you. Doing this may help you discover some weaknesses in your business strategy or some demand assumptions you have always made incorrectly. It will be important to talk to crowdfunders of campaigns similar to yours that might have failed before. Try to find out how many backers the got and why they could have failed in hitting their funding goals. Most importantly, crowdfunding research should help you to understand your target market better than before. You should figure out the difference between the audience for your product and that for the crowdfunding campaign itself. Get to know where the audience hangs out and what they like doing there.
Crowdfunding outreach & community building
At this crowdfunding pre-launch stage, you will need to use very effective PR and marketing strategies in order to connect with your target audience. You will employ PR strategies in order to get enough publicity for your campaign and increase audience reach. Find out how to reach out to media news reporters, bloggers, influencers and other relevant contacts that can widely spread word about your project. That means you should already have the information they need to know about your crowdfunding project. It’s a great idea to have a website or blog for your campaign where you can provide all the necessary information and regular updates. That will also help more people to discover your project through Google search once your blog starts to get some rankings. Your blog will make it easier for you to have more content that you can share on social media where you must also be making a lot of efforts to strengthen your presence. Use relevant social media platforms to engage with your followers. If you manage to build a community around your crowdfunding project, you will have great momentum to maintain with even more intensive PR, promotions, advertising and other relevant marketing strategies. All that can significantly increase chances of achieving your funding goals.
from https://firstwavepr.com/first-wave-pr-reviews-pr-and-marketing/ Crowdfunding is a wonderful tool that aspiring business persons and entrepreneurs can use to seek the funding they need. Crowdfunding is exactly what it sounds like it is. It is the act of obtaining funds from a crowd of people who are willing to invest in other people who want to start projects. Crowd funding is different from peer-to-peer funding because it involves a large number of small investments instead of the bulk of the investments coming from only a few investors. Crowdfunding started in about 1997. The first people recorded as posting a project and receiving many small donations for it is a musical band in England. Crowdfunding continued to grow until it became a huge success in 2009. Many sites help other people to get the funds they need for their project. Three of the most popular sites for crowd funding are Kickstarter, Gofundme and Indiegogo. The following is some information on getting started with a project on the sites. Raising Money on Kickstarter Raising money on Kickstarter is a great option. Kickstarter is a huge crowdfunding medium that has more than 14 million members who have funded projects. To get started, an entrepreneur would have to visit the Kickstarter site and then sign up for help with a project. The project categories are separated into categories such as technology, journalism, photography, dance, crafts, comics, foods and the like. The site services people who live in various countries, as well. The process begins after the person selects a project name and some other information. Interested investors then pledge their investments to the person. Raising Money on Gofundme Raising Money on Gofundme is beneficial, too. Gofundme has a slightly different interface and process for requesting help than the other sites have. People who need help must request it by first clicking the “start a campaign” button, selecting an area, and then selecting a category for the project. Current categories include sports, memorials, education, business, medical relief and the like. Campaigns can run as long as the person wants them to run, which is good for people who do not have to worry about extensions. The process is extremely safe and secure as the site uses advanced encryption technology for its clients. Raising Money on Indiegogo Raising Money on Indiegogo is another option that some may choose. Indiegogo is a fashionable website that offers crowd funding through campaigns. Indiegogo is more for art and creative works projects than the other two sites are. The other two sites offer a broader range of categories, but Indiegogo still does not lack in effectiveness. Indiegogo also offers free campaigns for special projects like faith-based projects. It works the same way that the other sites work, however. The interested person just has to sign up, tell the story, and ask for help. Many people have had success with their projects. Each of the funding sites has its unique quality that it offers to the masses. If you are aspiring to make a dream come true, stop by one of the crowd sourcing sites and make it happen. Don’t stop believing that you can succeed. First Wave PR has been helping companies hit their fund goals, for a long time- check out our First Wave PR Reviews. from https://firstwavepr.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-crowdfunder/ Crowdfunding is a way of collecting money and gathering resources for a project. The project could be a social service endeavor, a personal ambition, or anything that can draw people’s attention and motivate them to contribute to it. Though crowdfunding looks like a new concept, it has been popular for centuries in the publishing industry. In the past few decades, the Crowdfunding trend has really caught up and people from around the world are coming together to make things move fast. Kickstarter, Gofundme, Indiegogo are a few examples which have managed to influence and change the lives of millions of people around the world by utilizing this concept. GoFundMe is one of the top personal fund raising platforms. It was launched in 2010 and since then it has progressed steadily. In the past one year, it has raised over $2 billion with about $4 million being raised every day. If you want to raise fund, you will have to start a campaign on the platform. You will be required to share your story and justify why you looked to crowdfunding for raising funds. The platform deducts 5% of the donation received by the fund raiser. Raising money on Gofundme is simple and straightforward. You don’t need to be a geek to start a campaign. It is like filling in the basic details and uploading a few photographs. For raising money on Gofundme, you start by setting a goal. It is followed by sharing the campaign with family and friends. The next step is to accept checks and bank transfers. Finally, when your goal is achieved, you close the campaign and extend your thankfulness to the donors. Kickstarter is on a mission to reduce poverty in Africa. They have been successfully raising money on Kickstarter for thousands of Africans. Raising money on Kickstarter is becoming increasingly easy as more and more people believe in the mission. Kickstarter mass-produces irrigation pumps which give a new lease of life to farmers who are heavily dependent on rainfall. An irrigation pump allows them to cultivate crops of their choice and lead a healthy and poverty-free life. Indiegogo not only helps you in raising funds for your project, but also guides you about how to get the most out of your campaigns. Raising money on Indiegogo won’t be a challenge if you plan your campaign right. Thousands of people have been raising money on Indiegogo to fund their innovative projects. Crowdfunding has been very effective in raising funds in the past few decades. There have been instances when celebrities and social workers raised funds to the tune of millions of dollars. However, to convince people to donate money for a cause, you need to create a compelling campaign and give genuine reasons. The key to a successful campaign largely lies in the connection you make with the people. If your network contributes well, then it would set an example for other people as well. It would create a buzz that others would be interested in. How about starting your campaign today Contact First Wave PR! from https://firstwavepr.com/how-can-crowdfunding-help-your-project-get-funded/ Also called crowd financing and crowd sourced capital, crowd funding is nothing but a group raising money or non-monetary resources for people who could achieve something out of it. In other words, a company or individual presents a business idea to the crowdfunding cohort, and if the group is convinced about the idea, it invests or donates money so that the company or individual could realize the idea. For instance, an entrepreneur could seek funds to start a business, and if the funding group finds the business idea interesting, the group would offer the money to the entrepreneur, typically via a third party. Crowdfunding is quite common online where there are websites dedicated to such funding activities. On certain websites, the fund seeker doesn’t get the money unless a good number of people come forward to contribute money. Let us take a look at the origin of crowdfunding and some crowdfunding tips. Origin of Crowdfunding-Crowdfunding may sound like a modern concept, but it has been around for a few centuries now. In the 1700s, The Irish Loan Fund was set up by Jonathan Swift to offer loans to rural, low-income families. These families had little to no collateral despite being creditworthy. In the 1800s, 300 more crowd financing programs cropped up in Ireland. In 1852, credit unions came about, and in the year 1976, Grameen Bank was launched in Bangladesh by Dr. Yunus so that banking could become accessible for low-income group people. Modern day crowdfunding came to light in the year 1997, when a rock band in the UK collected donations online to fund its reunion tour. This method of financing seemed promising and a website dedicated for crowdfunding was first launched in 2000, by the name ArtistShare. Thereafter, several such online platforms came to being and it was no looking back thereafter. Rise of Crowdfunding PlatformsWhen people talk about crowdfunding, the names that immediately pop up in their minds are Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Not many realize that there are many other crowd financing companies as well, such as GoFundMe, PledgeMusic, Sellaband, Razoo, etc. These companies probably wouldn’t have been around if it hadn’t been for the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act. The crowdfunding industry received a major boost when the JOBS Act was passed by President Obama in 2012. This helped create a platform for ordinary people to exchange business funding for company equity. Crowdfunding TipsAs aforementioned, there are different crowdfunding companies, with some of them specializing in certain industries, having a ceiling for funds, and preferring a particular mode of reward for investors. For instance, some companies would like to see their aggregated investor pool get rewarded in the form of equity. Therefore, pursue a platform that suits your interests the best. After zeroing in on a crowdfunder, decide the amount of money you’d like to raise. Remember, just because you’re being supported by a large pool of general investors, don’t go overboard with the money you ask. Most funding platforms promise investors that their money would be returned if a fund-seeking company doesn’t hit its target within a certain period. Therefore, make every money count. Networking is among the most important crowdfunding tips. Indulge into networking (both online and offline) so that you grab more eyeballs and gain more traction for your project. Online networking is easy, but do not discount the power of real-world networking. The amount of trust and confidence you can build within people toward your project through a handshake is not possible online. If you want to amount to more than “Jack Squat” consider enrolling in one of our plans– Cheers First Wave PR.from https://firstwavepr.com/afraid-your-crowfunding-project-wont-amount-to-jack-squat/ Data from a report published by Massolution shows that the crowdfunding industry is expected to disburse more than $60 billion in 2016 to surpass VC funding for the first time. In 2010, only $880 million was raised via crowdfunding and this figure has been doubling annually since then. In comparison, the VC industry invests an average of $30 billion every year and this figure is unlikely to change much in the near future. Here is some more information on this topic: Definition Crowdfunding is a way of raising funds from a pool of many lenders rather than a single lender. A borrower pitches his/her crowdfunding idea/proposal to lenders and then each lender determines how much to invest. It is worth noting that almost all crowdfunding campaigns occur on industry or cause-specific online platforms. This is because online crowdfunding platforms are generally easily accessible and enable millions of potential funders to participate. History According to a Wikipedia entry, crowfunding has existed in more or less the same format for centuries. However, modern crowdfunding can be traced back to 1997 when the British rock group Marillion raised $60,000 via a fan-driven and web-based campaign. Since then, crowdfunding has grown into an industry that the World Bank estimates will disburse more than $90 billion in 2017. Models Crowdfunding is based on a wide range of financing models including equity, debt/lending, hybrid, royalty, donation, and rewards. Out of these, lending-style models are the most dominant with Massolution figures showing that this model accounted for 72.9% of all funds raised via crowdfunding in 2015 alone. In comparison, donation, reward, and equity-based models accounted for 8.3%, 7.8%, and 7.4% of crowdfunding financing respectively over the same period. This leaves hybrid and royalty among others as the least favorite crowdfunding models. How Crowdfunding Companies Work Crowdfunding companies provide the online platforms and money transfer infrastructure required to connect lenders and borrowers. In return, they retain a small percentage of the funds raised by each borrower. Some fundraising platforms deduct this facilitation fee irrespective of whether borrowers reach their fundraising goals or not, whereas others only do so only when borrowers reach their financing targets. Some of the most popular crowdfunding sites include Indiegogo, Kickstarter, GoFundMe, AngelList, Crowdfunder, Funding Circle, Kiva, LendInvest and Prosper Marketplace. Fundraising Tips 1. Marketing campaign Market your fundraising campaign aggressively on social networking sites and sites/forums that attract your target audience. Since there are usually numerous borrowers clamoring for the attention of funders at any one time, raising your web visibility is necessary. 2. Product/service proof-of-concept Create a proof-of-concept video to assuage the concerns of risk-averse funders. Make sure your video shows a finished and working product. This will convince potential funders that you are not a con artist looking for easy money. Conclusion Crowdfunding is the act of raising financing from a pool of potential funders. Most modern crowdfunding campaigns are conducted online on platforms such as Indiegogo, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, AngelList, and Crowdfunder. Factors that increase likelihood of success include running an aggressive online marketing campaign backed by proof-of-concept video content. If you would like to work with the leader in Crowdfunding innovation, then contact First Wave PR and we will get you started on the right track!
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