Preparing yourself for raising crowdfunding but still trying to figure out your goals or how to improve them? If you’re going through these issues, you just landed on the right page!
Sketching your crowdfunding goal and aim clearly means half the work done. But just having a goal is not the end of the game. You must implement many tricks and note down other secondary goals to create a successful funding campaign. That is why I brought you the most effective guidelines to improve your crowdfunding goals. So, without any further delay, jump into the discussion and explore 15 mind-blowing tips to select and reach your funding goals-
How to Amplify Your Crowdfunding Goals
Tip#1: Choose The Primary Goal Keeping Your Vision In Mind
The goal is the main purpose or reason you are raising funding. When you approach a crowdfunding platform, you must face thousands of people who will judge you in millions of ways. So, it would be best if you had a pre-planned goal to stand there with your idea with full confidence. Set one or two immediate goals you want to fulfill and for which you are raising the fund. Remember your primary objective should not be too many, which will eventually derive your attention from the main goal. So, go for your vision of your project and how far you want to take it. And what things do you need to fulfill that? However, when choosing your primary goal, you should ask yourself the below question to get track of your goals-
- Is your funding profitable or non-profitable?
- How will it benefit you?
- Why should investors invest in your project?
- Is your product qualified enough to be set for crowdfunding?
- How much do you want to raise?
- What will you do with the funding amount?
- Is your goal realistic enough?
- What’s the possibility of support you will get from the market?
Find an exact answer to all these questions before finalizing your crowdfunding goal.
Tip#2: Keep the Goal Clear
You must always try to keep the goal of your fundraising project clear. Don’t make it complicated. Go for a straightforward statement that can easily convince the investor or donner. Here are the points that you can follow to present your goal in the best way possible-
- State The Reason For Fundraising
The reason for your fundraising should be short but clear. Don’t bring something unrealistic to convince the investors. Show the real cause and make the donors believe in your project.
- Give An Attractive Title
The title is the first thing the investor or donner will notice. That is why you should choose an attractive line for your targeted audience. Be bold and creative in choosing the punchline so that no one can’t stop showing interest in your project.
- Right Amount Of Fund
Never over dream about the funding value. First, analyze the market condition and then judge the value of your business. If you give an amount that doesn’t match your business or is too high compared to your ambitions, the investors will drop out immediately. So, be confident and bring the right valuation for your product before going for funding.
- Provide Proper Documents
Documents are the most crucial factor if you are raising funds for any non-profitable organization. Remember, donors will only donate if they find a true story in your campaign. So clarify you are not a fraud, and collect all necessary proof and evidence to justify your funding.
Tips#3: Note Down The Secondary Goals
You should not be stuck with just a single goal. Yes, of course, a primary goal is the main objective of your crowdfunding. But to fulfill that goal, you should have some other secondary goals. These are mainly the elements and steps you need to take to fulfill the primary goal. You can have multiple secondary goals; these are, in fact, the stairs to reach your ultimate destination. Now, what should be the secondary goals? There can be several factors, such as-
- Choose the best platform for fundraising.
- Creating maximum engagement in the funding platform
- Selecting volunteers or supporters to run the campaign
- Estimate the amount of money you need to run the campaign
- Doing publicity to the next level
- Increasing your email contact and more.
Get a notebook and note down all these goals you must fulfill step by step to achieve a successful funding campaign.
Tips#4: Go Through The SMART Goal Test
Planning a goal is not the end of the game. You should ensure the goal is correct and set to implement a SMART goal test. Now what is the SMART Goal Test?
SMART stands for the initials Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. So, to go make your goal go through the SMART test, you need to examine the following-
- Specific: The goal should be very specific and straightforward. Everyone should easily understand what you are aiming for.
- Measurable: Measuring the effectiveness of a goal is crucial here. You should consider if the goal is measurable or not. But how to do that? Calculate your progress, and analyze people’s responses. Considering this, you can measure your goals’ capability to set fire to funding campaigns.
- Attainable: Don’t choose a goal that is not realistic; instead, aim for something attainable. For this, examine the current market, analyze it, consider your social condition, and decide whether the goal is attainable. Don’t roam in the fantasy world; remember competing for funding is not easy.
- Relevant: Your goal should have a cause and effect. So, examine the validity of the reason for choosing the goal, its impact on society, how people will react, etc. An irrelevant goal will never help you to get successful in fundraising.
- Time-bound: Every crowdfunding campaign has a time limit. This can vary for different campaigns. You must test whether the duration is suitable to bring faithfulness to your campaign. And decide how the time pressure can affect your program and whether you can pass it.
When you can fulfill all these 5 SMART goals, you can finally set yourself ready to jump for fundraising. However, double-check all these facts and be confident with your goal.
Tips#5: Choose The Crowdfunding Platform Based On Your Goals
Platform plays a crucial role in improving your crowdfunding goals. But how? These platforms present your aim and planning to the mass people and thus enable you to make your funding successful. There are different categories of funding platforms, some intended for business, some for social service, some work for women and children, and more. Then comes some versatile platforms which support multi-purpose funding.
Considering all these factors, you must choose the right platform for your funding goals. For instance, if you are raising funds for a non-profitable organization, you can go for GoFundMe Charity or some other similar platforms. Again, another option is to choose a multi-purpose platform like- Kickstarter or Fundly.
Besides, you can also build your own platform by using themes. For instance- Fundorex is a perfect script designed to target fundraisers who want to create their platform. Check this for a complete guide to choosing the right platform for you- Best Crowdfunding Platform 2023.
Tips#6: Determine The Duration To Reach Your Crowdfunding Goal
When planning a crowdfunding campaign, you must select the duration wisely. If you keep the duration too short, you will fail to raise the targeted amount because creating awareness among the people or getting the attention of your targeted audience will take a few days. Again if your campaign is too long, you might be considered a fraud, or many will lose interest in investing. It will also present your lower confidence. The best duration for the campaign is 30 to 40 days. But you can try again if you can’t meet the target within this period.
If you have a solid plan, keep going, and don’t lose hope. In this case, you can take inspiration from MVMT Watch, which raised its funding campaign twice on Kickstarter but failed. Yet, they didn’t give up. They continued their work, and on their third attempt at Indiegogo, they finally achieved their targeted goal. And now, this watch company is a multi-millionaire brand. To get more crowdfunding ideas from these true stories, check out 6 Crowdfunding Success Stories of All Time.
Tip#7: Make Pre-Funding Activities More Effective To Grab Public Attention
Pre-fund your campaign as much as you can before going to the funding site. It would be best if you targeted to gather at least 30% of the funding before approaching any platform. This will give you an idea about the demand and response of the audience to your product. You should make people familiar with your business so they can get interested in seeing a known concept as soon as you get into the platform.
Before going online, you should concentrate on funding your startup and growing a fan base. Therefore, you won’t need to introduce yourself when you enter the site. You’ll already have a solid brand reputation, making raising money easier and faster. Additionally, pre-campaign increases donor confidence and motivates them to commit their hard-earned funds and time to your project.
Tip#8: Add Attractive Photos & Videos
Photos and videos play a crucial role in boosting your crowdfunding campaign. For instance, if you are running a campaign to raise money to help a patient, attach the treatment documents, make documentary videos on his health issue, and then ask for funding. These will make the donor attach to your purpose and encourage them to come forward.
The same goes for business fundraising. Suppose you are building a product, for example, a baby food. Make videos of how to use these products and how they will help the babies in their growth. This will increase the product value, and the investor will show interest in your idea. Here are some tips following which you can create eye-catching videos and photos for your campaign-
- Choose a thumbnail for your fundraising pitch
- Add a story to your video
- Focus on graphics to make the video more attractive
- Use colorful backgrounds to grab the audience’s attention
- You can go for a theme song or a tune to match your crowdfunding pitch
- Tell a story through your video
- If you are raising funds for any product, show the advantages that the user will benefit from.
- Bring out your product’s real-life cause and impact for which the investor should come forward.
- Don’t complicate the video; keep the story plain so anyone can understand your aim.
- The length of the video should not be too long. Keep it precise so that the audience doesn’t get irritated.
Lastly, the crowdfunding page should have attractive photos to connect the investors to the product. Check this to create a killer crowdfunding page- What Makes a Good Crowdfunding Campaign Page?
Tip#9: Have A Solid Marketing Strategy To Achieve Your Goals Quickly
A strong and creative marketing strategy can change the whole game of your crowdfunding campaign. For this, the very first thing you need to do is start marketing from scratch. Tell your family and friends about your project and encourage them to support you.
- By sharing your ideas from friends to friends, you can gather many more supporters and investors. Thus by using personal contact, you can quickly do a bunch of marketing. Even when you know someone will not invest in your campaign yet, you can share the campaign with them. This will increase the visibility of your project and encourage you to step forward.
- Next, you can go for Email marketing. Send a link to your contact with the link to your campaign. It will be a super effective medium to gather investors quickly. Social media is also a great platform for marketing. You can share the updates and fund collection concept on Facebook, Twitter, and other groups that will grab public attention. Many small investors are finding investment opportunities. They will surely invest in you if you can approach them with your idea.
- Another smart move is collaborating with celebrities. Celebrities are the national or international faces sometimes. They have a great impact on the public’s views and opinions. So if you want to do the next marketing, you can approach celebrities for collaboration. This type of crowdfunding is suitable for non-profitable costs or social services.
Marking is half of the game. Though you have a solid business plan and a product to sell, a strong marketing strategy can prevent your funding failure. So, always go for the best strategies. To know how to make a successful marketing strategy for crowdfunding, go through this article- 10 Crowdfunding Marketing Tactics for Successful Campaigns.
Tip#10: Know Your Target Audience
Targeting the audience is a unique technique to reach your goal quicker. All products have different audiences. Many age groups and classes of people have different tastes and business minds. You should first research and determine what category consumers are appropriate to add value to your product. Target them and run your campaign.
You should also research the platform you are using. Find out which platform is suitable to reach your targeted audience. Go for that platform and approach the investors with a killer pitch to impress them. And thus help you raise funding more quicker.
Tip#11: Offer Rewards
While campaigning, you will meet different categories of persons or visitors. Some will love to invest or donate to your project happily. But some investors will not be too interested in investing in you. In this case, a reward can be an attractive move to bring their interest to your campaign.
For a reward, you can offer some advantages based on your product or offer extra gifts. This could be a simple t-shirt diary, phone book high-end gift. In terms of reward, remember, don’t make fake promises. Don’t target something that you can’t fulfill.
Tip#12: Communicate With The Participants
Communication is a must-have factor for any successful business. It would be best to communicate with the audience, investors, donors, and targeted and non-targeted groups. For communication, here are the tips that you can follow-
- Give Updates Of Your Campaign
To keep the campaign engaging, you must update every activity of the entire funding procedure. This will encourage the investors to say yes to your project. Besides, updates will also make people aware of your initiatives and performance. You can keep updating on a weekly or daily basis. Here are some tips that you can follow to give your audience the updates-
- Share the activities and programs on social media.
- Thanks to the organization that invests in your campaign
- Post pictures of charity activities.
- Ask your donors To share their opinion on your activities.
- Thank your supporter
- Mention the top 5 donors of your campaign in public and thank them for their support.
- Inform the daily collection.
- Notify all the investors or donors when you reach 50% of your campaign. This will encourage them to cooperate more and have faith in you.
- Response To Q & A
The donors or investors may have thousands of questions in their minds. They will approach you in the question and answer section. Try to reply to them politely. Whatever the question, the public answers them with authentic information. Suppose they ask any technical queries you don’t understand, research them and then provide the exact answer. However, answering all questions can be very time-consuming, and you may not reach all the questions. To simplify this, you can assign chatbots to answer the questions on time. And set the bot to answer common questions and pass them to humans if they find any question difficult.
- Show Your Gratitude To The Participants
Make your investors and donors feel special with each step you get closer to your goal. Appreciate them with Thanksgiving emails or messages. This will let the investors know that you are valued, and thus, they will cooperate more with your campaign. And in future campaigning, you can also have them by your side. So, consider the long-term goals and keep on good terms with the participants.
Tip#13: Seek Expert Help
Experts always give you the right guidance. So, always follow their advice. Brain Hooks quotes, “Crowdfunding is not something to do alone, and this is the biggest team and element for funding.” That is, you can never reach your destination alone. You must build a team and include volunteers to campaign for your goal. And only then a successful funding campaign is possible. Besides this, it is equally important to have the right intention and choose the appropriate platform for your goal.
Tip#14: Tell A Story About Your Crowdfunding Goals
Give your product a story for which you are campaigning. You must connect yourself and the audience to the product. Bring a storyline stating how investing in this product can impact the future of the campaign. When telling the story, be realistic so the listener can connect themself to the fact. Express the hardship and situation you faced to bring up your business. Connect emotionally to get the best attention from the investor. This will not only boost your crowdfunding campaign but will also help you to gather public attention.
Tip#15: Measure The Progress Of Your Campaign
Just collecting funds and campaigning all day will not bring you success. You should have a proper idea about your progress. Note how much you are going daily and match it with your targeted goal. Usually, a campaign runs for 30 to 40 days. And you should have the progression data for each day—a target for which sector is bringing you most of the funds. For example, you are campaigning for a non-profitable social service; it could be for an operation or educational expense. Observe which sector is getting most of the attention. Is it a crowdfunding platform bringing most of the crowd or social media? Identify the source and work forward, keeping that specific platform in the target.
However, this can have both positive and negative sides. Positive because the progression will encourage you to work harder to raise funding. And negative in a way because if the campaign’s progression is not fruitful, you may get heartbroken and disappointed and finally quit the campaign in the middle. Don’t do this; believe in yourself and try to fight till the end.
The Bottom Line
To sum up, you need to have some secondary objectives to reach your primary goal. And to improve your funding goals, there are several things that you should keep in check. For instance, how the audience responds, adding attractive titles to your campaign, updating your supporters about your achievements, social marketing, and more. By doing this, you can quickly improve your goal and collect the required funding making it a successful campaign.