How to Win at Crowdfunding (By Creating the Perfect Campaign)

Crowdfunding is a modern way to get financial support for your business. It's been the secret behind many startup successes and can be a lucrative way to get noticed. Instead of getting a lump sum from a single investor, crowdfunding focuses on getting a large number of people to give a little.

Thanks to its efficiency, it's become an incredibly popular way for entrepreneurs and startups to get the money they need to launch their product. With so much competition in the crowdfunding arena, how do you make sure your campaign is noticed?

If you are starting a campaign on a site like Kickstarter, you need to prepare. You can't just choose a start date, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Understand your audience

No matter what product you want to launch, you need to know who your audience is and that the appetite is out there for it. Before your Kickstarter campaign begins, you need to determine whether it will actually be a success. Friends and family are supportive and will tell you what you want to hear, so you need to get information from other people who have no bias.

You can do this through persona research or going out and asking strangers who fit your demographic whether they would buy your product. Another idea is to launch fake ads for your product that link to a page that says it's out of stock. If you use Google Analytics to track it and set up different pages, you should get a reliable idea of how many people are interested or actually willing to buy your product for minimal cost.

Market to crowdfunders

Although it's grown in popularity, crowdfunding is still a fairly new concept to most people. Use Facebook and Google analytics to ensure whatever marketing efforts you're doing during your campaign are reaching people that are comfortable with the initiative. This boosts your chance of getting investment from your marketing efforts, rather than just wasting your money and time.

Focus on your Kickstarter page

Whether you use Kickstarter or another crowdfunding website, you need to make sure that your page looks credible. On Kickstarter, you'll want to make sure your video sells your product but also explains what your company is about and, importantly, looks good.

The more information and detail you can provide about your product will give it more credibility and therefore be likely encourage investors to take an interest.