In the years since launching my first campaign, here’s what I’ve learned about running a successful crowdfunding campaign. It’s a strategy.

Background

I ran my first crowdfunding campaign in 2013 on KickStarter. The platform was relatively new at the time, just four years old. I had been watching and studying other successful campaigns for a couple of months before launching my own in November 2013. I reached out to a couple of founders who raised between $25,000 and $50,000. I wanted to learn what they did to successfully reach their goal.

I wondered how so many startups raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars in 30 days. I thought, I had a great product, surely, I could raise at least $100,000. People will watch my video, understand the problem and donate to my campaign. Well, it doesn’t happen like that. There’s a lot of work that goes into raising capital through crowdfunding. Don’t expect to make a video, post it, sit back and collect money. It just doesn’t work like that.

Resolve

After spending everyday of my campaigned obsessed with watching my numbers and calling everyone I knew to donate to my campaigned, I surpassed my goal of $15,000 and raised $19,155. I decided to try it again three years later on another platform, Indiegogo. I fell short of my goal the second time around by 58%. Going back to the same people to ask for money just didn’t work out for me.

Lessons Learned

In the years since launching my first campaign, here’s what I’ve learned about running a successful crowdfunding campaign. It’s a strategy.

1. Create a plan at least 3-4 months prior to launch:

• Determine your goal
• Create of list of friends/family who will donate to your campaign; i.e. $25, $50, $100, $500, etc.
• Create you rewards
• Determine cost of shipping, boxes, postcards, etc.

2. Create a compelling and engaging video.

3. Get commitments from your friends/family to donate at least 55% of your campaign goal within the first 72 hours of your launch.

4. Design your marketing plan and launch 2-4 weeks before the start of your campaign (emails, SMS, social media, paid ads, etc.

5. Follow-up with potential donors.

6. Stay engaged with your donors during the campaign.

7. Deliver deliverables on-time and follow-up with a final report on how the campaign went and a thank you to everyone who contributed.