Top ten tips for a successful crowd funding campaign

March 27, 2021

Top ten tips for a successful crowd funding campaign

I recently completed a successful (all or nothing) crowd funding campaign for my beekeeping business in Australia with Pozible. I wanted to raise funds for a specialised piece of equipment, a honey creamer. Here is the link if you would like to check out my campaign: Two Busy Bees Honey on Pozible.

If you are a small business owner I thought you might find my ten top tips for a successful crowd funding campaign useful.

Before I started my campaign I didn't see any information anywhere online about how crucial my own data (within Shopify, Google Analytics and Klaviyo) would be to the success of my campaign. Especially in the early stages for gaining momentum and then towards the end with engaging these lovely people to share and post.  

If you are thinking about crowd funding in the future and don't have a Klaviyo account in place for your email subscriber list, get one now!  

1. Long lead up time! - Start hinting months out from the start of your campaign that something exciting is going to be happening. Mention it to everyone you know, in your FB lives, on social media, in emails and on your Blog. Inspiring potential pledgers to come along on the journey with you! 
2. Preparation. Research. Organise and then repeat! - Investigate campaigns in a similar field to yours both successful campaigns and the projects that were not successful. Take notes and refine your message!
3. Check your data! - Go to your Google Analytics and find out where your main sources of store traffic are coming from. This will be crucial as you can devote extra funds to creating ads or being more present on those platforms as you cannot do all the things!
4. How your campaign should look! - When designing the look of your project break down your information into easy to digest chunks, lots of images, graphics and a pie chart with a breakdown of costs.
5. Be your honest and authentic self! - In the tone of your project and in your crowdfunding video. I didn't have any funds available to pay for a professional video so just filmed it on my my iPhone in my Bee Farm. 
6. Subscriber list is the hidden gold! - Your best customers on your segmented Klaviyo list will be the most valuable asset at the start of your campaign. They already love you, let them get in ahead of the crowds with early access! This will give your campaign a boost at the start because nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd! As you progress with your campaign give the rest of your email list the heads up that you will be posting every day with short updates.
7. Keep the peddle to the metal! - Keep the momentum going through out the whole campaign as there will be a lull for people pledging in the middle. At this stage do not get disheartened by disparaging comments, derailed by trolls (like I almost did!) or put up with any mansplaining*! This will happen as you become more obvious on social media with an increased online presence it brings them out of woodwork! 
8. This will be your full time job! - You don't need a team of people but it's going to be a full time job. If your campaign is four weeks it's no exaggeration to say that you will need to devote ALL your time to this one task of making sure your crowd funding is a success.
9. Put yourself out there! - Do not be afraid to be all over social media, people are not going to see everything you post. Personally ask the lovely people who have already pledged if they can share on their social media for you! 
10. Big push towards the end! - Start to make even more noise towards the end and in the last week do a daily countdown on social media with some colourful graphics. Push it over the line and thank your pledgers for coming along on the journey with you!

Good luck with your future campaign and I wish you every success with your business!

I am forever grateful to the kind people who supported my campaign along the way!

*Oh the mansplaining! It could be because as a beekeeper it's a traditionally male oriented field. But I was told UNHELPFULLY that this wasn't the way to do things, how I could raise funds without crowd funding (that one even kindly did the maths for me!), that I didn't know what I was doing and that I didn't deserve any funds as my business wasn't worthy. I deleted every comment immediately but not before taking a screen grab so that I could show my Dad (who I work with). And you know the funniest thing was? Explaining to him what mansplaining was! 

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