10 Steps to Crowdfunding Success

This simple road-map virtually guarantees a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Before you weigh the options for raising investment, please talk to me. If you're choosing a crowdfunding or angel platform, talk to me. Before you do anything - talk to me and avoid the fatal mistakes that most people make. I have extensive experience, a stellar track record of success, and a strong network of genuine investors. I can make the process of raising investment surprisingly easy - however you choose to raise it. Here are the key steps:

1. Campaign video. Do this first, so you have something that's shareable and easy for potential investors to consume. I suggest having you talking for a couple of minutes about the key things that will sell this to investors. Just be yourself. It doesn't have to be polished production. Outline your plans for an exit. Emphasise your biggest achievements and your main assets: your valuable relationships, partnerships and any well-known people or brands that are involved. Outline your distribution channels and describe the effect your product has on people's lives, ideally with specific examples or separate case studies. Above all, explain which problem your business is solving - and why you are different to all the other businesses out there doing similar things.

2. Make a long list of potential investors, including friends, relatives, colleagues, customers, clients - and your Linkedin network! Highlight the ones you feel most confident about and give them special treatment throughout the process.

3. Sign up at least 5 committed and reliable angel investors. (I can help you with this stage so please get in touch with me as early as possible if you're planning to raise investment in the future!) Yes, a dummy angel round is not just an option - it's the most important part of the crowdfunding process! It's also the most difficult. Get at least 10 angels to give you a definite "yes". You should aim to have angels verbally agree to funding at least 60% of your round and ideally more. I guarantee that at least half of them will disappear. (It's a fact of life. Don't take it personally, it's mainly because they're insanely busy). On day one of your crowd raise, have your angel investors, friends, family, network, etc., invest - via the crowdfunding platform. Rapid/early funding-success is perhaps the most powerful way to persuade other crowd investors to come on board. Everyone wants to be part of a success story. This is the way to ensure you get not just fully-funded but over-funded. (The objective should always be to over-fund by at least 50% and ideally 100%).

4. Publish a pre-launch page. This allows you to quickly and easily create a page that announces your actual crowdfunding campaign and that is designed to let people subscribe to your email list and share your pre-launch on social media. The typical duration of a pre-launch campaign is 60-90 days.

https://www.krowdster.co/blog/one-thing-no-crowdfunding-campaign-can-succeed-without.html

5. Be active on social media. Start building and engaging your audience right now - immediately - and begin warming them up about the forthcoming campaign. Paid social media ads are highly recommended, especially when the crowd page is live! This is another aspect that I can help with.

6. Set your funding goal:

• Cost of completing the project
• Cost of fulfilling investor rewards
• Legal
• PR & marketing!
• Platform & processing fees: usually ~7%
• 30% buffer!

7. Think about rewards for larger investors. These will usually be your products/services in exchange for investment. Take a straw-poll: in the early stages of discussions with your angel investors, simply ask them which non-financial rewards would incentivise them to invest more.

8. Write your executive summary and full pitch page copy. (I can help with this too). Focus on the assets and achievements outlined in step 1 above. Clearly explain who you are personally and tell your amazing story. People invest in people. Keep it short and pack it with compelling points, right from the start, with your most exciting selling-points at the top where people will read them early on. That's what makes people continue reading the rest of your pitch.

• Clearly explain yourself, your market and your company
• Talk about why you are doing what you are doing
• Describe your product and benefits (see step 1 above)
• State how much money you are raising
• Explain what the money raised will be used for
• Let people know how else they can help - and give them a call to action. Encourage social media sharing

9. Secure at least 30% of the raise from your network and angel investors - and prepare them to invest - via the crowd platform, which is easier for them too. (Remember, you should start by targeting at least 60% and expect to lose half of your angel investors along the way). Have half your known investors fund the round as soon as the campaign goes live, on day 1, to seize attention ASAP. Then have the other half invest when when you've used up 75% of the available time to rebuild momentum towards the end. (Campaigns often go cold at this stage).

10. Prepare PR, media, promotion: Build media lists of highly targeted journalists and bloggers who have covered topics in your niche. Influencer Marketing is a tool to quickly identify influential journalists, bloggers and social media personalities in any vertical and connect with them. You should build long lists of media outlets and news sites that publish content in your niche that went viral. You also need a well written press release that you can share with the media. If you don't have funds for your promoting the campaign then use some of your angel investors to fund this stage. (Try to get them to agree to invest more via the crowdfunding platform too - the number of investors is almost as important as the amount that you raise early on).

(Although this is primarily aimed at equity crowdfunding, the essential principles are helpful for all forms of crowdfunding).

Before you make any decisions, please contact me for a friendly chat. I'm a passionate expert and I can offer free advice that will make a big difference to your business.

If your business is cool, UK-based and eligible for SEIS or EIS then I may well invest myself - and if so I'll be happy to support your crowd campaign.

Finally, I'm a digital marketing expert. When you're funded, I can help your business to grow rapidly with ease, so let's keep in touch.

Good luck!