Top Tips for crowdfunding Virgins...

Are you thinking of raising funds for a new project or simply want to raise some product awareness through some low cost publicity? Whatever your objectives are crowdfunding is worth a look at.

For our latest product I decided to run a campaign on Indiegogo, it wasn't easy but it's proving successful. I've had a steep learning curve, here's some things that may help:

(From a podcast with Makers Paradise and Gavin Munro 2nd Feb 2016-click here to hear!)

What inspired you to consider crowdfunding?

We’ve been looking at crowdfunding as an option to fund and promote our products since July 2014, we develop energy monitoring products which have a limited market so it didn’t seem right to crowdfund until we had a product with mass appeal.

Here's the video for the Indiegogo campaign

With the Carehub we had an idea of a product that would appeal to a much broader market and we thought that a lot of people would think it was a good idea, and luckily we were right!

It’s impossible to get away from crowdfunding now it’s omnipresent! I’ve been following projects on kickstarter/indiegogo for years now and the things that I find exciting about are:

• It’s totally democratized the business funding model. When I started my first business about 20 years the only option I had were to go cap in hand to some venture capitalists in London, I got screwed over, they came out of it on top.
• So Crowdfunding has made everyone a potential venture capitalist, but rather than them taking a share of your company they get a share in the idea and feel part of the development stage of a product.

• The other reason is the amount of new ideas and concepts that are on there, I can spend hours going through the sites, there’s some real innovation going on there, OK most campaigns fail, that’s a fact but it’s kind of an eco-system of creativity where the strongest ideas seem to win.

*What surprised you about the process versus what you thought before you started?

OK, the biggest one? You can do all the preparation you want, we spent about 3 months on it, but we realized pretty quickly when the campaign started that we needed to be flexible. Don’t get me wrong you NEED to prepare really well, but have plan B,C,D and E!

Most crowdfunding sites give you a schedule template for your campaign, you should spend a lot of time preparing the materials and the story and have an idea of the funding strategy that you’re going to use. A lot of people also think that once you upload the campaign you just sit back and watch the money roll in…..WRONG! It’s a slog. Make sure you have at least 2 people running the campaign, full time.

OK, so our campaign is with Indiegogo and they offer 30-60 day options on their campaigns. 30 day campaigns are more likely to succeed. The reason we chose 60 days was because we had limited resources to draw on and because it was our first time and we wanted breathing space so we could make the right mid-campaign strategy choices.

One of the best things I’ve learnt is to look at your campaign in 1/3rds. Take ours as an example, 60 days, break that down into 20 days and roughly speaking you should think about:

1st 20 days- 1/3rd of your funds through friends, family, associates, customers. If you get the first 1/3rd within 5-10 days you’ll start to get emails from journalists and interested people. It really helps to get off to a good start. So before you even begin the campaign you should be talking to everyone you know and asking for their support and what level of commitment they’re willing to show, like ‘Hey would you give us $5?’ to ‘Could I count on you to buy a $1000 perk?’. Make a list of all these commitments, you’ll need it to remind people.

2nd 20 days- send out press releases and see what response you get from the general public. Keep promoting your site through social media, friends share etc.

3rd 20 days- In the last 1/3rd of your campaign see what shape you’re in. If you have a large shortfall you need to think about approaching the big guys. Find a company who are selling a similar product and get friendly with them. Cut them a deal, ask them if they’re interested in the product and maybe exclusivity on the distribution. If they’re interested get them to show their level of commitment by purchasing a perk or making a contribution, if they don’t move on the the next. Also think about funding the shortfall yourself, again secure these funds before you start the campaign, so they’re there for an emergency situation.

OK, really important is to keep your target as low as possible, you’re gonna need to work hard for every dollar so keep the target low and reasonable, don’t be putting that trip to CES in Vegas and all the expenses in there! The lower the target the more chance you have of reaching it. You can always extend your campaign too so if you reach you target.

Get creative with your perks!
The Early Bird perk has been the most popular but make sure you cater for everyone ,so price your perks at a variety of levels, from $5 to $5,000 if you can. Suypport, buy product, support cause (if you can link to a charity)

Watch out for the bandits!

There’s a whole industry out there and as soon as you start the campaign watch out! The e-marketeers will be onto you asking for your hard earned money in exchange for them publishing your campaign on their websites, be VERY CAREFUL!

It’s important to look at all the offers, but reply to them with the following questions:

-What size is your audience, how many people are on their database and what kids of traffic do other similar pages attract.
-What’s your engagement rate? How many people will click on the link from their page to yours.
-Do they offer an analytical report once they finish posting your campaign?The dodgy ones won’t reply, the ones that reply, check. As a rule of thumb, I worked on the idea that I would pay $150 to reach an audience of 100K with an engagement of 1-5% so in simple terms, $150 to reach a few thousand people with your campaign message.

Get your message right!

Another thing that I’ve realized all the way through my campaign is don’t rely on anything you planned going 100% right! Make those plan B,C and Ds, have an if this then that schedule. Time consuming, I know but that really raises your chance of succeeding.

What advice would you give to someone who was scared to try?
Be afraid, be very afraid…no joking! No, you gotta go for it! It’s hard work but the rewards can outweigh the efforts. Do your research, do your preparation and then enjoy it,. As Bill Hicks said ‘It’s just a ride’, providing you’ve covered yourself it’s a real buzz opening your online dashboard to see that the previous day’s effort have increased the funds.

 If any of you need a bit of advice, they can drop me an email and I’ll be happy to share my experience.([email protected])

Check out our Indiegogo campaign here: https://igg.me/at/carehub/x/8075951

• Share your campaign link and encourage your community to share to drive traffic to your campaign.

• Post updates about your campaign and spread the word through social media.

• Be sure to offer perks that would engage your audience and help encourage them to contribute.