Are you looking for ways to raise money for your project or business idea? If yes, you are in the right place. Crowdfunding is a great way to raise money for your project or business. In this article, you will learn all about crowdfunding; everything from types of crowdfunding, to Kickstarter marketing services and crowdfunding campaign management will be covered. There are also crowdfunding marketing services to help you draw attention to your campaign by creating landing pages, Facebook ads, and more! Typically, these services are provided by crowdfunding experts at a marketing agency who can help you reach your funding goals.
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What is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is when a “crowd” provides the funds necessary for a project or business, instead of the usual one or two major investors. A crowdfunding project can be done by businesses, organizations, or individuals. They fund a project or business idea through small donations made by a large number of people.
Types of Crowdfunding
There are four different types of crowdfunding. They are donation, debt, rewards, and equity.
Donation crowdfunding is when people give money to a campaign, company, or individual for nothing in return. Donation crowdfunding focuses on the concept of simply helping others out of kindness. You are doing what you can to support a campaign, company, or individual and that is all.
Debt crowdfunding is when donations are peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. These are debt-based donations that act as a loan. It is based on an agreement that you would pay back the donator the original amount of the donation with interest by a certain deadline.
Rewards crowdfunding is when people who give money to a campaign, company, or individuals receive something in return for their support. The rewards received can vary greatly depending on numerous factors. The most common way to determine a donator’s reward is the size of their donation. This means the higher a donation is, the higher the reward is.
Equity crowdfunding is when donors receive a certain portion of ownership in the company or organization they are funding. You would give away a certain portion of your company or organization in exchange for funds. This type of crowdfunding can be viewed as an investment. You give the company money and in return, they receive a share of the company. The size of your share in the company is dependent upon how much money you provide. Similar to rewards crowdfunding, the larger the amount of money you provide, the higher the amount of shares you receive.
Benefits of Crowdfunding Marketing
There are many benefits to crowdfunding marketing. One benefit is the wide investor audience and reach. Crowdfunding campaign services make it much easier for thousands of people to see your campaign. Along with high visibility, these people can easily share your campaign on social media platforms. This increases the reach and audience of your campaign even more.
Crowdfunding marketing is also a great way to provide excellent customer service. Through social media, email newsletters, and other digital marketing techniques, you can share and promote your campaign. It allows you to provide excellent content experiences. These all provide excellent customer service because of the efficient and effective means of communication.
Crowdfunding campaign services help you to build confidence for your project or idea. It allows you to share your campaign with thousands of people. They will help you see issues with your campaign that you cannot. Once you start talking with those who are investing, you will be able to fine-tune your presentation. The more you interact with investors, the more confident you will become in your campaign.
Lastly, crowdfunding is efficient. Crowdfunding occurs mainly online, meaning all of your crowdfunding efforts can be in a single place. This will make it easier to share your campaign with potential investors. You can send your campaign to all potential investors at once, instead of having to contact them individually. Crowdfunding saves the time of tracking down each investor individually, therefore being more efficient than other ways to secure funds.
Crowdfunding Marketing Strategy
The first step to establishing an effective crowdfunding marketing strategy is to determine your target audience. Crowdfunding is more than selling a product or idea to investors. It is about building a community. You want to find people who believe in you and your campaign. Therefore, when you are trying to build your audience, think of who can relate most to your product or service you are creating. These people will be your primary target audience. You need to connect to them and help them see how your product can be beneficial to them. A great way to start building this audience is to reach out to those you already know. Start by contacting friends and family and from there, your audience will build and you can reach out to more people.
The next step is to determine the time you want to launch your crowdfunding campaign. Time is extremely important for a crowdfunding campaign. You need to create a timeline for your campaign. You need to make a pre-promotion effort a few weeks before you launch your campaign. This will build excitement about your campaign. One of the best ways to do this is to use social media. Find which social media platform works best for you based on your target audience. Then, use this platform to blast your campaign. If you have enough funds, you can even host a pre-launch event to build even more excitement.
The next step is the actual launch. Hopefully, your pre-launch efforts worked to drive enough attention to this moment. Send out a reminder to let everyone know when you have officially launched. It can be helpful to offer short-term promotions or offer giveaways to entice people even more.
In the following weeks, it is important to continually post on social media about your campaign. Remind followers your campaign is still running and you are still looking for support. Some social media tips are to create interactive content, a posting schedule, and respond to comments. These tips will help ensure you have a successful campaign on social media.
The Best Crowdfunding Platforms
If you are looking for crowdfunding campaign services, the one place you should be looking at is crowdfunding platforms. There are many platforms you can use to start promoting your campaign, but here are some of the best crowdfunding promotion services.
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is one of the most commonly used crowdfunding platforms. Although they mainly focus on rewards crowdfunding, they do offer equity crowdfunding services as well. Kickstarter’s mission is to help bring creative projects to life.
One of the reasons why Kickstarter is so successful is the simplicity of their website. You set a goal for how much money you need and when you want to reach that goal by. Then you tell your campaign’s story. Lastly, you share your project with the community on Kickstarter and other social media platforms in hopes of finding investors. A Kickstarter campaign is a popular option for many crowdfunding projects. At SEO Design Chicago, we provide Kickstarter full service help to market your campaign for you.
Indiegogo
Indiegogo is another frequently used crowdfunding platform that is mainly used to support entrepreneurs from the very beginning stage of a campaign. They help take it from a concept to a prototype. Then, they will help with both production and shipping. Indiegogo is used by millions of people around the world to find those clever and unconventional things that solve both small and large everyday problems. Along with giving entrepreneurs a platform to launch their product, they help surface innovations in tech, design, and more.
Like Kickstarter, Indiegogo focuses on rewards crowdfunding. They offer two kinds of funding: fixed funding and flexible funding. Fixed funding is when you set a goal for a certain amount of money to be raised. If you do not reach your goal within your set time frame, all of the money is returned to the donors. Flexible funding is when you are looking for any amount of money. You do not set a certain goal and you get to keep all of the money you raise, despite the amount.
GoFundMe
GoFundMe is a donation crowdfunding platform. It is more commonly used for charitable donations, but companies can also take advantage of it. This platform is great for nonprofit organizations and businesses with service-based initiatives.
LendingClub
LendingClub is a debt crowdfunding platform. It can provide up to $40,000 in personal loans and up to $500,000 in small business financing. The loan terms are either three or five years. There are certain qualifications you must meet in order to receive a loan. First, you must have been in business for at least a year and you must own at least 20% of the business. And, your annual sales revenue must be at least $50,000.
Crowdfunding Agencies Available
Similar to other forms of marketing, crowdfunding marketing has numerous crowdfunding marketing agencies to assist you in the process. These crowdfunding agents will help you find and obtain investors for your campaigns.
The LaunchPad Agency is a leader in crowdfunding advertising and digital marketing. They provide full services to help launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. They use a well-tested formula to deliver success to their clients.
Enventys Partners is a full-service, in-house crowdfunding agency that brings your products to market via Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other popular platforms. They were one of the first Kickstarter marketing companies to be created. They have developed a well-used five-step process for crowdfunding.
Agency 20 was the first full-service agency to specialize in Kickstarter marketing and promotions. Since 2010, this agency has raised over $100 million and launched over 500 products. They have a multi-step product launch strategy based on 10 years of experience.
Still Unsure about Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a great way to raise funding for your project and business idea. If you need help creating your crowdfunding campaign, there are many crowdfunding agencies available. These crowdfunding agents can assist you with your crowdfunding campaign services. They can help launch your campaign on platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
FAQs about Crowdfunding Campaign Services
- What is crowdfunding and how does it work?
- What crowdfunding agents are available to help me with my campaign?
- Do you have to pay crowdfunding back?
- What crowdfunding platforms are available to use for crowdfunding campaign services?
- What are the benefits of using crowdfunding marketing?
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