5 Crowdfunding Tips For Small Business Startups
Guest post by Andre Oentoro
Entering a startup industry can be very challenging as most people tend to choose brands they have been familiar with. That said, many small business startups are struggling to get customers as they compete with giant companies already.
One common problem with launching small startups is funding. Funding is important in every company, but it becomes critical for a startup because it is the money that will be used to ensure that the business is thriving.
With a lack of funding, small startups will find it hard to get enough capital to start the business and pay for other expenses. Crowdfunding can be a great way for startups to get funding. The following are five tips for small businesses on how they can succeed in crowdfunding:
1. Understand your audience
Know what your customers want and what they need before you start marketing your product or service. The idea of crowdfunding is to gain as much money as possible, which means you have to know what your target market wants.
When you are clear about who your customers are, it will be easier for you to market your product or service. This means that you should avoid making assumptions about what consumers want because this may lead to failure when crowdfunding.
For example, if most of your potential customers are women between 25 and 35 years old, then it would not make sense to market a product or service mainly designed for men over 50 years old.
2. Choose the right platform
Before choosing a platform on which you will start crowdfunding, ensure that the platform has been tested and proven by other users who have had success in using it successfully before you choose it.
For example, if you decide on Kickstarter as a platform, look at other projects similar to yours and see how many people supported them so that you can work out whether Kickstarter would be suitable for your startups or single projects.
3. Become transparent
Transparency is key when starting a crowdfunding project. This means you should be open and honest with your potential customers and tell them all the risks involved when supporting you. You should also have a clear picture of your startup business, where it is headed, and what it has achieved so far to avoid confusion when starting a crowdfunding project.
4. Create a marketing plan
A marketing plan is very important when it comes to crowdfunding because you will need to let your potential customers know about your project before you start crowdfunding. This means that you need to let your customers know about your ideas, products, or services before starting the actual crowdfunding process so that they can be ready for it once the campaign gets underway.
If you have a marketing plan, it will be easier for people to find out what is happening with your product or service once the campaign begins, and this will help increase awareness of the product or service being offered.
5. Build an audience
Building an audience prior to starting a crowdfunding campaign can help make sure that once you start, there will be people who already know about what is happening with the product or service being offered by your startup business or organization.
Building an audience involves creating awareness about what you are trying to offer and creating engagement through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. So, when it comes time for the actual crowdfunding process, most of these people will already know what is happening about your idea, product, or service being offered by your businesses.
Takeaway
Crowdfunding is a way for startups to raise money from many people willing to invest in the startup business. The investors are not giving away their money for free. They expect a return on their investment, usually in the form of equity or profit sharing.
That’s why you need to provide a comprehensive marketing plan for people to review whether your startup is a good one. Make sure to do some research before and be transparent about what the money is going for. Selecting the right crowdfunding platform is another key point to successful funding.
If you want to learn more tips to grow your business, check out the LeapZone LearningLab!
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Written by Andre Oentoro.
Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video production company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).
Twitter: @breadnbeyond
Email/Gravatar: andre@breadnbeyond.com
LinkedIn: Andre Oentoro