This is a guest post by DizzLike. Check out their Facebook page here.
Crowdfunding might seem like an easy decision. After all, the news has made it appear like you can get fast money from strangers around the world for a new project. Unfortunately it’s not suitable for every project.
In this article, we’d like to share some of our crowdfunding experiences with you, which you could use as a guide to decide whether or not crowdfunding makes sense for your project.
At the end of this article, we’ve included a chart which serves as an overview of the points we’ve made.
Our experience
We have already started three crowdfunding campaigns for our project Dizzlike: the game. The first two were launched on Kickstarter and the third was launched on Indiegogo. Unfortunately, none of the campaigns were successful. This time we decided to try crowdfunding a smaller project. Therefore, we launched a crowdfunding campaign for Dizzlike Profile, which is an independent part of Dizzlike: the game.
Please note: almost no money was spent on marketing in any of our campaigns but it is highly recommended to do so.
Dizzlike Profile on Indiegogo
The crowdfunding campaign for Dizzlike Profile was supposed to be launched on Kickstarter, but the project was against Kickstarter’s guidelines because it was seen as “an app focused on social networking.” Therefore, we ended up launching the campaign on Indiegogo. The campaign lasted 28 days, from October 29 to November 25. The funding goal was $1,001 however the campaign raised only $457.
| Funder | Amount ($) | Date |
| Anonymous | 111 | October 29 |
| Andreas | 22 | October 29 |
| phiuphong | 2 | October 30 |
| Achim_ | 22 | October 30 |
| soenke. | 300 | November 6 |
As depicted in the table above, the campaign managed to raise almost half of its funding goal during the first nine days. However, it didn’t raise 30% of its funding goal during the first week, which is often claimed to be the key amount for a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Even though we did not raise that key amount during the first week, we don’t believe that this led to the failing of the campaign. It was still shown to be “most popular” in the gaming category. As the campaign raised almost half of its funding in the beginning, it should have encouraged other people who didn’t know the project beforehand to pledge. However, there were no strangers that backed the campaign. All of them were either friends of the campaign creator or those that had backed us on Kickstarter in the past.
Fans on Facebook
We made a fan page for the Dizzlike Profile on Facebook. As it was released, the fans of Dizzlike: the game were asked to like this fan page, but only 30 out of 187 fans of Dizzlike: the game liked this new page. Although there was also a reminder post on the wall of Dizzlike: the game informing the fans about the Dizzlike Profile project, there was still no interest.
Dizzlike Profile managed to gain most of its likes when a few of our friends invited all their Facebook friends to like the Dizzlike Profile fan page. In the end, 50 people liked the page from approximately 2000 friends. Approximately five likes came from spamming on fan pages of Facebook and on other websites. Therefore, in the end of the campaign on November 25 the fan page of Dizzlike Profile had 93 likes.
Press Release and Social Media
A press release was sent to over 300 journalists but we received no replies. We looked for related and not-so-much related Google+ groups, Facebook groups and fan pages, but unfortunately it wasn’t effective. In addition to all ‘dislike button’ pages and groups, we wrote on fan pages, which are targeted at ‘kiddies.’ Another tactic was spamming on yellow press in order to create awareness. We also wrote on many game forums but the posts didn’t generate interaction. All in all, we didn’t arouse much of an interest.
Crowdfunding for a small and unknown company
There are many things you need to consider, when thinking about whether or not you could use crowdfunding to fund and market your product. Naturally, you are in an entirely different situation, whether you are a big and well-known company with a big marketing budget or a small and unknown company without money for marketing. We wanted to write this article from the perspective of a small and unknown company, like us. First of all, don’t do crowdfunding alone, but have a team around you. Crowdfunding is a lot of work, so don’t try to manage it all by yourself.
One basic question: is your product even suitable for crowdfunding? An ideal product would be something people feel passionate about, something they think they can’t live without. A good way to test if your product is suitable for crowdfunding, is to go outside on the streets and tell ten strangers about your product. Would they give you money after hearing your story? If not, the answer is clear: if a stranger didn’t give you money when you are able to talk to them face to face, they wouldn’t give you money without the face to face contact either. But if they do, you then need to consider the state of development your product is in. Here are the three options:
1. “I have a completely new idea so I need both money and publicity.”
Backers don’t want to wait for the product more than six months so you should be able to have it completed by then. If you aren’t able to complete the product in six months, you need to find a way to make it almost ready without crowdfunding. The other big question is, how much money do you need to finish the product? The crowd doesn’t easily trust an unknown company, which needs a lot of money. Therefore, you should not aim for more than $25k. In some cases you even should not expect more than $10.
2. “I only need a bit of money and publicity to complete my product.”
This is the ideal situation for a crowdfunding campaign.
3. “I have the product ready but I need publicity.”
On crowdfunding platforms there are many campaign creators who don’t need money but are just looking for publicity. However, backers don’t like people raising money when they actually don’t need it, but this is how the world works and the backers don’t have to know about the fact that there are many campaign creators doing exactly that ;).
Community
Crowdfunding is not about the audience but the community. The key is the interaction between you and the fans and also among the fans. You already need to have such a community before you start a crowdfunding campaign. If you don’t have one, try to build one up.
It’s not an easy task and it takes time but without it, there is no point in even thinking about having a crowdfunding campaign. A community doesn’t mean 10 000 likes on your Facebook page. Truth be told, “likers” only aren’t that useful. They increase your credibility but they don’t actively bring you new fans. A community also doesn’t mean that people just tell you that your project is great and that they can’t wait to be able to use it. A community means that you have fans that are ready to help you get the product completed.
They will spread the word on social media, letting everyone know about your project. They are also willing to help you financially and they are asking their acquaintances to pledge for your project. These people are what matters. They are what you need to have for a successful crowdfunding campaign. When you have built this active community, then you can start thinking about taking the next step.
Family and friends
It’s extremely important that you raise 25 – 30% of your funding goal during the first week. Therefore, you need to have your inner circle ready to pledge immediately when you start your campaign. Nobody wants to be the first one on the dance floor so you need to have your friends and family to be the brave first ones. In addition, take into account how the funding bar looks like. It increases the credibility of your project if you have already gained a notable amount of your funding goal. You could promise your family to pay them back their money if the campaign succeeds to reach its funding goal and if the campaign isn’t successful, they will get their money back anyway. Then again, if your family and friends don’t want to support your project, why should a stranger?
Press
In order to get visibility for your project, you need attention from the press. Journalists get many contact requests every day so if you want them to notice you, you need to have a personal relation to them. It’s not indispensable that you know someone personally but if you don’t, then at least someone in your inner circle should have a close relation with a journalist in your field. Spamming on your own just isn’t effective enough and the press has an e-mail filter for everything related to “Kickstarter”, “crowdfunding” etc.
So if you’re thinking about your project while reading this article: Is your project suitable for a crowdfunding campaign? There surely are some points of which you think, they might be impossible to achieve – but if your idea is good you won’t have any problems.
If you still don’t know whether your product is suitable for a crowdfunding campaign, (and even if you do, it won’t hurt to take a look at it) we have a put together a short diagram that summarizes some of the points made in this article.
Please note:
Although our crowdfunding campaign for Dizzlike Button and Profile was not as fruitful as we had hoped, we have, nevertheless, been working on it intensively for five months. After a very successful closed beta phase, we are delighted to say that it is now available in open beta with the currently only full functioning dislike button for Firefox and Chrome. Just try it out!
