Crowdfunding isn’t a magic well of money. It’s just a new way to raise it. I recently post an article in french to define this new way. Even if most of you in England, in the US, Australia or New Zeland who follows seems to be familiar with it, we still need to define it briefly.

Crowdfunding is a way of raising finance by asking a large number of people each for a small amount of money to finance  a business, project or any venture using the internet to talk to thousands or millions of potential funders. There are several types of crowdfunding, the three most important are donation, debt and equity.

How many people have you ran into who told you “I tried raising money on a crowdfunding platform but it didn’t work.” ? Raise your hand if you can name more than one please !  That been said, How do you make sure your crowdfunding campaign isn’t a fail?

Here are four mistakes to avoid

1. ✔  Unrealistic expectations

People anchor to the long tail of projects they hear about in the media that raise millions of dollars or euros. Since they are constantly marketed with these offers they begin to believe these claims are standard. They will assume that they can get ranking on top for their crowdfunding campaign virtually overnight because they have a GREAT idea, project or whatever.  When the reality is the average project raises just a couple thousand just from friends and family. It’s better to reach a lower goal and exceed it rather than set a really high goal and not even get close even if you raise the same amount.

2. ✔ Assuming supporters are altruistic

Of course some people outside your family or your friends are altruistic, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be cynical, but let get real here, you can’t assume that to run your campaign. Even if your idea is revolutionary or just useful, you need to offer attractive rewards to supporters to encourage them to tap into your idea. Be creative, be iconic, make them part of this adventure you’re building. Of course, any rewards you offer should underline the image of your brand that you want to create but still have in mind that, if people are going to give you money, you want to give them something in return that they really, really want.  Put yourself in their choose and answer the question : why you?

3. ✔ Underinvesting in marketing

It’s tempting to believe that if you have written brilliant copy about an incredible initiative, uploaded that copy, along with photos and videos, in a gorgeous crowdfunding page, people will be impressed and begin to fund your venture. Time for « build it and they will come » is over. We are talking crowdfunding here, so you need a crowd to fund your idea, project or venture.  So before you even launch a campaign, get active with your existing personal network of friends, family, and acquaintances, any subscribers, followers, or fans in your social media world in social communities and figure out how to use public relations, search engine optimization for you to capture the attention of the new audience you want to attract and  figure out  in advance which influencers are going to spread the message.

4. ✔ Thinking everything happens online 

If you want your crowdfunding to stay in the game, you must find out how to connect online and offline in a seamless and digestible way. Figure out how that community likes to come together and do whatever its take to make them feel good. Online campaigns are great and can take you very far, but not everything can or must be done online. For instance online FAQs are not specific enough to correspond to the part of your crowd needs and answer their individual queries. Many of your supporters prefer to see you in real life experience, if they are excited or confused, they often prefer to talk in person or by phone. Of course, you can do that for thousand persons but just allowed the possibility is a great thing.

What is your experience ? What is the biggest pain in the neck? I’d love to you hear your thoughts, share them in the comments.