From Indie GoGo to Indie Oh NO!

Today’s Ask The Expert Post is from Dr. Letitia Wright America’s Crowd Funding Strategist!  Be sure to Join us for at Stiletto Wealth Experience 2012 In November where Dr. Wright will be sharing her crowd funding know how on our financial resource panel.

There is nothing wrong with Indie GoGo and using it for crowd funding. But what happens when it all goes wrong? What happens when no matter what you do, you just don’t raise the money? This is really what this article is about. There have been plenty of successful people on Indie GoGo. If you follow a few rules, you will find success there too!

Understand what crowd funding is: Many people think crowd funding is just a bunch of people on social media handing you money. You just put the link on your social media and if 10% of the people click and give, you would be a millionaire! I am not sure how that rumor started but that is NOT how it works. Social media is a part of it, but only a part. You have to understand the strategy behind a successful campaign. You have to know what they did and be able to duplicate it. For example, if someone tells you they had a mailing list of 10,000 and they send each one three postcards. You have to look at your situation and figure out if you have the budget to do the same thing. If you have the budget, you must then find out what they had on each post card and how far apart were the mailings done. If you can’t duplicate that, then that strategy won’t help you as much as it did the other person.

Create a specific plan: For most people the plan is the basic 2 x 2 x 2. You know this plan. They have 2 websites to choose from- Indie Go Go or Kickstarter, They have 2 sets of people to share with- Their family and everyone else, They have 2 ways to get the word out- Emails and Social Media. That plan won’t work, as the millions of people who have tried it. Many people go into crowd funding without a budget, so the 2 x 2 x 2 plan is the only one they can afford. Your plan has to be more specific than that.  There are over 500 websites to choose from and the list grows daily. If you only know of those 2, you have not done your homework. If you are only going to do a few emails and social media then you are making it hard. Most people do not have a large enough list for that to work.

Be sure you can deliver on your gifts: After you raise the money you have to perform. Currently, this is not a huge problem. There are some people who have not performed but no real scandal has happened in the industry. You don’t want to be the first one either! This is your tribe, if you scam them, it’s about you and your brand that is damaged. Almost no one does this intentionally. Be sure you budget enough money to do what you say you are going to deliver. There are a lot of hidden costs to doing crowd funding.

 

Dr. Letitia Wright is America’s Crowd Funding Strategist and has created a video series for those who are about to start crowd funding. You can access these videos at www.acflife.com

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