What Organizations Can Gain From These Kickstarter Examples of overcoming adversity

Crowdfunding is a famous decision for business people seeking to raise capital for another endeavor. Just 36% of missions on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding stage, hit their objective. Numerous crowdfunding efforts come up short due to botches made preceding and during their financing period — and, surprisingly, effective missions have defects.

Only 36% of campaigns on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform, hit their goal. Many crowdfunding campaigns fail because of mistakes made prior to and during their funding period—and even successful campaigns have flaws.

The project targeted a goal of $15,000 to fund the production and distribution of their product, but by the end of their 30-day campaign, 154,926 backers had pledged a total of $6,465,690-43,000% more than they expected, making it the 11th most-funded Kickstarter campaign. While this is a success in every sense of the word, that kind of growth in that short of time would stress-test any company, let alone a startup that had yet to produce or distribute the product they were selling.

The production and communication mistakes Fidget Cube made during and after its campaign caused a strain on customer relations and left room for competitors to eat into their once-dominant market share. While Fidget Cube is still viewed as a success, it’s also a cautionary tale for future entrepreneurs considering crowdfunding. In other words, successful campaigns have convinced a community to back their project. 

They decided to relaunch another campaign for their 3D pen, after making a few adjustments to their strategy—starting with an emphasis on building a community. Before they relaunched, 3DSimo took time to define and segment their target audience. 3DSimo then designed landing pages with an email capture form on their website to build a list of leads that they could target pre-launch and during the campaign.

To increase the conversion rate of your crowdfunding lead form, make sure to build separate landing pages with unique messages for your different segments. To further grow their community, 3DSimo utilized social ads on Facebook and Twitter to drive more targeted traffic to their email form. When you are more strategic and targeted with social ads, you’ll see a higher ROI and better conversion rates on your forms from paid media.

Fonde: Set and Communicate Realistic Expectations

Fonde, a ravioli roller, set out to raise $1,000 for their Kickstarter campaign. Michael Finizio, the creator of Fonde, set his goal based on the minimum amount needed to successfully launch his venture. He could have set a higher goal like $10,000 or even $50,000, and it’s reasonable that he would have still succeeded. 

Fonde succeeded, in part, because it had realistic expectations and communicated that effectively to its backers. Most crowdfunding platforms are all-or-nothing, meaning you must hit 100 percent of your goal for money to change hands, setting your goal at the minimal amount needed is a great way to build a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Many crowdfunding campaigns fail because entrepreneurs set goals above what is necessary. Setting an achievable goal doesn’t just lead to a higher rate of success, it also has psychological advantages. The goal isn’t the only expectation that needs to be set for your crowdfunding project. You need to set a clear and achievable delivery date for your product.

A simple Google search will reveal hundreds of crowdfunding campaigns that have lost the support of their backers and ruined their brand image by failing to deliver on the delivery date expectations. If you’ve never produced or distributed your product before, clearly communicate that to your backers and set a date that mitigates the effects of potential delays.

Creating a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign Most crowdfunding campaigns fail. Even the projects that end up getting funded might fail in their ability to deliver the product, meet backer expectations, or create a sustainable brand. If you want to see the best crowdfunding results during and after your campaign, learn from these examples: be prepared for success, build and use an engaged community, communicate effectively, and set achievable expectations.

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