The COVID-19 crisis has had an enormous economic effect on the entire world. Furthermore, while a lot of countries have managed to bring it under a measure of control, there won’t be a true conclusion until either a vaccine or some other permanent solution can be implemented. Still, life goes on during the COVID-19 crisis, as shown by how a wide range of parties are still crowdfunding.
1. The Community Is Critical
A strong community is one of the most valuable assets that can be had when it comes to crowdfunding. After all, it is much easier to convince community members rather than strangers to contribute. On top of that, strong communities can secure more members on their own, thus making them more and more valuable over time. As such, community building is still very important when crowdfunding during a pandemic.
2. Regular Engagement Sustains Communities
Speaking of which, constant engagement is key for sustaining communities in the long run. Basically, there are some communities that are so strong that they can sustain themselves even with minimal involvement from the parties seeking crowdfunding. However, they are very much the exception to the rule that communities need regular engagement to maintain a healthy level of enthusiasm. Otherwise, there is a very real risk of people losing interest over time.
3. Market Research
People have more ways to communicate with one another than ever before. This is a huge issue because this makes it much more challenging for interested parties to target the population segments that are likeliest to crowdfund them. On top of that, there is the issue of coming up with a message that will maximize appeal to those same population segments, which is even more reason to conduct market research before starting up a crowdfunding campaign.
4. Reach Out Using Multiple Methods
Generally speaking, interested parties are going to want to reach out to their potential crowdfunders using a number of methods. In part, this is because most of them won’t be lucky enough to have the overwhelming majority of their potential crowdfunders receptive to a single method on a single platform, meaning that they are going to need to broadcast their message in a wider range of places if they want to get the kind of results that they want. However, it should also be mentioned that it is very common for marketing through different methods to reinforce one another, thus enabling the combined marketing campaign to achieve results that a single marketing method cannot hope to match.
5. Consider Influencers
Consumers are bombarded with a lot of marketing materials. As a result, most consumers have developed the remarkable ability to just shrug off most of the marketing materials that come their way, which is a real problem for those seeking to get their attention. Theoretically, interested parties can build up a relationship of trust that will enable them to overcome this sense of skepticism. In practice, that takes both time and effort. Thanks to this, it isn’t uncommon to see interested parties to rely on the marketing power of influencers, who already have relationships of trust with their followers. Of course, the success of such efforts is very much reliant on their ability to partner with the right influencers with the right followerships.
6. Be Prepared for Potential Supply Chain Problems
The COVID-19 crisis means that a lot of supply chains have run into serious obstacles. Due to this, interested parties should make preparations for the potential of supply chain problems when it comes to their particular product. For example, they might want to look up alternatives so that they have a back-up plan that they can turn to if necessary. Likewise, they might want to leave themselves extra room for error in their schedules.
7. Keep the Crowdfunders Updated
Having said that, the single most important precaution might be keeping crowdfunders updated about the situation. There is no point to concealing supply chain problems as well as other issues caused by the COVID-19 crisis, particularly since most people will be understanding of the situation. In contrast, the single worst thing would be a refusal to communicate, which tends to be very corrosive for relationships.
8. Check Out Other Crowdfunding Campaigns
There is no need for people to reinvent crowdfunding. As such, if people are planning to crowdfund during a pandemic, they should check out the crowdfunding campaigns that other interested parties are either running or have managed to run. This doesn’t mean that they should be copying those crowdfunding campaigns in perfect detail. However, they should definitely feel free to check out what other people are doing right and wrong so that they can borrow those things and avoid those things respectively.
9. Hire Professionals
Professionals can provide interested parties with skills that they don’t already have. Thanks to this, if there is something that interested parties feel that they can’t handle on their own when it comes to their crowdfunding campaign, they should see what kind of help they can turn up. For instance, a SEO specialist can do a lot to help interested parties get their efforts higher on search engine results, which in turn, can account for a lot of incoming traffic.
10. Understand that Crowdfunding Can Fail
On a not so cheerful note, interested parties should be prepared for potential failures when it comes to crowdfunding campaigns. There are some projects that aren’t very suitable for crowdfunding, meaning that it might be best for them to consider one of the other funding options that can be found out there. However, it is also possible for crowdfunding campaigns to fail, particularly when the people behind them are lacking crucial expertise and experience. If that happens, interested parties shouldn’t get too stressed out about it. Instead, they should treat it as a learning experience that will help them prepare for future crowdfunding campaigns. In this as in other things, practice makes perfect, which is why interested parties shouldn’t give up because of a single misstep but instead continue onwards to their desired aims.
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