Looking to raise seed capital through crowdfunding?

You’re in luck—crowdfunding remains one of the greatest ways to fund product ideas at the earliest stages.

In this article, we’ll break down some quick steps to help you decide where and how to launch your crowdfunding campaign.

Find the Right Platform

If you’re a startup looking for crowdfunding, we recommend using a rewards-based crowdfunding platform if possible. A rewards-based model just means that, when people contribute to your campaign, they’re doing so with the expectation that they will receive your product as a reward. 

If your startup is more about consultation or another industry that doesn’t quite mix with reward-based crowdfunding, consider donation- or debt-based crowdfunding instead. Equity-based crowdfunding is another option if you’re able to offer shares of your company to a potential investor. 

For your startup, we recommend going with rewards-based crowdfunding when possible. That means launching your product on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or on a regional platform such as Wadiz in Korea, Makuake in Japan, or Milaap in India. We recommend starting with Kickstarter, then moving to other platforms after your campaign finds success on Kickstarter.

Create Your Media

Whatever product it is you’re planning to take to market, get some quality images and videos of it to use on your campaign page and for your promotional materials. The higher quality, the better—but if the best you have is an iPhone, that’s perfectly acceptable for your page.

Many startups at this stage struggle with the campaign video, and understandably so. It can feel like an insurmountable obstacle to get lighting, studio space, video editing software, and who knows what else for a studio-quality video. But all you need is an iPhone and a few tools from Amazon to make an acceptable video for your project. Again, it doesn’t have to be fancy: just good enough to tell your story.

Determine Your Marketing Budget

Investing a lot into your Kickstarter campaign may seem counterintuitive as a startup. But with crowdfunding campaigns, marketing will do the majority of the heavy lifting.

A good page will always be helpful in securing backer confidence. But the biggest contributors by far to a successful campaign are good product and good marketing. And to get the good marketing, you’re going to need to spend some of that precious early capital.

You may be reluctant to spend lots on your first campaign, but your success will scale with your marketing spending. Plus, most of the effective Kickstarter marketing tools are not very expensive at all. Check out our marketing guide for more information on crowdfunding marketing best practices.

Launch and Follow Through!

Once all of your media is ready to go and your campaign story is written, it’s time to launch!

As a startup, there will likely be delays and unforeseen complications that arise when scaling up your project for your campaign. That’s perfectly fine—just make sure you update your backers on what’s happening when these delays do occur.

If you’ve already secured a shipping or manufacturing partner, that’s great! If you need some help, we’ve got you covered there, too. For questions of any type, feel free to get in touch with the Funding Insider Team, and we’ll help you get the most out of your startup’s crowdfunding campaign.