Category: Top tips
The Importance of a Funding Strategy for your Thundafund Campaign
Why you need a funding strategy:
A funding strategy helps you identify possible backers and how to get through to them. Crowdfunding starts with your crowd, it’s these people that will comprise of your core funding. Here is the outline for constructing your own funding strategy, this is purely a template so customise it to your own situation. Crowdfunding is hard work, it requires persistence and perseverance. A funding strategy can help you stay focused and directed so you don’t end up wasting your time trying to reach the wrong people.
Backers Inventory: 
Here you list all of your potential backers from your third cousin Nelson to your oldest friend Justene. This helps you identify and prioritise who you need to target for your campaign. Here are some examples:
- Immediate Family
- Extended Family
- Friends
- Fans/followers
- Communities – Shul, Church, soccer club, etc
Potential Funds
Working out how much you will be able to raise helps prioritise how much time and effort needs to be expended on certain potential backers. It also reduces the risk of setting your tipping point too high.
- How much can be raised from immediate family?
- How much can be raised from extended family?
- How much can be raised from friends?
- How much can be raised from passionate fans?
- How much can be generated from an event?
- How much can be raised from your communities?
Channels to best reach these potential backers:
Phone Call:
A call provides a direct communication with the potential backer, increasing the chance of them funding you. A phone call is personal and shows initiative on your behalf. It is also important when contacting someone that doesn’t have a strong online presence such as Great Aunt who hardly uses her computer.
Email:
This is a great way to reach out to a large amount of your potential backers. An email allows you to communicate why their support is needed. This is a quick way of spreading the word about your campaign and is more direct than posting on your social media feeds. Make sure to always include the link to your project page to ensure it’s easy for the recipient to support you.
Social Media:
This is an easy way to spread awareness around your campaign to your friends and followers. It’s a powerful tool in keeping everyone updated as well as reminding them of your campaign.
Here’s to a successfully funded campaign,
The Thundafund Team
A Step-by-Step Guide to Startup Customer Acquistion
The road to startup customer acquisition (also known as “The Island of Greatness”) is a long one! You’re in the process of crowdfunding or you’ve got some funding, you’ve got a product hundreds of people love and you’ve got a great story to tell. Now what…? How do you take it to the next level and scale?
Well, the answer is simple (but takes a lot of work)! A combination of content marketing, PR and social media will take your startup to new heights. You’ll reach your target audience, build thought leadership, foster a strong community, position yourself in front of industry influencers – the whole nine yards.
If you’ve ever wondered how we help our clients acquire new customers and scale to the next level, you won’t want to miss this. You can start right here and right now. So, without further ado, here’s OnBoardly’s step-by-step guide to startup customer acquisition…
Via Onboardly.
The Crowdfunding Manifesto
Via United-Equity.
Your Crowdfunding Outline: A Checklist To Success!
Preparing a detailed crowdfunding outline will not only help you organize your thoughts, but evaluate and fine tune them. It will help you keep track of your ideas, acting as your blueprint for a perfect crowdfunding campaign.
Without a proper outline for a crowdfunding project, one can become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that requires your attention. So with that said; can you write answers to the following questions? Continue reading
7 Winning Attributes For A Great Crowdfunding Campaign!
There are 7 important attributes that are common in successful campaigns. Let’s look at what makes a campaign a winner & when planning your campaign, try to incorporate as many of these attributes as possible.
The Crowdfunding Life Cycle
Successful crowdfunders realize that there is much more to crowdfunding than just creating a crowdfunding campaign and promoting it on social media. There are 3 distinct phases of a crowdfunding campaign. Each phase requires proper planning, execution, and management. To take advantage of your unique crowdfunding opportunity, you need to understand each phase, and develop an action plan for each one. Continue reading
Funding The Dream with Richard Bliss
Richard knows what crowdfunding can and cannot do, and has the experience and connections to bring your project to full potential. He’ll help you explore the opportunities you’re missing and get you on top of the brand interactivity game. Continue reading
20 Questions To Ask Before Crowdfunding Your Start-Up
From planning to production and execution, there are several factors to consider if you are thinking about using a crowdfunding model to finance a business, product, project, service or event.
Following are several questions to ask yourself before turning to crowdfunding as a source of startup capital – think long and hard on all before taking the plunge.
How Brands Use Crowdfunding For Kick-Ass Marketing
“It’s not about the money”. This overused line serves as a “trump” card when illustrating unadulterated passion in the face of conflict. It’s also kind of the truth when it comes to a growing primary use case for crowdfunding — marketing.
Marketing as the primary reason for crowdfunding is gaining considerable traction with celebrities, fortune 500 companies, and venture-backed startups alike: those who can’t even pretend to be in financial binds worthy of public contribution.
Celebrities like James Franco, Neil Young, Shaq, Kristen Bell and Zach Braff have each tried their hands at crowdfunding. Pair these Hollywood millionaires with major brands like Dodge, Honda, Kimberly-Clark, DC Entertainment, Phillips, Microsoft, and Coke, and it becomes obvious that marketing isn’t just a side-effect of crowdfunding.
Here are 4 ways brands use crowdfunding to kick-ass at marketing.