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Writer's pictureRan Cory

What Happens When Crowdfunding Fails?





Knowing that an average of 70% of all crowdfunding campaigns fails, you are not alone. Crowdfunding is tricky, and the competition is fierce on the crowdfunding platforms. If it's your first time doing it and you are not getting specialized help, you can easily miss the point. Failing a campaign doesn't have to be the end. The solution is often to get the help you need, get back to the drawing board, and try again!


Once your campaign fails, you have two options; you can either launch a new campaign or give up on crowdfunding your project. The best course of action depends on what caused your campaign to fail in the first place. There are 2 main reasons why your campaign failed; either the product/project is the problem, either your crowdfunding campaign/strategy failed to attract enough backers.


Your campaign might have failed because of an error on your side such as an unrealistic funding goal, a lack of advertising, a poor strategy, or your failure to build a crowd before and during the campaign. In this case, you can learn from your mistakes and launch a new campaign. The best way to that is to deeply analyze your process to identify your mistake(s) and improve your campaign to launch again. Start by reviewing your research and pre-campaign. Many campaigns fail these primordial steps, resulting in a campaign that is not well-prepared and has no crowd to launch to. The second time around, you need to gather enough leads to create hype from the first day of your campaign. You should also compare your campaign to similar campaigns that had success on your platform. Don't limit yourself to looking at their content, look at the comments, how often they posted updates, what services they used, etc. Finally, learn from your own mistake and from other's successes.


If your campaign failed because your project is not innovative enough for crowdfunding or simply because there is no market for it, then it might be time to give up and turn to other solutions or platforms. If your campaign failed because your product is not innovative enough, you will see comments asking what makes your project different from existing options. It either means you didn't explain your added value properly or that your project is simply not innovative enough to justify crowdfunding it.


A good way to know is to ask your backers to answer a survey in which you ask them why they backed your project and what they think could be improved. Backers are usually great at giving feedback, and they won't sugarcoat it. Give them the opportunity to write an elaborate response and you will be surprised by how much they are willing to share with you. The feedback you get from the backers is one of the best perks of crowdfunding, so don't miss out on this opportunity.


If you decide to relaunch a new campaign, you would need to monitor the marketand modify your project if needed. Talk with your target audience (forums such as Reddit are perfect for that) to understand their needs, prepare a landing page, and drive traffic through Facebook ads. Check the cost per lead in order to see people's interest - Big interest - small cost per lead and vis-verso. After doing these steps, see how you can improve your project to answer your audience's needs.


There is no magic formula that provides success every time. Crowdfunding is tricky and without the proper preparations, it can easily fail even if your product is great. A failed crowdfunding campaign is costly in money, but also in time and energy. If you want to succeed, the best way is to invest in professional help that knows how to navigate the crowdfunding world and with a rich success record.

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