If you have ever had a great business idea in mind, but you never took action because of a lack of funds – there is a great way to turn a good idea into a successful project!
One of the best and most cost-effective ways to do this is crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding campaigns are a great option to attract funds that are necessary to make an innovative idea to come to reality. Using crowdfunding, many beginners have started their own ventures and grown into successful entrepreneurs and businessmen.
However, every success story on crowdfunding platforms begins with an epic, captivating project description. On major crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, some of the best ideas can fail due to bad presentation.
Sections of A Crowdfunding Project Description
Generally, all crowdfunding projects feature a similar pattern, depending on the platform they are published. As an alternative way of business funding, it should include as much information as possible in order to spark interest among potential investors.
Crowdfunding means using a public campaign to secure trust and financial aid. Given that one of the only channels of communication between you and your potential investors is your description, you need to ensure that it’s very high-quality, persuasive and compelling.
- Idea description – generally, crowdfunding descriptions start with the story behind the idea. You can include stories on how you started working on this path, what made you try this idea and so on.
- Realization – investors want to know that you have a clear plan on how you’re going to carry out the project after it’s funded. That’s why it’s good to include a step-by-step presentation on what’s going to happen after the project starts.
- Goal setting – as a crowdfunding campaign host, you need to set a financial goal, which will also show potential investors how far you are from your required amount
Of course, you can play with this basic outline and add as many interesting sections as you want.
To set yourself up for success and achieve your crowdfunding goals, we’re bringing you some of the most important tips for writing an awesome crowdfunding project description:
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Know Your Potential Investors
Just like any piece of marketing material, a crowdfunding campaign has to speak to a target audience that is most likely to engage with it. A crowdfunding project is nothing more or less than a business pitch – so you have to adapt your content to fit the style of your target audience.
To narrow down your potential pool of investors, ask yourself these questions:
- Which problem(s) will my idea/product/service solve?
- Is my idea globally relevant or applicable only to a local customer base?
- Who would be interested in this idea?
- What is the average age of the user of my product/service?
- How can I use the info I have about my audience to craft a perfect campaign?
After you pick your target audience, you should tailor your content according to their style and preferences. For example, if your idea is a product that caters to business professionals, you wouldn’t necessarily use slang and emojis. On the other hand, if you’re going for millennials, you wouldn’t bore them with corporate jargon.
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Content Time!
After you have decided on the style you’re going to write in according to your target audience, it’s time to actually write the content of your crowdfunding campaign. Here are some of the most important tips for writing:
- Start with a draft – do a rough sketch of all the sections and information blocks that your description will contain. Don’t try to make it perfect on the first try and get ready for heavy brainstorming, editing, and re-writing.
- Be Clear – this is especially important for your introductory paragraph, which is where most of your campaign visitors will either continue reading or skip the project. Your crowdfunding description has to be very clear and straightforward, no matter who your potential investors are.
- Add Interesting Sections – just like other types of content on the Internet, crowdfunding investors are overwhelmed with similar types of descriptions which they have to skim through to decide which ones to go with. To stand out from the crowd, add interesting content blocks like quotes, funny stories or Q&As.
- Work on Readability – even though a crowdfunding description is a business pitch, you don’t have to go through lines and lines of numbers, legislation and explanations: try to write with the reader in mind and make the description easy to read with segmented sections, paragraphs, subheadings, etc.
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Add Images and Graphics
Images, animations, illustrations, and other visuals can really make your content pop. Online crowdfunding platforms are full of similar-looking projects, so you can add images to stand out, especially to those investors who only skim through texts to find something interesting.
Never underestimate the power of the visual – especially not in crowdfunding. When you’re writing for a huge audience of people, you also have to cater to those who prefer images to write, and there are many of them.
On most crowdfunding platforms, you can freely add graphics and images to your project description. Just remember to credit the source of the image if it’s not yours.
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Record a Video Presentation
Another great multimedia addition is definitely video. Thousands of potential investors who don’t like reading through thousands of pages of text will definitely be thankful for your video pitch.
If you want to do a crowdfunding video, you don’t have to appear in it yourself or do the presenting. It’s great for credibility if you are able to do so, but a lot of people are too shy to take that step. Still, there are great ideas and online tools for creating captivating videos that will present your idea in an interesting way.
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Explain the Perks
When you post your crowdfunding project to a platform, you have to define perks before you can start. Perks are set by the project owner – they are a specific offer for investors as motivation for them to financially support the campaign.
For example, in tech crowdfunding campaigns you can often come across “early bird perks” – i.e. project owners promising the first edition of the product to early investors.
Perks should be realistic and in line with what’s actually possible to fulfill. Of course, it’s not necessary to introduce perks, but those campaigns that do have them proved to be much more successful.
On crowdfunding platforms, your perks will be listed on the side of the project, but you can also include them in your project description and explain them in more detail.
Conclusion
When it comes to crowdfunding, your project description can make or break your project. However you feel about that or however good you may be at writing, it’s definitely worth it to go the extra mile and invest in a high-quality crowdfunding description.
