So your campaign failed. Whether you finished the thirty days or shut it down early, it still hurts to see all that effort come out unsuccessful. What to do now? Forget all about it? Or relaunch? How to relaunch a failed crowdfunding campaign? Is that possible?
Now for the good news? Your project is far from over.
Many campaigns don’t fund on the on the first try only to smash their goal the second time.
Take Coolest Cooler as an example. They failed their first campaign only to end up earning $13 million for their second campaign.
Yes, they’ve completely screwed up their reward fulfillment (here’s a whole guide on fulfillment to avoid just that) at this point, but their crowdfunding campaign is still worth looking at.
Back to the point here.
Yes, we can raise more money the second time on a campaign, but failure hurts. You’re out time, ego, resources, and cash. It’s ok to take a few days to mentally regroup.
But now, how do we minimize our risk of failure for the next campaign?
1. Look at your campaign and take notes
Unlike a project launching for the first time, one major advantage you have with a re-launch of a crowdfunding campaign is all the data you’ve now got.
This lets you know where to focus your efforts on the relaunch based on who actually contributed, not just who said they would.
- What were your biggest traffic sources?
- What were the most profitable traffic sources?
- Which tiers were most popular and which ones weren’t?
- What was the average pledge amount?
- How did press talk about your campaign, if at all?
With Google Analytics, you can also answer:
- Who were your backers?
- What countries and languages were the most common?
- What was the average time on page?
- Did people watch the video?
- Was the video too long?
Your project page and social media comments are also great sources of insight:
- What were people talking about?
- Were they unsure if your product worked or not?
- Were they confused about how the product worked?
- Did backers feel listened to?
- Were they unhappy with the price?
- Was something confusing?
- Did the backers say nothing at all?
Everything that’s out there about your project tells you a story.
If you need help with this or any of the steps, don’t forget to reach out. I’m happy to help!
2. Connect with your backers before relaunching a crowdfunding campaign
Anyone who willingly put money down on your project for the first round is someone you need to talk to in order to prepare for your crowdfunding campaign relaunch.
They’re full of information you need in order to re-align your strategy.
Using campaign updates, emails, or other messaging, get in touch with your backers letting them know that you’re planning a relaunch and you’d love their thoughts on how to improve things.
Not everyone will reply, but the few who do will be invaluable because those are backers likely to help and will probably back your project again.
Here’s a list of questions to ask your previous backers, pick and choose as you like.
Maybe someone is even up for answering all of them for you.
- What did we do right with the campaign?
- What did we do wrong with the campaign?
- Was shipping a concern?
- Your opinion of the funding goal and tiers?
- What was the opinion of the video?
- What would make you pledge again?
- Were there other projects you’ve backed or would consider backing?
- What should we change on the page?
- What on the page was worrying or confusing?
Once you’ve got a big sampling of responses and made sure to update your page.
You can even take things one step further by asking all your previous backers to review your relaunch campaign page (in draft mode).
Not only will this help you refine your page further, but it’ll also help ensure they’re there to back on day one again.
3. Consider product/market fit
You might have had an idea for on-ear headphones that also doubles as a remote control for your drone. Here are more reward ideas if that’s something you’re looking for.
But maybe you find that people are more interested in on-ear headphones that doubles as a latte maker. This means that your original product does not have the product/market fit it needs to succeed.
Knowing this gives you a chance to go back to the drawing board and create a product that people are actually looking for.
You can take things one step further here too by including your previous backers in the re-design process.
A crowdfunding launch is finding the right balance between what you’re creating and what people want. Same for a crowdfunding campaign relaunch.
4. Revisit your community
Are you talking to the right community?
If you’re launching a board game about making wines, should you be talking to wine makers, wine enthusiasts or board game enthusiasts?
Rather than do a one-size-fits-all approach, make sure you’re talking to the most relevant community and honing in on how your product applies to them.
Are you talking where your community “hangs out”?
A lot of first-time Creators miss this point. They think “oh everyone has a Facebook page, Twitter handle and YouTube channel so I need to have it too”. Nope.
If your group of ebike enthusiasts are out there chatting away on an ebike forum rather than on Facebook or Twitter, join in on the conversation there.
By now you’ve got a lot of data to relaunch your campaign.
Assemble everything you’ve learned to build your new campaign & messaging.
Follow the normal pre-campaign process with your new tweaks, and you’re well on your way to a much stronger launch.
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We’re here to help you crush your crowdfunding campaign and fund your dream. Our team has helped creators successfully launch and raise over $13 million on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We’re so excited to help you on this journey to launch!
