Crowdfunding has grown into a major industry, as companies and individuals around the world have used this strategy to their advantage. Thousands of crowdfunding campaigns are being launched, new real estate focused platforms are coming online and a whole side industry has sprouted up to support it. However, while made out to be ridiculously easy, some are becoming frustrated and stumped after starting campaigns and seeing little traction.
If you have an active real estate crowdfunding campaign and aren’t seeing the progress you wanted or expected, chances are there is something you missed. We have taken the time to highlight some of the most common roadblocks regarding crowdfunding campaigns. The following illustrates important matters to address:
1. The Site
There is an ever increasing number of fundraising platforms being put up on the web. In fact, there are likely now a dozen or more DIY crowdfunding software choices – making it easy for anyone to launch their own platform in minutes. Make sure the best one is chosen that will deliver maximum and targeted visibility. The exposure your site receives is critical to success. Make sure people can find you.
2. Funding Requests
Based on sensational media headlines alone, many are ignorant to the fact that crowdfunding requires a significant amount of work. You can not simply ask for money and hope it comes pouring in. It’s actually a lot more strategic. Stats prove that a successful campaign requires traction. If you can gain traction, your requests will be acknowledged and perhaps even accepted. Give potential investors a reason to stick around!
3. Trust
Trust is a major factor. In many cases, real estate investors are hoping to raise a lot of funding from complete strangers. They need to go from stranger to best friends in seconds if there is to be any hope of giving you money, even more so with donation based campaigns.
4. ‘Ownership’
Perks and equity are usually on the bottom of the list of reasons that donors contribute to these campaigns. More often than not, they want to simply help out and feel like they are making a positive impact a difference. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, something that makes them feel better and they can point out to friends and kids one day and say “I helped build that.”
5. Low End Perks
Many real estate investors that are brand new to this concept don’t see the value in lower end perks or incentives. Obviously, it is going to take a lot more participants to raise $1M if they are giving $10 a pop verses $10,000. What is missed here is the value of more people with a vested interest in seeing you succeed.
6. Calls to Action
The crowd isn’t just going to give up thousands or millions of dollars without some prompting. You’ve got to call them to action!
7. Kick Starter Group
The first hours of a campaign are the most critical. For real estate fundraisers, it’s far better to have a group already committed to pitching in before making a campaign live than scrambling afterwards and hoping everyone isn’t on vacation.
8. Getting Messaging Seen
Unfortunately, it is no secret that it is becoming harder to get messages seen on Facebook and other social sites without paying for it. To beat this, investors will have to post multiple messages in order to try and reach larger numbers of their followers. The same goes for email.
9. Expand Reach
For multiple reasons, even a good database and contact list of several thousand subscribers might be useless in a given week. Maybe their devices went out, a storm hit, or it’s the last week of the month and everyone is broke. The point is – expect to have to reach out further with blogs, press and more.
