5 Tips on Launching a Successful Crowdsourcing Campaign for Food & Drink Brands
Crowdfunding is the third most common investment type in the UK when it comes to equity investment. It's an excellent route for raising investment at a low valuation, and an opportunity to grow a community of brand ambassadors at the same time. But if you don't prepare your campaign correctly it can be a waste of time and money, and a very public failure. Luckily, as part of our Monthly Motivation Series, we were able to hear from Zoey Henderson of Fungtn and James Grundy of Small Beer Co. about their Top 5 Tips on Crowdsourcing.
Why should you trust Zoey & James?
Zoey Henderson is the founder of Fungtn, the first alcohol-free craft beer brewed with adaptogenic mushrooms. They beat their £150,000 fundraising goal on Seedrs - raising over £168K from over 188 investors. Now they can expand on bringing fungi into the mainstream with a product that delivers on taste.
James Grundy is the co-founder of Small Beer Co. & smashed their target of £300K from a recent crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, having raised £700K. They now intend to expedite its expansion plans, increasing brewing capacity to keep up with demand for lower-alcohol alternatives.
What are their top 5 Tips on Launching a Successful Crowdsourcing Campaign?
1. Crowdsourcing takes longer than you think. It takes a lot of time to get everything set-up before you can go live with a crowdsourcing page. Before you launch, you’ll need to fix your back of house items like settling your finance, strategy, and processes. Plus, if you want something like a spectacular video to help you stand out, it could take months. Definitely plan ahead before you even think about getting a crowdsourcing page live.
2. Use your crowdsourcing assets elsewhere. If you’re going to do all this work, why not utilize it wherever you can? Both James and Zoey were passionate about helping save time across your business. If you make a FAQ sheet, then can you use it on your website? If you make a video, think about cuts you could use across your social media channels.
3. It's better to set a realistic and smaller fundraising goal. When setting your goals on a crowdsourcing platform like Kickstarter, Seedrs, Crowdcube and more, there are penalties for not hitting your goals. Hitting a smaller goal looks better to the platform AND investors.
4. Don’t be afraid to work with your crowdsourcing contacts. When you’re deciding on a crowdsourcing platform to use, don’t be afraid to reach-out to the person you’re assigned to and working with at the platforms. Definitely ask questions, ask for advice and don’t be afraid to negotiate better marketing percentage fees (be prepared that they will take 5-7%).
5. Avoid launching your crowdsourcing campaign around the holidays. There isn’t a “best time” to launch your crowdsourcing campaign, but you won’t see a lot of success between November and January. Avoid launching during those months, but use that timeframe to get focused and get that “pre-launch” work needed done.
What help is out there?
These insights were from one of Bread & Jam’s Monday Motivational series. These FREE online webinars bring together panelists across the food & drink industry who have been there and done it. Sign-up for our future Monday Motivations & topics HERE.
You can also access our entire library of FREE recordings of past Monday Motivation sessions HERE
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