Last year, Indiegogo introduced a new feature called InDemand that took them from an exclusively crowdfunding domain to one featuring eCommerce tools. Now, successful crowdfunders, including those on Kickstarter, can take their projects into InDemand as soon as their campaign ends so that they can continue taking orders and raising money. Just like the crowdfunding side of Indiegogo, the company will charge a 5% fee, but unlike the normal Indiegogo set of procedures, you will get money from your orders as they come in and not just at the end. Indiegogo’s InDemand feature is a great resource for many recent crowdfunding campaigns to utilize- read below to find out if it’s right for you.
Establish Credibility
A majority of the time, crowdfunded companies are new, unestablished and relatively unknown to the general public. By using Indiegogo’s InDemand feature, your product will be featured on a website that already has a huge following, which will bring more eyes and traffic to your product right after your campaign ends. Even if your campaign was a success, the post-crowdfunding world is much different, and a lot of the time products struggle because it is hard to maintain the buzz and awareness around your product. Being featured on Indiegogo will help continue the success of your crowdfunding campaign and hopefully allow you to avoid a post-campaign slump.
Be Part of a Community
Indiegogo is more than just a promotional website to feature your new product- it’s a community. You shouldn’t view backers as just numbers, they are individuals- they are your target audience. Indiegogo provides a platform for these individuals to share comments, opinions and likes and dislikes; make sure you listen to them. Because your company and product are so new, you need to highly value this feedback because rarely again will you get the opportunity to receive this type of feedback from your target market.
Bridge the Transition
Often times, a recently crowdfunded product doesn’t have an eCommerce site up and running when the campaign ends, which can take quite some time and dedication to do. Don’t let the buzz around your product die between the time your campaign ends and the time when your eCommerce site is ready. Instead, go ahead and have an Indiegogo InDemand project ready immediately after your campaign ends so that you can keep the buzz going and continue taking orders. Even if your site is up and running, SEO is a long process and it may take some time to work your way up the Google ranks. In the beginning, your website may get lost in the endless pages of a Google search. Until you are able to update content and get your rank up, an Indiegogo page is going to rank pretty high, which means that people can easily access your product until your website improves.
Begin Taking Pre-Orders
Having an entire website full of products that are only in pre-order may raise doubts for some consumers. Don’t waste your time with a website just to have products that are unavailable. Instead, use Indiegogo’s InDemand and take pre-orders there. Then, when you are able to successfully fill incoming orders, bring your website to life and kill your InDemand project.
One of the big pushbacks with Indiegogo’s InDemand feature is entrepreneurs don’t want to pay the 5% fee that is associated with creating an account. Even though there are fees, there are fees with creating your own website as well. It’s just part of the process and this way, you can still be making a profit and not lose steam while you get a website up and running. At the end of the day, if you have just finished a successful crowdfunding campaign and are not an already established business with an established website, use Indiegogo InDemand as a transition tool until your business and inventory are 100% ready to go online.
If you have any further questions about the InDemand feature, please contact us!
