A failed campaign is something no one wants to face. If you didn’t meet your goal, examining potential reasons why your campaign didn’t succeed can help you to decide your next move. Mistakes can range from a poorly-written campaign page, to failing to reach the correct audiences, to an ill-timed campaign or something else entirely.
So, how do you know if you should relaunch your project? Below, we’ll help you decide whether you should give your crowdfunding project another shot and how to approach the situation.
Why and when you should relaunch your crowdfunding campaign
The first thing you want to do is go back and determine if your product truly fills a need. If it doesn’t, it wouldn’t make sense to relaunch. On the other hand, if your research still shows your product is something people could use, it makes sense to consider some rebranding and reboot the campaign.
Next, you’ll want to go back to carefully comb through your product page. If you’ve found confusing content or errors, make those edits immediately. If you realize you didn’t invest enough effort trying to generate a buzz and build a community prior to campaign launch, take time to gather leads while you rebuild your page.
Specific reasons a Kickstarter project might have failed
If your crowdfunding project didn’t meet its goal, we recommend you take some time to reflect upon your experience, look at some particulars and ask yourself some questions.
- Was your project far enough along in the development process to be ready to launch?
- How much time did you spend collecting leads before you launched your campaign?
- How much of your budget did you dedicate to Facebook Ads?
- Was your written copy clear and worded in a way to show potential backers why they needed your product?
- Were your product photos and video crisp, and did they clearly demonstrate your product?
- Were your rewards clear?
- Did you set your goal too high?
If any or all of these points of consideration could be contributing factors, these are details you can correct and it would most likely make sense to relaunch your campaign.
How to succeed the second time around
Now that you’ve got some crowdfunding experience under your belt, it’ll be easier to redefine your project page and overall campaign so you can succeed the second time around. Once you identify what potentially contributed to your campaign’s failure, there are a few steps we suggest you consider taking:
- Revisit your product design.
- Invest more of your budget in Facebook Ads before and during the campaign to collect leads and drive traffic – you’ll want to gather fresh leads for the relaunch.
- Rewrite your project page, reshoot your video or take new photos.
- Post a project update or send out an email to your failed campaign’s backers telling them about your relaunch, explain how the new campaign is different, ask for their support and more.
- Lower your funding goal.
- Make an effort to reach journalists and bloggers who can help improve your campaign. You could have had a quality page, but if you didn’t spend enough time and budget on advertising to draw enough attention to your page, that could have affected the success of your campaign.
It’s hard to accept the reality of a crowdfunding campaign failure. However, many hopeful entrepreneurs find success the second time around. If you want to create a successful relaunch for your campaign and learn some additional tips, subscribe to our newsletter or tune in to our podcast.
