Once your crowdfunding campaign has finished on one of the popular crowdfunding websites, your task is to then reward those who have helped you, with the products you’ve promised.
Rewards offered by those crowdfunding, commonly include DVDs, clothes, posters, toys and games though there are some very creative ideas you can try. These highly successful magnets to your business have brought you a lot of attention but now it will take time, money and effort to deliver them to those who have supported you this far.
If you haven’t properly planned your fulfillment before you launched your campaign you can run into significant problems when it comes to the end of it.
These difficulties can cause you additional stresses as you struggle to meet the needs of your growing business and its customer base while supporting your greatest brand advocates who were there when you needed them.
So what should you consider to make sure that your fulfillment won’t become a problem at the end of the campaign?
1. Budget Your Crowdfunding Fulfillment
When you are first setting up your crowdfunding campaign, ensure that you are including some of the rewards costs you will need within the funding goal.
While this may seem very basic, it is often forgotten by those new to crowdfunding.
What then happens is that businesses have to find the funds to fulfill their promises to supporters and this can create a gap in their operations budgets.
2. Simplify What You Are Offering
When you are creating a reward, consider exactly what you want to give but don’t make it too difficult.
You may think that you want to offer flexibility in the rewards for those who have supported you but this only increases your costs and the time it takes to create the products.
For example, you don’t want clothing that has three or more different designs to choose from, each with a variety of colors. If you had three colors to choose from, that’s at least 12 different options for the contributor.
Being less complicated offers several benefits:
- It is “https://blog.kissmetrics.com/too-many-choices/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”easier for the contributor to choose their perk.
- It lowers the number of contributors that may withdraw their backing before the campaign closes.
- It is a simpler production leading to quicker turnaround and happier contributors.
Instead, it best to make the choice out of two designs and a couple of colors. Also, make the descriptions clear, concise and as short as possible so contributors know exactly what they can expect.
3. Don’t Forget Postage And Packaging
When it comes to the big mistakes, so many crowdfunding campaigns forget to include postage and packaging within their funding goals costs. This can quickly add up when you are starting to fulfill your rewards to contributors.
You can easily check the costs of sending your rewards beforehand and even, if your campaign qualifies, get a Floship Certified Logistics Plan badge to add to your campaign page and build more trust with potential backers that you have thought threw the delivery of your product.
4. Buffering Time and Packaging
Costs over time can increase and sometimes your estimates aren’t accurate because you didn’t factor in other unforeseen fees that may arise. Therefore, you need to add in some extra cash in your budget for potential shifts in productions costs, input materials, shipping changes and more.
At the same time, choose your packaging carefully. You don’t want the item to be too tight a fit in the packaging so leave at least one inch of wiggle room and fill that with bubbles, popcorns or tissue wrap for protection.
5. Import customs
Rate changes for bringing items into a country and out can vary, which can be hard to predict.
It is also the contributor’s responsibility to ensure that items they are receiving can be legally imported into their country and any associated import taxes that might be incurred.
However, you can gain a significant amount of favor by giving a heads up to your contributors so when they receive the notice from their carrier or post office, there won’t be any surprises.
Conclusion
Crowdfunding fulfillment is the last but most important element of the crowdfunding process.
It allows you to recognize the contribution your supports have made by delivering on your promises. Therefore, you should ensure that everything goes smoothly and that you are able to produce, package and post their reward without any trouble or unexpected cost to you.
When you forward think your fulfillment requirements ahead of your campaign going live, you can avoid all of the above missteps.
PREPARE TO SUCCEED, FREE GUIDE:
‘7 Challenges Faced by Wildly Successful Crowdfunders And How You Can Overcome Them’
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