You are in luck because if you have a project that needs funding, you no longer have to ask the bank for loans. There are many crowdfunders out there that are willing to pay for the cost of your startup whether you are targeting Western businesses or Chinese E-commerce. Two of the most notable ones are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Which one is right for you? Let’s take a closer look at the two.
Advantages of Kickstarter
Some of the advantages of sourcing your funds from Kickstarter include:
- It is totally free. Only if your project is approved for full funding will the company charge commission. But the fee is very minimal – just 5 percent for the funds that you will collect. An additional 3 to 5 percent will also be collected for payment processing once the funds are collected.
- You, as the project creator, will retain 100 percent ownership of your work. This is encouraging for creative entrepreneurs.
- The interface of Kickstarter is visually appealing and very intuitive. It can be easily navigated and has a variety of key tools that you can use. It makes email automation easier. You are also provided with tutorials and regularly updated statistics.
- As of this late, about 44 percent of project creators are given full funding for their projects. That means there’s a great chance for your project to be fully funded, all factors being considered.
- The initial review process is important. Their staff conducting the review of your project will recommend modifications prior to publishing. They will do their best to improve your pitches so that you will be able to publish quality site content.
Advantages of Indiegogo
Here are some of the advantages of choosing Indiegogo for funding your project:
- It has a platform that you can use if you are raising funds for your personal cause. This is called Generosity which is practically a charitable platform of crowdfunding. The fees they charged for this type of crowdfunding is less than their standard platform. Thus, you will be able to keep more of the funds that people donate for your cause.
- You will receive cash from Indiegogo even if you are not fully funded because it will give you the option of receiving all the money that comes from a campaign. There is no all or nothing option like other crowdfunders. However, their fees are higher if you choose this option. But this arrangement is still okay because you are assured that you will receive money for all the work that you have put in.
- Indiegogo will provide you with automated promotions through your chosen social media platforms. It will deploy a strong set of marketing tools that you can customize according to your needs. This will enable you to reach your target market, whether you are a Chinese E-commerce businesses or Western businesses.
- You will be given more time to achieve your goals. They will allow for your campaign to run for a maximum of 4 months or 120 days. The longer time will give your campaign more exposure.
Differences Between the Two
Here are some of the differences between Kickstarter and Indiegogo to help you decide which will be best for your project.
- Kickstarter’s organic following is bigger and better than Indiegogo. This is important because approximately 60 to 70 percent of crowdfunding usually comes from the organic community of a crowdfunding platform. In other words, your project will have a better chance of being seen by as many people as possible.
- The re-marketing tools of Indiegogo are stronger than Kickstarter. Indiegogo will allow you to place a tracking pixel on your campaign pages. With this pixel, you will be able to re-target the visitors of your campaign pages. Thus, you will get additional chances of conversions. Kickstarter does not allow this tracking pixel. In addition, Indiegogo will give you access to the email addresses of your supporters while your campaign is live. You will be able to target these supporters through Facebook ads and other methods. Kickstarter however, does not give away its backers’ info.
- The reputation of Kickstarter is better than Indiegogo. One of the reasons is that the project standards of Kickstarter are higher than Indiegogo. Kickstarter’s review process is also stricter than Indiegogo’s. It requires you to have a working prototype of your project before they can consider it. Indiegogo is more flexible in this regard. But Kickstarter is more careful that its backers will not be scammed by con artists. It is not after the money that you can raise from your project, but it endeavors to protect its backers from scammers.
- Kickstarter won’t charge you anything even if you don’t fund a project that you pledged to support initially. Indiegogo will charge your credit card once you make a pledge to support a project. In other words, you can back a project in Kickstarter risk-free. This is the apparent reason why the conversion rates on Kickstarter are higher than Indiegogo’s.
- Flexible funding is offered by Indiegogo. With Kickstarter, it is all or nothing. With flexible funding, you will be able to set flexible goals.
- The newsletter of Indiegogo is a very powerful tool, which Kickstarter cannot compare to. The moment you create an account with Indiegogo, you will get signed up with their daily newsletter. Sales coming from this newsletter can reach more than $10 thousand for every feature. If they give high ratings to your project, it will be included in the newsletter multiple times. This can give your startup project a much-needed boost.
What You Can Do with Kickstarter and Indiegogo
Obviously, you can fund your startup with either Kickstarter or Indiegogo. The choice between which of the two is better will ultimately depend on your specific situation, your needs, and your particular project. Use the information above to arrive at a wise decision. What’s important is that whether you are targeting Chinese E-commerce businesses or Western business, you have additional venues other than commercial banks to fund your project. Admittedly, there are also some requirements that you have to satisfy but they are not as deamanding as the commercial banks.
Ready to fulfill your orders?
No other company has as good a reputation for dealing with Crowdfunding Fulfillment as Floship. We fulfilled more crowdfunding campaigns than any other fulfillment provider, and can also take care of your on-Demand eCommerce Fulfillment once your campaign grows out to a steady eCommerce business.
Showcasing your Floship Certified Logistics Plan badge on your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign profile page will show the whole world that you got your fulfillment sorted out and you will deliver upon your promise. For more information, click here to read more about the FCLP.
About the author:
Lidia S. Hovhan is Digital Marketing expert and SEO guru. She contributes articles about how to integrate digital marketing strategy with traditional marketing to help business owners to meet their online goals. You can find really professional insights in her writings.
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