The Crowd Funding Services Handbook: Raising the Money You Need to Fund Your Business, Project, or Invention

Chapter 6Targeting Your Backers and Supporters

In This Chapter

• Learn how to rally your inner circle.
• Define your target audience.
• Expand your network.

The term crowd funding can be a little bit misleading. When you think of the word crowd, you might think of a large group composed of people in the general public. In reality, when it comes to getting your project funded using reward-based crowd funding, the majority of your backers will most likely come from your “inner circle,” which includes personal friends and family, as well as people in your existing social network—not the general public.

Based on your funding goal and the scope of the project, you’ll probably need to reach out to four distinct audiences during the course of your crowd funding campaign. To reach each of these groups and get them excited to support your project, you’ll need to take a tailored approach that’s carefully crafted and designed specifically for that particular audience.

The four distinct groups of people that comprise your overall network include:

1. Your Inner Circle. This includes your family members and close friends—people who are easy for you to get in touch with, who know you, hopefully respect you, and who will be willing to help support you and your project. You should be able to pick up the phone and call any of the people in this group or easily converse with them via email. This group should all be in place long before your crowd funding campaign kicks off.

   Even if you can’t rely ...