Secrets of Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns

Abstract

Crowdfunding has broken the barriers between an aspiring entrepreneur and financial markets. Kickstarter, a leading crowdfunding platform, which works on the ‘all-or-nothing’ model, provides various facilities to the project owners to gather the funds from the contributors in return of a reward. The facts signify that most of the projects fail to reach the funding goal. This study sampled 200 successful projects randomly by quota sampling from each category to assess commonalities in the successful projects on Kickstarter. The study assessed the marketing appeals, video presentation, shipment facilities, and project owner details to check the commonalities among successful projects. The results revealed that although rational appeals generate more funding, however, emotional appeal is widely used in successful projects. The paper will be helpful for the fundraisers to know the recipe for a successful project and to funders to enhance their chance of exceeding the funding goals.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, Kickstarter, Reward-Based, Appeals, Emotional, Rational