In app development – as in every other area – the road to success starts with an original idea. Depending on how complex that idea is, you will sometimes need to invest money in addition to all the hours you’ll spend developing and testing your app. Securing funds for the development process used to be very difficult and would often end in failure. Luckily, this is a thing of the past thanks to crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding has become very popular in the past decade and has provided funds for many successful projects. It’s welcoming to all kinds of initiatives – from books and theatrical movies to covering medical costs and – app development. The concept is very simple: you describe your idea, provide as much information as you can, set your financial goal, and the people who find your idea interesting will donate money, thus bringing you closer to your target sum.

In this article, you’ll find some tips on how to create a crowdfunding campaign for your app and ensure it will result in a success.

Rewards-Based Crowdfunding

There are several different types of crowdfunding, each of them designed for a specific purpose. For app development, the best way to go is to launch a rewards-based campaign. This way, backers get special prizes for their donations. You can define different prizes for different donated sums as an incentive for your backers to donate more money.

Here’s an example of how this works: you’re working on an app that will be offered as a free download, but people will have to pay a small subscription fee in order to use it past the trial period. You have established that you need $1,000 to develop it. You can arrange it so that people who donate $25 get a free annual subscription, those who give $50 get three years of free subscription, whereas $100 gets you a free lifetime subscription. This is just an example; you can tailor this model to best suit your app.

Defining Your Target Audience

To be able to maximize your funding for the development process, you will first need to determine what the target group for your app is. The larger your target audience, the higher your chances are of securing the funds you need. Simply put, the app you’re working on needs to provide something of value to its users. If you’re developing something no one else has done before, that’s perfect. But if you’re catering to the same audience as other apps already on the market, you will have to do your best to one up them.

 

In app development – as in every other area – the road to success starts with an original idea. In app development – as in every other area – the road to success starts with an original idea. Depending on how complex that idea is, you will sometimes need to invest money in addition to all the hours you’ll spend developing and testing your app. Securing funds for the development process used to be very difficult and would often end in failure. Luckily, this is a thing of the past thanks to crowdfunding.

That’s not to say that you should only work on apps that have mass appeal. Many successfully funded projects have targeted very small niches of users, but they’ve reached their goal on the strength of the idea behind them and the word of mouth that had built up on the internet. Whether you’re developing something for everyday use, a learning app, or a mobile game, you’ll get a fair chance to meet your goal.

Launching Your Crowdfunding Campaign

Several online platforms specialize in crowdfunding and have a long history of successfully funded projects. The most popular ones are undoubtedly Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and CrowdFunder. There’s also AppFunder, which – as its name suggests – is aimed at securing funds for app development.

After you’ve chosen the platform you like the most, it’s time to set up your campaign. The description you provide is the most important aspect of your campaign: if you don’t provide enough information in an interesting and well-organized way, you could fail no matter how great and original your idea is.

Format the description as you would an informative article, with subheadings, bolded text, and bullets for easier navigation. Describe your idea in an interesting, conversational way, but keep it concise and to-the-point. It’s always good to add some visual elements to your presentation, whether it’s some early sketches, screenshots of the prototype you’ve made, or – preferably – a video demo.

Another important aspect of your crowdfunding campaign is the target sum you want to secure. It’s important to plan every step of the development process carefully and ask for the exact amount you will need. If you’ve set a very high goal and offer no information or rewards to justify it, the audiences will recognize it and will ignore your campaign. Go for an objectively attainable goal and define the funding period according to it.

Advertising Your Campaign

Once you’ve set up your page and launched the campaign, you will need to tell people who aren’t members of the crowdfunding platform all about it. To reach the largest audience possible, you will need to have a strong online presence. Alternatively, if you have friends with many followers on social media, you should ask them to share the link to your campaign and help you spread the word.

In the past, there have been cases where a campaign had managed to build up such a strong word of mouth that it grabbed the attention of the traditional media. Reports on them were published in the newspapers and online, resulting in an increased interest in the initiative. This doesn’t happen by default, so your app will really have to be something special in order to attract this much attention.

Added Benefits of Crowdfunding

Developers with experience in crowdfunding will tell you to launch your campaign as soon as you have an idea and a plan on how to turn it into an app. In addition to securing funds for the development process, crowdfunding has two added benefits.

The first is that you get to test the waters and see whether there’s enough interest for the app you want to create. If you still don’t have any backers after you’ve pulled all stops to promote your campaign, it could be an indicator of how your app would perform once released. Perhaps it’s best to abandon your plans and start working on something new and better.

The second benefit is the fact that you get to promote your app. If your campaign proves successful, people will be talking about it on social media and message boards. So while you’re working on securing the funds you need, you will also get a strong word of mouth on the internet about your upcoming app. Once you release it, you’ll already have a built-in audience that will download it, test it, and send you some useful feedback.