The B2Crowd rule

Let’s talk about the B2Crowd rule, one of the 20 golden rules of crowdfunding.

In business, we’re used to hear the terms B2B and B2C, depending on who’s the main customer of a given business: another business (B2B) or a consumer (B2C). In crowdfunding, the right approach is a third one – the Business to Crowd (or B2Crowd).

As we’ll see in more detail, a B2Crowd model is focussing on a big group of people that behave as a collective, supporting an initiative or project.

What is the B2Crowd rule?

In the B2Crowd rule of crowdfunding we define that our target audience of a crowdfunding campaign is a community, a group of people that interact amongst them.

It might feel like an obvious statement, but many creators and entrepreneurs don’t understand this concept before launching their first campaign.

What defines a ‘crowd’ according to the B2Crowd rule?

A crowd is a group of people with a shared interest. In crowdfunding, this interest must be aligned with the idea and principles of a campaign. We have discussed how important the community is in the 4 C rule of crowdfunding.

What’s the right approach to targeting a crowd?

The individual backers of a campaign can be ‘customers’ (B2C) or ‘businesses’ (B2C), but in any case, it’s crucial that collectively they have a shared interest and that this is aligned to the campaign. Your target audiences should behave in an organic way, communicating and reinforcing your campaign in a collaborative way.

There are several ways to achieve this:

• Existing communities such as comic fans or board gamers
• A famous creator with an existing following (YouTuber, podcaster, live streamer) that leads the campaign
• A product that’s managed to create some hype in social media before the campaign
• …

In any case, whatever the target audience is, it’s important to give the community a reason to act together. Crowdfunding is, after all, a crowdsourcing action.

How can we achieve the B2Crowd rule?

• Basing your campaign on a community.
• Promoting ideas that motivate the audience to act together.
• Encouraging your audience not only to back you with their money, but also communicating.

Wrapping it up

The B2Crowd rule tells us that to reach a wider community, it’s important to think in terms not just of customers but of crowd. If you have any questions about this or any other aspects of launching your crowdfunding campaign, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me.