Will you receive the same level of support at the beginning, middle and end of your crowdfunding campaign? On average, the contributions to your campaign will not be evenly distributed. This is the most important concept about the U rule in crowdfunding. And, in turn, this rule is key to devise a good strategy for the whole campaign.
What is the U rule of crowdfunding?
The U rule in crowdfunding tells us that most of the contributions will happen at the beginning and at the end of the crowdfunding campaign.
This happens because of the novelty effect (at the beginning of the campaign) and the urgency effect (or FOMO towards the end of the campaign). This has implications on other rules we’ve already discussed: the 30-90-100 rule in the first week of the campaign and to make the most of the power of 100, continuing to engage with potential backers until the very last minutes of the campaign.
An important implication of this rule is that creators must be very aware that in the middle weeks of the campaign they are up for a harsh ‘desert crossing’ with few daily backers. This can be quite demotivating and knowing it beforehand is very useful.
A textbook example of the U rule was my very first campaign with Crumbs Brewing. The following graph shows on the Y axis the money raised in a given day and on the X axis, the 28 days of the campaign.
How to make the most of the U rule?
- Prepare carefully the beginning of the campaign as the novelty effect will be in your favour.
- Prepare for the ‘desert crossing’ of the middle weeks
- Fight until the end and make the most of the last week, leveraging the power of 100.
Wrapping it up
The rule of the U encourages us to plan carefully the launch, to have a solid communication calendar during the middle of the campaign (and not lose motivation!) and to end with strength.
If you need help with your campaign strategy, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Leave a Reply