UpEffect Handbook
UpEffect is not a donation platform but rather an e-commerce tool for you to launch a social good product and test the market's response. It's a portal for connecting companies with early customers. Supporters of a campaign will pledge because they believe in the campaign but they will most likely want something in return and rewards let them share in your creation.
Some rewards are simple. If you're making a book, you offer copies of it. Other rewards can include behind-the-scene souvenirs or personalised work.
Consider the following when putting your rewards together:
- What should you offer?
Offer incentives that customers would buy if they saw it in a store. With stores like Amazon, there is no risk of order fulfilment, a customer is guaranteed a product for their money. In crowdfunding, there a number of risks e.g) the product may not complete, production might fall through, it might not arrive on time, it might not arrive at all, when it does arrive, it might not be what backers are expecting. Backers are taking a risk in order to help you make your dream a reality and they deserve to be compensated for this. In order to minimise this risk, you should offer discounted and limited edition products that are only available through your crowdfunding campaign.
- What should you not offer?
There are a few things that we prohibit including alcohol, money, drugs, loans, equity or any form of gambling.
- How to price?
As always, price your products fairly. The most popular reward is £25 - consider offering something substantial for that value. Include your RRP and ensure your rewards are priced less than this. Let your backers know how much they're saving if they buy through your campaign. In charitable fundraising, you're able to charge more for incentives, however, UpEffect is a rewards-based crowdfunding platform, therefore the opposite applies. You're trying to secure pre-orders and you need to incentivise your backers with exclusive discounts that are only available through your crowdfunding project.
- Offer a range of rewards
As rewards are organised in ascending order, your goal should be to get the reader to read the next reward. You do this by hooking them with valuable offerings. Get rid of digital high fives or 'get your name on our website' type rewards, it's offensive to offer this for £5 or £10. Introduce a £1 or £2 reward and give backers a valuable digital good and then sell this to hundreds of supporters.
- Itemise or limit your rewards
You can offer limited rewards for instance, for your first 100 backers. You can also offer rewards with a limited time-span.
- Estimated delivery dates
Be honest about your estimated shipping dates. If there are any delays, make sure that you communicate this to your backers through your Updates page.
Once your campaign launches, you can continue to add rewards but once a backer has pledged to a reward, you are unable to edit it.