When I talk to people who want to do a crowdfunding project, and those who already have done a project, the thing that stands out among the successful is the way they collaborated with their friends’, family and colleagues to maximize the impact of their message…help me raise money.

Conversely, the people who don’t understand the true concept of crowdfunding will fail miserably, because they don’t think beyond getting their project posted. That’s only the technical part. The real work begins when you decide to do a project. At that time you should be assessing your list of contacts for those who might have mailing lists, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter lists. You’ll want to see how many contacts you might have to exploit in the media, like radio show hosts, newspaper reporters, TV hosts or producers, those who host networking events and the business groups in your area who might support you in your pursuit of capital. The amount of money you want to raise has to be supported by the number of people you can reach through your marketing campaign…its simple math. How many people have to give you $20 to get to your dollar goal?

Make a list and then contact those people and ASK is they’ll support you by doing a mailing or make some calls on your behalf. See if they’ll interview you on their show or do an article for you. Ask if they’ll post for you or repost your message or blog.

ASK if they’ll make a donation to your cause and encourage others to do the same. ASK if they’ll ask their friends and colleagues to support you. How on earth will people find out about your project and support you if they don’t know about it? There isn’t some magical cloud somewhere just waiting to drop seeds of knowledge to people about what you’re trying to do…you have to tell them and then ASK for their money.

Asking is difficult for a great many people. So, ask yourself, how much do you want to succeed? This isn’t some little side activity, some speculative marketing experiment. This is serious launch of your product, service or business idea and deserves all of your concerted effort. You need to have a clear idea of what you’ll do with the money, but if you don’t convey that plan to those who might give you money, then what’s the point, really?

After you write your crowdfunding project, do your short video, figure out what rewards you’ll give for the different levels of donation, then you need to write emails and Facebook blurbs, Tweets and blogs about what you’re doing and have that ready to send to the people who have said they’ll help you get your message out. Create a calendar for the length of your project and mark down an action you’ll do for each date…your target list…your marketing campaign plan. Now, go post your project and begin!

If you don’t have expertise in writing blogs or doing interviews for radio, TV and print articles, then find someone or several someone’s in your “crowd” who does and ask for their help. Don’t know how to use Facebook or Twitter? Take a class, hire someone who does or find a friend to help you. Seriously, you can’t expect to do your campaign effectively, unless you use social media.

Find a good videographer and enlist their help in creating the best short (1-3 min.) video you can. Go look at other videos and use the best elements for yours. If you don’t know how to script the video, find someone who does. There are many people out there who can do this for you inexpensively, so ASK for help.

Do you have a website, Facebook page, Linked In account, Twitter account? You can have a simple website up in no time at all. You can create a Facebook page easily. If this scares you silly, then find someone to help you. Learn. Jump in the deep end and figure it out.

Ask yourself again, how much do you want to succeed and then get to work.