Do you know why group buying has become such a big success? There are several reasons for that, from good email marketing techniques to making people ask their friends to buy together, and the discount offered. But one key reason is: the sense of urgency.
In the early stages of group buying, all offers had a deadline, usually very short. If you stopped to think about it, you could miss the opportunity. So people were impulsive, they bought first and thought about it later.
Crowdfunding nowadays is based on a similar behavior. A Kickstarter blog post from 2011 gives numbers to that: short deadline crowdfunding campaigns create more sense of urgency and are usually more successful than long ones.
While the overall success rate in Kickstarter is 44%, only 24% of 90-day campaigns reached their goal. That’s why they decided to shorten the deadline to just 60 days, so projects would more likely be successful. The optimal timeframe is 30 days, as they put it. The most frequent periods are at the start of the campaign and at its end.
A short deadline project can be as daunting as a long one, but as Kickstarter states it, the short duration is actually an ally, not and enemy of the project. Short length projects don’t let backers procrastinate. Most people will let it pass if they have time to think about it.
Another ally of the crowdfunder is the short value goal. A bold goal, say $500,000 can look good, but will actually make it more difficult to achieve success. A small value will make the project look more feasible and can actually serve as a boost if the project manages to attract much more funds than needed. Stating that your project has achieved 5 times its goal is a strong success message that reassures people that your product is good.