Irene Tsang

LIFTwomen® Group welcomes Gordon Watson to the Advisory Board

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LIFTwomen® Group welcomes Gordon Watson to the Advisory Board

MELBOURNE, 23rd March 2022 — LIFTwomen® Group, Australia’s first women-focused go-to funding marketplace, connects, inspires and empowers women to start their businesses and thrive, is proud to announce Gordon Watson, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Asia & Africa and global leader in Shared Value Initiative, to join our Advisory Board. Gordon will guide Lift Women team on our global expansion to support more female entrepreneurs to thrive in the business world.

As a CEO of AXA Asia & Africa, Gordon Watson leads the business in Japan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Korea, India, Malaysia and the 9 entities in Africa. Before joining AXA, Gordon was the Regional Chief Executive of AIA Group based in Hong Kong, driving business growth and innovation in key Asian markets.

Gordon is also the founding Chair of Shared Value Initiative Hong Kong, a not-for-profit membership organization that helps private companies create measurable economic value while addressing social and economic issues, he also sits on the Board of the Shared Value Project in Australia. He sits on a number of advisory boards including Cyberport for Fintech, the Asian Board for the Saltire Foundation and Entrepreneurial Scotland. He is also a part of the Leadership Circle of Unusual Pioneers, affiliated with the World Economic Forum and is a member of the Global Guiding Council of One Mind at Work, a leading Mental Health NGO in the US. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Board of LL Global, the parent company of LIMRA, LOMA; Secure Retirement Institute® (SRI®) and is currently the non-executive Chair of the Tricor Group.

Gordon Watson is an investor in the sports, wellness and health-tech space and is passionate about art, photography, golf and above all – making a difference”

“I have been immensely impressed by all the work Irene and her team have been doing, and excited to be able to contribute to the journey of empowering women around the world to be all they can be” Gordon said.

“I’m really thrilled to have Gordon joining and guiding Lift Women as we deliver a global fundraising platform that will truly inspire, empower and fund all women and girls across Australia and around the world, and connect them with a global backing network that can help them thrive. I look forward to our exciting journey ahead!” Irene Tsang, Founder & CEO of LIFTwomen® Group said.

About LIFTwomen® Group

LIFTwomen® is Australia’s first women-focused go-to funding marketplace on a mission of closing the funding gap for women-led start-ups across Australia and around the world. We provide funding, skills, knowledge and network to support women to start their own businesses and live lives to their fullest potential. Improving women’s financial inclusion and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do.

To learn more visit www.liftwomen.com

Follow us:

LinkedIn |Instagram I Facebook

Tips For A Successful Crowdfunding Marketing Campaign

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Tips For A Successful Crowdfunding Marketing Campaign

After spending months planning and organizing, you’re on track to start drawing up your crowdfunding marketing campaign before your launch! Congrats!
While that is a cause for celebration, you still have the final sprint to the finish line before the real party can start. Crowdfunding is a great way to build up a following and fund a project, but without a great crowdfunding marketing campaign, you may not have the outcome you’re looking for. So, with that said, we’re here to talk you through the ins and outs to make it a success!

Know Your Target Audience

Know your audience. We can’t stress this one enough! You need to know who will be buying your product or service to tailor your crowdfunding marketing campaign to that group. Relying on family and friends for their support will only get so far, so it’s essential to identify your potential backers. You could look into which blogs, magazines, influencers, or other publications the industry is reading or viewing to get you started. This can give you an insight into how your potential backers are consuming information.

Get Your Story Straight

Before building excitement around your project, we recommend diving into your social media accounts to review past content. Deep clean all accounts to ensure everything remaining aligns with your story.

Your story is the heart of your crowdfunding marketing campaign. An engaging story is just as important as having a kicker product or service. It allows you to connect deeper with your audience, who could eventuate to potential backers. An emotional or compelling narrative can inspire backers to participate in your journey to success in a project that is important to both of you.

Persuade your audience to trust that you are a knowledgeable leader of the product or service they are passionate about, and you will be on the path to success.

Choose The Right Marketing Channel

In digital marketing, consistency between the brand and messaging is critical. So, now you have pinned down your message, you need to know where your possible backers are active and engaging to share it.

Facebook: Facebook is a great platform, to begin with. You can create free or boosted posts and paid ads. Facebook has a large audience base to experiment with, and it allows you to target ads to your audience directly and customize daily based on results.

Instagram: Instagram has a large community and various avenues to promote free of charge, including the feed, reels, stories, and IGTV, not to mention you can run paid ads that align with your Facebook campaign.

Email: The personal aspect of an email can make it an excellent tool for your campaign. You can create buzz and engage your audience with your narrative by beginning with your network then expanding to your wider network once hype builds.

TikTok: TikTok is a great platform to engage with a new audience. It could be a beneficial platform if you’re highly creative and have the resources to keep your audience excited.

Twitter: Twitter is a powerful platform to create buzz and open a conversation around your campaign. However, this would depend on your existing network being substantial and possible re-tweeting from influential users.

Google Ads: Google is the lead search engine worldwide, making it one of the most important places to focus on ranking. Throughout your website and campaign page, include relevant keywords to help your product appear when people search for what you offer. You could consider a specialist agency to help you nut it out.

Pinterest Ads: If you have great photos, videos, and a visually appealing product to promote, Pinterest may be a good fit to invest in for ads.

There’s nothing more exciting than the final countdown to the launch of a new product. So build hype. Consider leaking teaser posts about your project or start a countdown to the launch to create buzz.

Build a Community.

Through advertising, you will find an audience interested in your product. However, to build a community, you need to interact with them and create a sense of belonging. After all, you’re all here for a common purpose. So continue posting product updates, behind-the-scenes videos, hosting live events, posting photos, and promoting your product. The key is interaction. By interacting with your community, they’ll become invested and are more likely to back and share your product.

Now that you have the keys, it’s time to put them to work.

We hope these crowdfunding marketing campaign tips help put you on the right path and Lift your new venture to success!

LIFTwomen® Group proudly announces Peter Crewe to the Advisory Board

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LIFTwomen® Group proudly announces Peter Crewe to the Advisory Board

MELBOURNE, 27th January 2022 — LIFTwomen® Group, Australia’s first women-focused go-to funding marketplace, connects, inspires and empowers women to start their businesses and thrive, is proud to announce Peter Crewe, Managing Director of Ziffa Group Limited, has joined our Advisory Board. Peter will provide strategic guidance on Asia Pacific vision, Investment, Management and Strategic Alliance.

Peter is a highly accomplished leader and veteran in the Life Insurance industry with the last 27 years at AIA Group Limited (AIA), the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asia Life Insurance Group. He has held a broad mix of senior regional and country management roles, including CEO positions in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Brunei. After his retirement at the end of 2020, Peter acted as Senior Adviser to the Group CEO and President, AIA. 

With a 30-year track record of success in the financial services sector, Peter Crewe has been recognised for his exceptional ability to develop and execute holistic business strategies, prudent balance sheet controls, people management and corporate culture. 

As Managing Director of his Private Investment Company, Ziffa, he provides advisory and consultancy services for Financial Services companies. Passionate about nurturing organizations with social purpose, Peter also invests in start-ups predominantly in the Fintech and Property sectors.

“Irene Tsang’s passion and vision to provide thoughtful, contemporary and pragmatic guidance to female entrepreneurs is inspirational. I’m truly excited to join the LIFTwomen Advisory Board and help empower the next generation of female business owners to thrive in the business world.” Peter Crewe said.

“We’re exceptionally thrilled and honoured to have Peter onboard guiding and supporting Lift Women’s vision of funding women-led start-ups across Australia and Asia. Peter is one of the most respected, inspirational and influential leaders in the insurance industry. His expert knowledge and extensive experience across Asia will play a pivotal role in our mission of closing the funding gap for women and empowering them to attain financial wellness and be the best that they can be!” Irene Tsang, Founder & CEO of LIFTwomen® Group said.


About LIFTwomen® Group

LIFTwomen® is Australia’s first women-focused go-to funding marketplace on a mission of closing the funding gap for women-led startups across Australia and around the world. We provide funding, skills, knowledge and network to support women to start their own businesses and live lives to their fullest potential. Improving women’s financial inclusion and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do.

Follow us:

LIFTwomen Group |LinkedIn |Instagram I Facebook

New Year, New Me: Finding your Purpose with Confidence

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New Year, New Me: Finding your Purpose with Confidence

As the end of 2021 draws near, many of us are contemplating how we can use the New Year as a time to reflect and find our purpose with fresh confidence. After another challenging year of uncertainty and restrictions wrought by the pandemic, most of us will be eager to leave the last 12 months behind and focus on our future. The New Year, New Me mantra doesn’t have to imply that we completely disregard our past selves and start anew; it can simply mean making adjustments, improvements and lifestyle changes that will make us happier, healthier and more fulfilled.

Resolutions this time of year typically revolve around new diets, exercise initiatives, or abstinence from vices. But there are alternative considerations for self-improvement that will help you toward finding a new sense of purpose.


Take a Life Audit

When reflecting on what’s passed, and with an inclination to move forward and strive for betterment, it may be sensible to start with a life audit. By evaluating certain areas of your life you can ascertain what you feel would be most valuable to make improvements on –– whether it’s for your health, wellbeing or general circumstances.

Blogger English Mum shares life auditing tips to point us in the right direction and help identify areas that may require adjustments. Perhaps as she suggests it’s time to assess your health and fitness, your style or how you spend quality time; you might also assess your relationships, energy levels or general happiness. But ultimately it’s about restoring balance, reinforcing what’s important to you and finding a purpose. A renewed sense of priorities will make you more confident about making the most important things in your life work.

Figure Out Your Story

In a previous article “So… What’s Your Story?” we offered guidance around figuring out your story for inclusion within a business pitch. Drawing from this, you can conduct a similar exercise and apply it to your plan for self-improvement. Figuring out who you are, how you’ve arrived in the now, and where you plan to be in the future will lend you confidence for moving forward with your goals and aspirations. If your life story is written down, you can remind yourself at a glance how much you have achieved –– and allow yourself to feel proud. Recalling obstacles you’ve faced and how you’ve navigated through so far will also be a very empowering part of the process. You can start the New Year with a renewed appreciation for your journey up to this point, and full confidence that you can continue that journey successfully.

Embrace Change

Change can be a frightening prospect in any form, but even changes that you may attach negative feelings to can represent opportunities to evolve. In a Forbes article on ‘How Women Rise’, leadership experts discuss women in business who are resistant to change. But it also notes that women who react constructively to criticism tend to create more opportunities for advancement. On a similar level, realizing that personal changes may be necessary should be viewed as a positive step towards improving yourself. Whether in business or elsewhere, progress often begins with an honest recognition of a need to change.

Find Inspiration

Leaning on others for guidance and inspiration is often beneficial when seeking motivation to make improvements. And to borrow from the well-known betterment guide “The Confidence Code”, it can specifically help to draw inspiration from women who have found great success. A summary of ‘The Confidence Code’ by Scribd discusses the importance of understanding confidence and how to achieve it. Outlining examples from the authors’ lives and those of outstanding women in politics, media and business, suggests that looking to the successes of others can stimulate your own desires to succeed. Whether it’s through reading, seminars, or anything else of the sort, seeking out examples in this vein may well give you the inspiration you need to act with confidence and find your purpose.

Create a List of Things to Look Forward to

A simple and practical suggestion for the start of the New Year is to create a list of notable events that you’re looking forward to. Having just spent months in social isolation, we’ve been deprived of much of the joy and normalcy we’re used to; even the pleasure of planning ahead has been absent! So the idea here is to formulate a planner and include anything positive that you’re anticipating, whether that’s a new product launch you’ve been waiting for, a wedding to attend, a restaurant opening or a particular exhibition, etc. Whatever it is, make a note of it.

The anticipation alone induces a feeling of happiness well before the actual event. Thus, having notes or a schedule to refer to can be an instant dopamine boost to help you maintain positivity and confidence throughout the year.

We hope these few suggestions will be useful for finding a purpose and building a happier, healthier and more positive you as we embark upon a New Year. Happy planning!

Article penned by Darla Grace

for liftwomen.com

Backing A Business Or A Project…

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Backing A Business Or A Project…

Once somebody submits their project on our website, it means they now need backers and changemakers to make their dreams a reality.

By backing a business project, you’re not only bringing somebody’s idea to life, but you’re supporting and lifting up these businesswomen into success.

So, if you’re wanting to support a project, rather than build one, you can do so in a few simple steps:

1. Find The Business Dream You Wish to See Come True!

Jump onto our website and explore the long list of women-led projects that need funding!

Explore by State, Category, Community and Backing Status.
There are many different varieties of projects listed on Lift Women, all you have to do is figure out which one speaks to you most. Are you interested in backing a business project that also benefits and helps women? Environmental conservation? Perhaps an app designed to make your life a little easier. You’ll be sure to find something – just head to our website to browse! (There’s no harm in backing a business project that you know also benefits you! 😉)

2. Connect With The Women Behind The Idea

Read through the project briefs to learn more about their
business and what they are trying to achieve. What are you
passionate about? Find a business that you resonate with – follow
them on their social media and support them in any way you can!

On the individual project pages, there are side-bars on the right
of your screen – where you can view the amount of money
pledged, how many backers have invested, and how many days
there are left of the campaign.

3. Back The Business Idea

Choose your rewards and back your business with just a few clicks! It’s as simple as that.

Our Hot Projects list is a place where we highlight the ideas that are receiving the most attention. So, if you are finding it hard to decide which project you want to back – you might find that one of our Hot Projects may resonate with you most! Keep in mind that with our All or Nothing model, backers have peace of mind when investing their money in projects. Essentially, the model ensures that you won’t be charged if the project doesn’t reach its funding goal in time.

So, what are you waiting for?! Do you know of a project you want to Lift into success?

Support our community of empowered women who are bringing their dreams to life!

Bring Your Project To Life With Crowdfunding Video

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Bring Your Project To Life With Crowdfunding Video

Videos deliver results! If a picture tells a thousand words, a video can tell a million stories. A video brings your project to life and is the quickest and most effective way to get your audience excited. Successful crowdfunding videos are easy when you know what works. Storytelling and being highly captivating is key. Follow the 3 C’s: 

  1. Keep it Clear and easy to understand
  2. Make it Compelling. Start strong and keep the momentum going throughout the reel
  3. Finish with a strong call to action so they know how they can support you. 

 

Structure Your Crowdfunding Video: Keep it simple but effective

  • Introduction: Make it catchy! Just a few visuals, words or a sentence. This is your chance to get noticed, get them curious or excited. Intro your product/concept, followed by a short description. Ensure it is clear and easy to understand.

 

  • Problem: What’s the problem you are trying to solve? Set up the problem in different situations and/or with different audiences. Make it relatable in everyday life to your audience.

 

  • Solution:  Make sure the crowdfunding video explicitly demos the problem you are trying to solve. Show your product as a unique solution with its key benefits in an engaging way. Provide engaging content, dynamic visuals to demo the solution. Talk about why you started your mission and the problem you’re solving. Share how your solution will help them 

 

  • Features:  The Why? Show the Benefits from your audience’s perspective. Answer the questions, What am I buying? How is it better than what I already have? Focus on features that make your product stand out from what’s on the market. What makes it unique?  Show compelling visuals. Call out features. Show how it works. 

 

  • Call to Action:  Finish with an effective call to action to support your project immediately. The more they feel part of your team, the more they are likely to support you

  

Top Tips 

  • SHOW rather than tell: Use crowdfunding video to reel your audience in. You have 5 seconds for your audience to decide if they are interested. 

 

  • Affordable, good quality vids: Great vids can be created quite cheaply. Be creative. You can shoot a good quality video with a smartphone

 

  • Get Personal! People generally want to see the founder and the team they are supporting. Make sure the team comes across as being professional and trustworthy

 

  • Set the mood: The music you choose sets the tone. Use background music that is upbeat, inspiring and reflects your brand. Don’t overpower the message you want to send 

 

  • Keep the crowdfunding video under 3 minutes. Use high-quality images and maintain consistent video style to ensure cohesion

Lastly and most importantly, have fun! Unleash your imagination. Let’s get your project funded and make it a reality.

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