I’ll
get straight to the point. We’ve researched plethora of kickstarter campaigns, blogs,
tutorials, tips, tricks, videos of creators, agencies and individuals who
contribute to the matter at hand. This is a summary of all the things that we
have added to our to-do list.
Here’s my Shifu Orboot, you’ll get an idea of the context of this post! Please
note, I am writing this before the launch of our campaign. You can view the
results of all the efforts and what worked in my second update (you’ll have to
wait for another month for that). This is for people who understand marketing,
and I apologise for not covering the basics. I work with an awesome team (of 7)
of innovators and doers!
Here
goes the list:
1.
Kickstarter
Campaign Page – video is the hero and 80% of your appeal, make a good one. Write
descriptive text with images and polished content with details. This takes a
lot of time so start early, and take feedback from bloggers, serial backers to
improve before launching. Make a 31 days campaign (not 30). The launch day (counted
in hours as 23 hrs) is not counted in countdown till 48 hrs are left.
2.
Design
rewards and stretch goals (yes, you need to keep them ready before you launch)
“78% of projects that raised more than 20% of their goal were successfully funded.” — Kickstarter
So,
you really need to gear up for reaching that 20% stage ASAP after you launch:
3.
Website/Landing
Page – start pre-promotion and drive traffic to your page. Collect email-ids
who are interested in your product (early bird). This list is very crucial for
reaching the first stage of “20% funded within 3-4 days of launch”.
4.
Social
Media – organic - increase your following/fans through (regular posts) content
and engagement if you have enough time before launch. Reddit (non-marketing
personal account), Twitter and Instagram might help a lot!
5.
Social
Media – ad campaigns – create a list of potential backers through various
sources (serial backers on crowdfunding platform, previous customers etc.) and
create lookalike audience for Facebook and Instagram.
6.
Make
a list of at least 50 friends, families and contacts who will back you on the
first day of launch.
7.
Explore
the option of BackerClub.co
When
somebody looks at your campaign and googles about you, you should have 2 pages of
search results covered. Hence, you need people talking about your product. Also,
this is required to gain traction and to accelerate your campaign:
8. Media: Make
a list of 300+ email ids of writers/contributors from media, news portals,
famous portals that write on your product topic or the category – reach out to
them with your ‘news’. It’s difficult to grab attention in the sea of content
out there, and be prepared to expect a reply rate of 1%. (A better way to
engage is to meet them at events and exhibitions or to strike a conversation on
social media first and then email.) You might find these tutorial useful - By Samit Patel and By The
Crowdfunding Formula . Tools used – Clearbit, PressPanda and tools
mentioned in above tutorials. You can also upload your press release at prlog.org .
9.
Reach
out to bloggers from your relevant field – look at their alexa rank, website
traffic, social media following and engagement (engagement is important, some
people have huge following but no engagement). A helpful idea – By
Crowdtoolz .
10. Few more tools you can check
out - Kickbooster.me, HeadTalker, Snip.ly, Streak, Audiense, Twittonomy
Hope this helps in some way! Feel free to ask me anything
and look forward to your thoughts and feedback! J
