What I Learned From Kickstarter (2013)
Reward-Based Crowdfunding tips
In business, wholesalers allow stores to receive goods now and pay later. This relationship allows stores the flexibility they need. Kickstarter allows backers to pay now and receive the goods later. This relationship allows project creators the flexibility they need. Backers choose which projects to bring to life. They receive rewards and special experiences in return. But, do not confuse Kickstarter with equity, ownership or investment. Kickstarter is a place to test prototypes. It is a place to find potential customers and fans of your project.
Traditional gatekeepers such as manufacturers and investors guard the gates of opportunity. They choose who to allow into their world. Go big or go home mentality kills many ideas as it requires products to appeal to an audience of five million. Kickstarter lets anyone with an idea to test it and gain support. Bruce Nussbaum coined the term ‘ Indie Capitalism’ as he believes that crowdfunded projects are more optimistic and more mission-led than most businesses.
My first Kickstarter raised £26,000 ($40,000) which isn’t enough to change the world. It was big enough for me to jump through the first hurdle and learn how to fulfill five hundred orders. Challenges were overcome one by one. They ranged from material tolerances to strict import/export laws on wood. In retrospect, I am glad the project wasn’t any larger. At first, I thought five hundred orders was small as I’ve seen much larger campaigns. The size dawned on me after my apartment receptionist rang me in desperation to clear the lobby. Three and a half crates of packaging needed moving immediately. The delivery man laughed and then smiled as he said “first timer?”
Below is a summary of some of tips and tricks I learned from this project.
PREPARING AND PROMOTING
Make a List, Check it twice.
Preparing a list of people to contact beforehand is a must-do and your primary starting point. Update the list throughout the campaign.
FRIENDS
You need to discover which of your friends are most likely to back you. The easiest backers to convince love you, love your project or love Kickstarter. You should have a good idea for who loves you and your project. Add them to the list.
Find Friends on Kickstarter allows you find which friends have backed projects before. Those who have backed projects on Kickstarter are more likely to do so again.
Klout.com sorts friends by how much noise they create online. Focus on a Klout score of 70+ who are online influencers. Send a personal email to everyone with a score between 50–70. Prepare these emails before you start.
KICKSTARTER COMMUNITY
Kickstarter showcase projects that they feel are the most valuable to their community. Approaching Kickstarter is not recommended as they receive a lot of noise. Make something that they can’t miss and they want to share. Make your campaign awesome.
KICKSTARTER NEWSLETTER
You can’t hack this option. The Kickstarter newsletter lists three projects on a similar theme each week. Previous themes include ‘Spirit Animals’, ‘Little Libraries’, and ‘Preserve History’. Chosen themes are what is trending at that time rather than being pre-set months ahead.
The website Kicktraq is invaluable. It allows project creators see other creator’s campaign data. The day of a newsletter mention usually appears as a sharp peak in support. But there is no way of predicting what they might pick.
FOLLOW YOUR BACKERS
During the campaign, keep an eye out on who is backing you. Many backers will have personal networks and followings much larger than you do. Did this $10,000 campaign know that Zach Braff is a backer? I found two delivery addresses in Beverly Hills, 90210. I recognize both the backer’s names.
Backers might have 10,000 followers. Others might have done a $100,000+ Kickstarter campaign themselves. They may be able to help in their own small way. Do not think of your backers as just customers who have money. They are people with amazing networks, skills, and talents who are supporting you. They are very likely willing to help.
PRESS + PR
Create your Kickstarter page and video in advance. Show it to bloggers and journalists using the preview link. If you have an awesome campaign, the press will want to cover it. Journalists who already believe what you believe are the easiest to approach. The journalists that covered ‘This Stool Rocks’ were “waiting for this to happen”. They knew my field as well as I did. Many of them helped shape the campaign with soundbites that they came up with. They made complicated concepts easy to understand.
Other bloggers and journalists covered the campaign after we were trendy. They did not understand the campaign well. Their articles did not get much attention. Both groups took the same amount of time to research and pursue. This highlights the importance of working hard to find the right journalists. Searching major press sites for articles on similar topics is one way to do this. Previous articles by each journalist show what they find interesting.
Journalists receive too many emails and tweets with requests for Kickstarter coverage. Mike Butcher gave a great presentation at TechCrunch on how to contact tech media. He recommends you give the journalist a story.
Prepare many angles that can launch at different points throughout the campaign.
Early-Campaign — Why this project matters.
Mid-Campaign — Progress report and how you did it.
Last Push — Future plans, new stretch goals, new rewards.
PR agencies charge you for their relationships. They have built up connections over many years. These people are at best loosely relevant to your project. If you can figure out how to do PR yourself, you can find the most relevant people to your campaign.
INFLUENCERS
Influencers are the group of people who everyone pays attention to. In the past, they were famous sports people, politicians and actors. The internet allows influencers gain an audience on sneaker design or cancer research. Influencers are more specific than they have been in the past. They use blogs, social media channels, and email newsletters. Their support will add to your credibility and bring in lots of traffic from their followers. A call to action from an influencer goes further than press coverage. Make friends with them, they are just people interested in the same things as you.
I tweeted celebrities like Kanye West and Pharell as they love the design office I used to work at. They did not respond. I contacted Ice Cube as he studied architectural drafting, he didn’t respond either. Very famous people are too busy to notice your campaign unless it is trending. If they believe they have something to gain from your campaign, they will back it.
Kickstarter influencers such as @BestKickstarter have 85,000 followers.
BLOGGERS
Most bloggers are lazier than journalists. They expect you to do all the work. They don’t want a press release. They want a pre-written blog post in the style and length of their blog. This is also because they publish a lot more content. Many blogs have a ‘submit story‘ form on their site. Create an excel sheet of submission links before your campaign starts.
e.g. Dezeen.com — Design — submissions@dezeen.com
Other blogs will post about your campaign without contacting you. They will use high-quality images and well-written text if they can find them. Otherwise, they might write something awful. You can make it easier for them by creating a page where they find everything they need.
Offer interviews and podcasts to bloggers. This allows them to personalize your project for their site and audience.
SURROUND SOUND
Surround sound is a good strategy for succeeding on social media.
The idea is simple. People ignore a single link in their newsfeed. But ten links on the same day in their newsfeed generates curiosity. Surround sound is about co-ordination and timing. The workload is overwhelming to surround ten different communities at once. Instead, try one community every ten days.
Pick the community as Brooklyn, NY. You want people in Brooklyn to see their friends sharing your project on the same week. The next week, you might try internet-using indie musicians.
Again, make a list. Name what communities you can target and who are the influencers. Decide on how you are going to engage them. You might need to write content or create a Buzzfeed list related to each community for them to share.
TOPSY
Topsy.com facilitates social search and is useful for finding influencers. Place links into the Topsy search bar that your potential backers would find interesting. Topsy lists the twitter accounts that tweeted that link. You can sort them by influence and follow or contact that group. The links to other similar Kickstarter campaigns is a great starting point.
VIRAL
If one person tells one other person on average about your campaign, the virality is neutral. If one friend tells ten friends who tell ten friends who tell ten friends, that is more than a thousand people. That is what virality looks like.
You need to figure out what do people share and will they share your project. People are more likely to share something with a video. Emotional stories work better than a list of facts. This ad by HP will make you cry, but it got shared a lot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC2X9GvXmn4
LAUNCHROCK
Launchrock.com is free and quick. It allows you collect email addresses when you don’t have any alternative site. They also have great tools for growth and viral sharing built into their signup process.
TIMING
Some studies suggest a Monday Morning is the best time to launch. The first three days are critical to your campaign. You can set them as Mon-Tues-Wed, Wed-Thurs-Fri, or Fri-Sat-Sun. Different campaigns suit different audiences. This makes it hard to generalize which three days are optimal for each campaign.
MAKE A REMARKABLE CAMPAIGN THAT PEOPLE CARE ABOUT
Seth Godin believes that projects today should be remarkable. They will get shared. Projects that people care about will get shared.
Make sure your campaign is clear. Sharing it people will provide you with feedback. Listen to it. Be prepared to make your video more than once if the crowd says to make it again. I received that advice to remake my video halfway through my campaign. Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to the friend who helped make the first video. :)
EXPLAIN KICKSTARTER
Friends will ask, “What is Kickstarter?” I assumed that most people knew what Kickstarter was. Tim Schafer of Double Fine Games explained that adventure games are a lost art form in his video. An employee/fan cries “adventure games are not dead.” Tim explains that publishers would laugh at his face if he pitched an Adventure Game. The employee/fan responds that he is willing to pay for an adventure game and lots of others fans are too. That is Kickstarter.
‘Wish I Was Here’ by Zach Braff tells the complicated story of his problems in financing. Investors generally want control which often ruins a creative project. In the film industry, this translates as final cut and controlling the cast. Kickstarter was a means for Zach as a director to maintain his artistic freedom. His pitch is less about the film and very much focused on explaining why he is on Kickstarter. (Zach Braff did receive some negative press to which he responded with a Kickstarter Update.) Other celebrities have not been successful on Kickstarter if their pitch was “give me your money.”
BACK AND RESEARCH OTHER CAMPAIGNS
Some campaigns get funded on Day 1 and go for stretch goals. Some get funded on Day 10 and others cross the line on the final day. Of course, some don’t make it and fail. Watching lots of campaigns in advance is a must. Kicktraq used several times in this post is a fantastic resource. It lets you see other campaign’s performance. It shows how many people backed the campaign each day and how much money came in. Another site is Can He Kick It.
Study failures on Kickstarter too. Melissa Joanheart came across as inauthentic. It seemed as if someone hired her to be there. It was a complete contrast to what Kickstarter is about and the Zach Braff video. She wasn’t making a film, she was the cast member of the Kickstarter video.
You shouldn’t be asking for help, you should be offering an experience.
THE VIDEO
Quicksprout — What content gets shared most on Twitter.
I always look at the video first. Then I check the rewards. I rarely read the entire text. The video is your first impression and will decide the fate of your campaign.
I made the mistake of wanting to pitch a vision but thought they weren’t allowed by Kickstarter’s rules. Visions are fine to mention in your video.
Most successful videos are someone telling their story straight into the camera. The easiest starting point is to make a checklist of what should be in the video (From Kickstarter Guide)
- Who are you?
- What is your project and why does it matter?
- What is the story behind the project?
- Where’d you get the idea?
- What stage is it at now?
- How are you feeling about it?
- Ask for people’s support, explaining why you need it.
- How will you spend their money?
- Discuss rewards.
- Explain that if you don’t reach your goal, you’ll get nothing, and everyone will be sad.
- Thank everyone!
Use music from SoundCloud, Vimeo Music Store, Free Music Archive, and ccMixter. Technical specs: Videos must be 4.88GB or less and have a file type of MOV, MPEG, AVI, MP4, 3GP, WMV, or FLV.
CONTENT
Use high-quality content. People are more likely to share well-taken images taken by a professional camera. Call up that friend who got a Canon for Christmas. Make gif’s as in Dartstrip’s campaign to animate content or as Pungas also did.
BUILD A COMMUNITY, NOT A PROJECT.
You fulfill the project after Kickstarter is over. The campaign is all about the community.
Some backers want to get involved in your project. It is up to you if you will allow them to leave their mark. The +Pool project allowed backers carve their name into a pool tile in NY. Backers received a photoshopped image of their tile with their name on it. Many of them shared that image. This is a perfect example of creating great content.
+Pool, Tile by Tile raised $273,114
REWARD GROUPS
Greg from SketchChair created several rewards for different types of backers. I learned that I made a fundamental mistake in only focusing on one type of backer. Greg made a chair reward and separate rewards to target designers and programmers. They were also interested in the project but didn’t want a chair. Out of 584 backers, only 41 bought the chair. You’ll never please everyone, but different people back projects for different reasons. Don’t limit yourself to one group.
- Customers: They want the product
- Project Fans: They feel the project is amazing, but don’t have a use for it. They still want to somehow be part of it.
- People Fans: They feel you are inspiring. Tyler started his video (below) telling his story. He felt that people back people on Kickstarter, not projects.
- Community Fans: If a community is an interested in your project, they might get involved. Creative Commons, for example, has a creative commons group on Kickstarter. Some backers might not care for what you made but believe in creative commons. They will only back your campaign if there is a reward option for them.
BIG BACKERS + PARETO PRINCIPLE
Shoreditch Village Hall had 340 backers with £90,000 backed. The project garnered support from the big tech companies based in East London. Two-thirds of the money raised was from 26 backers who gave £1,500 or more. A further 53 backers gave more than £100. Seventy-nine people gave £75,000 of the total £90,000. (See Pareto Principle.) One would assume this was not by accident. The team cultivated relationships with those 79 people or companies.
REMIX + FIND INSPIRATION
Kirby Ferguson’s TED talk explains that everything is a remix. Andy Baio makes the same point at Creative Mornings. Build on the work of others. Find interesting videos and things inside or outside of Kickstarter. Allow them to influence how you build your campaign. Some of my favorite pitch videos are Dollar Shave Club, Improv Everywhere or Dr.Seuss at Burning Man.
SUBMIT EARLY
Submit your campaign to Kickstarter early as they need to verify and approve. A green launch button will appear on your campaign once you receive verification. I recommend you should have everything ready two weeks before launch. During this time, you can send the preview link to the press and others for critical feedback. I have seen several people post or tweet that they are waiting to get approved while intending to launch. They were unaware of this delay.
The Launch
Most Kickstarter projects follow an S-curve. They start well, go flat in the middle of the campaign and climb again towards the end. I started on a Monday at 8 am as fewer people are on the internet at the weekend. You need to build up the momentum that will last for the first three days.
You should have everything above lined up before launching your campaign. Strong lists and prepared email newsletters to fire out. Influencers organized to shout and surround sound strategies to targeted communities.
KICKTRAQ (Kickstarter Analytics)
Kicktraq is a must use tool that allows you to track your campaign showing the pledge totals per day. You can see curves of how fast you are achieving your target. The beginning of your campaign will have more raised per day than the middle. The campaign predictions will shoot up high in the first few days as a result. While Kickstarter offers analytics on your campaign, Kicktraq provides more information.
MID CAMPAIGN
Some campaigns need to change mid-campaign. The video might not be effective at its message or rewards might not be appealing.
UPDATES
You can learn a lot from looking at the updates of others that are public. Cesar Kuriyama ‘One Second Everyday’ needed lots of backers as the reward amount was small. With lots of updates and press, he got more than 11,000 backers. Most campaigns achieve 500–2500 backers. Campaigns with many updates do better. Think about 20+ updates before the campaign starts. What milestones will you share? What stories will you tell?
CONVERSIONS
What conversion rate can you achieve from visitors to backers? How many hits will you have? How well written are the articles about your project? How good is your video? How appealing are your rewards?
Here are conversions of several campaigns (backers to hits)
- Avg Reward — £45 — 35,000 hits, 550 Backers, 1.6% conversion (£26,000 pledged)
- Avg Reward — £25 -60,000 hits, 2,789 backers, 4.5% conversion (£57,000 pledged)
- Avg Reward — £5 -80,000 hits, 11,200 backers, 14% conversion (£37,000 pledged)
- Avg Reward — £100 -500,000 hits, 37,500 backers, 7.5% conversion (£1,700,000 pledged)
UPSELLING
If you are over halfway there, but nowhere near your goal. You can try upselling by offering further rewards. The aim is to upgrade backers of $20 to $40. An active audience could be asked to save the campaign by inviting three friends. Try motivating through unique incentives rather than just asking.
STRETCH GOALS
I didn’t know about stretch goals were when I started. Stretch goals are secondary, larger goals after you hit your target. If your target is £10,000, what will you do to encourage your campaign to get to £15,000, £25,000 and £50,000? (Some campaigns stretch too far. Creators can make a small campaign in a small local workshop. Large campaigns might need to manufacture in China. A medium campaign is the danger zone. It might not be large enough to justify foreign manufacturing yet too large for a local workshop.
CONNECT WITH THE BACKERS (THROW A PARTY)
Shoreditch Village Hall wanted to create buzz two days before their deadline. They threw a party with lots of beers! Meeting your customers is a regular piece of business advice. Airbnb founder Brian Chesky stayed with his hosts for years. He received feedback from his hosts every day. If your backers are in one city, throw a party! Invite everyone to a bar with a large open space. (Nobody expects you rent a space.)
THE KICKSTARTER APP
The Kickstarter app is far too addictive during a campaign! My phone vibrated with every notification saying I had a new backer.
THE LAST TEN SECONDS
ZERO SECONDS REMAINING. WHAT COMES NEXT?
TWO WEEKS TO RECEIVE MONEY
It takes up to two weeks to process the payment. This time allows backers to update their credit card details if they changed their cards. Inform your backers that money is not transferred until two weeks after the campaign.
SURVEY DEADLINES
Use a deadline for people to respond to the survey. 80% will respond within three days, the rest will make you chase them. My campaign finished in April 2013, several backers didn’t respond until October 2013. I sent many messages without response. It is tough knowing what to do when you have received backer’s money, but haven’t received an address.
ADDRESS CHANGES
Be careful of asking for your survey to early. If you deliver seven months after you ask a survey, many people will have switched address. There are many reasons people move around but expect that they will. Don’t expect backers to remember if they entered a previous address if it was several months ago.
UPDATES
You can view many project updates from other campaigns as most of them are public. Study the dates of previous successful projects on how often they update backers. Copy and paste your favorite updates into a google word doc. Make another a list of the types of updates they used and what suits your project. For example, some might do a production problem post, others might do a how-to post or a meetup post.
Backers enjoy insights whether they are good or bad. They want insights into the process behind making and fulfilling your Kickstarter.
The best updates, without a doubt, go to Zach Braff who made a nice collection of videos. He showed backers exclusive insights of what goes into making a film. (The videos are private for backers.)
Not sending updates will result in angry backers who will complain with comments. Update your backers every two weeks until fulfillment.
THE COURIER NIGHTMARE
You’ve heard of FedEx, DHL, UPS and several other famous operators. You’d expect such famous couriers would be well run, think again. UPS wouldn’t deal with me as I didn’t have a landline, (is it the 21st century?.) FedEx took weeks to respond. FedEx agreed to deliver international orders, but not the national ones. Negotiate on prices that may reduce from £14 to £5.50 for a national delivery. Western European orders came down from £45 to £12. Splitting the order with two companies would reduce the volume of the order and the discount. I gave up on FedEx after weeks wasted dealing with their slow process. I finally got recommended to deal with DPD by some backers of the campaign. They are a reputable courier in the UK.
DPD immediately referred me to a company they owned called Interlink. Their depot was closer to my pickup location. First, we had to negotiate on prices that were similar as above. I thought that a courier company could provide advice on how to process my order. They offered to assist on how to do the labeling given they already had a ton of experience. I labeled boxes with massive letters in black marker saying First_name, Last_Name. I also wrote large numbers from 1–550. I informed the courier that the boxes contained customized products. So, is putting the 152. Peter Smith delivery sticker on the 152. Peter Smith box easy? Simple right? Think again.
They whisked the boxes away to their depot. They then proceeded to place the 323 Melissa sticker on the 152 Peter box. They put the 56 John sticker on the 323 Melissa box. They were careless, but it was my mistake to assume they put any thought into what they were doing. They don’t. Next time, I know not to give any tasks to couriers that I wouldn’t trust an ape to do. Harsh, but you guys get the idea.
Backers commented on Twitter that their name was on the delivery sticker, but someone else’s name on the box. I sent an update to inform every one of the mistake. Backers sympathized with my honest mistake and waited for another stool that I made for them. Many of these orders had crossed international borders. Returns were more hassle than remaking and resending.
It cost a small fortune that swallowed up all profit from the campaign. A lesson learned the hard way. Luckily, I didn’t lose money.
(For entrepreneurs looking for ideas: Please disrupt the courier industry. Their software is awful!)
SOME COUNTRIES ARE DIFFICULT
I wouldn’t recommend going international for your first project. Different countries have different rules that need a ton of time to understand. It isn’t worth two weeks research on import laws and taxes for a small country where you have five backers. Beware of Norway and Switzerland in particular. Both the courier and customs said I didn’t need an EORI. Packages were then refused by customs as they didn’t have an EORI. I canceled the orders after several failed attempts and refunded the backers.
POST-KICKSTARTER MARKETPLACES
Once finished, several sites have formed to be marketplaces for Kickstarter funded products. Swish, Outgrow.me and Tiny Lightbulbs, as well as a ton of other options are open to all projects.
IF YOU ARE STILL THINKING OF DOING A KICKSTARTER
A video to watch as you start something new by Ze Frank. “My pencils
WHEN ALL IS DONE, UPDATE A TIME LAPSE
