How I Got 450% Funded During The Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic
Then
So the pandemic really started to hit the UK and the US halfway through my first Kickstarter crowdfunding attempt for Geco Hub, my wall-mounted organizer.
Although I’d love to use the pandemic as an excuse for why things had slowed down considerably with the campaign, the truth is that it had just run out of steam and ground to a crunching halt.
We got off to a great start early on and things were really looking up, I was so excited! But after the hype of the initial week ended, and no press coverage to speak of, the traffic throttled back and the pledges all but dried up *sigh*.
Ultimately, we ended up cancelling about halfway through the planned 35-day campaign with only 1/3 of the funding in the bag. I opted not to go for the 7-day pandemic extension Kickstarter were offering and instead decided to relaunch. I thought that with the way things were going, 7 days really wasn’t going to change much.
Now
Fast-forward 6 weeks and now we’re 3/4 through our relaunched campaign and currently standing at around 450% funded. So what changed?
In short, a few things: the goal, shipping pricing and an additional colour option.
We launched the first campaign with a relatively high goal of £35,000. This time, in order to secure early momentum, we dropped this goal to £6,000, with an internal goal of £22,000 (having worked out ways to reduce the amount we actually needed to raise).
With this lower goal in place, and the backers from the first attempt ready and waiting for launch, we were able to reach our stated goal in under 8 hours, and go on to reach our internal goal about 2 weeks into the campaign. The other changes we made — lowering shipping slightly and offering two colour options instead of one — led to an improvement to the conversion rate, meaning pledges have been coming in more steadily.
Ironically, looking at the way things are going, we’re trending towards raising near to our original funding goal of £35,000 by our deadline in 10 days time.
Isn’t this strategy risky?
I used to think that launching with a stated funding goal lower than you needed, and having a higher internal goal you actually need to raise, was a risky endeavour… after all, you don’t want to get stuck having to fulfil pledges when you don’t have enough money!
The truth is though, even if you reach your funding goal, you can at any time opt to cancel your campaign before the deadline.
Kickstarter didn’t use to work like this, I remember campaigns launching with lofty goals and working for weeks to reach them. Nowadays though, it seems the best strategy is to launch with a low, achievable goal, fund quickly to build early momentum, and then work to overfund and reach your internal goal later in the campaign.
What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Did you find this useful? Let me know.
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The campaign I mentioned is for Geco Hub, versatile wall-mounted storage which can hold your belongings 5 different ways. Find out more here.
