Should You Crowdfund Your Next Product?
It doesn’t work for everything. But when it works, it really works.
Ok, so crowdfunding is pretty awesome when it comes to launching a product. 🎉
But hold your horses — before you get too gung-ho and create your Kickstarter, there’s one thing we need to keep in mind.
While crowdfunding is incredibly effective for certain products, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Crowdfunding can definitely help you raise millions and blow past even your wildest dreams — we’ve seen it happen at NR — but you have to have the right kind of product to really succeed.
When Crowdfunding Works, and Why
Before we get started, let’s make one thing clear: crowdfunding works for products. It’s certainly possible that you could raise millions for your new service-based business, but the nature of the platform seems to favor products — something people can purchase and either hold in their hands or see on their screens.
But beyond this gross distinction, there are a few trends we notice if we ask about the kinds of products that crowdfunding works for.
Games, Gadgets, & Wearables
A quick look at the all-time most funded projects on Kickstarter makes something abundantly clear.
Crowdfunding works really, really well if you’re making a game, physical tech product, or a wearable.
Out of the top 20 most-funded Kickstarter projects, this is the actual breakdown (as of June 2017):
- Fully 85% of the top 20 most-funded projects are either a game, a tech product, or a wearable
- 30% are games
- 20% are tech products
- 35% are wearables (5/7 of these are smartwatches)
- Of the outliers, two projects are for a film or TV show and the other is for a glorified fidget spinner (so being on-trend counts, I guess)
Visuals Are King
There’s a reason the top 20 conform so closely to these categories.
Crowdfunding platforms, because they’re websites, are inherently audio-visual platforms – and the “visual” part of that equation is vastly the most important.
The products that do well in crowdfunding do so because they’re eye-catching products. Provided the product is high quality enough, it’s easy to create spell-binding visuals for a game, showcase an innovative prototype or rendering of a new gadget, or display a beautiful design for a new wearable.
Music is a notable exception to this, but even then, people tend to buy in to shots of a band hanging around doing their thing. The point is that you need to be able to communicate what the product is and why it matters using only (or mostly) visuals, and do it quickly.
Imagine trying to create an impactful visual for a product that’s experienced non-visually. Unless people already know the story, could you imagine trying to create a compelling promo video for an un-illustrated new book?
(I know, I know, this one, but really I think that would fall under the “games” title.)
Target, Target, Target
One of the things that isn’t as obvious about this list is that a large number of the products on it – not all, but a lot – focus on a specific community.
The Dark Souls Board Game piggybacks on the wildly-popular Dark Souls video game, a smash success in its own right with a dedicated community of players.
The Veronica Mars Movie Project works off the critics’ darling and cult classic TV series Veronica Mars; a show with a fanbase so dedicated that they refer to themselves as “Marshmallows.”
The Exploding Kittens board game comes from Matthew Inman, creator of the popular web comic/cultural presence The Oatmeal. Their most recent post, a 2-pane comic about a cat watching Star Wars, got almost 70,000 shares on Facebook.
Does this mean you need an adoring audience of millions to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign?
The important thing to take away is that all of these projects target specific communities — groups of like-minded people with similar interests, desires, and traits.
For crowdfunding to succeed, going broad isn’t the best approach. You need to know exactly who you’re marketing to, what they want, and why they need your product.
In short, you really need to understand your target user. By understanding who needs your product, you can target your campaign more specifically, which gives you a better chance of succeeding.
So Should You Crowdfund Your Product?
These trends should help inform your decision on crowdfunding your next product, but they should never be taken as hard and fast rules. Think of them as guidelines — they’re a quick way to judge whether or not crowdfunding might be a viable route for raising the money to launch your product.
Even more importantly, you can use these points as a way to increase your likelihood of success if you do decide to crowdfund. Just remember these lessons:
- If it’s a game, gadget, or wearable, you’re golden. If it’s not, try to make it look like one. (Is the Coolest Cooler really a tech product? You decide)
- Visuals are the most important element. Your campaign will live or die on its visual communication, so spend time on it.
- Your product should appeal to a specific group of people. Even if you believe it has broader appeal, focus on a specific target market at the outset and widen it from there.
So, is crowdfunding the key to launching your next product? There’s only one way to find out.
If you like what you’re reading, please do consider clicking that little 💚 at the bottom and the “follow” button on top. And if you want to dive deeper into what it takes to develop and launch a product, the team at Rootstrap has created a set of e-courses to help you do just that.
Truthfully, we believe that if you want something bad enough and have the right tools, you can accomplish anything. These courses — and our whole business model — are designed to help you get there.
