Alright, so hopefully you’ve read our post Crowd Funding – Does It Work and decided to take the plunge and use Kickstarter to fund your new doo dad widget, cheesy independent horror film or basement studio music album. But you don’t want to end up unfunded like 55% of Kickstarter projects. No worries, if you put in some work before you post you can greatly improve your chances of success.
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1. Scan Kickstarter
Spend hours looking over the projects on Kickstarter. Take note of the look and feel of projects which have been successfully funded and examine what kinds of rewards they are offering. Be sure to also spend equal time evaluating projects which have only hours left and a whopping total of $0 raised. It is not only important to know what you should do, but what you should not do.
2. Outline Your Project
Now that you have a good feel for what does and does not have a good chance of getting funded take a good look at your own project idea. In it’s current form do you feel you have something to offer that will get you that coveted Kickstarter love? Your project should have a clear beginning and end. Kickstarter users should understand exactly what you are doing and how long it will take. This is even more crucial when you are trying to offer products as a reward.
3. Reward Your Kickstarter Supporters
Kickstarter states that projects with rewards starting under $20 succeed 54% of the time while those that do not only succeed 35% of the time. Thats a boost of 19% just by offering something cheap! Be sure to calculate costs if you are rewarding your Kickstarter support with manufactured goods. For example, if you are a musician trying to gain funding for an album then your cheaper rewards should be digital copies of songs while larger amounts could include an autographed cd. Something like a cd would have it’s own costs associated with it while a digital download is basically free.
Rewards have a lot to do with the success of projects. Spend time here determining the best rewards to offer. Keep them relevant to your project and exciting to your supporters. You want them to want your project to be funded as much as you do.
4. Awesome Video
Here’s another stat for you, projects with videos succeed 20% more often than projects that don’t. What that means is you better have a video! If you go through Kickstarter’s information they will tell you the quality of the video doesn’t matter as much as the content. Truth is they don’t want to hurt your feelings. If you want to maximize your projects potential for success try to create as professional and interesting a video as possible. Humor seems to go over well with the Kickstarter crowd.
5. High Quality Images
Do not use your iPhone 3G to take pictures for your Kickstarter campaign. If you don’t have a nice camera try to borrow or rent one. If you are not a talented photographer try to get a friend who is to help you. While I recommend using a higher quality camera to capture your images the truth is how your pictures are taken can be more important than what they are taken with.
6. Get Social
Ok, your project is posted and ready for people to see, so make sure people see it! Post about your Kickstarter project anywhere and everywhere you can. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, your blog, emails, text messages, phone calls, do it all. To really increase your chances of success draft a press release for your local news channels. This may not work for everyone depending on what your project is about and the size of your city. Too large and they probably won’t cover your story, too small and your impact will be the same as posting on Facebook.
7. Keep Your Supporters Informed
Keep those who have already pledged funds informed of progress you are making. This will get them excited and more willing to share your project, increasing your chances of success. You want your supporters to feel like they are part of your project, because they are!
If you followed each of these strategies and really worked hard on each of them you should be enjoying sweet sweet Kickstarter success.
Please share your Kickstarter project with us in the comments, we’d love to help you promote it!
