6 Tips For A Successful Kickstarter Campaign
Have you ever had an idea and wasn’t sure where to start, how to start, how to fund it? Stephanie had the exact same concerns when she started up her Sports Luxe bag business, Persu Collection .
Crowdfunding is not easy. There is so so much work involved the founder of stresses. She put almost a year into fundraising for her business and despite the difficulties, she managed to raise over $121,326 to start up her bag empire.
Stephanie has kindly offered some advice to budding crowdfund raisers on how to launch and kickstart a successful campaign, that yields results, to start that business you’ve always dreamed of.
1. Preparation is Key
You can’t expect to throw up your campaign and just sit back and let Kickstarter bring you, backers. There is a lot of pre-campaign work that needs to be done to ensure a successful campaign. My first campaign took about 8 months to put together, and my second campaign took about 4 months (and I would’ve liked even more time!). Preparation is key.
2. It’s All-Or-Nothing
Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing platform, so calculate your costs wisely. The way the platform works is, you set a goal for the amount of money you need to bring your project to life, and you set the number of days you will give yourself to raise it (between 0-60 days). If on the last day, you’ve only reached 99% of your goal, you will not get anything. The project must fund 100% by your deadline or you will get $0, so make sure you have a plan to get to your goal or a feasible goal. I say calculate costs wisely because if you do hit your goal and but you made it too low to cover your full costs, you are still expected to fulfil the rewards you have offered your backers. There have been campaigns that funded and did not fulfil their rewards due to production issues, or perhaps founder issues. But, everything is public and backers are vocal, so I don’t recommend doing that!
3. Your Video is Important
Your video is an opportunity to share your story, your “why” for creating your project, and show how it’s used. It’s an important piece of the campaign which my boyfriend helped to produce.
The Kickstarter Campaign Video for Stephanie’s new bag designs.
4. Your rewards are important.
While you are putting together a crowdfunding campaign where people donate to the campaign, you still need to incentivize people to back your campaign. So, that means thinking of rewards that give them value for their donation. Since I create products (bags), I offer my biggest discounts possible as a reward to people who help back my campaign, thus funding the production of the bags. I never discount as low as I do on Kickstarter and that is the incentive I give for people who choose to essentially pre-order my bags in advance.
While you are putting together a crowdfunding campaign where people donate to the campaign, you still need to incentivize people to back your campaign. So, that means thinking of rewards that give them value for their donation. Since I create products (bags), I offer my biggest discounts possible as a reward to people who help back my campaign, thus funding the production of the bags. I never discount as low as I do on Kickstarter and that is the incentive I give for people who choose to essentially pre-order my bags in advance.
5. It takes a community.
As mentioned before, running a crowdfunding campaign does take quite a bit of work, and it really takes a community to help it become successful. Even if you don’t have a team to help build the campaign, once your campaign launches, you will still need help spreading the word and driving traffic to the campaign. If you can mobilize your personal network to help share the campaign, this will really help get you to your goal.
6. Communicate & Update Your Backers
Keep your backers updated and communicate with them throughout the journey. The unique part of a Kickstarter campaign is that the majority of the people who are funding you are interested in being part of the journey. And, if you are to encounter any issues in production or fulfilling your rewards, be transparent and communicative. Your backers will be much more understanding of any delays or issues if you keep than informed vs being silent.
Stephanie raised $121,326 over 2 Kickstarter campaign to start up her Luxury Bag Business, Persu Collection with a lot of hard work and dedication. Understanding the power of community proved integral to success and so she now runs workshops to use her experiences to help others.