Before You Launch Your Kickstarter: Best Practices
If you’re considering launching a Kickstarter campaign, congratulations! You’ve taken the first step towards funding your creative project. But before you launch, there are a few best practices you should take into account to ensure the success of your campaign.
Seek Advice
Before I launched my very first Kickstarter I picked the brains of creators who have been there, done that. It’s important to get as much advice as you can before making your campaign live. You want to make sure you’re prepared for any potential outcome.
There are a lot of moving parts to a Kickstarter campaign, and it’s easy to overlook something important if you’re not familiar with the process. So seek out advice from people who have been through it before, and take their advice to heart.
Pick the Right Funding Goal
One of the most important aspects of your Kickstarter campaign is setting a funding goal. This may seem like a no-brainer—of course you need to set a goal! But it’s not as simple as just picking any old number. You need to make sure your goal is attainable, otherwise you risk turning off potential backers.
Your funding goal should be based on a combination of two things: how much money you actually need to bring your project to life, and how much money you think you can realistically raise. Be realistic in your assessment; if you’re not confident you can reach your goal, it’s better to set a lower one. And don’t forget to factor in the fees charged by Kickstarter (and payment processors) when deciding on your final number.
Create Compelling Rewards
Once you’ve decided on your funding goal, it’s time to start thinking about rewards. What incentives will you offer backers in exchange for their hard-earned cash?
Your rewards should be appealing and relevant to your target audience. For example, if you’re raising money for a new line of eco-friendly handbags, one of your reward tiers could be a free bag for backers who pledge $100 or more. Not only is this a great way to show your appreciation for their support, but it also helps promote your product and get it in front of potential customers. Just make sure your rewards are priced appropriately—you don’t want to lose money on them!
Build Hype Before You Launch
Now that you’ve got all the logistical stuff out of the way, it’s time to start building hype for your forthcoming campaign. If people don’t know about your Kickstarter, they can’t back it! Use social media, email marketing, and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth to get the word out there. The more people who know about your campaign ahead of time, the better chance you have of meeting (or even exceeding) your funding goal.
Create Marketing Content
Having enough marketing content for a campaign, is one of the Kickstarter best practices that I see many people fail at.
Something that is crucial before you launch your very first Kickstarter campaign is to be as prepared as possible. What has helped me in the past is understanding what avenues I’m using to market my campaign.
In the past if I was using social media this was the amount of posts that were needed to serve the algorithm per-day, Twitter 5-7, Instagram 2-3, Facebook 1-2, Tik-Tok 2-3 and Pinterest was 1-2. Granted this probably has changed drastically since my last campaign but the point is you need to figure out what the algorithm wants in-order for you to succeed.
So If I was launching a 30 day campaign, I would need roughly 210 tweets, 180 posts between Facebook and Instagram, another 90 coming from Tik-Tok and 60 pins for Pinterest.
Once you figure out the quantity of posts, it’s best to create the content you’ll be sharing before-hand, so you’re not scrambling throughout the campaign to come up with stuff.
Plan your work, work your plan.
Post Scheduling
Okay so you created all the content necessary to have some strong organic reach during your Kickstarter campaign. Now what?
Here’s a Kickstarter best practice, instead of driving yourself crazy, use a post scheduling tool like buffer, hootsuite or Later to help you space out your content and save time.
This way you’re less concerned about what you’ll be posting and can focus on engaging with individuals who show interest.
Collect Day 1 Backers
Create a landing page on Kickstarter and before you launch, drive people through social media, email marketing or any other channels you have to this to follow.
This is one of the top Kickstarter best practices out there.
The whole point of this is getting people to back your project on day 1, which will give you that much needed boost in organic reach throughout the Kickstarter platform. The goal should be to reach at minimum 50% of your target funding goal within the first 48 hours after you launch.
I would apply the same marketing tactics mentioned above before you launch and build up a healthy amount of project followers.
Show Love
Before I launch my Kickstarter campaign I take a look at other projects and back a few of them. I also comment on other peoples’ project updates to show my support and get my name out there.
You never know, one of those people you backed or showed support to could come back and do the same for you. The Kickstarter community is small but mighty, so it’s important to be apart of it and give back as best you can.
Bonus Advice
A Kickstarter best practice I learned throughout the years is how vital Blogs and Podcasts can be and some things you should know before-hand.
If you’re doing a Blog interview for someone’s website, it takes roughly 6 months for that article to really index and begin ranking on google, IF they do not have a strong domain authority already and a lot of organic traffic.
So, start reaching out to niche websites sooner rather than later to discuss your project and ask the site to update the article with your Kickstarter link once you have it. This will also give you more pre-made content to share for marketing your campaign.
The same rules generally apply for Youtube and Podcasts. Unless the channel you’re on is getting a lot of views each episode, it takes time for people to hear and see your interview. Hit up as many as possible before you launch.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the many things you need to take into account before launching a Kickstarter campaign. By following these Kickstarter best practices, you’ll give yourself the best chance possible for achieving success. Good luck!
Drop a link to the Kickstarter campaign you last backed below or your own!
