Kickstarter Funding helps thousands of startups get started successfully. It also helps established brands grow and expand. To date, over 170,000 projects have been funded for a total of $ 4.5 million from nearly 17 million sponsors.
Is getting Kickstarter funding pure luck? Or is there science in it? We’ll let you decide. We’re going to go over the steps you need to take to improve your chances of getting Kickstarter funding.
How the Kickstarter Funding Program works
It’s pretty simple. Kickstarter funding rules use an all-or-nothing model. This means that you will either reach your goal or you will not get anything. This helps reassure sponsors so that campaigners don’t just run away with money and earn nothing because they didn’t have enough funds to fund the project.
Then, if you really reach your goals, you will share 3-5% with Amazon’s escrow service that holds your money. Another 5% you will share on Kickstarter.
To keep everyone happy, your patrons will also walk away with some amazing rewards (depending on the level chosen).
Unique Idea (Dare I say Epic?)
As you can imagine, there are thousands and thousands of financial campaigns running on Kickstarter at the same time. While you don’t expect sponsors to find you in the midst of it all, it’s still important to stand out. It will make it easier for your social media, affiliate marketing, advertising and other campaigns you run to get attention.
This does not mean that you have to do something incredible. Just something creative, especially something that has never been done before. This will make it easier to find supporters who want to see how your idea is being implemented. It doesn’t even have to be 100% new. You can simply modify an existing product.
Take the coolest cooler for example (yes, it was a real campaign). In the summer of 2014, someone came up with a prototype cooler that did everything from mixing smoothies to charging mobile devices. Of course, it also kept your food and drinks cool (otherwise it wouldn’t be so cool would it?)
The device was ahead of its time, but it still worked great. He brought in a whopping $ 13.3 million.
Tell an amazing story (and a compelling reason)
The only thing that can be more convincing than a great story is an intriguing message. Something bigger than you is desirable. So don’t talk about yourself all the time. You need to associate a message that says something more significant. For example, perhaps your idea is to change the world in a small but powerful way.
Take for example the story and message of {r} eveolution apparel for The Versalette‘s Kickstarter campaign. They set out to transform the fashion industry with a line of eco-friendly womenswear.
Get this – it’s one piece of clothing that can be worn in a dozen different ways. In addition, the fabric is made in the USA and is recyclable. It’s minimalist and eco-friendly – a double win for the sustainable crowd. The campaign raised nearly $ 65,000 from nearly 800 sponsors.
Create a Personal, Attractive Video
Your backers want to know who they support before investing, which makes sense. This is why video marketing is so effective.
For this to work for your Kickstarter funding campaign, you need a video that is personal and engaging. It shouldn’t be too long, anywhere from two to six minutes. In short, it seems to work best.
Tell us a little about yourself, what you create and why it is important to you (and the whole world).
So the first 30 seconds of the video should grab attention. Within this time frame, you need to fit into your idea and why the viewer should support it.
Then you can move on to the rest, such as who you are and your project. If it takes you five minutes, so be it.
The Pebble E-Paper Watch crossed that mark and still had a successful campaign (essentially a top 10).
He received over $ 10 million from over 78,000 sponsors, and this was not their only campaign. In total, they had three campaigns (all in the top 10, by the way) that raised over $ 43 million through Kickstarter funding.
They then turned around and sold their company Fitbit for $ 40 million. Not a bad deal.
Grow your network (Put crowd in crowdfunding)
You can forget about hitting the top 10 Kickstarter campaigns if you don’t have a massive network. If you are starting from scratch, you will have to work hard to collect your followers.
Of course, you can start with friends, family, and colleagues. However, you will need to expand your reach. What’s better than social media?
Now, before you start rampaging Twitter and Instagram, you need a strategy. The goal is to find those who are interested in your product. So, if your project is a video game, it would be ideal to post it on subreddits, YouTube and other channels that players frequent.
You can also get support from influencers. Many on these platforms will promote your project (for a fee).
The good news is that you can reach your Kickstarter funding goals pretty quickly. Some raise tens of thousands in two weeks, while most campaigns last 30-45 days. Although you can extend it up to 60 days.
A great example is 1000 pugs. The campaign was unique (skillfully photographed 1,000 pugs a year). The campaign reached its goal in 14 days and exceeded its limit by day 45. She had 250 sponsors who pledged over $ 15,000.
This shows that you do not need a large number of sponsors if your project goals are smaller. So try to target something that doesn’t need millions to produce, and you might have a good chance.
Create support levels that must be purchased
The beauty of Kickstarter is that you sell not only your idea, but real goods and access that they wouldn’t otherwise get. You don’t want to sleep on it because it can mean the difference between being supported by complete strangers and only the support of your pitiful 20 family and friends.
So, on that note, you need to come up with ideas that will engage your audience.
For example, Critical Role’s Legend of Vox Machina did a great job with the backer-level perks.
In comparison, for $ 20, sponsors will receive:
- a song download.
- downloading an unreleased song.
- ringtone download.
- Loading the karaoke version.
Then, for $ 750, the sponsors got everything from the first level, plus:
- An animated print with a signature.
- Messenger bag made of waxed canvas (game theme).
- Character set.
- A set of dice.
- Art print.
- Signed pilot script.
- A set of stickers.
This level has been purchased by over 1400 people, but that’s not all. They had a $ 25,000 package that was backed by five people. At the same time, the sponsors received a fully paid trip to Los Angeles, a dinner with the actors, a producer’s credit, a personal portrait from the animation team and a private viewing of the show.
So feel free to go crazy with your perks. Just be sure to take costs into account in order to price the levels accordingly. You don’t want to go into debt until you start putting your project into practice.
Make your Kickstarter campaign a big boost
Do you have the next best idea for a gadget, software, video game, or movie? Then Kickstarter is one of the best platforms to breathe life into it. It all starts with a great idea backed up by a plan. If you have one, your chances of success will increase.
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