Modest Guide to Success on Kickstarter

On July 21 at 7:24pm, Bound Custom Journals completed a successful 50-day Kickstarter campaign by raising $17,140, well over our goal of $10,000.   $17K is modest compared to many projects, but we’re happy.

We benefited greatly in our preparation from the advice of others, so we wanted to share some of what we learned in the hopes that even more great projects will succeed on Kickstarter as well.  As a disclaimer, the advice contained in this post is based on our experience launching a Kickstarter project for a product we eventually wanted to bring to market.  There are all sorts of projects from documentaries to art installations.  A lot of the advice will still be applicable but isn’t intended to cover all projects.

Success Depends on the Definition

A successful Kickstarter campaign depends entirely on how you define success.  We defined success as follows:

1. We have validated the market for our planned custom journals
2. We have raised enough funding to cover our startup costs

Assuming we did everything we could to get the word out to the world about Bound, if we did not raise $10K we would have called it quits.  We did not need to raise $70K at all costs.  We could have begged and pleaded our way to more funding, but that would have jeopardized our market research goal.  If you are launching a Kickstarter campaign for a product that you want to bring to market, I highly recommend taking advantage of the market validation/invalidation Kickstarter can provide rather than be lured by the opportunity to get more money in the short-term.  If you are not, perhaps you just need to get all the money you can whether or not people back because they want the fruit of your project or not.  Regardless of your goal, job number one is defining it clearly because you’ll need to keep that goal clearly in mind as you execute your campaign.

Success Defined. Now what?

1. Read this post from CraigMod. No source had more impact on our strategy than that post.
2. Pick your goal.  Picking your goal is like predicting tricks in a game of Spades.  You generally want to set the goal as high as possible, but bear in mind that it is all or nothing and public motivation to pledge decreases once you’ve passed your target.   I recommend triangulating your goal based on (a)the bare minimum you need to actually do your project, (b)the maximum you think you can make, (c)the amount of pledge you need to feel your idea has been validated by the market.  For us that was $10,000.  We needed about that much to get started, we thought we could raise more but wanted to play it a little safe, and if we couldn’t hit $10K the demand isn’t there for the product.  It was $10K or bust.
3. Pick your tiers.  Honestly, this could be a whole post on strategy for picking tiers.  Here’s the short answer (a)Have a decent low-tier, $5-15 for people that are short on cash but want to support you and want more than an e-high five (b)Have a tier that reflects what you want to sell the product for ultimately.  You lose a big opportunity to do market research if you don’t. There is a big debate over pricing on Kickstarter below or above intended sales price.  Again, another post. (c)Have some super high tiers. At least $1,000 and maybe more for fun.  (d) The fewer tiers the better. (d) Account for shipping. Whether you decide to include it or not in the tier, make sure you state that.
4. Pick your timeframe.  This is pretty easy.  You can take up to 60 days.  If you need at least 60 days to be ready to deliver your rewards, take all 60.  The middle 40 days will be pretty quiet, but you may as well be open for pledges while you get things together.  If you need money fast, do a shorter timeframe.  The first 3 days and the last 3 days are the biggest for pledges.
5. Make a great first impression.  Your video and project write up are critical.  Make it simple, clear, and compelling.  The video is probably the most important.  I could do a whole post just on what makes a good video also but for now check out the best Kickstarter video I’ve ever seen: Bess Rogers is Making a New Record
6. Plan your campaign before you launch.  Make a list of every person/group you intend to contact about your campaign and list at what point in your campaign you want to contact them.  Most you’ll want to hit in the first few days, but you also want a steady stream of reaching out through you entire campaign.  This is a fun list to make.  Beyond friends and family, which you may or may not contact, think about organizations you’ve been involved in, twitter-ers, blogs you read, blogs you can blog from, influential friends, listservs, etc.
7. Be responsive to backers.  Once you’ve launched, make sure you respond quickly to all messages & comments through Kickstarter.  For as long as you can manage it, I recommend thanking backers individually when you get a pledge, especially if it is a large amount.
8. Stoke the fire.  Tweet, facebook, send Kickstarter updates when you reach a milestone or have news.  Watch twitter like a hawk.  Set up searches so that anytime someone mentions your project you’re aware of it and can RT if advisable.   Regarding Kickstarter updates, though, only send a message if you have something to say.  Don’t send a message just because you think you need to or you want to remind people about your campaign.  That’s a lot like spam.
9. Expect surprise backers & non-backers.  You will probably get big backers you never saw coming, and little to no backing from places you were counting on.  Just roll with it.
10. Try to get on the Kickstarter homepage or weekly email. There’s not much you can do for beyond being good campaigners and getting lucky, but if you are featured you’re funded for sure.
11. Sprint to the finish.  Lots of people will know about your project and file it under, “I’ll back before it’s over.”  The last 48-hours is when the procrastinators need to take action.  The countdown also increases momentum at the end.  Don’t take your eye off the ball, to mix metaphors.  Watch twitter like a super hawk, contact everyone you reasonably should.  The worst case scenario is for someone that would pledge to never even know about it.
12. Thank your backers.  When you are successful, thank your backers sincerely.  You had a great idea and you worked your a** off, but you didn’t fund yourself (in fact you can’t, Kickstarter/Amazon won’t let you).  Make sure your backers know they are appreciated.  If you are making a product, as we are, this is especially important because they are the early evangelists you need when you are ready to start selling.

Finally, let me say a few things we would do differently if we had it to do again:

1. Have tiers and products set from the start.  We added a Bound Memo product and a few tiers late in the game.  I think we made the right decisions at the time, but it would have been better to have that sorted out ahead of time.
2. Plan for shipping.  We did a cursory check on shipping but should have had it better nailed down before we launched.
3. Don’t over-promise.  We decided to promise 5 more maps if we reached $15K on top of the 6 we had already committed to.  Formatting the maps for the journals is a bear of a project.  In hindsight, we would have done better to not commit to 11 maps at launch.

All in all, Kickstarter was a godsend.  It is a very professional operation without which we would be much further from launch.   For reference you can check out our project here: Bound Custom Journals

If you’re looking for further inspiration beyond our project, Bess Rogers, and Craigmod, here’s a few I recommend:

• Freaker Beverage Coolers
• Coffee Joulies
• Ipod Nano Watch Bands
• CityFabric Wear You Live
• Baltz Handturned Luxury Pens
• Matt Stevens MAX100
• Baltz Fine Writing Instruments

Good luck!