During a recent client survey, our artists provided the following insights in response to the question: “What were the biggest surprises during your campaign?
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
There’s a bigger benefit to crowdfunding than the money: a core group of fans. Most people are joiners, not pioneers, so this core group of fans will be tremendously valuable for attracting other people to your project once it is realized. Here are a few ideas on how to both thank your fans and boost your project.
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
Your crowdfunding campaign is over! But the work has just begun. It’s time to get your backers all the creative perks and rewards they ordered.
Our mantra is “under-promise and over-deliver”. It’s easy to be overly optimistic on both how long it is going to take to produce your project, and then how long it will take to actually get it into your backers’ hands. Be sure to include in your timeline calculations the following considerations:
Taken together, this usually means that a safe estimated delivery is somewhere between 6-12 months from the close of your campaign. Your backers will be happier to receive their rewards on time rather than promised up front a date that you later have to explain was overly optimistic.
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
Sprint across your crowdfunding campaign’s finish line (even though you’ll be tired!). Campaign funding tends to be U-shaped, with the greatest amount of activity on the first and last days, as illustrated by this data from Kickstarter.
You’ll want to maximize that final day and gather up as many of the procrastinators in your crowd as you can. Our recommendations mirror those for Launch Day:
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
Moving your crowdfunding campaign from the intangible internet into the real world encourages backers to get on board. Even though the average person spends 23 hours a week online, there’s still no substitute for meeting up face to face. Our clients have used live events in a variety of ways to boost their campaigns’ success.
It’s also worth noting that several clients have used Skype, Google Hangout, or another video service to invite out-of-towners to the live event. They pick a designated 20 minutes or so where those far away can tune in and say hi and participate in the fun.
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
You can always raise more money than your target. Set your public crowdfunding $ goal as low as reasonably possible to increase your chances of success, but aim high behind the scenes. It’s a good idea to have some preplanned ideas to keep up the momentum if/when your campaign surpasses the 100% mark.
But first, a note on why we generally recommend our clients start with a conservative $ goal. When we do the network analysis, the likely fundraising range is wide. Let’s say it comes out at $5,000-$20,000. We set the initial public target at the low end – in this case, $5,000. This is for a few important reasons:
So, we’re aiming to have your campaign surpass 100% funded as quickly as possible. Sometimes this happens in the first week – or even on the first day. We also want to keep up the momentum post-100% and keep aiming for the high end of the range. Enter: Stretch Goals!
Sample Project: Princesses Only Wear Putta Puttas
Princesses Only Wear Putta Puttas is a children’s picture book by Charlottesville chef and author Priya Mahadevan. We ran her campaign in May of 2015 to fund the professional production of her book. Priya wanted to raise $12,500 to cover the costs of publishing ebook, paperback, and hard cover versions of her manuscript, and cover book promotion. When we did her network analysis, $8,500 came in at the low end, so that is where the public target was set.
This $8,500 goal was surpassed in only two days of campaign launch! So, we updated her campaign with the following image. An additional $2,000 would cover doing a full color hard cover print run of the book. As an added incentive to keep up the momentum, we promised those who pledged early to the campaign the opportunity to upgrade to the hardback if the target were passed.
In fact, the first stretch goal was reached! So we updated the campaign again. This time, another additional $2,000 would be used to promote the book in Priya’s home country, India. Again, we created an additional incentive: ALL backers would receive the ebook version in addition to the other rewards.
This second Stretch Goal was also surpassed before the end of the campaign!
There are a few important lessons here, in addition to the central message that Stretch Goals work.
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
Regular communication with your prospective backers is the difference between success and failure for your crowdfunding campaign. Follow up on your pre-launch communiques with a fun, consistent communication program during your campaign to maximize your chances of success.
Many of our clients find it hard to share their message more than once – or even just once. But it’s important to stick to the discipline. It’s based on one of the central tenets of marketing: effective frequency, or “the rule of seven.” Most people need to hear a message 7 times to act on it.
The typical communication program during a client’s crowdfunding campaign looks like this:
Every campaign is different, but there is a fairly reliable pattern to what we are communicating by week.
It bears repeating: our clients find this hard. The key to making it work is picking a discipline, and sticking with it. You know your prospective backers need to hear your message 7 times to act on it. Use all the tools at your disposal and when the going gets tough – and it almost certainly will – dig deep, hang in there, and keep up the good work. Your campaign depends on it.
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
You want to make a big splash on your crowdfunding campaign’s Launch Day – it’s the biggest day for pledges. Here is some data from Kickstarter, showing the typical U-shaped pledge pattern for a campaign:
Backers do pledge throughout, but most activity happens right at the beginning and the very end. Early birds and procrastinators!
Because success breeds success, we recommend our clients take every measure to maximize Day 1 of their campaign. In fact, we have an entire post dedicated to one group of your campaign VIPs, Day 1 Backers. These are approximately a dozen people you’ve been having one-on-one communication with in the months leading up to Launch Day, so they are primed to jump right in as soon as your campaign goes live.
However, we want to encourage people beyond this privileged dozen to take the plunge on Launch Day. Here is how we do it:
*Many of our clients start under the misconception that social media and email are interchangeable. This is not the case. Exact numbers vary, but you can safely assume that, if you have a mailing list of people who want to be on it, a double-digit percentage of them will read the email, and a significant number of those will click through to your campaign. Only a single-digit percentage will see a Facebook post, and only a small number of those will click through. You may get 25 pledges from an email to 100 people, but only 1 pledge from 100 Facebook followers. This is why email comes first.
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
It’s polite – and it’s good business – to invite your VIPs to your crowdfunding campaign prior to the official launch. Restaurants call it a soft opening, filmmakers call it a test screening, publishers call it an ARC. We call the exclusive sneak peek of your campaign your “VIP Soft Launch.” If your plan is to run your campaign during the month of May, launch it quietly on April 30. Don’t tell anyone – except your Day 1 Backers and Benefactors. Invite them individually and personally. It’s that simple.
The sobering truth of the matter is that an almost unbelievable one in eight crowdfunding campaigns – over 27,000 projects – close never raising dollar one. You don’t want the public to see the number zero headlining your campaign. “$0 raised / 0% towards goal” gives your campaign a negative tone from the start, and for you, the artist, it looks downright depressing. This is the way that every campaign begins, of course, but you want to eliminate that negative billboard as quickly as possible.
This private launch gives the people most supportive of and excited about your project the chance to order exclusive rewards first. But it is also good business. The public never need be stared down by those discouraging zeroes.
For a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing about your project!
Successful campaigns have great stuff for backers to buy. Kickstarter calls them “rewards“, Indiegogo calls them “perks“. Whatever you call them, do this: offer stuff that people want, at a price they’re willing to pay. Crowdfunding is not money-for-nothing, it’s money-for-something, and you’ll want to offer a variety of somethings that people find valuable at four key price points.
<$20 Rewards
Campaigns that don’t have an enticing reward under $20 fail 72% of the time. Your book or album, or tickets to your film or show, are the perfect perk at this price. Some people are willing to pay above market value to help you out – but many are not. You’ll want to make the basic, no-frills version of your project available at market price.
$20-$100 Rewards
Approximately three quarters of the people who back your campaign are likely to back at $100 or below. All kinds of things can fall into this category! Here are a few typical rewards our clients have offered:
$100-$500 Rewards
Approximately 20% of the people who back your campaign are likely to back at the $100-$500 level – but this is also likely to be about a third of your funds raised. It’s important to start being thoughtful at this level about who, specifically, is likely to pledge – and what they will want. These are almost always limited-edition items (more on this below) that you’ll be looking to sell out. Some typical rewards at this level include:
$500+ Rewards
Only about 5% of your backers will go the extra mile and pledge $500+ (we call them Benefactors). But this handful of VIPs will likely account for 40% of your funds raised, so their rewards require special, individualized attention. Some examples of good rewards at this level include:
Featured Rewards
Most campaigns have 10-20 reward options. For some people, that’s just too much to read. There are a couple ways to help your campaign visitors pick a reward:
Early Bird Rewards
Anything that can help drive early momentum in your campaign is a big plus. Consider offering a limited number of “final drafts” of your project at an attractive price as an Early Bird reward. Rough cuts, test screenings, ARCs, and dress rehearsals make great rewards for Early Birds. Since the goal here is early momentum, not necessarily profit, these Early Birds should also get the finished version of your project as well.
This is a great reward to feature early in your campaign – and also to feature as Sold Out when they’re gone! This helps to create the urgency for potential backers to “act now”, not put off pledging until the last day of the campaign.
Limited Edition Rewards
At the basic, no-frills level, you’ll probably not want to set a limit on the number of backers. But, it always looks great for a few rewards to sell out over the course of the campaign. Early Bird rewards (above) are a good example of this. Larger ticket items should almost always be limited edition, as that gives them the air of exclusivity. On both Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you can set quantity limits on any of your perks or rewards.
You may also want to consider limiting the number of autographed versions of your project – how many of your books do you actually want to sit down and sign? If you are offering swag, what quantities are reasonable to manufacture and ship? Anything that will be a pain to fulfill in large quantities should have a cap.
Multiple Rewards
Neither Kickstarter nor Indiegogo offer a “shopping cart” for backers to easily purchase multiple items. It is set up for backers to pick just one. However, there are a few ways around this to make it possible for your backers to buy as much as they want.
Stretch Goal Bonus Rewards & Fulfillment Treats
It’s always a good idea to have a little something up your sleeve to over-deliver to your backers. If you surpass your original target and start reaching for stretch goals (a link on this subject to come) consider offering an easy-to-produce-and-ship bonus to the people who helped get you there, such as:
It’s also a good idea to have a little treat to include when you fulfill the rewards. Printer services can easily make up a magnet, pen, or stickers with your project images. For rewards you are fulfilling digitally, a set of computer wallpapers, photo gallery, or a little video or audio link can make a nice surprise thank-you. It’s always best to give your backers positive surprises along the way when you can!
Fulfillment Costs
You can’t add in fulfillment costs after the fact, and you can’t change anything – price, description, delivery date – about perks or rewards after someone has pledged towards it. So it’s very important to make sure your price points cover manufacture, packaging, and shipping. Crowdfunding campaigns have gone broke because of poor planning in this regard.
This probably goes without saying, but you need to know your per-unit cost on your book, album, show seat, or good. If you are offering swag, you need to know your bulk costs and per-unit costs on those as well. While swag is fun, we generally dissuade our clients from overdoing it, as you typically need to order in bulk and will need high turnover to cover your costs.
Fulfillment Dates
Kickstarter and Indiegogo ask you to input your estimated delivery date. We usually advise our clients to give themselves an extra month or two. There are often delays in production. And fulfillment itself can take longer than expected – you’ll have to collect all your backers’ shipping information – so it’s better to under-promise and over-deliver.
What’s Not Allowed
What Not To Do
Because you are committed to deliver exactly what you offered, at the price you offered it, and on the timeline you advertised, it’s very important to think your rewards and perks all the way through to fulfillment well before you launch. Once someone has pledged towards a perk, you can’t change anything about it – the price, description, or estimated delivery date. So writing up your rewards is not a last-minute activity. Do not:
If you would like a free crowdfunding analysis of your project, please fill out our Artist Questionnaire. We typically respond within two weeks. We look forward to hearing from you!
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