fvreeman wrote: One question for both Sal and James (others?) - How do you figure out this "Conversion"? It is pretty easy to get video views from Kickstarter - but how do you get total page views? Unless you have total page views how could you possibly know what your "conversion" is? Fred
Hi Fred,
I do not know the answer to your question, however I think you are "putting the cart before the horse". The presumption is that success will be determined by converting more of a lesser audience. This likely is not the case. The more important question is how do I get significantly more qualified viewers in the first place? Once answered the conversion question becomes more meaningful. In my opinion conversion is just one of many metrics to consider and in doing so one must be careful. As we have seen there is a wide range of conversion rates by KSF members reporting here. Conversion is influenced by many factors some of which, in the beginning, are more important than the underlying page, video or presentation itself. Often early backers are closely related to the project creator resulting in biased conversion rates that are disproportionately high.
Prelaunch preparation is the key. There is no "cookie cutter formula" and ideas like "have 25-30% of your funding secured and raised by the first day or two" is at best only partially true and is not a plan. A plan begins months before you launch and ends long after your funding period has finished. First spend time engaging, developing and courting followers before you launch. You are looking for early adopters. This includes groups, fans, forums, blogs and anyone else whom may be interested in your project. Ask their feedback, conduct surveys, use KS project link. Be specific. What do you think of my title? Would you click on my video? Is a $30 reward price too high? Are my reward descriptions clear and understandable? Would you buy it? Which reward tier? If not, why? What would you eliminate? These are the type of answers (data) which you can use to tweak both your product and positioning to an interested audience. Once done you should have an engaging cover page, title and video which will enhance the conversion process.
In the end your prelaunch strategy should answer this most important question: will my project succeed? If you cannot answer yes to that question, the answer is likely no. If so continue to work on prelaunch.